Ghibli Trofeo

The coast road dropping from Porto San Paolo towards San Teodoro is a run of fast, open corners with the island of Tavolara set sideways across the horizon — exactly the kind of road where a rear-wheel-drive sports sedan stops being a rational choice and becomes a pure pleasure. The Ghibli Trofeo was built for this rhythm: compact enough to slot through the changes of direction, potent enough to devour the inland straights towards Tempio Pausania, where the granite gives way to cork-oak forest.

Sardinian distances deceive. An island that looks small on the map demands hours of proper driving, and covering them at the wheel of a 580 hp sedan — comfortable for four adults, with a boot sized for touring — changes the whole character of a holiday. We have gathered many of those routes in our guide to the most beautiful roads in Sardinia to drive; the Ghibli Trofeo is one of the very few cars that can take them all in, passengers included.

The Ferrari-built 3.8-litre twin-turbo sounds darker here than anywhere else in the range: the Trofeo's exhaust carries a low rasp that swells into a full snarl in Corsa mode, with blunt reports on the downshifts that will have you lowering the window even in August. The thrust is unbroken from low revs to the limiter, and because all of that torque passes through the rear wheels alone, every squeeze of the throttle brings a small, telegraphed movement from the rear axle — controllable, never gratuitous.

The steering carries an old-school weight that reads the grip of Sardinian asphalt — coarse, abrasive, made for rear-wheel drive. The eight-speed ZF automatic answers the paddles without argument, and the Trofeo chassis keeps the weight transfer in check through the compressions of the coastal roads. This is a sedan that shrinks around its driver: ten kilometres in, you forget it has rear doors at all.

The Ghibli Trofeo belongs to a vanishing breed — the twin-turbo V8 sedan with rear-wheel drive, no hybrid assistance, nothing filtered. Maserati unveiled it in 2020, bringing the V8 to the Ghibli for the first time, and its 326 km/h top speed made it one of the fastest production sedans in the world at launch. Our car, finished in Nero Ribelle with red accents on the side vents, looks exactly like what it is: a driver's car dressed as an executive sedan.

Those who choose it usually know precisely what they are after; if you are still deciding, you can weigh it against the other Maseratis available to rent, from the Levante to the MC20, or browse our selection of luxury sedans for rent in Sardinia, where the Ghibli Trofeo remains the most extreme proposition. Requirements and conditions are provided at the quotation stage.