Maserati Ghibli Spider, in 1971 only 25 units were built (photo: manufacturer website)
So it turns out that shady car dealers giving the profession a bad name isn't something that only happens in small, powerless lots.
In a lawsuit filed in the District Court in California, the lead singer of the band "Maroon 5" claims that a classic car dealer and his agents created fake documentation that included chassis registration, engine and other documents in order to make the car he purchased resemble as much as possible a 1971 Maserati Ghibli Spider 4.9 and present it as one of 25 units only created of its kind.
The story begins in 2020, when Levin trades two Ferrari cars, one 365 GTC/4 from 1972 and a Ferrari 365 GTC from 1968 and adds $100,000 for the apparently rare Maserati.
The lawyers representing Levin are suing to cancel the deal worth 950 thousand dollars, or to compensate Levin in a value that would offset the true price of the car.
Adam Levin in concert (Photo: ShutterStock)
Later, however, a check on the car's chassis number revealed that the real car with chassis number AM115.492.1241 had been sold several years earlier to a car collector from Switzerland.
According to the lawsuit, this is not the first time that questions have arisen about this particular car, and that a previous attempt was made to sell it as such in 2015 at an auction, but it was removed from it after doubts arose about its authenticity.
Some of the evidence that was brought to strengthen the claim of forgery were the stamping marks on the car's chassis and engine, where the font of the numbers, letters and their style did not match those used in Maserati when these cars were originally presented.
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Ferrari 365 GTB/4 such a car and another similar one were exchanged for the Maserati (photo: manufacturer's website)
The Ghibli Spider that was produced between 1969 and 1973 with the straight and elegant lines of the Italian car designer Giugiaro (then under the Geha workshop), was produced in several body configurations and in two versions that also had more limited production series according to the specification and model year.
On offer were the Ghibli Spider with a 4.7-liter V8 engine with 330 hp called the Tipo AM115/S and the more senior SS version called the Tipo AM115/S49, which was equipped with a 4.9-liter engine with 335 hp but with additional improvements in the engine and gearbox Among other things, they brought it to a maximum speed of 285 km/h compared to 265 km/h in the regular Spider.
Both cars were produced in a few dozen copies, the Spyder in the scope of only 83 units and the SS in an even more limited amount of only 45 units, 25 of which as mentioned in 1971.
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Maserati
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Maroon 5