A lifted, high-roof’ed Maserati four-door was spotted at Pikes Peak in prototype camouflage, but it doesn’t quite look like the Levante SUV we’ve been expecting. Actually it looks exactly like a Maserati Ghibli saddled with extra weight and a lift kit.
FCA has already indicated it wanted to start building their SUV (more accurately described as a crossover) this year, and this development mule seems to suggest they either don’t have roadgoing bodies yet or want to stay really secret about the actual design. As, there’s no way they’d just jack-up their mass market sedan and put a bulbous roof on it. Right?
Anyway, there’s definitely more ground clearance on this blue-and-snakeskin vehicle, and if I had to guess I’d say that Trumpesque hairpiece it’s wearing is meant to simulate the higher center-of-gravity of a crossover. But testing the crossover’s suspension on the Ghibli platform would give us some hints as to the production vehicle’s size, which would be “not very big.”
Looks like a lifted Maserati is on the way one way or another. I’ll be interested to see if they pitch it with any pretense of off-roadability or purely as a high-riding hot hatch.
Hat tip to T for sending us these pictures!
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