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| Maserati Quattroporte |
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Add your comments on the Maserati Quattroporte
| MINE !!!! |
| dvrc2k 1-8-2004 |
I was very pleased to see myself in my own car on the Zandvoort circuit. Excellent pictures!! This 1965 car AM107130 with the Dion rear axle drives like a dream. I think it originally had the square headlamps, but I am not sure. These cars were hand built and each a bit different. This year I went to the Lemans classic. The best experience ever. |
| The FRUA CONECTION |
| miso777777 22-7-2003 |
"The Mistrale, which was also designed by FRUA as was the QUATTROPORTE did not break new ground either mechanically nor configurationwise. This is obvious, although, it certainly was also a very attractive design in my view. The Quattroporte was quite unique in everyway. To begin with, FRUA had much more scope do do somthing with his imagination it being a much larger car & one which offered everything Msaerati had to give at the time of it's conception, mechanically. It was a car equivalent design-wise to the Lamborghini Muira, although much less under-rated. 'Car & Driver' magazine described the quattroporte in it's road-test as being capable of relegating Rolls-Royces, Ferraris & Astons to ""petty bourgeous trinkets"" due of it's sheer glamour & perfection of the design and they were not far wrong in my opinion. I am refering to the DE DION fitted first series vehicles (Up to approx. chasis N? 200). The car's external design: small frontal area (very flat) & quite narrow, very low height for a four-door saloon + squared-off after-end, no doubt made it exceptionally aerodinamic (low cx). It was long though at 5m. so, interior space was ample as was the boot.(over 500L!!). In conclusion, this avante-guard distribution of volumes (aside it's impressive mecanical qualities or configuration) made it a very spectacular car to look at and one which broke totally new ground on every level. GLASS/BMW also looked to PIETRO FRUA for some of their cars at the time, which, nonetheless could in no way measure up with the QUATTROPORTE. This fact means the German car-maker probably retained some of the lessons the Italian model which represented the epitomy of elegance/agressivenes+performance; which later they would attempt to emulate with their 'M' series (right up to this day!). Mercedes also probably also took careful note proven by that If we put a QUATTROPORTE beside one of today's 'S' class there are certain evident similarities... the latter are far closer to the former than to any 65-70's S class!! The same goes for Audi, please compare to-days A6,A8 with the QUATTROPORTE and then with old 65-70 Audi saloons!!" |
| very under-rrated |
| miso77777 18-7-2003 |
"This car the Tipo AM 107 was really a wolf in sheeps clothing if ever their was one, & specially when compared with any other car at the time if we can refer to it's subtly agressive, elegant body with this proverb. Later, quad-round headlamp cars, were not only far-less elegant outside but also inside, because, amazingly they also modified the dahboard completely (for the worse) unnecesarily spoiling the whole design. Additionally, the rear suspension modification (from that extraordinary de Dion set-up to the cart leaf-spring type), meant later cars were also considerably heavier. This backward step was carried over to the Tipo AM109 / Ghibli (AM meaning ""Alfieri Maserati"") and the Indy; much to Ferrrari's content, as the latter had by now introduced independent rear suspension on all their cars at a time when Maserati was the main rival, the ones to beat & vice a versa!! In short, with the original Quattroporte, Maserati dared to apply for the first time, fully-fledged racing car tecnology to a luxury saloon and, consequently, it indeed went (albeit with minor adjustments) like a bat out of hell and sounded like one too!! On my car, the one thing I did not modify however aside the tail pipes as mentioned elsewhwere, was the essentials of it's original exhaust system for social reasons primarily!! An open side-exhaust would have been ideal (specially for weight reasons.. it had a huge transvers silencer at the rear practically the entire car's width). However, the moods applied brought out more than enough of it's underlying character believe me!! This Maser's engine was, unless I am completely mistaken, designed by Ing. Julio Alfieri and was intended for their prototype sports cars as opposed to the GP derived in-line six used in the Mistrale (which incidentally used Lucas mechanical fuel injection). I believe ""Lucky"" Casner literally took-off in a 5 litre equipped racer down the Mulsanne straight at Le Mans. The engine, a 4OHC V8, in this case came with the classical Maser carb-cover connected to the fiter box (Snake filter) via a very large diameter flexble coupling. This, I removed. A move that by itself provided the engine with the air it was desperately calling for and needed. Considerbly more power immediatly came to hand as the dual - throat Webers (which always had to be primed prior ignition + continuous dabbing on the throttle thereafter when in neutral, respectively for easy starting & for guaranteeing smooth get aways following a spell in any jam). Warming the engine & the gearbox properly was essential for performance extraction. The carburetters themselves, also had to be perfectly tuned at all times (not an easy task). On my car, I fitted Bosch transistorised ignition which helped a great deal in place of original older system. The noise which came into play following the turning of the key and after the urgent whine of the starter, was, a deep-thoated groul. Further revving produced an unrestrained roar and once over the redline (no problem with that), a very powerful sounding even-metalic-ring which called for an up-change through that fast, beautifully smooth (when warm) ZF box comparable or better than any rival Ferrari box(shorter strokes). Like all Meserati's of the time, this car was no doubt sorted-out (unless I am totally mistaken once again), by one of the most legendary figures of all time in Modena. I am of course refering to Mr. Gerino Bertocci. A test driver so fast (and brutal) that he could lap as fast or even faster than the official team drivers!! Few could sit beside him during his workouts since he knew very little of braking. He only knew of accelerating!! One mod I also contemplated but never got around to doing on my Quattroporte, was to change the position of the twin independent fuel tanks (each with it's own pump & switch-over on the dash) placed on each side of the boot space, to a single rubber fuel cell to be placed immediately behind the (steel) bulkhead of the rear bench seat so as to centre masses even further + increase the already very considerable boot space. The boot itself, was fully carpetted & a full-size spare was to be found under the plywood floor. To close, it is important to point out that the QUATTROPORTE TIPO AM 107 was a 5 meter car!! All body parts were of sheet steel (probably hand beaten?) by those genuine artists from Modena which, thankfully, still appear to exist today." |
| The finest |
| miso77777 17-7-2003 |
Having owned this car in the past (Chasis 174) in it's original de-Dion 4.2l version, I can affirm the following: The whole concept of the vehicle broke new ground mecanically & becuase of interior/ exterior design. The very rigid box chasis, (in contrast to the literally flexible Mistrale's), made for perfect balance together with the distribution of masses, reduced frontal area + low (136cm.) height & weight, large squared-off boot (aerodinamics). Spectacular Pietro Frua body styling made this car unique at the time. Possible, it is not wrong to say that it represents the first stone of a future generation of saloons bringing us up to todays S class Mercs, Audis ect. & of course to today's new, latest Quattroporte. The car mecanically was a combination of all the very best components avsailable at the time, hand assembled by Maserati whom practically only built the engine (and what an engine!!). The self-locking limited-slip diff was of corse Sailsbury, the brakes also came from England huge Girling dics in-mounted at the rear (which I crossed drilled on my car) with twin circuits + 2 servos with an accumulator to prevent any lag!! as did the instruments (Smiths). The power steering was an excellent ZF set-up which even included a cooling raidiator (maybe adapted by Maser?) as was the very good 5 speed box. From Germany also came the electrics (Bosch) as opposed to other Magnetti/Marelli equiped Masers. It possesed single ignition, although, the space for another plug per cylinder was still visible on the engine block!!(I used Bosch platinum plugs). The distributor (one) if I remember rightly had two sets of points nevertheless. The car was of course air-conditioned (a twin piston USA made compressor by Westinghouse I think). The Quattroporte's handling was absolutely fantastic, far better even than it's sister (2-door) models!! which used rigid leaf-spring rear axles. One of it's main secrets was undoubtedly the de-Dion rear suspension which guaranteed excellent traction and kept the rubber 100% perpendicular to the road surface at all times. When later versions discarded the system it constituted a big step backwards. The reason for the move was that the de-Watts linkage bushes wore-out quite rapidly producing maintenance problems although, the factory would certainly done better to simply modify these only. I had Koni in Holland fly out (to the Canaries where I live) a set of 4 huge custom-made shocks for the car which absolutely transformed the handling for thr better even further. The car ran on XVR 215/15 Michelins mounted on the Ghibli's magnesium wheels. As for the engine, it was modified and probsably produced well over 300 BHP (up from the standard 260 BHP). This 4.2 L unit was smoother-running than the later 4.7 & 4.9 units used on other models. (Let un not forget than the 4.9 L GR4 racing Bora's, two of which were built but never raced for ETS. Th�penier the Maser Paris distributor managed over 440 bhp without blowers). I reduced the internal component's weight & polished induction manifolds of the battery of free-breathing Webers(what noise!!). The car did over-heat though especially with the air conditioning on, so I had to cure the problem with a couple of Kenlowe fans in replacement of the originals. The engine was, nevertheless, very reliable & robust. No problen with that!! It was indeed quite thirsty though!! especially when pressed!! The interior was like a glove. My car was off-white inside (conolly leather + Wilton carpets of course) and had the original dash which was a similar but improved (more luxurious) version of the Mistrale's (all the instruments grouped in-front of you for perfect reading). Wood-rim wheel, Fiamm air-horns, tinted-laminated glass, electric windows etc. Lovely bucked shaped seats etc. Lights were Cibi� which I up-rated with H4's. Outside colour was especially painted Rolls-Royce Regal Red since the family also ran a Silver Cloud II. The external look of the car was very much improved also by removing the rear bumbper. It really looked mean & even more so with it's specially prepared large-diameter twin exhaust outlets. |
| Article | Image gallery (11) | Specifications | User Comments (4) |
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