De Tomaso Longchamps/Maserati Kyalami

[henk4]

Maserati Kyalami/De Tomaso Longchamps

A double thread here as a we are talking about the same car. The first variant was the De Tomaso, which was designed by Tom Tjaarda on the basis of the 4-door Deauville model, a luxobarge, fitted with a 5,8 litre Ford V8 engine. The 270 BHP gave a 230 kph topspeed. Standard features were leather seats, wooden dash, airco and of course an autobox. In an effort to compete with the likes of the Mercedes 450SLC De Tomaso introduced the shortened two door coupe, which had all the luxuries of the Deauville, but an optional 5 speed manual was now also available. A handful cabriolets were also made. Production lasted until 1988 and in total 412 were made.

In 1976 Alejandro De Tomaso acquired the Maserati factory from Citroen and to immediately introduce a new model, the Longchamp was fitted with the smallest of the concurrent Maerati V8s, the 4.1 litre version. Ghia changed the front section slightly, and with 235 BHP on the tap and a manual gearbox, the car could now achieve 240 kph. In 1978 the 280 BHP 4.9 litre version became available also. Production stopped well ahead of the Longchamp in 1983, after 124 cars with the smaller engine and 75 4.9 litres were produced.

Shown are a Longchamp at Retromobile in Paris in 2005 and an immaculate Kyalami at the Concours d’Elegance in Schwetzingen in 2003/

[netburner]

A Maserati Kyalami at an Oldtimer meeting in Bielefeld/Germany this year.

[Sei cilindri]

This car was also the base of the huge four door saloon called the quattroporte (III)



The chassis was simply lengthened slightly and ofcourse the body was specially made for this version.
Altogether it was a very succesfull car for Maserati as in all about 2000 were (hand) built and the design was the prelude for the later bi-turbo cars which were more "mass' made

First the same 4,2 (not 4,1 as you wrongly stated) engine was used as the Kyalami was later uprated to 4,9 ltr
Both of these engines incidently, were based on the old succesfull 450s race car engine

[henk4]

Is the QP 3 not based on the chassis of the Deauville then?
BTW, the capacity of the Kyalami V8 is given as 4136 cc...., also for the smallest Indy and Mexico engines.

[Sei cilindri]

Hi Henk

Ofcourse you have a point concerning the Deauville which was underneath a lengthened version of the Longchamp and therefore basicly the same as the Kyalami / QP III

To accomodate the Maserati engine some alterations were made to the Longchamp/Deauville so in that respect there are some differences but basicly those four cars share the same underpinnings

Most wear parts such as bushes , arms , tie rod ends, ball joints etc are identical which can help as the Maserati club charges 235 US$ excl VAT for one rear silent bloc (rubber bushing).......

As for the capacity of the engine.: In all litarature Maserati called the "smal" version a 4.2 ltr right back to the first QP in 1963 or so and who are we to argue with the factory
This is a popular way to impress buyers . I know e.g Alfa did the same thing when they offered a 1.4 engine in the 33 nuova instead of the old 1.3 engine
In fact it was exactly the same engine of 1356 cc.........

[henk4]

Hi Henk

Ofcourse you have a point concerning the Deauville which was underneath a lengthened version of the Longchamp and therefore basicly the same as the Kyalami / QP III

To accomodate the Maserati engine some alterations were made to the Longchamp/Deauville so in that respect there are some differences but basicly those four cars share the same underpinnings

Most wear parts such as bushes , arms , tie rod ends, ball joints etc are identical which can help as the Maserati club charges 235 US$ excl VAT for one rear silent bloc (rubber bushing).......

As for the capacity of the engine.: In all litarature Maserati called the "smal" version a 4.2 ltr right back to the first QP in 1963 or so and who are we to argue with the factory
This is a popular way to impress buyers . I know e.g Alfa did the same thing when they offered a 1.4 engine in the 33 nuova instead of the old 1.3 engine
In fact it was exactly the same engine of 1356 cc.........

Thanks for the added info, and actually, as I wrote down the Lonchamp was the shortened version of the earlier Deauville. "Nitpicking".
And yes 1356 could be rounded to 1,4 however 4136 to 4,2 is a bit over the top. But I agree if Maserati calls that a 4.2 who are we to argue, as long as we know what they did

[go.pawel]

A few additions:
1. Longchamps was designed by Carrozzeria Ghia (Tom Tjaarda in particular), but the new front design for Kyalami was by StudioFrua, from what I know. (I might be wrong of course :P)
2. Spiders' production started in 1980, together with the GTS version.
3. Production ceased in 1989 with 409 models built (that's official DeTomaso data from their website www.detomaso.it), including 12 Spiders and 2 ultra-rare GTS Spyders.

It seems strange that DeTomaso was the owner of Maserati, Ghia, Vignale and Moto Guzzi, comparing to what a minor player they are today.

the photo shows a GTS Spider at Colorado Exotic Car Association's meeting in Aspen, 1987

Oh, BTW, as this is my first post on UCP I'd like to welcome all fellow car-maniacs, car-o-holics and car-o-philes

[henk4]

Thanks Pavel and welcome, you well find that there are already a number of your countryman quite active on these forums.

and you are right about the adaptation of the Kyalami by Frua. The Kyalami shown was at the Concours in Schwetzingen in 2003, where they celebrated Frua designs.