Maserati Enthusiasts' Page

The Enthusiasts' Page

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	All things 'Maserati'. News of forthcoming models, owner's cars, tips, 'Marque' reunions and the odd touch of humour! In fact anything of interest to the 'Maseratista'. So if you have any news about Maseratis or have anything owners and enthusiasts should know, send details to maserati123@btopenworld.com	Trident on the inspection plate of a Tipo 8CL

You can click on some pictures for a better view!!





From 'Robb Report' in the USA

Maserati "Best of the Best" again Quattroporte first car to win luxury recognition twice.

MASERATI MEDIA CENTER The Quattroporte Sport GT

Modena, May 24 - The Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT has been named "Best of the Best" in the sedan category by the American luxury lifestyle magazine Robb Report. The Italian car was chosen in the annual rankings over the Bentley Continental Flying Spur, the Audi S8, the BMW M5 and the Mayback 57Sc, a statement from the Italian carmaker announced. Robb Report said the Quattroporte, Italian for four doors, was "a styling masterpiece. The unpretentious Pininfarina shape will continue to turn heads when other sedans have become yesterday's styling fad.

MASERATI MEDIA CENTER The interior of the Quattroporte Sport GT

"It is these concours-winning looks, underpinned by performance and fit and finish that are world-class, which make the Quattroporte Sport GT our favorite new sedan". The Maserati Quattroporte is the first car ever to be named Best of the Best twice. The first time was in 2004, the year the luxury sedan was introduced to the market as the first vehicle engineered by the Ferrari-Maserati partnership. Maserati has since been moved from Ferrari to Alfa Romeo by parent company Fiat.

MASERATI MEDIA CENTER The sporty lightweight aluminium pedals of the Quattroporte Sport GT

The complete list of Best of the Best winners appears in the June edition of the Robb Report, which specialises in the world's finest luxury products and services. Aside from automobiles, Best of the Best recognition, now in its 18th year, is given to yachts, jewelry, holidays, wine, fashion and other luxury items.





From JULIAN in the USA

JULIAN – An elite collection of classic automobiles will gather this weekend at Menghini Winery for the third annual Julian Classic Motoring Show.

NELVIN C. CEPEDA / Union-Tribune

Fred Puhn readied his 1935 Maserati for the Julian Classic Motoring Show. The show at Menghini Winery will feature about 100 vintage racing and touring cars. Organizers estimate about 100 vintage racing and classic touring cars from 1900 through the 1980s will be on exhibit. Coming from National City will be Fred Puhn with his vintage 1935 Maserati V8RI Grand Prix.

NELVIN C. CEPEDA / Union-Tribune Fred Puhn readied his 1935 Maserati for the Julian Classic Motoring Show. The show at Menghini Winery will feature about 100 vintage racing and touring cars.

Puhn bought the chassis for the Italian racing car 25 years ago and has been restoring it piece by piece. “I've had this car since 1981 and never had it running,” Puhn said. “The running phase is yet to come.” Getting it running is a gigantic effort, he said, adding that the ongoing restoration work includes coming up with “miscellaneous parts that have to be built.” “You get them wherever you can get them,” he said. “You get them whether it's in England or the U.S. or you build them yourself.” He estimates “about 50 percent of it was missing and the other 50 percent was broken” when he discovered the Maserati in a barn in Minnesota. Puhn has documentation showing that there were four of these cars made, two in 1935 and two in 1936. “This is No. 4502, the second car built,” he said. “The 45 stands for the size of the engine. The engine is unique. It won't fit anything else.” Puhn's scrapbook of his race car has photographs showing all the drivers who drove it. He also has rare documents and other paperwork showing the history of his car. His collection of memorabilia includes an autographed driving glove from Giuseppe “Nino” Farina, a world champion driver who raced the Maserati. Farina won the world championship in 1950, driving an Alfa Romeo in the British Grand Prix. Puhn had the Maserati painted “blood red,” the car's original color. “They used to paint the cars the color of the country,” Puhn explained. “All the Italian racers are red. The American colors are blue and white.” Another entry expected in the Julian Classic Motoring Show will be a 1920 Indianapolis roadster owned and raced by Carla Marvin of Orange County. She competes in various vintage auto races, including events in Coronado and Monterey. Marvin also will be bringing her 1959 Stanguellini formula car that was popular on the Italian racing circuit, and a 1956 Lotus Mark XI previously owned and raced by Bob Engberg of Julian. Engberg is one of the founders of the annual event, co-sponsored by the Julian Classic Motoring Society and the Julian Chamber of Commerce. The show is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $3, and vehicles may be entered for $25. Proceeds will benefit the Julian Firefighters Fund. Julian Classic Motoring Show When: 11:00am to 3:00pm Sunday 28th May 2006 Where: Menghini Winery, 1150 Julian Orchards Drive, Julian. Cost: spectators $3; Car entries $25 Information: BoB Engberg at (760) 765-1984 Information: Julian Chamber of Commerce at (760) 765-1857 Website: www.julianclassic.com





From Christie's Motor Cars

Automobiles de Collection au Mans Classic - 11:00am 8 July 2006

2004 Maserati MC12 Estimate: EURO 500,000-650,000 Among the upper echelons of today's supercars, there aren't many which are more capable or more exclusive than Maserati's MC12. Conceived using the skeleton and drivetrain of the Ferrari Enzo, the MC12 was built to race in the GT Championship and then homologated by the production of 50 "road" cars. Great success on the circuits has proven the car's ability, and homologation has meant that this fantastic creation is available to the public. With acceleration of 0-100km/h in 3.8 seconds and a top speed of around 330km/h, it is not for the faint-hearted. The car offered here was one of the initial examples of 25 road cars built in 2004, and has covered just 3,000km in its single ownership.

1937 Maserati 4CM Monoposto, Chassis No. 1128 Estimate: EURO 300,000-500,000 This little Italian jewel was first bought by Count Giovanni Lurani Cernuschi better known in motor racing circles as 'Johnny Lurani'. During 1937, he was highly successful with this Maserati. He won the 1100cc category at Turin, Milan, Genoa, Naples, Palermo and the Italian National Championship for its category. At the end of the season, Lurani brought the car back to England where he participated in numerous competitions. During the winter 1937/1938 the car went to Africa and then returned to Europe. Lurani entered it in the London Grand Prix which was held at Crvstal Palace. Unfortunately he had an accident during practice.Seriously injured, Lurani ended his career in single-seater racing and sold the Maserati to an English man, Charlie Dobson for GB £795. The new owner entered it in the 1939 British Empire Trophy and the Nuffield trophy. The Maserati reappeared in 1948 at the Monthléry Autodrome, painted in blue and driven by a French man. In 1960 a Swiss collector discovered the Maserati, bought it and restored it until today.





From George in The Netherlands
"Dear Henry, I hope you are doing well. Looking in my Maserati collection I found some items that could be interesting for your site. 1) Le Terre del Parmigiano - I have driven this last year and can add about 30-40 pictures. Visiting Panini's 'Parmiggiano Reggiano' Parmesan cheese factory and a company preparing ' Prosciutto di Parma' Parmesan ham. Of course also a lot of cars. Text in Italian and English.

Le Terre del Parmigiano

2) Small booklet '100 Anni di Italia in Automobile', a small booklet nice 31 pages. Text in Italian.

'100 Anni di Italia in Automobile' - Maserati Coupé

3) New book: Maria Teresa de Filippis la signorina F1. 187 pages, a lot of information and new never published before pictures. Text in English and Italian.

Maria Teresa de Filippis - La Signorina F1

4) Brochure of Maserati watches. 12 pages, text in French.

Brochure - Maserati watches		Sports wristwatch

Gents wristwatch		Ladies wristwatch

Gents reversible wristwatch		Ladies reversible wristwatch

If you are interested in these items for your site please let me know I can post them to you. Kind Regards, All the best, George."





From Lui in Germany
"Hi Enrico Here is my Maserati 3200GT. Maybe you want to put him on the Enthusiasts' Page?! I have some carbon parts inside and new rims. I get my Modena exhaust system and my new carbon steering wheel next week. I want to change the watch inside. Where I can find a silver one and how I can change it? Lui." "Hi Lui, You can check out my reply in the 3200GT 'Can You Help?' pages! Regards, Enrico."

Lui's 3200GT





From Lise in Norway
Re. Key for our Maserati Quattroporte 2.8-litre Chassis No. ZAM337B0000330265. I really hope you can help us. We have waited more than a year now to get a key. Best regards Lise. PS: Hope you have reveived this mail. I have heard that it is not possible to have a key with alarm. However, there is also a button you have to press to start the engine. I hope it is possible to have this function in a new key."

The key with the alarm attached		Note the Philips screw holding the key in place!

"Hi Lise, Your key doesn't look like an original equipment key. It seems someone has come up with the 'clever' idea of cutting off the 'blade' of the ignition key and fitting it into the hand held alarm remote control unit. Your best bet is to contact an Official Maserati agent, they will be best placed to advise you on this one. Enrico."





From Jonny in The Netherlands
"Hi there, I took my Ghibli to Rica (Wateringen, Netherlands (www.chiptuning.nl)) and was a bit disappointed to discover that my car was not putting out as much power as it should be... The dyno test revealed that I was only getting about 276 bhp versus the stock 306 bhp. On further investigation, the inlet pressure was found to be only 0.7 bar versus stock pressure of over 1.0 bar (can you confirm the actual figure... I think it's 1.2 bar?).

Jonny's dyno results show a disappointing 276bhp!

I got the chip tune done regardless on the assumption that I'll get to the root of the pressure problem, sort that out and then reap the benefit of the chip tune. I spoke with my garage and they think it's most likely a problem with the solenoid that converts the electrical signal from the ECU to a control pressure for the waste gate etc. the car is booked in to the garage for next week, so I'll let you know of the outcome. But Rica seem quite good in that they'll re-test the car once the problem is sorted... all included in the (quite hefty) price (of around EURO 900.00). I've attached the dyno chart... you'll notice that on both torque and power it goes "wavey" at about 4500 rpm... maybe this is indicative of something, but i don't know what? I'll let you know what happens... maybe some of the others have had similar experience? Cheers... Jonny."





Update from Jonny in The Netherlands
"Hi there Enrico, Please find attached scanned copy of dyno results. I've sent them in .pdf format, but let me know if you need them in anything else. The first page shows before and after changing out the boost controller. After the first visit, the car was under performing due to an OEM boost control solenoid failure. This lead to the curve dated 12.10.2004 and is essentially the power with 0.7 bar. Once the boost control solenoid was changed out (with a new OEM unit), the curve labelled 21.10.2004 was produced. The second page shows just the 2nd curve. You'll notice that the torque and power ramp up significantly later than Maserati claim. This could just be my car, but I doubt it since my car is low mileage and everything's been well looked after. The third page shows dyno results for my post 3200 GT turbos, but I'm positive that it's performing way below what it should be, due to the suspected blocked up catalysts. Hopefully, later this year I'll place an order for a new exhaust front section and finally get to the bottom of this. My reason for suspecting this is, just after I fitted the new turbos I got a dyno test done which showed 306 hp with only 0.7 bar (unfortunately I didn't get a copy of this one). So I know the potential is there for some increased performance with the 3200 GT turbos. At present, I'm getting 328 hp with a little over 1.2 bar and I'm a bit down on torque. Some of this can be explained by the fact that the car is running slightly rich, but I'm positive there's a restriction in the exhaust side. I'm also currently running a Turbosmart E-Boost 2 electronic boost controller to control the inlet pressure. Another reason why I think there's something odd going on, which again may point to a restriction in the exhaust side, is that I can't get the boost pressure to spike. Despite ramping up the gain on the controller to near full, the boost pressure just won't overshoot the set pressure. I don't believe the turbos are so large that they can't spike the pressure, so I can only think that somewhere there's a restriction. Anyway, these are just my thoughts. I'd be really interested to hear if anyone else has tried playing with a boost controller and whether they manage to get the boost pressure to spike OK. Regards... Jonny."

You can download Jonny's Ghibli dyno results by clicking HERE!





From Jacques in France
"Bonjour à tous, De retour d'Italie après une visite à la belle qui porte maintenant sa voilette: l'arceau de la capote. Quel travail de précision ! Tout le travail de carrosserie est maintenant terminé. La peinture (12 kilos) a été commandée à partir des échantillons de peinture d'origine MASERATI: Oro chiaro métalico. 19 couches seront nécessaires pour son maquillage complet ! L'intérieur sera tendu de cuir vert.... J'ai hâte de vous présenter la prochaine étape... Bonnes images, en attendant Meilleures amitiés à tous Jacques."

From Jacques in France
"Hello everybody, I have just returned from Italy after visiting my 'beauty' which now sports its veil: the framework of the hood. What a work of precision! The bodywork is now completed. The paint (12 kilos of it) was ordered from the samples of original MASERATI colours: 'oro chiaro metallizzato' (light metallic gold). 19 coats of paint will be necessary to complete the job! The interior will be upholstered of green leather.... I just can't wait to send you the next stage. Great photos are awaiting. Best wishes to you all, Jacques."

The foldaway hood frame now fitted





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