Mighty SHAMAL

Not sure you want to be posting print articles on the internet....luckily, in your defense..the type is just about impossible to read.

 

Yeah I wish it had made here as well. It's a really interesting looking car.
Brutal to maintain now though. Like all the dual overhead cam Maseratis of that era the valve adjustment and chain swap at the rear of the heads is an engine out job. I've done it several times now.

The 2.0L V6 Ghibli Cup cars were actually faster and handled better but in many ways this was their progenitor and though Gandini had a hand in the design of both he went much further with Shamal's body design IMHO. The valvetrain is a little different in the V8 though so maybe just adjustments are easier? This engine got modified a bit by Ferrari and ended up in the 3200GT with 390HP. Folks seem to really those cars as well.

There's an active tuner group in Japan that runs these cars up 500HP!

I hope they do something about that tail happy rear end too.

 

The Shamal engine in a mid-engined chassis would have been a real competitor (Chubasco concept). That's the only part of this car I'm somewhat partial to.

 

Wonderful cars! I have always loved them. They are brutal, a kick in the pants! = Very, very fun to drive.

 

yeah yeah blah blah.. the best car in the world... etc etc...


so why not get back to reality and state some truths about these cars.. and really explain why they cost peanuts:


Built quality: badly built, badly assembled, low quality junk. Yeah, custom made, as in "the door will fall off". Ok so there are other brands with bad quality cars, but remember this was built in the early 90's... with the quality of a 70's car.

Engine: sure, its powerful, but too powerful. Who wants a car that will eat its own internals? it will eat differentials for breakfast. How about reliability? sure you can do 100,000km but only if you drive at slow or moderate speeds like an old lady. Anything faster will get you damaged turbos, damaged headgaskets, damaged covers, etc.

Handling: you wouldn't call it a predictable car would you? Not exactly the road handling you'd expect from such a powerful engine. No wonder they always drive sideways...

Maintenance: hmm probably twice as much maintenance as any other car I've ever seen. Not exactly ideal on these cars that even farting will require an engine-out job. You sneezed?? engine out!



Lets not do it like those classic car magazines... mentioning all the good things, hiding all the bad things and once you reach the end of the article... oh by the way, the car featured is for sale.... what a surprise.

 

Has he changed the rear chains and re-timed all the cams yet?
I haven't done the V8 in a Shamal, DAMN IT! , but you're asking for big trouble with the V6 engine when it's in Ghibli II. Just no room to work from the rear where all the timing is accomplished an some nuts need to get a lot torque.

I almost put the QPIV V8 in my Ghibli Open Cup car but talked myself out of it.
Less HP, more torque and more weight further out front. Seemed like a bad idea?

I also service my own 84 now with 62K miles on it, owned since new.
The usual stuff wears out and with that one after two sets of turbos I went water cooled. Everything is fine now.

 

At it again I see ... you do like to exaggerate and get dramatic about them don't you?

Did a wild pack of Biturbos gang rape your sister or something ...

Shamals aren't worth just peanuts. Garden variety Biturbos and those in bad condition are though.

I agree with the handling about the Shamal though I've only ridden in one back in 1994. But that has been the knock on that car.

They're a rare vintage car now. Do I think they handle as well as 355? No but so what they're still cool.

Ferrari's break a lot and are expensive to repair too.

The later style ZF lsd that was used in the Ghibli IIs might improve the Shamal a bit.

It works really well in my GOC.

BTW, sell your Ghibli II yet?

 

So telling the truth, means your've had your sister gang raped? Or was that a threat?


No haven't sold my Ghibli, and I don't intend to, haven't ever sold any of my cars and I don't buy them to sell them later for profit.

But even if I wanted to sell one, I wouldn't lie about its shortcomings and I wouldn't ask my friends to write magazine articles about it, so I can boost its resale value.

 

Thank you for your valued opinion,....we care.

 

That's a pretty strong accusation. Can you back that up?

 

I daily drove a low miles 228, didn't beat it in the city, just drove it. Took a copuple longer road trips, it at the diff-theory at the time was the heat coming off the turbos cooked the lube that was at less than 20k miles, it at the 65 amp alternators-all the fans, FI etc etc-and the same power alt as a 79 FIAT spider-third one to go in was a 120 amp delco, then it survived. You could watch the volt meter ready lower by the day as the alts burned up runninga t fu;; capacity 100% of the time. it burned relays so regularly I carried them in the glove box. The AC control unit failed, Turning full lock left to right as when parking caused the steering gear to "bench press" the entire front end up and down a bit. Geometry problem. This required a new rack and twice changing all the tie rod ends, of which it had 6, not 4 : ) fuel pump wiring failed at 10k miles. I sold it at less than 20k miles, having bought it with 8k on it. The warrantee company HATED me, my mechanic hated the warantee comapny . It was gorgeous isnide and out, I loved it when it was right, hated it as it constantly failed, which was often.

Wished I could have had a Shamal but that era Maser was under developed, and poorly build and very unreliable. Still like them though and I loved the turbo rumble when I started it in the morning to drive to work : )

 

Having looked for a good Merak at reasonable prices for over one year now and finding only overpriced junk, I have extended my search to a Shamal which is a car I also always wanted to have. This particular example was quoted to me by the seller at about the price of two F348s... I thanked him, indicating that for that price I would prefer to get a low mileage Testarossa (and keep some change for the bills too...).

I don't know if the owner knows whoever has written the article, but saying in the article that the price will climb to €120 to 150k within 5 years and trying to sell it shortly after at a fully unreasonable price smells to me of a speculator trying to artificially push prices up to make a quick buck. There are three Shamals for sale in Germany at €40k, guess what, they have been there for a long while. These cars will always be somewhat connected to Biturbos but even more to Ghibli IIs, and if Ghiblis sell for €15-20k, I would be surprised to see someone paying double for an admittedly rarer but flawed car. Their prices should correlate to F348s and F355 too, and if I didn't need a back seat I know which one I would probably choose.

 

Oh I think the 355 is probably a much better handling car but the that TR is going to cost a fortune when it's engine out time for belts or worse an exploded diff. The 355 is a nice looking and great sounding car. It will be expensive to maintain too.

The truth is that Ferrari's and Maserati's are both expensive to maintain. Expecting BMW, Audi, Mercedes or Volvo like reliability and maintenance expense is not realistic.
Ferraris get much more a "pass" on this issue though.

I think the Ghibli II Cup is probably a better all around car than the Shamal but that's not really the reason people are buying older exotic cars. They don't drive them that much either.

I look at some of the cars that are 30-40 years old and are being NOW hailed as fantastic and I just howl laughing.

I haven't read the article so I won't comment on it.

 

++++1!!

 

Can`t agree more!
I once drove a Shamal on the circuit of Spa-Francochamps. It was one of the most frightening moments in my life!

The car is too soft in the suspension at higher speeds and I had the general impression that the entire car was underdeveloped. Bouncing from one side to the other and getting the differential do what you want was a challenge in itself...

But I must admit - I liked the engine....

 

I am not from the fainted heart - but driving at Spa with a car like that one was ...eh...rather "special".

 

Something wrong with that particular car, perhaps? I haven't driven a Shamal myself, but I remember there was a very nice one at the 2010 Maserati International Meeting in Sweden; driven by a father and son from Italy. They drove it quite a lot around the Ring Knutstorp circuit during our track day there. Their car looked very well behaved, at least to me... But, perhaps they weren't trying all that hard?

 

Has anyone ever done a complete restoration on Shamal?

I know of one that got a beautiful red to blue color change and some mechanical work but a nut and bolt restoration to a standard never offered by the Factory? You know, just like what's happening to the more currently desirable vintage Maserati's now. They never looked that good from the factory.

I doubt it because no one will pay what that would cost if you want to resell.

So I think you'll continue to see the current low to mid 40's euros for this car for some time. I think that's pretty good if one is being realistic about things.

I bet that car would awesomely better with real active suspension control and an Ediff.

Maybe just a new LSD?

 

That black Shamal from Italy had a modified suspension!