Kyalami

I looked it up, and there were only 210 of these manufactured between '76 and '83. Rare indeed!

Doc

 

It is essentially the same car as a Detomaso Longchamp minus the Ford Engine.

 

Reminds me in many ways of my QP3, reimagined as a coupe.

 

The Kyalami is my favorite Maserati, hands down. Beautiful example.

 

Think it is a great car and Frua did a good job turning a not so beautiful car into what i would call a timeless classic. Believe it is much more than a Longchamp without the Ford engine even though some purists might disagree. Even though it has its quality flaws it is still one of the best handling Maseratis i have been able to drive. Seems like prices are slowly catching up as well.
Mine is currently getting new shocks and springs and i am very much looking forward to have it back.

 

Purist or not, the Maserati and the De Tomaso it was derived from are basically the same cars; Fortunately the Maser does not have the ugly Ford Granada headlamos of the Lonchamps!
I saw the car Jacques posted photos of a few years ago at a classic car meeting at the Killarny race-track in Cape Town, but it didn't look as good then as it does now.

Best,

Jack.

 

without the intention to start an argument, may i quote a website we all love:
Enricos Maserati Pages

"Sig. Frua's changes improved Tjaarda's design considerably. His design was some 25mm lower (largely due to its lower waistline), 50 mm longer and 20 mm wider than Tjaard's. He gave the front a softer look by replacing the two large rectangular headlights with four traditional round headlamps and designing a slimmer front bumper. He rounded off the corners of the new shallower front grill and introduced two more character lines on the full width rear opening bonnet allowing excellent access to the engine. At the rear new slimmer wraparound chrome bumpers, new wraparound rear lights, ventilation outlets either side of the rear window. These changes enhanced its classic elegant appearance; the end result was an overall design reminiscent of Vignale's Mexico."

Think they could have changed the headlights by themselves without calling Frua, no?

 

Of course they could have, and yes, quite a few details changed, not all for the better IMO.
The front definitvely looks a lot better, the vents next to the rear glass are good, but the changed rear-light clusters and the jewelery on the back look tacky to me.

It would be nice to see side-by-side photos, I can't see where the difference in height and width come from.

To call the Maser a Frua design IMO is not right, it is a Tjaarda-design with some modifications. Tjaarda did great work then, I would dearly love another Deauville...

Not trying to be argumentative here, just expressing my opinion

Best,

Jack.

 

It's a nice looking car I think, and that looks like a pristine example!

However, there's something about the fitment of the front wheel within the arch that doesn't work for me, like the wheels are 2 inches too far back creating this lopsided effect towards the nose.

 

It´s unfortunate that this misinformation keeps getting repeated (not blaming you in any way, btw). IIRC that quote is originally from a very lazily written article by a certain British jounalist. The fact is that the doors are completely interchangeable (door cards differ), so there is no way Kyalami is 25mm lower or has different waistline. Windows are all interchangeable, as are the chassis parts (the same as in contemporary QP III and de Tomaso Deauvillle).

Tjaarda´s vision of a Lonchamp was a bit different than the production model (the 1972 prototipo), that was modified according to the desires of Mr. de Tomaso himself. Kyalami was a quick and economical way to kick start Maserati into action after de Tomaso aquired Maserati.

In my opinion they are both great cars.

 

Here´s a picture of my old Longchamp Prototipo recreation.
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Here are a few pictures of my Kyalami 4,2 Litre of 1978 that I obtained a few month ago.
It is definitely a beautiful Maserati and it is in very nice order.
It drives marvelous.

Pieter Noordman

Apeldoorn
Holland
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engine
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Very nice Pieter.

 

+1

 

I've never seen these before. My first thought is of the 400/Bitter designs.

Very nice and I'm not much of a 70-80s Maserati guy.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Hi,

I remember a few years back there was a Kyalami floating around Europe that was being touted as being "Ex-Shah of Iran". Anybody have any leads, does the car really have such a provenance ? Any info would be appreciated.

Regards,

Ramin

 

Very nice.
What price was this car being offered for?

 

I completely agree.

I chose the Longchamp to add to my collection because I've always liked the proportions and details, and it filled a nice void in the "stealth GT" category.

I must say that it is a fantastic car to drive and gets a rather surprising amount of attention whenever I stop anywhere. I can carry a silly amount of luggage and four people in complete comfort. I rather like the large headlights, but I know that is not everyone's opinion. I feel that the Tjarda designed Longchamp is very well proportioned and resolved in the details.

I find the Kyalami to be slightly less well resolved design-wise. Of course, with the trident on each end, fewer people will ask what kind of car the Kyalami is. That said, just after I got the Longchamp I went for a decent cruise on my favorite country roads near my place. After a good run I decided to pull off to the side of the road to take a few photos. As I did a big Mercedes pulled off a hundred feet back. A guy jumped out and ran over saying "oh, my god... is that a LONGCHAMP?!". Well, I was blown away. My very first outing and the very first person to see the car knew what it was.

I was very pleasantly surprised at what a great cruising machine this car is. It really is an executive Pantera. Or, as I am now thinking of it, a DeTomaso version of the Ferrari 400GT (car which I have spent time with and would have been happy to commit to except for the repair/parts costs). This car is one of only 10 (according to a DeTomaso Factory letter I have) that was built with a manual transmission.

Mark (with thanks to Chris Langley for the photo)
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Mark, I have always liked the Longchamp a lot and yours is, hands down, the best looking example I have ever seen. Color is very pleasing and as it's also a manual it is on my wish list - which tends to be quite comprehensive. I almost bought a far less attractive example at an auction about 20 years ago. But it was silver with the automatic tranny and a textile upholstery. I backed out when bidding reached over 70000 SEK which now equals about $9500. Lovely car yours.

 

Have a tech question regarding my Kyalami.

While doing some regular maintenance work on my Kyalami i discovered that the exhaust manifold was missing 3 nuts which were difficult to get to. Managed to get them on but then dicovered that the power cable attachment on the starter broke off in the process.
So i had to get the manifold off and install a new starter unit which also has a bit more power than the old one (Did the same on my Indy which worked fine).
Also exchanged the battery and voltage regulator with new parts.

The problem is now that sometimes the starter works fine and fires right up and sometimes
all i get is 1 click. Replaced the battery with a stronger 80ah one than before.
The problem mostly occurs after i started the engine and turned it off again. When i want to turn it on again i only get the click. The starter is completely new, so no overhauled version.

here is a video of the problem:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9552728/IMG_7402_2.MOV

Help or ideas are much appreciated
thanks
Dirk

 

Does it have a heat shield? That can be an issue, heat soak.

 

If not a heat shield problem, make sure you have good Ground cable connection to engine.

 

Mark,

Really nice car and you look so proud sitting in the driver's seat. Well done! I want one!