I was there that day at Monthlery. This car with Italian export plates could the one on the nicest Khamsin brochure, the politically incorrect romantic one. Here are two photos, sorry for the poor quality, they are slides a quarter century old scanned.... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Walter: thanks I will count mine too, actually spent quite a bit of time on that already will come up with a total later this week. Giotto love the photo of the silver K on the DS platform! Marc
Marc, nice feature about the one-off Spyder in 7/08 C&SC! Two corrections: the car was not exhibited BY (!!) its first french owner on the TECHNO CLASSICA. I contacted him about his car and could convince him to loan it to The German MASERATI Club for their display in Essen next to #120.238. Then - you wrote that the German TÜV did NOT permit the glass-rear! Most of all Khamsin that had been delivered to the Fatherland came with the glass-rear end - so the TÜV was not against this very important design feature (see photo that shows an official registered #238 in Germany in the late 70ies!)! Most of the very few conversions were done by their owners as they didn`t like that everbody could see wthat had been stored in the trunk. Ciao! Walter Image Unavailable, Please Login
It was good thank you! On the German rear glass...ok I had ben told by a German that that was the case and once saw on the internet an oro kelso Khamsin offered for sale in Germany or Austria about 6, 7 years ago that had the rear glass replaced with a metal panel. I had to dredge this photo from the depths of my computer, print it and scan it as it was sent to me by way of some bizarre program, anyway here it is: this car is in Egypt and really looks like it has been subject to some sandblasting so perhaps it has suffered the wind of its own name! I asked him for the chassis number several times but he was never able to provide it, lost touch since. Note the column and the staircase: perhps there are sorcaphagii down there oh and what is that thing in front of the car? A camel rotisserie perhaps? Anyway it would be nice to save this car and will aim to track the man down. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Was just informed that Bonhams is selling AM120504, the last Euro left hand drive Khamsin and the third from last overall (the lastz 2 were right hand drive) at its Monaco auction. It is the famous 1200km car, so practically new but it will need a service since it has sat unused. It will be interesting to see what it brings.
New video shot in Dalmatia: pretty agile for a grand touring car huh?! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXyOomj_swU
...well, you see the vessel rolling! But in this case the green-soup-system helps! I had my Khamsin a lot of times on circuits (Spa, Balocco, N.`Ring) and it makes fun - when you quite alone on the track as you need all the space! But driving a Ghibli - or better!- an Indy on circuits brings much more fun! Ciao! Walter
An Indy?! I love Indys but as a GT not a track car. The weight of the engine is far too much on the front wheels and even a good 4.9 doesn not feel nearly as agile or handle nearly as well as a Khamsin: in the latter it is all about learning to be subtle with the brakes but that is not given to everyone, particularly type A personnalities...so we agree to disagree. Again. Best regards, Marc
Marc, what are you tellin`???? You know exactly that you can`t position the Khamsin on a circuit for drifting thru the bends as the steering is far over sensitive for this, you also can`t double-declutch the gearbox to keep the revs up when down-shifting and you know exactly that the suspension of the Khamsin is far too soft. Take a Khamsin to the old `Ring (what I did several times!) and try. Also the Khamsin changes its handling on a sudden on the high-axle when you are on camber or/and on counter-steering a tiny little too much. Yes. like all old front-engine GT-Maseratis the Indy drives a bit like a truck. But its a very fast one as it has the best aerodynamic design. I can show you at least 2 Indys here in Germany with their owners drives circles around every Khamsin and not only due to the V/max of their cars. Get me right - I love the Khamsin, but on circuits its steering/brake-system doesn`t do anything to make it easy. Ciao! Walter
i love the ghibli pic on greenwich avenue! i would ask you to call jean louis @ le mans 24 hour garage in cos cob , ct. he is the very best!!! also a dear friend. if you ever decide to sell your khamsin or ghibli, please contact me as i would love to own either. i have seen and spent time with your kamsin and think it may be the best in the world! best, peter c. brinzey 619.884.9864
Yet another one gone: This is AM120-204 whoch lived in France south of Paris with another Khamsin in the same home: AM120-016, which was sold last year to someone near Grenoble. How did 204 meet its fate? It is a sad and stupid story but amazingly no one got hurt. The owner went out on the road with two friends, he let one drive, obviously this man did not know what he was doing and the owner did not supervise enough. On the Autoroute they were doing over 200kph which is an easy cruising speed for a Khamsin but caught a Porsche 911 doing about 200kph. The man at the wheel of the Khamsin should have considered the fact that the 911 driver was not likely to look in his mirrors when changing lane at that speed to pass a trcuk ahead but he was inexperienced and assumed the Porsche driver had seen him...he hadn't and he pulled over at the worst moment and the K bounced off the Porsche into the truck into the guardrail....so no one hurt which is a miracle and the car was actually driven a quarter mile off the highway. The owner hopes to rebuilt it one day....sure....the accident happened in...1988. He is hopeless to say the least. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
There is so much damage that the 2nd phot is hard to understand: it is the rear left of the car, seen from behind, with the doughnut spare wheel fitted to the left rear: a lot of bodywork on the left side was destroyed and ripped off. Safe to say this car will never be rebuilt. I am hoping to convince the man to sell the car as spares but for now the answer is no... The color seems to be the same as Pascal's Khamsin (see start of thread) which is very rare. Best regards, Marc
90000 Euros?! Wow....I really have to be creative to earn my next one now I guess....! Thanks for the info.
With the com it was actually 103500 Euros so in Dollars that is 150k + closer to 160....so more than triple what I sold mine for...but it is in a good home with very good people so I am happy. The trouble with starting a registry about a certain car is abit like writing an adventure travel article about an unknown destination: the minute you do it no longer is...still I much prefer seeing Khamsins being bought than sitting and gathering dust though so it is good to see them appreciated.
While the car was one of the last Khamsins built and is very original with very low miles, 159k for a Khamsin is A LOT of money. A late Merak SS also did 60k at the auction surely a sign that the end of the world is near. Joe
Well obviously this car in a setting like Monaco was the one time such a price was going to be reached, nevertheless Khamsin's had been undervalued for years because as you know more than most they were so unknown and misunderstood: the fact is that they are brilliant cars once you have learned how to drive them nothing of that era compares and modern cars lack something.
Hey Marc, Now you wouldn't possibly be biased about this would you? ;>) Those are some pretty heady numbers and I think Joe is correct. It also helps one understand some of the recent Lamborghini asking /selling prices of cars that never reached these sort of levels before. The Espada and Jarama being the only two V12s yet left behind. I think most their recent increase is a dollar/euro thing. I've no misconceptions about the prospects for the Espada though, as it's still the catfish of Lamborghinis. I wonder what an Espada with identical attributes would have done by comparison? The Khamsins is a much more beautiful car but the Espada is a lot wilder looking, in a word ... Exotic. Bob S.
Me biased................nnnnnnnnnnnooonnoooonnoo;-) A lot of it is exchange rate related but also they have finally been noticed by a much larger percentage of the buyers out there. Also note that there are no 5 speed Khamsins available in the US. Still forgotten by the price increase are the Indy for Masers and as you say Jaramas and Espadas.
