Maserati Khamsin

Back in the later 1980s I used to see some Khamsins that had faded a bit but still had not been touched up or restored. As I remember those C pillars louvers they were natural black plastic and with age they turned a bit lighter so that you could see the swirling in plastic from the injection molding.

Bob S.

 

Yes matte or satin black is correct of course the rough nature of the surface affects how shiny or not it is going to be.

Received an interesting email from Australia yesterday: the original engine of the Khamsin which currently has a Corvette motor AM120307 is going into a...3500GT!

Sort of a poor man's 5000GT I guess, interesting though.

I was told there was a Vignale spyder retrofitted with 4.9 some years ago as well, done by Pierre de Siebenthal in Switzerland...

MS

 

OMG, what a foolish idea. So sad for both cars. Given the increasing value of 3500s perhaps one day it will get a rescue?

 

I know of a Khamsin that's been sitting outdoors inside of of a locked lot since at least last September. It has European bumpers and it's black/red but I've never been able to get any closer than 60 feet. It smells like an owner - service facility dispute or something. So sad to see it sitting outdoors like this. It doesn't appear at all to be a wreck of a car.

I'm not going to divulge the specific location. I hope the situation gets resolved soon. I wondered if anyone knows anything about this sad tale?

Bob S.

 

Thanks for all the hints and ideas about the colour of the c-pillar fake grill.

feliz navidad

Rolf

 

Actually I was contacted about 3 years ago by someone in the NYC area who had just such a lien dispute. He has/had two Khamsins. While 99% of Khamsin people are very pleasant he was definitely the other 1% and in fact I googled him and found out he had made a famous musician sign a contract which gave him guess what percentage of his earnings as his producer...needless to say I never heard back from him and did not get chassis numbers.

Marc

 

I actually got a close look today. No serial number on the dash ...
USA car I think with euro bumpers. At least the steering wheel looked like the USA version. This car needs a bare metal paint job and Interior. Judging by the empty LHM containers and miscellaneous parts in the hatch area it needs work as well. Looks pretty original and all there but it WILL be expensive unless everything under the hood is like new. Yeah right. It was covered with a fine mist of road salt as well. On it's way to becoming a parts car soon I'd say.

 

Thanks "detective Bob":

Next stage: we eagerly await your photos: you can sneak in there by wearing a Santa Claus disguise

Could be one of a few cars I have in mind, photos would help, will owe you a drink.

best regards,

Marc

 

That's a very long straw from Newww Gerseey to Frants my friend.

No, I took no pictures because frankly it didn't warrant it. Why waste the electrons ... It was too covered in salt to see all that much. But ... when you see a paint chip that goes to what looks(?) like primer and it's over 1/8" thick well ...

If someone really needs a restoration project that looks to be very complete then PM me.

At least the bumpers are already done!

 

Hi Bob:

We'l meet in person eventually.

Here is a possible northeastern matching candidate: AM120US1178. Was and hopefully is still in good condition when I last heard of it in Ct a couple of years ago.

Does the car have a Ghibli trident in the nose grille like this one?

Thanks again!

Marc
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

It has NY plates now. No it is not in good condition now. Torn piping on drivers seat. It was hard to see through it's salt overcoat. It has a bad executed re-spray that is now failing.
It's been outdoors sitting since at least mid September. I didn't inquire about the story. I just took a quick look. The serial number plate on the dash is either missing or illegible. It's kind of sad. Black and red is a sharp combination for this car and I don't like black cars.

 

Thanks Bob, in that case not sure, Jordan from NYC who posts here occasionally has a car in those colors AM120US1234 but in very good condition so definitely not the one you saw, no idea which one it might be.

MS

 

If you mean this one:
http://www.autosportdesigns.com/Sales/Salesphotos.aspx?ID=1922

No they're not the same car. This one also had two mirrors on it but it did not have the blacked out trim. So I count three black with red, hmmmm.

 

Hi all,

one of the Khamsin's few drawbacks is poor interior ventilation when side windows are closed due to the fact, that the air cannot get out of the interior. The designers designed an air outlet lookalike on the c-pillar, but the ingenieres did not provide the connection to the interior. There is even a water drain tube in this little compartment behind the fake grill. Did anybody ever try to put this to work by drilling connections to the interior and louvering the grill? The zone around the c-pillar should be a low pressure area, where the air should get extracted.
Pls let me know your opinion or experience.

Best

Rolf

 

That's interesting about the built in drain. That would lead to believe they tried it out and it was failure so they just left them plugged up on the production cars? It's a decent guess at any rate.

Hey it could be a lot worse. You could have the roof ventilation and rear drains system from the Espada which are extensive but still not enough and require periodic service calls from Roto-Router ...

Bob S.

 

Hello Rolf.

Interesting point , have never heard of anyone trying or seen a car modified that way.

You may want to try and let us know how it works certainly poor ventilation has been known to be a problem but another issue that Khamsin have is sucking in exhaust fumes from the back around the rear glass and through the door windows...amongst other places...so keep your original parts at hand in case the experiment is not a succesful one.

This is endemic of the troubled period during which the car was born. there are a number of small details like that that might have been addressed more thoroughly in more serene times, such as the idea of having a spring under the brake pedal to make the pedal harder and thereby facilitating foot pressure modulation (which Cleto Grandi confirmed to me was done on the Bora Gr4's and which they were thinking of doing on the Khamsin).

I am very keen to see someone trying that on their car to get their feedback as it would make it easier for the average driver to get used to.

best regards,

Marc

 

Marc
I have covered this part previouslywith pictures.
My car has air con that works sure not by current standard but it works well enough for the car to be comfortable in the Aussie summer.

One odd thin to check is the the fan is wired corretly my was spinning backwards and very little air comming into the cabin. The RHD drive cars get the air from the extra vent on the Left havd side,

The Vent System on the Khamsin will work but there is a design issue with the cabin venting bein the back of the car under the velance right accross the back of the car.
The aerodynamics of a spinning whel creates a hig pressure area beind the wheel and compounded with the foward movement it creates a High pressure where the Khamsin air vents. this pushes fumes back into the car.
It wouk be intesting to see what effect the Left hand rear vent being opened up would have. It would also need venting throught the interior trim to work.


Cheers
Graeme

 

Hello Graeme:

Well...here is a view of 004 the second prototype (as Cozza confirmed to me it is the gold car seen at the Turin show and in the famous golf course photos) which had many detail differences compared to production cars: as you can see functioning vent..let me clarify that on 004 the fuel filling was done at the back of the car behind the number plate.

best regards,

MS
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Yes Marc, maybe that was a proper vent. Every sports coupe has to have ventilation, either forced by suction through airflow as Ghibli, 275 GTB and others or by opening rear quarter windows as E-Type S1. Before I drill any holes or remove the inner trim panels I will try to attach wool stripes, drive and check the aerodynamics in the c-pillar area.

Rolf

 

Excellent! look forward to the verdict.

MS

 

Very interesting

Knowing what the air was doing in that region at speed would help findout if it was worth going to the trouble, Out with the wool tuffs to find out to identify if there is a clean flow of air, vacuume past a steam of air as per Benouli and all that.

I wonder if the Left side vent was re cast in Aluminium, anodised black would work.
As MArc has explained th factory got more interested in just building the cars and ran out of budget for development.

Graeme

 

been very quiet for ages so thought would post
Had the cars out for their regular warm through. Weather has been so bad for ages couldnt even get them out of garage due to snow!
Best wishes to you all for the new year and for a happy motoring 2011!

Paul
xxx
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

hello there,
sort of by chance i came across this forum a couple of days ago on yet another snowed in afternoon. with a decent glass of wine at my side I read through it and once done i sent a quick note to marc to congratulate him on this site. quite fascinating.
i also told him i am the current keeper of a car which came up a number of times, 445, the rame coloured one in which buckley travelled north.
i bought the car a few years ago and have not regretted it at all although i have had the usual hickups.the previous owner described it as basically very good but a bit tatty around the edges. a very accurate description.
it did not take me a month to get sufficiently annoyed with the tatty brown carpeting and dash, and the hole in the driver seat to use up a couple of black conolly skins left over from another project and change the interior to black/beige. it sort of looks as if it always was like this somehow.
then i committed what is probably considered a deadly sin and had the grey bits of the bumpers sprayed rame. i always thought that on anything but a black or silver car the three colours so close together made it all look too fussy.
the mechanical issues were mostly down to older bodges and certainly nothing to blame the previous owners for.ie. rear brakes put together wrong, drive shaft out of line and worst, when a head gasket blew we found the heads had been badly planed during a previous repair. several valves were burned and two were bent.
so we did all that. then we linked the carbs as they should be and hey, it goes like the clappers. better than my old ghibli ever did.
so here we go 445 is alive and very well indeed still on its old registration MGJ 101Y, but since i work in london and paris but the family lives out in the german country side near moenchen-gladbach, where i spend the weekends you may occasionally see 445 around there, in belgium or in france on its way to london.
it's done 66K kms and all i plan to do this year (well next) is change the pirellis to 225 XWX.
all the best to all of you and keep up the good stuff. glad i came across it.
Paul

 

Hello Paul in Scotland and welcome Paul in London and Paris, very worthy owners both!

Below are some photos of 445 I found, poached, borrowed off one of the photo sites.

Happy new year to all Khamsinistas, I will be posting news of Khamsin Quaranta, the 2012 40th Anniversary meeting very soon.

Suffice to say May June 2012 Dijon France area, most convenient to get the highest number of cars (factory is too far south) so please mark your calendars. It will be a one off event with all the right elements to make it worthy of the occasion. As a sneak preview a few days ago designer Marcello Gandini gave me his agreement to come in person or record a video for the event of him next to a Khamsin commenting its design.

best regards,

Marc

Maserati Khamsin Registry
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Happy New year to all

Marc, If Piers Corbyn is correct than maybe further south (Australia) would be better for 2012.

Regards To All
Graeme