Maserati Khamsin

At the Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival this weekend the Khamsin won Best European car of a field of approximately 200 cars. A Khamsin always gets attention as many people have not seen one in person.

The car was driven 7 hours each way to attend the event. Ran great!

Ivan

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Congratulations!!! Good job!!

 

Fantastic, very well done!

Yes in such cases there is a very clear pattern; which I noted countless times with my own K twenty years ago. Most in the US who had seen one before (a tiny minority) had only ever seen a US bumpered car. Well; every time people see a Euro bumpered car for the very first time they are in awe!

 

Fabulous.. .. nice ribbons!
Now let's treat the owner to some OEM Carello wiper arms!
- Art

 

Hello Jack,
I made the colored wiring diagrams and a "story" which explains the funktion of the 3 relays for the headlights.
You can find both on the webside of "Ivan Ruiz, the car nut"
The logic of the Khamsin lights wiring is strange, I am el.Engineer, but needed some time to understand... but it works !
The lever switch left on the dash is an hydraulic valve ? ( from Bosch Company also used in older Mercedes )
The front lights get el. power via the pressure switch left in engine bay.
If you need the center console switch to get on your lights, I think the pressure switch does not work: try to put both connectors of the cable to pressure switch together, then operate the hydraulic lever left on the dash: then hydr. cylinders will get pressure and pressure switch connects el. power for light.
The switch in the center console is quasi parallel to pressure switch.
( If engine is not running, no pressure.. no light, only with center console switch )
Greetings Achim

 

I probably posted this video two years ago when it came out but it is definitely worth viewing, be it for the first or second time, a very nicely done presentation of Khamsin #392 owned by Paul in New Zealand. It is one of three K's down there. This car was formerly owned by Fritz Harms when he was President of the Maserati club Netherlands.



Paul and his wife actually shipped to car to Europe to attend KHAMSIN CINQUANTA in June 2023, needless to say they won the longest distance travelled award! The photo below shows them driving up col de la Faucille, with Lake Geneva behind and Mont Blanc in the misty distance. They drove 6000kms through Europe and UK that summer including a parade lap with the French Maserati club during Le Mans Classic with a fellow Khamsin owner from California in the passenger seat: that's the spirit!

In case you're wondering the color is Rame metallizzato: metallic copper, truly spectacular in sunlight. A small number of Khamsins left the factory in that livery but several are now in different colors such as #016 or #445.


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270 (white) and 340 in Salvarola Terme near Modena yesterday.



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Very nice photography from Poland, by Bartek Tabak, of an unidentified US market Khamsin.

Out of 155 US market Khamsins with the ugly bumpers at least half (more than 80) have been converted to Euro bumpers.

As of this year and ever since the 1980's at least 80 US market Khamsins have progressively been bought by Europeans, be they enthusiasts, dealers or brokers, and brought back to the old world (not necessarily the same 80 as many cars in the US have had Euro bumper conversions).

However in Europe there are probably less than five US Khamsins still with their US bumpers.

I was aware of this car from some photos online here and there but had not seen good photos of it before; it really deserves a bumper conversion. I am not commercially involved with bumper kit sales at all. However I did convert 3 US K's all 5 speed 20 years ago, mine and two more for people who saw me do mine. While I don't enjoy working on cars, that was hugely satisfying, like removing ugly 1970's big tooth braces from pretty girls, bringing the car back to the intended design.

I have sent messages to try to find out its chassis number and history.

As I wrote before Marcello Gandini had not been aware of the US version at all and was shocked and appalled to discover one in a Los Angeles concours about 20 years ago where he was guest of honor.



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How could one of the most significant automotive designers be totally ignorant of such a ubiquitous and in this case ugly as hell automotive regulations that eventually revolutionized the entire automotive industry on a worldwide basis? They were implemented on at least two of his designs! The Espada was just as ugly. Does not compute ...

 

Because of the stress upon Maserati brought on by the 1973 energy crisis, Bertone was not consulted by Maserati for help with the US version.

Hence Gandini had no involvement with it's appearance.

These are facts, as he told me during interviews, see your copy of my 2013 book.

 

Oh of course but as a very prominent automotive expert who did have subsequent and direct experience with Maserati & DeTomaso it's just so hard to fathom that he didn't know about this until such a late date ...perhaps the sight of them was such a traumatic experience that it became suppressed memory?

I wonder if he knew about the Espada's version?

 

Maybe that was the role of stylists like Gandini, and the structure of the styling marketplace.
Maybe they styled the car for a manufacturer, saw it through some development, and then simply moved on to other projects. Probably whatever the manufacturer was wiling to pay for. And Maserati didn't often have much money. Maybe the stylist had the energy to "babysit" a design as it proceeded to adapt to regulations? But maybe that time isn't something on which a stylist spent unbillable hours, nor a task for which a mostly broke manufacturer might continue to pay fees.
Conjecture.
- Art

 

Art said it well Bob; imagine that you had a roofer redo yours two years ago. Do you expect him to know that you had your tiles replaced last year? How? Why?

A designer like him working for an independent design house, NOT as an employee of Maserati, is and was tasked with a mission. Once a car was finalized after the whole long process (from concept, fist sketches finals design, scale model, full scale model, first hand made prototypes to finished product) he moved on the the next one, for another manufacturer. Period. He did design the added air intakes above the bumper after a year when Maserati decided more radiator airflow was needed.

Gandini, not having been asked to do the US K version adaptation had no reason to know about it. US versions were not shown at the Geneva Paris or Turin show.
He very rarely visited the US and even if he did he had no reason to stumble upon a US version K.

 

HoHoHo Khamsinisti! seasons greetings.
anyone ever seen one of these??
Seems a bit oddball but thought someone may like it under the tree this year!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/167181299781?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=PzsirsHVS_2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=K6PR44mSQnW&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

best. Mark

 

Hi Mark,

Actually I have had one for forty years, bought at a fair in La Defense, just west of Paris.... BUT... I never saw another, ever, anywhere, so good to see. Here's mine.
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I knew that if anyone else had one, it would be you marc!!
Could be a good wine bucket to chill one of these…..

https://www.sansimeonwines.com/

Salut!!

M

 

You need the flag of Barbados too;-)

I like it because in addition to the Trident it has the colors of Sweden.


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Went to Barbados a couple of years ago. In addition to it being a great place to spend in the sun there are tons of Trident related trinkets available everywhere.
Plus ... it is the birthplace of Rhianna.

Ivan

 

Forgive my ignorance but the eBay item is listed as 25 cm in height and width and that seems larger than the on e in nembo’s photo. Am I wrong in that respect?

 

Same size as mine, a question of perspective, angle of the photo, mine sits high up atop my Maser model display glass case.

 

The Pirelli CN12 are back in stock

https://www.longstonetyres.co.uk/215-70wr15-pirelli-cinturato-cn12.html

 

Small but good news alert:

Anyone collecting models knows the Belgian company Minichamps' 1/18 scale Khamsin sold out very quickly and is impossible to find.

I have one like in the photo below (CK model cars is just a shop, Minichamps is the manufacturer), but finding a second one proved impossible not only online, in major shows but even networking through all possible models shops worldwide. That speaks volumes for the K's popularity!

It was made in brown (Luci del bosco) and red.

A slightly damaged one was resold used on Ebay for triple the price at around €500 a few months ago!

So the good news: I just noticed that Minichamps has realized the untapped sales potential and is putting a toe in the water by taking deposits for a second production run, in red.

This is great as the company is not very Maserati oriented and this version is very accurate whereas the other 1/18 scale model (by Topmarques ) looked like an elephant had stepped on it, completely wrong, yet even those sold out.

Here is the pre-order page, directly on the factory's website.

https://www.miniatures-minichamps.com/gb/scale-118/915120368-maserati-khamsin-1977-rouge-minichamps-107123821.html

I am not involved with this at all.

Hopefully they will sell enough that they consider producing it in other colors.

 

Hi All, A quick question for you.. The ashtray in 311 is missing its internals. Does anyone know if these were used in other cars or where I might be able to source one from. Thanks

 

Hi Mark, apart of the usual sources (McGraths, MIE Campana etc) for such information you might consider the non smoker version; see here #1054;-).

I sold the car around 2004 from Motorcar Gallery to my friend the late Rene Herzog former Le Mans racer and one of the drivers hired for the Steve McQueen eponymous film as well.
He kept it in Fort Lauderdale at his holiday home for a few years then shipped it home to Switzerland....

That special no ashtray factory option...did not exist (I was pulling your leg;-)!).
Rene being a non smoker had it deleted when he had the interior redone.

Then, around 2011, he sold it via well known Zurich dealer Koni Lutziger. It is still in the Zurich area.

You might ask Alfa Fiat part retailers.

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Thanks, I've tried McGraths and MIE but will keep hunting. Cheers. Does anyone have any photos of the internals, so I know what I'm looking for? Cheers