Hello Bob: Your points make a lot of sense: more than a few cars get stuck and trickle out of the hands of their owners in situations such as the story of the American in Germany you describe. Yes there should be a "Simon Wiesenthal databsae of stolen classics" as you describe though Interpol and the various Federal govt agencies have that to some extent. The publisher of Cavallino once told me an interesting story. About 10, 15 years the owner of a GTO a pretty influential chap around Wall Street and nobody's fool responded quite quuickly when his 250GTO and the triuck it carried seemed to have vanished: he pulled a few strings among his contacts in the white house and the borders were tightened up....until it turned out to be a false alarm....of course a Merak owner in Bismarck North Dakota may not have the same pull but...! Best regards, Marc
Hello Mike! Thanks for the kind words and the photos: you have quite a toybox there! I have fond memories of a rvery pleasant ride in your Mexico from that Maser club meet in an old Florida hotel somewhere near Orlando back to West Palm Beach! Yes I am hoping Frank will share some stories: hint , hint!
Hello Mike: Yes that Keeneland event is a lot of fun: I was asked by its organizer, Tom Jones (a company owned from Lexington who has a house in Fort Lauderdale and was one of my favorite clients at Motorcar Gallery) to be the speaker so he invited me for the first edition in 2004, it was a great event, a wonderful time (except we did not get a Bourbon tasting during the distillery visit!) and no one complained despite hearing a voice with a funny accent talking on the microphone all day about the cars displayed and interviewing owners. I would have done it again sumemr 2005 but moved back here in June of that year. That Khamsin is AM120US1028, it is actually one of those that passed some time before through the hands of Ed at Motorcar Gallery. Its owners were very friendly, they bought the car from Mark Hyman the well known midwestern dealer.The funny thing was that the owner told me he had only seen one Khamsin before: a gold car at the big vintage racing event in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin: what became my car! Here are some photos from when it was at Motorcar Gallery, before my time. Regarding the back end it did not have the chassis rails that block the half moon grooves for the exhaust tips cut out which is why it looks unfinished: That is an hour or two of work: cutting and raising the exhausts. The two tone color is unusual it is interesting but, even though it is also seen on the white AM120192 now on Ebay, I don't believe the factory did that, but I could be wrong: always fascinating to be wrong! Best regards, Marc Image Unavailable, Please Login
I just noticed we have crossed the 500 post threshold: to mark this I wanted to pay hommage to my favorite person in Modena, Maserti's in house historian "the voice of Maserati" Ermanno Cozza. He has been at Maserati for almost 57 years, they actually had a party for his 55th almost two years ago. He went from being a junior mechanic to a sales department executive to the in house historian. He has been very kind to me since the beginning, always responding quickly and tirelessly to my questions about this or that Khamsin or other Maserati. This photo was taken when I interviewed him on the Khamsin archives in July of 2005. Without him there might not have been a Khamsin Registry. Maserati is very lucky to have him. So grazie mille signor Cozza! Best regards, Marc www.maseratikhamsinregistry.com Image Unavailable, Please Login
http://s511.photobucket.com/albums/s353/yohtomo/200807_0005/ Was just informed by a Khamsin wner in Poland about the link above which shows a Khamsin in Japan: used to be red, now white, it is automatic as were two thirds of the thiurty or so cars sold there, and left hand drive as well. Owners in Japan like to have their cars left hand drive (even though in Japan people drive on the left like in England) to hae theor cars like in Europe, despite the hassle of dealing with toll botths on the wrong side and not seeing so well in traffic. Will try to get in touch with owner. This is not AM120350, which was for sale in Japan last year, also white, automatic (with very low miles) as 350 had a red interior. White has always been a very popular color in Japan, something to do with their culture. Best regards, Marc Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
10 or so years ago, I saw your/Lance's bronze Khamsin on Lake Street in Elkhart Lake at the Brian Redman Vintage Weekend. I flipped when I saw it with a demure "for sale" sign in it and scrawled down the number. I cant recall if there was an asking price (I think it might have been $18,000!) but I was definitely interested. I knew about Khamsins but I dont think I'd ever seen one in the flesh. The lasting image was of the clear glass below the hatch. But then Lance came along and jumped on it, and provided a very good home for it for the next couple of years. He and I had a shared mechanic, who always testified to the soundness of the car, and for a couple of years Lance was passively trying to sell it and I carefully considered buying it for a long time. At the time I was scared off by all the chatter about Citroen hydraulics; since then I have owned two Boras and find the hydraulics wonderful. Lance and I are still buddies, you got a heck of a deal on a nice car, and who ever is the current owner has a very honest and well maintained appreciating exotic. Postscript: Though I didnt buy the Khamsin that day in Elkhart Lake, I actually bought the house it was sitting in front of- something I could not have ever predicted at the time!
Hello 67alloy: thanks for your very nice comments! It was 1999 when the car was displayed in Elkhart Lake village: the vintage weekend there is probably the nicest event I have attended: I went a few years later and had a great time. Then, in 2002, I had a chance to be PR for a French team running a 550 and just weeks before heading up there (for the second time) saw the ad for the gold Khamsin in Sports Car Market. I asked Lance if he could bring it to the track, he asked if I could arrange 4 guest tickets, the team said yes and he showed up with his wife and the tiny twin daughters just small enough for the back seats! He was very pleasant and, freelance writer incomes being what they are, almost 2 years later we were able to do a deal: that Milwaukee area mechanic you mention was also the mechanic of John Ling, a major collector with a home in Milwaukee and a former owner of Khamsin AM120US1054. He actually inspected the car for me and after his phone report at the worksphop of the mechanic I said ok give him the deposit: what a moment! Please give my regards to Lance, he was very pleasant throughout and afterwards. I enclosed a photos of the current owners, John and Tiffany, at the wheel in the Los Angeles area. I found this photo in a website called...www.ferrarichat.com by doing some deep dredging in the California section and found it in the cars spotted thread: small world! They are definitely good owners for it. Well done on the house, wonderful area and people up there in Wisconsin kettle Moraine country....and a lot of them are of Swedish origin like me so many pretty girls there too! Best regards, Marc Image Unavailable, Please Login
Buongiorno e grazie Alberto: Si: una colore che non si dimentica: si chiama oro Kelso, anche utilzata dalla Ferrari. Saluti, Marc
AM120250 which is on Ebay Italy right now: has the trident in the grille which quite a few owners have added and the slats paintd black which I don't think contributes anything visually. Had no history on this one, owner in Milan area has not responded yet. No interior photos... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here is the first ever Khamsin photo I have taken, at the Frankfurt show in, I beleive, 1979: thankfully my phtography got a little better after that... Sorry to inflict this on you, could not resist! In contrast, some eye candy: a very nice photo from AM120351 from Supercar Classics article on a full restoration in 1986 by Omicron Engineering in England. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi! This is a snapshot of AM120.096 next to AM115.49.1432 (both 4.9) The Khamsin only has around 23000km and just got back from the paintshop, where it was repainted in middle-dark blue it came from the factory with. The car had been repainted black in the factory only a few years after it was sold. The car is located in Vienna, Austria - I'll only be back there around christmas to take high quality pictures with strobes - so this will have to do And there is also a video of me putting it away for the "night". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAaQsCibPsg http://www.flickr.com/photos/fenicorsa/2866774203/
Some photos of Khamsin AM120244 in Sitzerland. Note the wide wheels which some owners fitted in Germany mostly. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I forgot to mention that the headlights-units have been changed too, because they were leaking quite a bit and were beyond repair. Does everybody here bleed the hydraulics on their cars? Another question I have: Did only the later models or US models have the "additional" grille?
Hello and thank you for that! Neither Walter (in the database he kindly gave me) nor I had data on that car so it is good to hear from you: what can you tell of the car's history? new to Austria and always in that country? It is good to see a new Khamsin video on youtube as well, mine has been seen about 3200 times despite the factr that it was driven very slowly as I was not there but what we really need is one on fast flowing roads, filmed from another moving car and also onboard during a fast drive: that would really help people to understand how exotic they feel from inside: they really are extremely exciting, hard to put in words. Could you do such a video? You have plenty of such nice roads without traffic in Austria. Here is a photo I had found on the web of a black K in Austria: your car? Did not yet try to read the tag in the youtube video. Looking forward to the strobe photos! Best regards, Marc Image Unavailable, Please Login
I actually have quite a few low-res videos of me driving it "not so slow", but I didn't want to upload them, because I was wearing just a plain t-shirt, cargo pants and looked like I slept under a bridge (Most of the time, when I drive them, I look like that because something always goes wrong ) About the history of the car: I'll have to ask my uncle about the full history of the car and post it then. I think it originally was delivered in middle-dark blue to a dealership in Rome and was repainted black in the factory on behalf of the first owner. My uncle bought it through Bruno De Cillia in Villach, Austria. (He also got his Ghibli SS through him - from a big collection that was sold after the owner died). He has owned both cars at least since 2002 (that's when I got my drivers license - so there's where my car memory begins ) (He also had a manual QPIII in brown and a Royale and other newer models) Unfortunately I'll only be back in Vienna for christmas, because I moved to Santa Barbara, CA for school (Photography) - but if there's no snow on the roads and no salt has been put on the road I'll have tons of high quality driving videos of both Khamsin and Ghibli SS. EDIT: The car on the picture is not "ours".
The additional grille was implemented for all cas starting in 1975: only Euro cars of 1974 have the smooth nose. Some owners of later cars then retrofitted the earlier nose due to an accident or because they preferred it. All Us cars have the nose grille as well since they started in 75. Yes you should bleed the hydraulics, change the fluid ever 5 to 10 years and also the spheres: mine were in the car from 1994 to 2005 and were good for those 11 years, not many components last that long. Hydraulcs are very reliable as you know, but it is inactivity for months at a time which is bad for the system: even in winter when you have snow and salt it would be good to start the car and drive it around the garage twice a month, take it just outside and let the temperatures come up.
Thank you: really look forward to it all! Enjoy Santa Barbara, a very pleasant city, I almost moved there in the early 90's. There are fantastic roads with little police up behind it, towads Ojai. Best regards, Marc
Just for you I uploaded another video .... another one I just have to quickly edit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC-1AeRvGxA Better vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ6aI7xRmIE
Hello all. Several months ago I ran across a photo of a Khamsin with an etched glass trident in the middle of the rear glass panel. I unfortunately did not save the web page. Anyone familiar with the car? Any info on the trident? It really did look like etched glass, but I suppose it could have been a clear sticker-type application. Am I to guess this is like the aftermarket addition of a trident badge to the front grill, or was this a factory one-off? Thanks.
As to my humble knowledge no Khamsin had a Trident-logo either ON the front grill nor ON the rear lower glas-section. Ciao! Walter
Molto grazie Walter. And, though I have not been at FerrariChat long, I get the idea from reading old posts that your knowledge, while "humble," is quite extensive! Maybe Marc has some knowledge of that specific car. I will keep trying to find the photo. Thanks again.
Hello Michael, Walter: Here is a photo of the car you meant: according to Walter the chassis number could be AM120US1142, certainly it is the car of Dutchman Fred Lipperts. The photo is by Fred Lipperts courtesy of the excellent website of Enrico who does his onw webmaster work (wish I could do that). His main website address is: http://www.maserati-indy.co.uk/alfieri00a.htm He does a lot for Maserati, an admirable job. The page dedicated to the Khamsin is very well done: http://www.maserati-indy.co.uk/alfieri00a.htm Now bear in mind that that Khamsin has a t-top roof, non standard and that that rear glass etching, while well made is not standard. It is interesting and certainly a better idea than a sticker but again non standard. Best regards, Marc Image Unavailable, Please Login
Walter is right the factory never put tridents in the grilles of Khamsins. The factory historian mister Cozza explained to me that this was due to the fact that they beleived they would have been too low to be seen by someone standing and looking at the car and you need to have a front tag (number plate) everywhere in the world except some US states. With the US bumpers which protrude far forward it makes it even harder to see the trident so again no change was made to the decision not to fit a trident (the Indy is, as far as I can think right now, the only other Maser with no trident in the grille but I am sure there are other exceptions). HOWEVER if you have a Khamsin in a US state which does not require a front tag, like Florida where I was and where you are, and even more so if your Khamsin has Euro bumpers then the trident really looks good in the grille. The fact is that since the one flaw you could attribute to the Khamsin design is that its wedge shape does, by essence, not have an imposing aggressive nose but one almost like a stealth plane -and in fact most Khamsin design comments are about the rear as the front is so simple, the addition of a Ghibli grille trident in the nose does complete the look "give it more of a face" and since the Khamsin was the immediate successor to the Ghibli it is not heresy to add one. I had it on my car at the end, though when I was forced to sell it by circumstances I was advised to take it off and now use it as a paperweight! I will fit one on my next Khamsin. Here is a photo: one of my favorite Khamsins AM120232 (though I have never seen it in person) a pino verde example which was in Zurich Switzerland until recently sold (don't know who bought it...yet). best regards, Marc Image Unavailable, Please Login
