Maserati Khamsin

SINCE THIS IS THE 700TH POST (I THINK) IT IS THE RIGHT TIME TO WISH YOU ALL MERRY CHRISTMAS HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR WITH MANY FAST MILES IN A KHAMSIN HOPEFULLY!

I DON'T HAVE A PHOTO OF ONE IN THE SNOW (HINT HINT) BUT LOVE THIS PERIOD AD: WITH THAT SMOOTH TORQUE IT SHOULD GO UP TO A SKI RESORT NICELY

I THINK MY REGISTRY DATABASE IS NOW AT 300 CARS OR WITHIN A HAIR OF THAT: THANK YOU ALL WHO HAVE HELPED IT IS MUCH APPRECIATED AND IF YOU NEED INFO ON ONE DON'T HESITATE TO ASK.

I WILL AIM TO PROVIDE A LITTLE CENSUS OF KHAMSINS BETWEEN CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR: IT IS LIKE A PUZZLE THE MORE PIECES ARE IN THE PICTURE THE EASIER IT IS TO FIT THE REMAINING PIECES.

BEST REGARDS,

MARC

WWW.MASERATIKHAMSINREGISTRY.COM
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Has anybody pics of the original Khamsin luggage?

Ciao!
Walter

 

No snow in Stockholm Sweden. Walter is it a photo in the Crump Maseratibook from 1976?

 

Marc, that period ad is quite a gem! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and all the other Khamsin posters as well.

p.s. See, the US Bumpers were good for something after all... you could brace your foot against the bumpber to unload your skis!

 

Not sure about this. I have to check. I meant new photos if possible.

Marc?

Ciao!
Walter.

 

Greetings all,

If anybody becomes aware of a good to excellent condition Khamsin for sale in the US, please keep me in mind. Must have a manual transmission and either be US-spec or already federalized. Thanks in advance.

AS
[email protected]

 

Marc,
I agree with you on the gas cover finish that it is in a satin not a high gloss finish or flat black like a primer. However on the hood grill work, I'd like to see a close up view of an orginal unmolested car, those grills may not actually be gloss Black but a dark charcol grey metallic.

 

Sorry, no Bora. See you in the next time.
Helmut

 

Walter:

Pascal who started this thread long ago mentioned something about luggage, have just asked him to post about what he has or found out.

Cozza had confirmed to me that it did indeed exist.

To get us started here is the photo in the brochure many of you know, hopefully we will find others.
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Joe: here is a photo from the French Khamsin test drive from 74 0r 75, of the only orange(!) Khamsin that I am aware of. It shows the car from a bit above, hope it helps.

http://www.maseratikhamsinregistry.com/art_201.html

 

Thank you!

I always thought they would make good boat anchors

Regarding suitcases and Pascal: he just answered my email instantly and said he is just looking for them, has no photo.

 

Hello Alan and welcome to our sand box

One very good US 5 speed Khamsin located in the US (many are in Europe as discussed a few moons ago) is supposed to become available, can't give the chassis number yet. It has had 23000$ of work done! I asked 2 days ago if there was an update about its availability and price and have received no response: once I do I will let you know more. It is a US car, converted to Euro bumpers, that is all I can say now. Will post more as soon as the situation evolves.

There is another car in the US, a US model that was owned by a gentleman who passed away: he converted an automatic to 5 speed, a unique job and his daughters contacted me when they were trying to sell it: they were a bit lost about how to do it...haven't heard back since but could make enquiries. The car needed some work: here are the photos I have: the question is how well the gearbox swap works.

You can contact me at: [email protected] if this is of interest (or not! Always a pleasure to get to know anyone interested in Khamsins!)

best regards,

Marc

PS: I may not have email where I am going for the weekend.
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Marc / Joe...

I know I'm going to take a lot of heat for this...but...I'm
a big boy and can probably take it!!! I found the discussion
on the correct colors, satin, gloss, etc.. for the grille's to be
interesting... Marc: when one converts the bumpers from
thier original US version (from factory!) to Euro version why
would one care about the differences in the color of the front
to upper rear side grille's?? Joe: did you convert your car to
Euro bumpers??

For what it's worth, when I bought my car
back in 2002 or 2003, I painted all of the grille's the same
color... At first, I thought something was wrong as the
fronts appeared different from the 2 rear side ones... I
finally determined the side are plastic or fiberglass and thus
the paint looks different anyway! As for black or charcoal
gray, I don't think I've ever seen the charcoal gray, but then
again, I'm getting older!

Don't qoute me on this, but I think I used a semi-gloss...

Mike D.

 

I seem to remember seeing those rear side louvers as being unpainted and with sun exposure you could see the swirls in the cheap plastic. Isn't that why people then had them painted?

Now if you "step up" to a Bora the louvers are cast aluminum! ;>))

The front grills on the trunk are cheap plastic though. :>((

Bob S.

 

Hello Michael:

Hope you are well.

As you know we have notied before that you and I think very differently and I say this in the most courteous way as if we were at a restaurant all enjoying a fine meal.
The bumper issue is not the topic here, if you prefer the hurried and horrible design of the US Khamsin as botched by the factory exactly when it was undergoing a tsunami of difficulties with the oil crisis, collapsing sales while under the gun of the US govt and Ralf Nader in that era to the stunning and timeless hand of Marcello Gandini well you are free to remain misguided for all eternity: I am convinced that you will be the last man on earth with US boat anchors attached tusk like at either end of your Khamsin.
Again I repeat I have no commercial involvement of any kind whatsoever with Euro bumper sales. My aim with that is to encourage the undisfigurement of as many US Khamsins as possible because people who discover a US Khamsin visually consistently look like they need a proctologist whereas when they disvcover a Euro Khamsin they are really struck by it and many actually are quite taken with it.

So doing a conversion is in my firm view putting the car back to how it was meant to be, not molesting it as you seem to think.

On the matter of the possible difference between the shade of paint for the hood grilles and that for the triangular fuel trap door panel and its twin as for anything else I would therefore stick to factory specs. As I once said to an officer who gave me a speeding ticket in Ft Lauderdale and who commented that he was astonished that I was speeding but stopped at every stop sign doing one thing not by the book does not mean you are doing nothing by the book.

Anyway as usual you will understand my point as little as I understand yours but that adds variety to life!

Have a good weekend,

Marc

 

Since Graeme from Australia had posted similar follow-my-Khamsin road photos and I just found those and it happens to be Michael's car in fromt AM1201120 (April 2005 on the way to a little show in south Florida) shot from my former AM1201242 I thought I would post them...but that is the last time I show US bumpers sacrebleu!

best regards,

Marc
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Mike,
My Khamsin will be converted to Euro bumpers when it comes out of restoration. (Any year now). Even thought that will not be how the car left the factory, I would consider a US car that has been converted to Euro bumpers more desirable than one that hasn't been. (Although neither would be as desirable as an original Euro spec car).

So getting the correct paint finish on the grilles and other areas is still essential on a bumper converted car. Same goes with a Bora.

Here is an interesting bit of trivia, the driver's seat on the Khamsin is wider than the passenger's seat, whereas on the Ghibli and Mistral they are identical. I haven't checked the Bora as of yet.


Joe

 

Here is an interesting bit of trivia, the driver's seat on the Khamsin is wider than the passenger's seat, whereas on the Ghibli and Mistral they are identical. I haven't checked the Bora as of yet.

Perhaps Maserati presumed a large and wide ploutocrat chomping on a big cigar would occupy the left seat while the right one would be elegantly decorated by an impossibly glamorous and aloof leggy creature who would prefer a normal size autostrada chaise longue!?

 

Joe...

Interesting about the seats... I never noticed!! I will take a really good look
when I am back home in TN this upcoming weekend! Is it the seats alone or
is the transmission tunnel offset towards the passenger area as well??

Thanks for the info!!!

Message to Marc: Careful now, one of these days you will come around to
my way of thinking... I can sense this in your responses...hmmmm... perhaps
you are a secrect US bumper Khamsin lover.... Always good bantering with
you now and then!!! Any idea what happened to the person who penned the
US bumpers? He's probably in management now or working for Ferrari (just
kidding!)....

Mike D.

 

Pascal:

I assume you meant this? Photo from the best brochureIt is heat resistant paint, unless they just used normal paint, the thing is I would think that after the first VRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM or three it will be blackened by exhaust soot....but well done in being very thorough.

By the way I thought of one possible souce for the luggage near Modena, let e know when you go to Italy. that vendor is un bandito according to Adolfo Orsi who buys from him but feels like he has had a tooth pulled every time!
I bought the 1970's rectabgular reversible wrist watch from him and he was the only one in the world who still had them new.

Mike: sorry I am afraid I don't have any fantasies about those bumpers, just healthy ones about young ladies The man who designed the bumpers was either the cleaning lady or yes, you are right some big director somewhere
within the Fiat group!

best regards,

Marc
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Marc sounds rather like a "front bumper" man to me. Only people like Mark Spitz, Greg Louganis and now Michael Phelps could fall in love with the diving board on the back of a US spec Khamsin. ;>)

Of course my Bora still has it's big rubber bumpers even though I've had the conversion kit for almost 20 years. They make the car look a bit more modern which 20 years ago was more important. They're also very functional and indestructible whereas the metal ones are a nightmare if you "bump" anything. I think the design could have been executed better though. The Khamsin euro style look very modern.

Now Detomaso did much better job of these "functional" types of bumpers on the Pantera.

Bob S.

 

It's tape but I don't know what type. It's very fragile though. Maybe you could just paint a ring? I have a new SS exhaust I bought to put on my Espada (eventually) so I need to do the same things wrinkle black on everything but the tips, ring/tape at end of wrinkle, orange inside of tips and then the decals.

Bob S.

p.s. This topic should probably be a separate thread in the technical section as you'd get a lot more information there.

 

Bob:

-1 You say that is tape in the photo I posted above?! Very strange: why even bother: it would burn out surely?

-2 I noticed a couple of new very technical threads: did the yahoo forum collapse and did all these gentlemen migrate here? If so great the more the merrier but in that case perhaps a separate tech thread for each model should be created as these gentlemen seem deeply immersed in all the mechanical side of things and I never saw any driving comments there: not a criticism, just an observation.

best regards,

Marc

 

AAAA+++++!!!!

Ciao!
Walter