The Great Maserarti Bi Turbo !!!!!!!!!!

Well you're one of the few that's kept their car really clean. Mine's seen a lot more use (fun!) than yours. The 87 always was my favorite because I much prefer those seats to the late ones with the alcantara side bolsters that go bad. But the 89 and later cars got the improved front end geometry and dropped the emissions air pump. The silver & blue looks very nice.

Bob S.

 

Hi Bob, off topic somewhat. With 25yrs coming up next year Im thinking of taking off the cat. I have read that you can pick up an additional 25hp just by doing this. Whats involved with removing the cat? Do I just replace with a straight pipe? How much louder would this make the car...she's got a pretty nice rumble right now.

Thx...

 

Hi Matt,

I don't mean to make you leave the beloved Fchat but this topic has been covered in exquisite detail many times over on Biturbozentrum. Basically I think you may be legal to do this now in NJ because of the age of the car. Do check on that first. Mine is a carb car so I had to re-jet the carb and that was a big pain back in 1986. Mine also has the liquid intercoolers and I did a nhumber of things so it goes a lot better than a stock car. But yours is a FI car so it would need a re-map which is not practical for these cars here in the USA but you can buy a new EEprom with the correct changes once you've removed at least the pre-cats. Those are the really awful ones. No it's not noisy at all. It's hard to make these cars loud because the turbos absorb a lot of the noise. So go over there, do some searches and start a thread if you can't find what you need.

Bob S.

 

Far too many....unfortunatey!

Ciao!
Walter

 

Enrico has a complete listing of biturbo models and their production: http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/alfieri00a.htm.

Scroll down the left frame to "Biturbos" and then click on "Biturbo production".

Cheers,
Gabriel

 

A true treasure chest for Maserati aficionados!

Cheers,
Gabriel

 

There is a wery good book out now about all the Biturbos.All kinds of specs
numbers built,prototypes etc.Even the Merak V6 with Turbo is in there.

A lot of things are said here(Walter doesent like them)
But its still a wery interesting car.Have you newer driven a good example,just do it!
Its loads of fun to drive.If you see through the surface,and keep it in good order
its fantastic,and wery underrated sportscar with loads of charisma.

 

Not so loud or everyone will be wanting a Biturbo and that will spoil everything.

 

The dealer service and distribution issues in this country really hurt them when new. My father ran a Maserati dealer in the DC area and they had huge issues getting parts. There were cars sitting up at the distribution center in baltimore for months waiting on stuff. I forget the mans name who was the distributor but he was a cocky guy and burned alot of people at that time.

They had alot of issues already stated but they also had stiff competion from BMW with the 3series and MB with the 190 series both great models that are plentiful on the roads today.
I currently have a biturbo that I cant sell and have own a e30 bmw the BMW is a better car in every.

 

I remember a time when just about every european car shop in the dc metro area had at least one biturbo sitting on its lot.

 

If you have one that doesn't run and based upon your ringing endorsement on here it probably never did run well then I can understand your feelings. I on the other hand have had an 84 since new with the optional liquid intercooler kit, sport suspension kit and low profile tires. It absolutely trounces the fist generation M3 and has a much nicer interior. But first you had to fix the issues the factory never did. After that I didn't have horrific problems. It's probably about the same as any Alfa or Ferrari of that era. The car wasn't ready when they introduced it here. Then they ran away. Nice. It's a completely different Maserati company today though.

 

I felt I should contribute a little bit on the Biturbo. Of course I am a Quattroporte 1 and III fan also and have had 5 Quattroporte III's with two of them working!

Anyway, I bought a 96 registered Right hand drive nero Maserati convertible in the late 90s with about 6,000 miles on the clock. It was stunning and sounded great. It really was great to drive - fairly docile around town but put the pedal just that fraction more and WHAM - complete character change. Like all Maserati's it also got some looks.

No real issues but always a few little things. Finally, I put it on the train to a friends wedding in Tuscany -train from Calais to Nice then a lovely drive down the coast to Tuscany. I remember we arrived in Nice the day of the Monaco Formula One and I was gutted I had not planned it better so I could watch. Anyway, on this trip I saw a wonderful Quattroporte III from behind being driven in anger. You really can see the flashes of brilliance in that design - as one passerby said of my car now: " that's so rock and roll".

Anyway, I dropped the car off at a local Maserati shop in Modena while we went to Rome and a wonderful old Maserati lover NERO FABIO fawned over the car. All I remember him saying was "Molto Robusto" and mumbling Idiota or something similar. Anyway, I had an Italian friend translate later and he said that the Ferrari shop in London had just about ruined it, threaded the oil plug etc etc. He worked for days on the car and fixed everything. Anyway after it ran like a wild machine. I think the key was knowing all the fixes and improvements. Clearly the car never really worked all that well when new. Indeed my car was a "bitza" as it was 100% factory but had bits from different years which made it a challenge to say the least.

I think these cars when new were outrageously flawed. The costs and aggravation of poor examples can make them worthy of dropping a skip on! However, when you find out the fixes and make them work then they are great cars. I was glad I was able to have a good one in full swing. I really really enjoyed it. Driving it on the curving roads of Tuscany was great. There are a number of cars that never worked well that can be made great now as the issues are well mapped out. Keep a few low milers original but my vote is to get the right motor married to the right car, do all the fixes and enjoy.

I think the QP IIIs are similar. Just so beautifully made but clearly there are areas that need to be made better. I will document them as I go forward with my thread. Oh, on the trip back we drove up through Lake Como on the back roads to Switzerland than up the Rhine and Mosel river valleys. A memorable trip.
Ciao for now

 

My father had an early version of these at his repair shop/dealership back in the late 80's. He picked it up cheap at auction because it ran very poorly and the local dealer could not fix it. It turns out the cams and valves were way out of adjustment, and after a quick repair, it drove very well.

At the time, I was driving an Alfa GTV6, and since the values were similar, I was going to trade the Alfa for the Maser. Compared to the GTV6, the BiTurbo has a much nicer interior, better body construction and paint, and had more power than the Alfa. However, the Alfa handled better and the fuel injected V-6 was more tractable than the carb'd Maser. In fact, the Maser was difficult to drive hard. Despite the two turbos, there was significant turbo lag. Coupled with significant amounts of lift-throttle oversteer, it made for a somewhat dangerous car to play with on interstate on-ramps. After driving it for a week or two, we decided that the Alfa was a better car, and sold the Maser.

 

What you say is true. In stock configuration the Biturbo was no sports car and the engine overwhelmed the chassis completely. As a comfortable and much more modern automobile (carb/no FI aside) it was so much better than the Alfa. I had a GTV6 and then I bought the Biturbo. I had both for two years before selling my cream puff GTV6. But the Biturbo was so much more refined. The Alfa wasn't that great a handler either. The center of gravity was way too high. That transaxle was just such a mess too. After I got the Biturbo sorted (that took a while) it was no contest any longer. The GTV6 got a very nice styling update but it was still based upon a very old car that was really pretty crude. The windows, the dash and HVAC were very cheap by comparison. I really like the styling though and the engine sounded great too. I don't regret either car.

 

Dear Ms.,
Does the License plate say COUGAR?
Yikes

 

WTF?

 

I never said my biturbo didnt run (it does) just stating the fact that they were junk. I have a lot of experiance with italian and british cars so im used to stuff breaking but biturbos were all around bad cars. Sorting a car doesnt mean that its a good car.

 

Well, ...I can`t agree more!

And I find it quite amusing to all the time about the tasteful interior-design of this cars. For me the interior looks much like Gucci in the 70s - oldfashioned, conservative (for this kitchy older "Ragazzi" of that period in white shoes!), and definitely not modern! For example this kind of wood on the dash belongs better into a Jaguar but not with an Italian exotic!

For me the Biturbo is an "Ah-Bah"-car (exeption: the Ghibli II).

Ciao!
Walter

 

What I meant was just because yours doesn't run well or is broken all the time. I'm sorry if I was clear.

Back then, if you simply kept attempting to repair issues with the factory parts and made no changes then yes they were total crap. You couldn't make them run well or for very long if you left them stock. I think I've already outlined that point in this thread. Call it sorting or upgrading or whatever you call it it DOES have everything to do with turning as mess into a decent car that's a lot of fun and very different from what De Tomaso delivered at first.

Mine has run just fine since 1987 with a set of turbo replacements once in that time. Only one valve needed adjustment since then. I replaced the distributor 5 years ago and of course I've done the cam belt several times as well. Now I need an AC compressor. I don't think that's the mark of a really horrible car. Is it as robust as the MB 190 you mentioned, no way. But if anyone bought one of these thinking they were going to be as reliable as the MB or BMW 3 series they were just plain stupid. Still, I agree with you that customers did not deserve the treatment they got back then. The BMW and MB were not nearly as luxurious, sexy or quick as the Biturbo was. They were also boring as hell. I'm sorry you hate your car. Perhaps you should give it to someone who might appreciate it or learn how to fix what's wrong with yours? Try the Biturbozentrum Yahoo discussion group. There are people on there that also own BMW, Lotus and Porsches but still enjoy this car.

Walter, give it a rest already. I don't dump on your Merak non stop and there's plenty one can criticize about that model.

 

You must hate the wood used on the current Maseratis too?

The QP and Mexico had wood and now the QPV and Gran Turismo can as well.

Come on Walter lots of revered Italian exotics have had some wood in the interiors. Even Lamborghinis.

 

Bob, you say your Biturbo has the liquid intercoolers? do you have any experience with the single intercooler that was used for some time? It appears to sit on top of the engine just aft of the radiator. I came across the thing when I purchased some Biturbos for parts. I too have an 84' and it runs great! I was debating about putting it in one of my Biturbo's ( 2 earlier models which dont have the intercooler).Also did you install the larger jets in the webers?

 

Mexico and QP I are from the mid-60s, so wood is OK for me here. I also accept it in the later QP III. But in current, modern cars wood has for me no right to exist (I hate wooden or partly-wooden steering wheels in modern cars!!). Yep, I don`t like this "Hey-this-English-smokin`-pipe"- wood in ANY more modern Maserati (like the notorious Biturbos) or-a visual disaster!!- in some other classic cars like the Ferrari 275 GTS....!

Ciao!
Walter

 

This is a fascinating read. I had the opportunity to drive one and really get the 'feel'. Loved every moment of it. Even today, there is still something I like about the Biturbo styling. Say what you will, but I like it.

It would be a labor of love, but to take one, do a complete frame-off restoration, interior update, complete updated wire harness and insert a reliable Mitsu GTO/3000GT Twin Turbo or Nissan 300ZX Twin Turbo engine tuned out 320+ hp, would make one very fun classic Maser.
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