1981 QP III 5 Speed and 1986 QP III Auto

A few more.
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Bravo William!!!

 

Stunning!

 

Looking *very* good!

 

ALSA have completed their rescue of the 86 QPIII. Remember they graciously agreed to help after the car was painted by St Georges Coachworks. There were issues with the paint where it had been sprayed onto the bottom of the car and many parts were lost. It has passed its MOT and be reregistered for the road. I just will confirm that the oil is fresh before I pick it up for a long drive home!

Here are the final pre-delivery pics.

Ciao

W
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been a long road that all but the best would have long since abandoned. all should be amazed. thanks for sharing

 

Interesting and fun exercise:

let us know what mileage you get on your drive back home. Should make for interesting reading ;-)

 

Fantastic. Great to see so much dedication to keeping these lovely big old cars alive. Because once they are gone, they are gone forever.

 

Nice to know the 81 was sent new to SA and the 86 to Switzerland.

Ciao

W

Dear William,
thank you for your kind email.
I have checked in our Historical Archive and I have found the following information:

Maserati Quattroporte AM330/49*1422*
Produced on February 1981, 4.9 litres, manual gearbox, external colour "Blue Sera", interior in "Natural" leather. It was delivered on March 1981 to the Importer "Market Dynamics (PTY) ltd." in Rivonia (South Africa).

Maserati Quattroporte AM330/us*5310* (USA Serial number - ZAMBC1100FA305310)
Produced on January 1985, 4.9 litres, automatic gearbox, external colour "Antracite", interior in "Natural" leather. It was delivered on February 1985 to the Importer "Maserati Automobile Inc." in Baltimore (USA).

Maserati Quattroporte AM330/49*5714*
Produced on May 1986, 4.9 litres, automatic gearbox, external colour "Dark Aquamarine", interior in "Natural" leather. It was delivered on May 1986 to the Importer "S.I.D.A. Sa" in Conthey (Switzerland).

The number reported on the identification label usually is a code with the "summary" of the information about the car as requested by the homologation. The chassis/engine stamp report the official chassis/engine numbers only.

I hope to have helped you in some way!

 

Tomorrow on the train out to Wales. All that can be done has been done and I am told it is running well. The 160+m return journey will be a good test!

Will be nice to get behind the wheel after so many years!

I will post a few pics.

 

safe journey

 

Enjoy the trip William, bring her home safely!

 

Have a good trip, William!

 

Did the long train journey from London to Neath, Wales and from there a journey to ALSA in "deepest Wales". Great place and a pleasure to meet with Al and Sarah - talk about enthusiasm and passion for cars. I felt blessed that they were sorting out some of the issues I had with the 86.

81 - The 81 was there in all its glory. Looking very good and the work had started stripping off the old paint. Any worries about repainting disappeared as it appears that there were at least 4 or 5 old layers of paint - amazing. Still it was owned by Mr Porter the owner of automotive dealerships in SA so may have been redone as needed, then done again by the chap who bought it from him.

The good news is that the car is fully straight and looks good under the paint. Al feels it could be a real show stopper! So I will put the pictures of the 81 below then discuss the 86 which I drove home today!

More good news on the 81 in that the motor has been opened up and is sound. Bearings renewed etc but in good shape. I will post more on that in due course.
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The car does look good.
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Here I am meeting with Al from Alsa. Thanks again to them for their help.
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Well. I picked up the car and drove it just under 200m back to London. It drove faultlessly at 120 to 160 kph. The car looked very good - a few little things that could be improved - but all in all a great result. The car looked like brand new, the engine compartment was excellent, and it sounded good. Started on the button and drove very well.

Kept up perfectly well on the Motorway and did attract a fair bit of attention on the road. Amazing how bland the other cars looked. Anyway, it was good fun and it tucked in the garage nicely.

I will start out sorting the little niggles which are very minor!

Ciao
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A few more pics of the 86 on collection
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just before I left.....
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Beautiful, William!

Hope you can share some more photos. My booked slot with them is slowly approaching, and I'm really looking forward to getting the car down there and taken care of. It looks like they do an outstanding job!

 

Hi did not know you were booked in. When will yours be there???

Al was encouraging me to go from Blu Sera to Silver. I usually favour the original colour but what do you think?

 

The car looks great! I like the exterior color (name?) and the burl wood interior panels are really special. Fantastic in every way. Enjoy driving it!

 

The colour is blu sera. The painter says that the colour also changed over time - that is that dk blue sera in 1981 is different from blu sera in 1986. Note in an earlier post the factory gave the description of the car colour differently.

Anyway, it does look quite good. Still a few little things but not bad.

 

Sara got me a slot in January of next year. I was originally scheduled for spring of this year, but due to a little misunderstanding got bumped. From what I was told they had officially stopped taking on new clients due to backlog, apparently their reputation has reached far and wide and they can't manage the amount of work coming in. Or so I was told.

As far as colour, to be honest I'm not a fan of the QP3 in silver, it doesn't really suit the car imho. Same with white, it's probably my least favourite. The nicest ones I've seen have been the blu sera (mine, the early metallic version of the colour is quite nice and both subtle yet with a nice depth and richness), burgundy red, and the metallic brown (forgot the italian name/code). Black isn't bad either, but seems a bit "hard" with too much contrast between the body and brightwork for my taste. It strikes me that I've never seen one in any shade of green, and wonder if they ever offered that colour. It doesn't sound like it would be particularly attractive in green, I'm just curious.

For collectors I suppose using the original colour is important, but how collectable are QP3s really, aside from the few perfect examples available? In the US they seem to have become disposable, although thankfully the ones here are still worth something, albeit little compared to the "classic" models prior to it.

As long as you keep it to a contemporary colour offered by the factory at the time the car was built, I would expect you to be on safe territory. If it were a 3500, Mistral or Ghibli I would think the original colour more important especially from a collector standpoint, but you do plan on using the cars once you've restored them, right?

Just some random thoughts...

 

Hi I do like the Anthracite colour on the US car. Agree on white and black. Saw a poor one in the US that was gold like the brochure. Really looked dated. Not sure about the mid "maserati blue". Really don't like the red. So far blue or silver but I have never seen a silver one in the flesh. Ciao

If I sell the 86 which I would like to do I will keep the 81 dkbleu sera as per the colour code.