Maserati Khamsin | Page 327 | FerrariChat

Maserati Khamsin

Discussion in 'Maserati' started by Maeter, Feb 24, 2008.

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  1. Mexico074

    Mexico074 Formula 3

    Aug 14, 2008
    1,225
    Harriman, TN USA
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    Michael Demyanovich
    Off topic... Norway - an extremely beautiful country !!! I remember visiting Geiranger
    while on a Norway fjord cruise! Highly recommended...

    Mike.. (US11200...
     
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  2. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    Hi Mike, for once I am the one guilty of veering off topic and you miswrote your VIN 1120, maybe we both have a virus of some sort;)
     
  3. series1

    series1 Karting

    Apr 10, 2007
    125
    Leamington Spa
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    Mark Butler
    Hi There, haven’t started on the Khamsin yet. I’ve just got it out of storage. Took a lot longer to finish the last project than predicted.

    I now need to earn some brownie points by doing some jobs around the house so I can earn some garage time

    Probably won’t start the K until winter. Just starting to collect parts in readiness
     
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  4. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    Hello all,
    I stumbled upon this photo in an article part of a publication that seems to have vanished, the photo seems to have been taken in the US northeast, New England I would assume. Do these people, does this car look familiar to those in that part of the world and if so do you have the chassis number?

    Grazie in advance.

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  5. rga

    rga Formula Junior

    Jul 14, 2012
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    Switzerland
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    Roger the Dodger
    Hello Marc

    There are a few pictures taken from a video, that I was able to see, but no mention of a VIN-No.
    The owner is Cooper Botway of Kent, Connecticut, I think he is lecturer in Marketing. You should be able to find him in the tel directories online.
    The car has apparently been in the family for the last 30 years; not clear if this was publicised in an attempt to sell the car.

    Regards, Roger
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  6. rga

    rga Formula Junior

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    Roger the Dodger
  7. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    #8157 Nembo1777, May 4, 2020
    Last edited: May 4, 2020
    Thanks for that Roger, I stuck Botway in my computer and AM120US1176 came up, I was in touch with Cliff Botway the father in 2015 when he contacted me for some info.
    He bought the car new from the Steering Wheel in Fort Lauderdale, dealer Tom Clark was the sales leader in the US back then. It has always been red/black and is 5 speed.

    I will contact them this week. That link just won't open for me on cell phone or computer and I have good wifi here...can you copy and paste here the text bit that concerns the car when you have a minute, many thanks.

    This mention of the Steering wheel dealership leads me to my Stirling Moss encounters and anecdotes I had not gotten around to posting.

    Tom Clark junior recalls that they lent a Bora to Moss in the seventies so he could take it from Fort Lauderdale to Sebring, he might have been grand marshall. Anyway he took people for rides in it during the practice days and before the race. Tom jr said he returned the car with totally bald tires and not a drop of fuel:)

    In Monterey 1998 or 2000 I met him with Bill Noon of Symbolic at Concorso italiano, Bill introduced me and we chatted then I asked about the 450S, his answer was priceless: he just made a terrorized face with big eyes and did not say a word:)

    Another year at Monterey, before that, there was a way to sneak in at Pebble Beach onto the green between the two storey room blocks to avoid paying the ridiculous concours ticket price, you just had to lean down to go through a hole in a hedge and as I was doing so going in I and another person coming out stopped just inches short of banging skulls...his was bald...we looked at each other and just laughed, I gave him way and we went on our ways.

    At the Mille Miglia in 1999 I was with American friends in a Ferrari (I was just driving the wives and kids around) and I walked up the line of cars awaiting the evening start (one per minute) and what competitors do in that line is they push the cars so as to avoid over heating. Amidst all the superb machinery suddenly I see royalty: the Mercedes 1956 Mille Miglia winner with its famous number 722 and...Sir Stirling behind the wheel...with his wife pushing alone! So of course I offer to help which she accepts and we chat away and she is so deeply knowledgeable about racing and is known to have a sense of humor so I jokingly suggested that she should imitate the infamous Denis Jenkinson, the leading journalist who was Moss' co driver that year reading notes from a special roll. The Italians called him the priest because of his long beard so I suggested she wear one for full time warp effect she smiled and she said "Oh yes and imitate his little mannerisms" I think she would have done it had there been time. At dinner with the two wives of my friends -who were by then on the road- I told them the story and...they were shocked that I would suggest such a thing to a lady but this wasn't just any lady it was one who took it well.

    Last one: at Goodwood house in 2009 for the annual International Maserati club meeting (NOT the revival or festival) he was there with his Osca and all excited after having managed to gather 7 Khamsins for some line up photos I noticed he was holding court in front of Goodwood house sitting on his hunting seat so I waited my turn and asked to be introduced then asked him if he had ever driven a Khamsin. His answer killed me:

    "A what?"
    :(:D

    I bet you if I asked Cozza he would say he probably did drive one during a factory visit but far more importantly RIP Sir Stirling, thank you for your contribution to Trident history.
     
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  8. AMLC

    AMLC Formula Junior

    Apr 4, 2009
    597
    Great stories about Stirling Moss (although they should be in the "Stirling Moss-topic" :)).

    The link works ok on my computer, and I think he has some interesting ("The current Khamsin is actually the second one in his family. The previous one was stolen and wrecked by the thief." or "Botway compared the Khamsin to a painting done by Pablo Picasso or Claude Monet, but better.“It can also take you to the grocery store to buy groceries, and your Picasso can’t do that,” he said.") things to say.

    But also some remarkable things like “It’a a difficult car to drive. It’s a lot of horsepower. It’s 320 horsepower and it has a high pressure hydraulic system, which makes steering, braking and clutching very difficult,” he said".
    Do you still want the full text after reading that? :)
     
  9. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    Hi AMLC,yes how naughty of me to have been off topic about Sir Stirling, I have now put my notes in his thread.

    Yes I would still love to see the entire text concerning the car: normally when someone does not get along with a K they sell it...but I think the interview is with the son, perhaps he does not get on with driving it as well as his dad....

    Sad to hear of the demise of a K, Gullwing Motorcars had a red one with various impacts and bent suspension some time back along with spare wheel fitted, that could be a suspect though in all likelihood a car crashed decades ago was probably scrapped long ago.
     
  10. AMLC

    AMLC Formula Junior

    Apr 4, 2009
    597
    This Maserati is art that hangs out in the garage
    BY BUD WILKINSON REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

    March 27, 2020

    Cooper Botway of Kent, Conn. has a 1977 Maserati Khamsin, one of the 430 built between 1974 and 1982 and one of only 155 ever exported from Italy to the United States. He takes it for a spin in My Ride.

    BY BUD WILKINSON

    REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

    With wedge-shaped sports car styling by Bertone, the Italian-made Maserati Khamsin is a rare touring model that looks to be as much a piece of art as a way of getting from point A to point B quickly.

    Cooper Botway readily admits that his valuable 1977 Khamsin can be as temperamental as it is enjoyable.

    “It is a complicated car and it’s an old car … so it requires a lot of maintenance. It is finicky but it is a hell of a car,” he said.

    Maserati built the Khamsin from 1974 through 1982. The company’s website reports that only 430 of the 4.9-liter 2+2 coupe were assembled. “They produced about one car a week, so they were essentially being hand built. There’s only 155 of these that made it to the United States of America,” said Botway, whose Khamsin was running the day he showed it off last fall having just completed some repairs.

    “When the car broke down two weeks ago and I wasn’t sure if we could fix it, my wife asked me what we would do with the car, and I said, ‘We’ll put it in the living room as a piece of sculpture,’” said Botway. “She wasn’t terribly thrilled about the idea, but she then didn’t say, ‘No.’”

    Botway, who shares a home in Kent with his wife Mary, is a car collector in possession of than more 20 vehicles. That includes a less much powerful seven-horsepower Austin 7, which he thinks is from 1929.

    The Austin 7 was England’s answer to Ford’s Model T and he keeps his in the basement.

    (Botway talks about the Austin 7 in a video about the Khamsin posted at wheels.rep-am.com.)

    Just how long the Khamsin has been in his possession is a bit unclear.

    “My father and I are both car collectors and I believe he acquired it about 30 years ago. It’s in my driveway because my father is 93 now,” said Botway.

    The current Khamsin is actually the second one in his family. The previous one was stolen and wrecked by the thief. “It’a a difficult car to drive. It’s a lot of horsepower. It’s 320 horsepower and it has a high pressure hydraulic system, which makes steering, braking and clutching very difficult,” he said.

    The Maserati Khamsin gets its name from “a hot, violent, gusty wind in the Egyptian desert, which occurs about 50 days a year,” said Cooper Botway, whose red 1977 Khamsin looks fast when standing still.

    The name’s appropriate, too, as Maserati’s lists the model’s top speed as 168 miles per hour.

    Botway said the Khamsin is not only powerful but touchy because of its high pressure hydraulic system, which came from Maserati’s owner at the time, French carmaker Citroën.

    “You can do a full right hand turn with a small movement of the wheel and you can lock up the brakes by just touching the brake pedal a quarter of an inch. You have to be very skilled to be able to drive it, because most of the people who have these wreck,” he said. “So how many are left, I don’t know.”

    The Khamsin does exhibit some notable features.

    The rear-end is largely a glass panel that enables anyone behind it to see into the trunk. The hood is also distinctive with two black louvered sections.

    “It is an asymmetrical car, which means essentially if you cut the car in half, the two sides are different. Just about every car I can think of has a symmetrical hood, which means it’s the same on both sides. This is unique in that it’s not the same,” Botway said.

    Given the time period that it was built and exported to the United States, it has another noticeable feature.

    “This has the famous rubber bumpers from the ’70s – the five mile an hour bumpers that we all remember from the 1970s. The European cars all have chrome bumpers because they didn’t have the five mile an hour requirement,” he said.

    When showing off the Khamsin last fall, Botway reported that the market for exotic Italian models was good.

    “The Italian car market has been on fire – in a good way – for the last three or four years. It’s because the economy has been good,” he said.

    “These cars are now becoming investments. There are people now collecting these things not as automobiles but as works of art and, from an engineering point of view, they’re also beautiful; beautifully made and beautifully engineered as well.”

    Botway compared the Khamsin to a painting done by Pablo Picasso or Claude Monet, but better.

    “It can also take you to the grocery store to buy groceries, and your Picasso can’t do that,” he said.
     
  11. italiancars

    italiancars F1 Rookie

    Apr 18, 2004
    3,338
    Hershey, PA
    Does anyone know which weave of Wilton Wool carpet was used in a Khamsin?
     
  12. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    Thanks for posting AMLC, of course such main steam press articles are always a little contrived and clumsy but my colleague still tried to give the car a good presentation and for the gneral public he did, kudos to him. As I thought the interviewee is the son and perhaps less sensitive a driver than the father, still he clearly likes it a lot and I would love to hear the father's tales about it:)
     
  13. boralogist

    boralogist Formula Junior

    Jun 21, 2005
    998
    Hi---

    Two quick questions:

    Did the K come w/a factory oil cooler?
    &
    Are everybody running 235 60 15 Pirelli P600 on stock rims?

    Thanks.
     
  14. Froggie

    Froggie Formula Junior

    Sep 27, 2017
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    For second point: 235/60 R15 P600's are not a very enthusiastic set of tyres...
    In addition, the overall circumference is 2.8% smaller than the original fitment.
    Not really cheap either.
    But it is the only offer alternative to the "original" and very expensive XWX or CN12.
     
  15. boralogist

    boralogist Formula Junior

    Jun 21, 2005
    998
    Thanks.
    I am happy w/215/70 CN12s on the Bora.
    However, I think the K needs a wider, more modern touring choice fit for a GT.
    Thus, as you point out, I see no alternative to the P600s.
     
  16. Froggie

    Froggie Formula Junior

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  17. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    These BBS wheels have been discussed in great detail with all the specs several times, just use Fchat's search function and search for BBS within this forum thread.

    And no that silver Khamsin with the funny Kyalami style nose (AM120-328) has nothing to do with the factory, one German's idea of a restyling after he found the car derelict in a middle eastern desert. Dinner time here, good night.
     
  18. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    Speaking of wheels a friend just sent me this link.

    https://www.comp.co.uk/products/product.asp?item=hbc1575-60-193

    He knows what he is talking about and says they are heavier (made from alloy poured in molds) but cheaper than the ones Candini gets made carved from alloy blocks forged.

    I have zero involvement with the Candini sourced wheels or the ones linked above, never heard of them till 5 minutes ago. If someone is only into mellow driving and concours the cheaper wheels will do, if on the other hand you enjoy spirited driving the heavier rims will make handling a bit more sluggish.

    What is certain is that anybody who still has magnesium wheels should not use them as they end up failing, as Giuseppe and Marcello Candini explained to me mag wheels are bad news and cannot be reliably repaired.
     
  19. AMLC

    AMLC Formula Junior

    Apr 4, 2009
    597
    Most cars (Khamsin, Ghibli, Indy 4900) probably still have the original wheels? Should they be replaced by new aluminium wheels?
     
  20. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    As you may have noticed I am not into tech details, service methodology etc but those in the know are consistent in saying that the magnesium wheels are dangerous, can fail while driving and cannot be restored. So check what you have if alloy good if not address the issue.
     
  21. Froggie

    Froggie Formula Junior

    Sep 27, 2017
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    If you want to be on the safe side, and especially if you do spirited drives, then yes, aluminium is a must!

    If you want to keep the original look, there are only two repro options in aluminium that I explored, already mentioned by Marc:
    - the Compomotive wheels sold by Heinbrand, made with cast alloy; you have to be patient because they will make the wheels only once they have a sufficient number of orders; price is ca. 2k for a set
    - the wheels made by Candini in Italy, from a forged block machined by CNC; price is ca. 6k for a set; you also may have to wait for a new batch...

    There are alternatives with other manufacturers of alloy wheels, but not with the original Starbust Campagnolo design...
     
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  22. Nembo1777

    Nembo1777 F1 World Champ
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    Yes first thing I would try is finding a used set...but in alloy.
     
  23. AMLC

    AMLC Formula Junior

    Apr 4, 2009
    597
    Thanks, very interesting, I looked on the Candini website and see that they also mention this on the website ("We have had re-manufactured wheels for the Ghibli 115 in aluminium, because the original magnesium wheels become fragile and dangerous with age ! These aluminium wheels are cast from a single block. Prices on request").
     
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  24. boralogist

    boralogist Formula Junior

    Jun 21, 2005
    998
    Hello---

    Has anybody sourced K euro headers from anybody other than MIE and Quicksilver?
    Thanks!
     

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