Maserati Khamsin

Rolf: glad you identified the problem.

Marc: I am sure there are "old world" techs that know their stuff but never look down on "new world" techs as we were able to pinpoint the problem, without even looking at the car, from 4,600 miles away

Ivan

 

Hi AMLC

My guess for the red car is that its chassis no is #1166, same as the licence plate

 

Hello Rolf...

Can you post a picture of what you are referring to.....

Mike

 

Yes Roger, that´s possible . If that chassis number is still "free",
I would expect a higher chassis number though, somewhere between #1240 and #1280?
I think Marc will find it somehow.

 

Ivan no disrespect was meant at all my point was There was no point for Rolf to go beyond this forum or his old world contacts, I knew US experts here would come through

I do not recall the people Bob mentioned posting here recently or ever, Gene or that Citroen US north east garage, maybe in the old previous yahoo forum or maybe I am wrong.They would be most welcome.

Regarding the red US K in England, considering the cost of thousands of pounds for a special number plate I doubt that is its chassis number, I was told that car was not particularly well maintained so don't see the man spending on that. One important point is that while in the US you pay fifty or so dollars for what number plate you want as I did in 2004, in the UK you pay thousands to a plate reseller for a plate that already exists and is usually not spelled or numbered right. For example in 1982 in the UK I rode in a Ferrari Lusso with number plate LUS5O...one character wrong.

The great UK collector Lord Bamford who owns the JCB tractor firm (and has two genuine 250gto's) once saw the JCB plate with a number on a scooter at a scooter dealer and bought several scooters with JCB and a sequential number behind: JCB for John Clayton Bamford his initials. Really costly and not simple in the UK.
Here in France impossible, I saw one 308 with personal plate in the 80s, one, he looked like a member of our parliament to me.

 

look into the market for Low digit license plates from Delaware sometime. https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2018/08/30/there-bubble-de-low-numbered-tags/1051602002/

 

Interesting, was not aware of this practice with old tags in the US. In Modena the registration MO 1 can be seen at the Stanguellini museum on a predictably ancient macchina.

 

Do Ivan and I get a gold star for nailing it? I don't even own a Khamsin.

Marc came to the USA Maserati community via TMC on the east coast. A long and sometimes torturous story which fortunately Doug Magnon and others got turned around in California so that it's a fully united Maserati community now. So I'm not surprised he's completely unaware of some of the older and expert communities on the west coast. Eugene O'Gorman is a long time Maserati club member and he's owned, rebuilt and sold just about all of them. He was the chief mechanical engineer for one of the major Silicon Valley manufactures for a long time and then retired to futz even more with Maseratis and other cars. He's fully capable of rebuilding and manufacturing the parts for any of these cars. That's why I suggested him. But now we have the answer.

I still have a question though. Is there any flow between the front/rear braking systems via these two parts or just notification of an imbalance? I ask because I don't see how you bleed these two parts????

 

Hi Bob you and Ivan get five stars and a banana republic general's hat how is that?!

I first heard the name of O'Gorman over 20 years ago but just never had the pleasure of communicating with him, if you want to invite him to share his memories here or put us on touch that would be much appreciated, grazie in advance

 

He's already here and has commented plenty in other threads. No invite needed. He's relocated from California to Idaho where's doing some fly fishing I presume?

 

Just found out that if you go to https://vehicleenquiry.service.gov.uk/?locale=en and enter the number plate of for instance #445 (MGJ....) you can see that it is a Maserati, with 4900 cc, has valid MOT, is taxed and more information.
If you enter the number plate of the US Khamsin (1166..) at the concours in 2002 the system says that the car is a Citroen with 2670 cc, brown, and more information.
So the plates do not belong to the Khamsin.
Also found a photo of the car that they do belong to: https://www.flickr.com/photos/90461577@N00/16655913034/
This photo of the SM was taken at the Bicester Heritage Sunday Brunch scramble 26/4/2015 (see https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/178259/bicester-heritage-sunday-brunch-scramble)

 

Ahah so Mr AH was naughty and used his SM plate on his K for that show he is now 80 and that car has not been seen at events for years...

 

Hi Marc

I just found two more pictures of a golden car in Japan, at Seaside Motor, unfortunately not from the front, so not sure about vents,
and sorry that the Jota takes up so much space

https://minkara.carview.co.jp/userid/276373/blog/40714613/


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Hi Roger, excellent thanks, do you know when that was? The 2017 report clearly includes photos from many years before. The Lambo silhouette means this is 1977 or later. The writer also states it was over twenty years ago.

We'll pardon the fantasy Jota or two for now

 

The person says he took his selfie in the LP400, which I guess is at the same location and time as the others:

Bing translation:
The title image is 1977.11.14 Saitama Prefecture People's Day (40 years ago), yokohama SSSA (seaside motor) LP400 Japan imported no. 2 car in the driver's seat of the new car at the time in the (^_^)v.

 

US Khamsin, white with beige leather, automatic, US front bumper (and rear probably, can’t see), adjustable (electric) side mirror. Don’t see a licence plate at the front but maybe that’s because it’s so dark under that huge bumper.
The photos (scroll down on the page): https://www.gettyimages.ie/photos/john-schneider-return?events=158928329&family=editorial&page=2&phrase=john schneider return&sort=newest
The text: “LOS ANGELES - JANUARY 20: Actor John Schneider attends "The Dukes of Hazzard" Celebrate the Return of Original Cast Members John Schneider and Tom Wopat on January 20, 1983 at Perino's Restaurant in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)”.

Is it possible to identify this car? There are not many Khamsins in this color combination I think?
He apparently (also) owned (and liked) a Maserati Bora, see this article from 1997 in Motortrend: https://www.motortrend.com/news/questioning-john-schneider/.

 

2 interesting things on the car. The US parking light housing are painted body color. The other is the location of the electric rear view mirror control.

 

Bedankt for that AMLC,

No I have never seen one with the s***t shovels sorry the US version front indicator frames painted body color. As Joe mentions the mirror and inside adjuster are unusual too, and also perhaps the speaker in the door.

As you know many US states do not require a front number plate.

I have checked all the white US cars I have such as 1022, 1024, 1134 (which never went to the US), 1146, 1254, 1260, 1274, 1330 (red leather) and it matches neither so it is either a white car not yet in my database or I have it after color change without said change being mentioned. I will look first at resale red cars with the indicator frames with that chrome surround at the front end around the lights, a late car feature and not often seen.

I am surprised he would choose an automatic if he is supposed to be such a good driver as is stated in the article about him but perhaps for Los Angeles traffic...

Speaking of Dukes of hazard see this which I had noted a few weeks ago

https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_527948-Maserati-Mistral-Spider-1965.html

 

Hallo AMLC

judging by the chromed rear view mirror it could be this one, seen in California, but no VIN sorry


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Yeehaw it's even got white letter tires like a Dukes of hazard muscle car

Will dig to see if I have this one.

 

Hello Marc

how about this one, now for a change a picture from the front of your Japanese Gold:

https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_1370285-Maserati-Khamsin-Tipo-120-1974.html


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Wow great find Roger almost certainly 0054 with the additional zero. This must be a brand new addition to the imcdb files, what a great database.

 

Maybe he bought the Khamsin used, just like his Bora (see Motortrend article], and the only Khamsin that was available was an automatic.
In theory he could have bought it new, I don’t know when the last new Khamsin was sold in the USA, but if this was 1979 that was the year that the “Dukes of Hazzard” started.
Either way he was a very young Khamsin owner, only 22 when the photos were made in January 1983.

 

Possible yes. As an example one of the last USK's 1302 was bought new in February 1980 by a Lebanese student -so also very young and lucky to own one- from Bob Grossmann. But I know one new car lingered in an upper mid west dealership (Michigan maybe) in the early eighties for some time: it was shown in an old Viale Ciro Menotti issue with the caption explaining that. Not the best market to sell it.

In summer 1981 I took this photo at a dealership in Manhattan NYC, a Chinetti showroom on the upper west side actually, the car looked brand new but perhaps it was a trade in. On the wall you can see a framed photo taken at the factory showing a white Khamsin with someone posing next to it.

When I interviewed him on K chassis numbers in July 2005 Signor Cozza stated that the last US car was AM120US1330 white...with red interior. Note that the numbers 1308 to 1328 were never allocated. Neither were the numbers 1332 to 1348. I don't know of any cars with higher numbers than 1330.

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Hi Marc

I have visited Premium Cars and the car is already sold, it will stay in Switzerland.
And it is #288, not #282, as I suspected.


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