Ivan Ruiz and I were looking at his Khamsin yesterday and we were discussing the rear end of the car. His is converted to Euro bumpers with the taillight assemblies moved accordingly. Out of curiosity, and I apologize if this was discussed here previously, was the see-through portion of the rear end made of glass or was it plexiglass on European delivered Khamsins? Would this apply to ALL European delivered cars? I am hoping Marc will know the answers... Mike
Hello from Paris Mike! Waiting for my TGV train home after Retromobile, fabulous event, there was one Khamsin there, the personal car of Lukas Huni, the top dealer from Zurich Switerland, AM120-354, will post photos later. Well normally Euro Khamsins have rear panels not in plexiglas but another such material I can't recall the name of right now. But the thing is in October 2007 I saw one exception...this was a US car converted to Euro bumpers, AM120-1250, located in the Manoir de l'automobile museum in Loheac, western France. As you see in the photos this one has actual glass. I think Michel Hommel the billionaire owner of the museum (300 cars) and a publishing magnate, used his clout to have it made. A few months ago I spoke to some glass specialists but the glass code led nowhere... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
ARS Classic in Signes, France. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here is #354, the personal car of Zurich major dealer Lukas Huni which he showed on his stand at Retromobile earlier this month. The color is not original and not one used on Khamsins either but similar to a Ghibli color called Grigio Flemington. It works very well, the car looks like a wedge of granite stone. Delivered new to Switzerland by the Bjarsch dealer in Schlieren a suburb of Zurich, always remained in the country. It has the luggage belts which only a few K's got. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
A good pedigree! Lukas Huni has had the car for a good few years I think? Grigio Flemington is a great colour - I redid my Ghibli in it and it suits the K very well too. Out of interest Marc, do you know the original colour? My car was Verde Gemma which is not at all to my taste. Good weekend to all. Mark.
Hello fellow K owners... Perhaps this has been discussed here before and I apologize if it has. What battery is a good fit and provides enough cranking amps for the Khamsin? Has anyone used a newer, lighter, dimensionally smaller battery in the K? There seems to be ample room where the battery sits in the car, but it can be a tight fit getting the battery in there... If possible, please provide brand, group size or other identifying characteristic, and where purchased.... I have used a NAPA battery with fairly long life, but I worry it may die soon, despite being on a battery maintainer... A review of batteries available indicates a whole host that MIGHT be applicable, from cheaper to racing batteries. Thanks in advance... Mike
Hi Mark, apologies for the delayed reply. Mr Huni bought it in 2007 or 2008 and at Retromobile 2009 he told me he had it repainted Grigio Flemington. Prior to his purchase a Dutch friend of mine Bart VdW went to inspect it in January 2006, it was for sale in Aesch, Basel canton, central Switzerland. It was offered by its third owner a Mr Duerig who had owned it since 1989. it was brown at the time which Bart stated was its original color. Here some photos he sent me at the time. Bart ended up buying the T top black K 1142 and owning it for a number of years. I have never heard of a verde Gemma Khamsin, did you verify that with Fabio Collina? There are some light green ones like 024 when new (and now being restored in that color) but Gemma...I would be very surprised? 202 was repainted in light green, it was grey new. What Bart mentioned and I forgot to underline is that it is one of the very few K's which has partial velours seats. -How is resto work going on your car and what color are you thinking of painting it? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi Marc. Wires crossed there. It is a Ghibli that I have that was orriginally Verde Gemma. i’ll put some photos in the appropriate thread!! cheers. Mark
The most notable use of a Khamsin in film was in the Italian 1974 Perché si uccide un magistrato i.e. How to kill a judge, filmed in Sicily in an era when several judges got assassinated by the mob. As ascertained a few years ago with the help of Maserati factory archivist Fabio Collina the judge drives AM120-038, delivered new to Sicily. It is not really worth watching and can only be found online in Italian. It was discussed here years ago but someone has now put together a short video segment showing every scene in which you see the car, link below. You can just mute the silly music. Warning you can guess what happens to the judge at the end so if you don't want to see it stop watching at 3:12. Here data about the car's appearance in the film on www.imcdb.org https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_549138-Maserati-Khamsin-Tipo-120-1974.html ...and information about the film on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071987/ Below photos when I inspected it in Salzburg, Austria January 2014 with a Dutch client. It was later sold to Bavaria. There was no gun in the glove box any more;-). Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hello Marc, thank you for the nice Video and if it is really #038, then you can see, that the car was born different : -smooth nose -different leather dashboard / and arround the radio -different dashboard top -different carpet It enjoys the same fate as many Khamsin on the market Kind regards Zdenek
Hi Z, You are absolutely right. The interior was restored and partly modified a dozen years ago. The smooth nose in Sicily...that wasn't going to work with the 40 degree Celsius summers so they put in a vented one.
Very sad news from the Turin region; Marcello Gandini, designer of the Khamsin and many more iconic cars has passed away at 85. It was an honor to interview him in 2007 at his estate west of Turin and to host him at KHAMSIN QUARANTA in June 2012. Here some photos of that weekend. RIP grandissimo disegnatore, grandissimo Signore. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It was an honour to meet the great man. This is such sad news. Condolences to his family. RIP Signore
I never met the man even though I have two of his designs, one Lamborghini and one Maserati. A tremendous influence on car design. You just think that the great ones will live forever and then they're gone.
Nice to see a Khamsin out at a car meet in Milan last month - on Flickr but not my photo https://flic.kr/p/2pDyCco
Yes that is AM120-340, owned for years by Gippo Salvetti, a major Alfa collector in northern Italy. It is the same K which was displayed at the event honoring Marcello Gandini just 2 months ago; first 2 photos. That event really took place in the nick of time, who could have imagined he would leave us so soon afterwards...RIP The photo is from 2002. 340 is one of a small handful of Khamsins left in Italy as most of those sold on the home market have been exported. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Finally figured out which this one (photos posted by Giotto post 10880 page 1088) is. I contacted ARS Classic, near the Paul Ricard circuit in the south of France, and its owner Marc Monpribat confirmed it is AM120-343 which I had inspected for an English client about ten years ago at Gallery Aaldering in the Netherlands. I had advised him not to purchase as it needed a lot of rust work. It was thereafter bought by a Frenchman from Valence, yes a right hand drive in mainland Europe might seem bizarre but there is another right hand drive on the continent, AM120-323, with an eccentric in Belgium. The owner of 343 had ARS Classic do major work on it a few years ago, as seen in those photos.
A 2018 online article in German -but with photo gallery of course- by Bruno von Rotz in 20 minuten, a Swiss German publication showing AM120-1054. https://www.20min.ch/story/der-schoenste-keil-der-siebzigerjahre-452207613399 1054 was bought by Rene Herzog, a Swiss racing driver who competed in Ferrari 512M's amongst others and took part in the filming of Steve McQueen's Le Mans film. Rene was a friend of mine and alas passed away a few months ago. He bought it at Motorcar Gallery in Fort Lauderdale around 2004 and kept it in Florida for a few years. When he saw me converting my own #1242 to Euro bumpers he asked me to do this one as well. He had the ashtray deleted around that time so that makes it the only non smoking K as far as I know. Then he took it home to Switzerland and had it sold by dealer Koni Lutziger around 2010 to someone from the Luzern area hence the LU plates. Below photos of it in California decades ago, it was owned at the time by a multiple movie theather owner, and a warehouse photo I took in Florida just before conversion. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1977-maserati-khamsin-6 I will be doing a full post on FChat about this car and its listing, but I wanted to have the “master thread” notified first.
Thanks for thinking of this forum 1224, produced 6 February 1978 in Tabaco with Cinghiale (wild boar) interior, was owned for many years by Sam Dibitonto, a longtime mayor of Reno Nevada. I saw the car during Maser Miglia 2000 when we drove 2000kms (1300miles) from Denver to Monterey and slept one night in Reno on the way. He was not taking part in the tour but drove up in it to the Hilton where we were staying to gret us. It still had its US bumpers, 22343 miles. First two photos below taken that day. Several years later he sold it to a Canadian who kept it at his Los Angeles home. He had it repainted bare shell in 2016 by a young paint shop owner who decided to make this the show case car of his new business...so he dismantled the car very extensively....disaster, he was in way over his head and lost a lot of sleep getting the car ready. Immediately after the paint job he did the Euro bumper conversion and because he was the type who refuses to ask advice he made a major and comical mistake; on US market versions just on top of a front US bumper there is a long thin grille (about an inch tall that goes the whole width of the nose) but that is not used at all on Euro cars whose bumper is more discrete but actually taller...but he still tried to wedge that grille on top of the new bumper...and nearly ruined the bumper! In the attached head on 2017 photo you can see how the poor chap ended up locating the bumper beneath its body gap to make room for the long thin grille still in the nose....if he had only taken a minute to ask someone in the know.... I entered it for the Canadian owner in the August 2017 Bonhams Quail Lodge auction where it sold for $148500. https://cars.bonhams.com/auction/23977/lot/103/1978-maserati-khamsin-chassis-no-am120-1224-engine-no-am120-1224/ Ivan Ruiz was the buyer and quickly sorted this out. It is nice that this car has retained its color and not been "resale redded." I have zero involvement in its current sale. Good luck with the auction! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
