Maserati Khamsin

Congrats Art! Here when I saw it in Reno, Nevada, in 2000 when owned by Sam Dibitonto, long time mayor of that city.
Also attached a collage of four ancient photos by him.

I will email you the correspondence I had with him.


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Congratulations Art.. She looks like a great car! Could you elaborate a bit more on some of the issues, especially the headlight door pistons and US headers leaking... I am also
very interested regarding the spare tire cushion?? There was some discussion a long while ago about a spare tire bag, but I don't recall anything about a spare tire cushion!! As always,
pictures are greatly appreciated! Also, I would have thought that by now, the US spec headers would have been converted to Euro spec. Does the car still have the what we call thermal
reactors?

Again, congratulations Art !!!! Please keep us in the loop as we K owners need all the help we can get!

Mike

 

congrats, I own #1226 and I believe #1228 is still somewhere in the northeast. Mark any idea where #1222 is today?

 

Hi Joe, 1228 was sold in December 2022 by my friend Alan W.from Silicon valley via me to Jim S., an enthusiast in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

1222 I saw at the MIR 2010 in September that year in Baastad, Sweden, photos below. It was owned by Henrik S. from the University town of Lund in Sweden. It is in Sweden since 1990.

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The red/black K that has just appeared at Gullwing in NY is #1002.

It was owned from march 1986 onwards by Joseph Figazolo, of New Bedford, Massachusetts and obviously sat for a long time in recent years.

Our friend Art had spotted it on a truck in 2022 with 1004 when Gullwing sourced both cars.

https://www.gullwingmotorcars.com/1975-maserati-khamsin-c-5125.htm?tk=158879&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3XpjPsY_fyJyR70rEI8KBosxD9mSLryl3H7wepWOv2eibHkTfEE88I5uQ_aem_AUzhyptRk8kmnoUJvoyGezPqkXe5VlTLTBgXL-l4pH1Mfr0pIVwvf1tVWlkuor-GpU29onEYd1Fb4Rrybj-WuDgF

So they are the 2nd and 3rd earliest US version K's.

Where is AM120US1000 the first one, you ask?
It has been in Norway for many years and is now in the private museum of a major automotive distributor there.
It was celeste (very light blue) new and had been used in one of the brochures for the US K.

 

Very neat. So it looks like two tone paint was on option for Ks as well then. Fabio confirmed they only made 6 two tone Meraks in total (4 black/silver, 1 red/dark grey, 1 red/forget the other color?). I wonder how many two tone Ks went out the door......

 

Good question, I always assumed it was a fantasy paint job by a US owner, will find out.

While there might have been another with a similar or identical paint scheme in period on the east coast I never for a second considered this was factory original.

 

It looks like some of the Corvette paint jobs i've seen.

 

Hahaha or some Camaro or other two bit traffic light special, exactly why I don't believe it is factory. But I will ask.

 

I have the original window sticker confirming it was a $650 option added to mine. It's also notable that 100% of them came to the US.

 

Interesting, are you talking about Meraks or Khamsins?

 

Sorry, Merak

 

No, I 'm sorry, tired, long day, heading to bed but will ask Fabio.

 

So I asked Fabio this morning how many Khamsins were sold new in two tone livery.

He went through his entire K file and the answer was...."ZERO".

Sometimes simple answers are the best.

I remembered I had these very old photos below of 1222 at Motorcar Gallery in Fort Lauderdale in the 80's; another -single color!- paint livery and someone had gone nuts with striping.
This is between the opening of MCG in 1984 and the car being exported to Germany in the late 80's.
1222 was delivered new in Maryland.

Dealer Oliver Kuttner at one point many years ago had another Khamsin in two tone color, with European bumpers. It cannot be the same as 1222 still had its US bumpers when it returned to Europe. Another fantasy paint job.




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I have photos somewhere of the car when Oliver owned it.

 

Ahah thanks in advance for finding them!

 

Hello Mike, Ivan,
You can use the replacement solenoid with the bigger diameter:
You can grind some material of the steel housing on that side, were is the collision with the starter motor. The material is about 3mm thick.
Additionally insulate and fix the wires to avoid shortcut. ( I also made a heat shield over the starter motor against the heat of the headers)
When I bought my "project- Khamsin", the starter motor and such a replacement solenoid was in a box with parts.
First I repared my original solenoid by cleaning the contacts: it worked another 20000Km, but then I had the problem, that sometimes when the engine was hot, the starter didnt work. Only tick tick like weak battery. With cold engine, it worked. Finally I found the solenoid as problem and used that replacement solenoid, which was already grinded ( but not very beautiful work )
The replacement solenoid works fine with the Bosch starter motor.
Actually I am on holiday in Italy, when I am back, I will make fotos.
Greetings Achim

 

Hello Achim...

Vielen Dank !!! We also considered grinding the barrel of the new solenoid I had bought, but didn't really want to do that! Fortunately, Ivan had a spare solenoid
that had a slightly smaller barrel diameter and that worked for us. I agree with you 100% that the heat from the engine is doing the solenoid and starter no favors!
The plastic on the original solenoid was in absolutely terrible shape.. It was cracked and chunks were missing when we removed it. The wiring from the battery to
the solenoid was also in terrible shape. We ended up replacing the wiring as well.. Yes, please post photos when you return, they will surely benefit other K owners
when the time comes...

Enjoy your Holiday!

Mike

 

Hi Marc and Roger. I was idly leafing through one of my ancient back issues of the excellent and long defunct supercar classics, when I came upon this
Ad which I thought may interest you. Any idea which these 2 cars may be? Blue one ‘75 auto with early style headrests. The silver (or white) one with a distinctive reg plate. I’m just inquisitive! Best to all. Mark. Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks for posting that Mark, very intriguing.

In the right hand drive K database I have consolidated with Andy Heywood's help there is no 78 celeste automatic...but I did recall something about a color changed car so having dug into it is the car that was born in another color (dark green) but repainted celeste early on..so the celeste automatic turns out to be...311....your car!

Was it you or Roger who posted or sent me the attached ad a few months ago? The number plate on the ad I post here below is confirmed as 311 by Andy's notes.

The 400 number plate on the silver one in your ad...I have a car listed with 400 CBD number plate (#331) but it is no that one as the letters after 400 are different so not sure at this stage.


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Here the fotos
The grinding is not visable, because I put some heat resistant material around to make sure no shortcut to ground.
Without insulation there is about 1.5mm gap.

(I didnt took the starter from the car, actually my engine it is not in the car because I have to repair it: I had few cooling water in my engine oil.... longer story... )

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Hi,
has anyone replaced the cabin blower motor with something more modern/powerful on lhd cars? On my car the fan seems pretty weak, and despite checking the motor and replacing the bearings, it has not improved noticeably other than being quieter now. I have tried in vain to see if the particular fan and motor were used in other applications, the motor itself I assume is european given the output shaft diameter of 10mm, but the fan wheel is an american piece by torrington airotor (508). Of course it could it could be poor wiring is compounding the problem, but even jumping the motor directly to the battery doesn't help much. The fresh air and recirculate flaps are working correctly.
Regards
Paul

 

I had a friend with a Bora who discovered quite by accident on that the cars HVAC system size of the intake for the blower was terribly undersized and was actually strangling the blower in terms of air flow. When he increased the size of the opening hidden under the dash the entire system worked much better. Given the Italians or Germans for that matter piss poor designs for HVAC systems in automobiles you might want to see if that aspect on the Khamsin can be improved upon.

He had already upgraded to a more powerful blower and it wasn't until his son tried to pull open the panel in the Bora's trunk that serves as a part of the hvac system box but could not remove it with out turning off the fan. That was his clue that the input from the passenger cabin was far too restrictive.

 

Hi Mark
Hi Marc also

Yes it was me who posted the photo of the ad.
The silver one is definitely 400 CBD, and my last info is it lived in Kannus, Finland,
Here some photos.

Regards
Roger
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Bob (and others), do you know if such restriction also applies to other models of the era and in particular to the Indy? And if so, where would be located the culprit opening in the engine bay?
Because I have the same feeling of poor and noisy blowing of the fan in the cabin...