Marc Sonnery passing, RIP

I just read this morning of Marc’s passing. This is nothing short of devastating and shocking news, he is already missed. I am still processing this……

 

So so sorry to hear this news. I’m rather stunned.
I’m sure all in the Maserati community will feel a great loss.
Marc’s knowledge, wit and energy will be hugely missed by everyone.
Sending heartfelt condolences.


Mark

 

Very sad to hear, and shocking!. Marc was tirelessly active in our realm here, and everywhere.. LOL.. absolutely chock full of knowledge and trivia, and never without an opinion! Passionate for sure.
He connected me to our Khamsin, #1196..

Pedro wrote a lovely post on the Khamsin page.

What a void he will leave!
Condolences..
- Art

 

The Maserati community has lost one of its champions. Marc single handed elevated the Khamsin out of obscurity. Lately he had been working on a Khamsin book. Not sure how much had been completed and if it will ever be published.
Pedro's post was spot on describing Marc's character. I will miss you my friend.

Ivan

 

I am very sad to hear this news. Marc was a friend of mine. We shared many stories and attended many car events when we both lived in FL. He was a true Khamsin afficiando and loved his gold Khamsin when he had it in FL. Whenever we talked, he would always call me “Mistralovitch”! A nickname I will always remember. Rest in peace my friend. We will do our best to keep the Khamsin light shining bright down here!!

Mike

 

Just learned of Marc's passing here in South Florida.

I had just been in touch with him last week.

Does anyone know what happened?

BHW

 

Marc lived at my house for a year or two in Fort Lauderdale with my wife and I. This is after I met him at MotorcarGallery about twenty years or so ago and he criss crossed the Altancit a few times. It was interesting to see the influence of his French CEO father and Swedish mother politics versus my own politics and customs. I noticed he was a little heavy (as was I) and we all went on a diet of white wine and a piece of fish. I suppose he had never thought about eating that simply. He would visit us and we would visit him. A couple of trips that are etched upon my mind was like flying into Paris and taking the bullet train to Lyon and driving on to Monaco for the Historic races. The plan was that he needed a car moved to Switzerland and for some reason I agree to do that and amongst other thinks I didn't realize the Mont Blanc tunnel was like 100 euros. It was epic crossing Europe and not paying for a rental. So we are at Monaco track and old guy and his wife hug Marc. It's Formula One driver David Piper (born 1930 and still alive) who drove in 1959 and 1960 along with seven years in Lemans (mostly Ferrari). David says something to the effect that when Marc was like 5 years old he wrote him a letter and they've been life long friends. Another time we were at his stomping grounds and we pull up to this ancient and worn castle with a moat. The bridge over the moat was down. He knocks on the door and it took like five minutes and getting a little weird like trespassing when an older woman comes out and hugs him! Apparently he was to marry the daughter and the girl went sideways. Another time he was on my boat and on the cell and I recognized the voice on the other end as its Jay Leno. So many great stories. If you don't understand his Maserati passion I recall seeing a picture of him when he was like four years old and he was in the back of a Maserati Khamsin. It was his fathers company car when his father was the CEO of the parent company which owned Maserati. You can't make this up....

 

In one of our recent communications, Marc had mentioned that he had hip replacement surgery
coming up that he seemed nervous about.

I assured him that modern techniques and procedures are amazing and that a guy I knew in
high school in the 70s had both hips replaced and that he ran like a deer and was MVP on our
basketball team.

Since there hasn't been an update or any news of the cause, the best we may tell is Marc
was 63.

BHW

 

I had Marc's Maserati The Citreon Years,superb book.Will miss his contribution on the site.RIP too soon.

 

Cause has not been reported / released.

Some inquiries are being made.

I found an Email where he said the hip replacement was scheduled for October but
not a specific date.

BHW

 

Terrible news, he will be missed. That would have been some major complications if that caused his death.

 

Maybe as a tribute to Marc, all Khamsins remaining with US bumpers should be converted to Euro bumpers!

 

I am saddened to hear about Marc.

He was so gracious and friendly with his comments and knowledge. We exchanged data and information from time to time on things Maserati. I never met him, but he was a very kind and funny man. Damn!

He will be missed. My condolences.....

 

I remember when I was looking for the prototype Boomerang photos when it was red. He found and posted photos. What a knowledge base that man had!!

 

Rest In Peace, Marc!

Mark sent me a photo of the proposed "Maserati: The Citroen Years" book cover prior to the publishing and asked me to please not let anyone know. It was hard to keep that cat in the bag, but I did.

Ciao,
George

 

Very sad news. I appreciated his enthusiasm for all things Khamsin and his excellent book Maserati - the Citroen Years.

 

Marc had been working on a Khamsin book using a different publisher. He asked several Khamsin owners to provide a 2,000 word write up about their experiences with the car. I submitted my write up in March. Does anybody know the status of this book, who was his new publisher an if the book will be published?

Ivan

 

Just curious how you're a member here since Nov 2004 and have but 1 post?

So his mother was the political one. I knew that had to come from somewhere. He was on a Leno's Garage episode featuring what else? Doug Magnon's Khamsin. Another one who died way too young ... He was just celebrated at Concourso Italiano in Monterey.

 

Today, I had both our Khamsins out for drives and thought of Marc.. Does anyone know if he has children?

As I drove around, I pondered our mutual correspondence.. he talked about various US Khamsins he found, and I reciprocated with Khamsins I came in contact with through my Citroen connections, he shared what he knew, and I shared photos and information for his Registry. I ponder how all of Marc's Khamsin Registry, and his Maserati archival work might be preserved for posterity.. and how it pans out for anyone leaving behind a body of such work.

His book is obviously an existing and enduring physical manifestation - but his Registry and photo archive? It must exist in both physical and digital form.. I assume an executor, next of kin, that sort of person would be tasked with settling his affairs. Would they know what it means? Hopefully they are clever - contacting a well established Maserati Club, maybe France or Sweden to .. curate and maintain it.. ?

He put his life into the Khamsin, I hope it can be captured, archived and remain a living legacy.
- Art

 

Dear Ivan,

i'm in contact with the current publisher.
He is still interested in publishing the book, but hasn't received any data, files, photos, or anything similar from Marc yet.
I suggested to the publisher that if the book should be published, there should be a special section in the book as a dedication and thanks to Marc Sonnery for his life's work.

I suggested to Marc at the time that Retromobile 2026 might have been a good time for publication.
However, Marc said he had promised the publisher that he'd publish the book in 2025.
The last time we talked about publication, he just said he couldn't say exactly when it would be published and that he doesn't have as much energy as he did 10 years ago.

My friends own Maserati Khamsin AM120-174 and AM120-246.
Both are very original, unrestored vehicles in top condition.
AM120-246 has always been one of Marc's favorites.
Marc had asked me if we could photograph AM120-246 for the book.
I organized a photo shoot for Marc with these two vehicles. We had hundreds of pictures taken.
One of them was going to be on the cover, and some were going to be included in the book.
Marc also asked me to modify the photo of the Khamsin convertible.
We modified the front and rear to match the European version and changed some details of the car to Marc's specifications.
(See before and after picture in the attachment)

Kind regards

Zdenek
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I hope the book gets published, even if it is unfinished, as a tribute to Marc's lifelong dedication to the Khamsin.

Peter mentioned to me an interest in preservation the data Marc has on these cars. If it makes sense, I would be willing to add this data to my website so that the information is not lost and can be shared by all.

Ivan

 

Dear Ivan,

i've also been thinking about how to preserve Marc's lifetime work.
He has sacrificed a lot of time over decades for it.
A truly incredible passion from him for this brand.

I think the right person to ask would be his sister.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make contact with her.

Does anyone here have contact with Marc's sister ?

 

Marc only had one relative, his sister, and luckily I had had some previous correspondence with her a few years back and I've put the necessary people in touch to sort out the immediate issues. As his publisher I do have access to the Khamsin Registry and a couple of other sites, so rest assured any data will be safely preserved. Marc was certainly one in a million - a mine of information, totally dedicated to the classic car scene, Maserati & Ferrari especially of course, but also to helping anyone who needed assistance with their cars. He was very well respected everywhere, and not afraid to ruffle feathers in a scene which he sometimes also found to be pompous and overbearing - I remember well how he decided to camp in a tent at the Villa d'Este concours rather than stay in 'fancy accommodation' as he called it! Not to say he didn't enjoy the finer things in life - he certainly liked his restaurants and wine, and many a time I was left with an unexpected large bill as he mocked my English love of beer and rugby rather than his bottle of Barolo! We were still working on the long-awaited! Mangusta book until a few months before his death, but its publication will be a worthy addition to his body of work. Many of his projects have taken more time than anticipated to come to fruition, not least because he was adamant that every book should be researched as intrinsically as possible, and that would often mean trying to track down engineers, drivers, designers and journalists from all over the world, a task that most authors would have given up on long ago!
He will be greatly missed.

Doug Blair
Eau Rouge Publishing

 

Do we know yet what actually caused his passing?