#117.49US.564....

This is a fairly proud asking price. I would like to see the cars start to bring these prices.

 

There are a number of strange things with this car. First, it doesn't have the radiator vent that the later cars have. Second, the front bumper is an unusual one but I have since cars with the straight bumper, however it seems like a Merak front bumper. Third, the wheels are from a very late model car or from a Merak. Perhaps someone else can explain why this car seems like it was put together with pieces from several different generations of the Bora or Merak.

 

The Merak wheels while non original look pretty good.

European bumpers LOL!

It's missing the carpeted side panels in the engine compartment.

So how does that carpeted cover work then? Speaking of that it's wrong too. It has handles for easy removal. Those didn't arrive until later on.

It looks pretty clean though.

High asking price for an incomplete bitsa.

 

This car was for sale at Driver Source in Houston recently for $72,500 or best offer. It was sold at the 2013 Houston Classic auction by Worldwide Auctioneers. I don't know the price. Other than an extra helping of exclamation points, I can't see any changes since. It's a '73, so the lack of a hood vent fits, and the bumpers are the US '73 bumpers with the rubber overriders removed and the holes filled. I agree Merak wheels look better than open center Bora ones, which still have all the divots and warts to hold on the hubcaps. I can understand someone making cosmetic improvements, but then why keep the old open lug nuts that were hidden under the hub caps, and of course, leave off the engine bay carpet?

 

I happen to like the the Bora wheels too and mine are sans hub caps since it's a 77.
I've never thought of fitting Merak wheels but they do look great. Are the specs identical?
Given the nature of the rest of the "modifications" done to this car I suspect that the original hub caps were trashed and they found a set of Merak wheels cheaper than replacing the hub caps.

They could have used some Porsche lug nuts which are closed on the end. I imagine that the originals as fitted on the late cars are hard to find now?

I frankly don't think that the engine cover can even be placed on that car without the side pieces. Those thin aluminum panels were notorious for cracking but you want $100K for the car and you don't spring for some simple aluminum fabrication and carpet to fix this?

This is NOT a "HIGH-COST EUROPEAN BUMPER CONVERSION! ". In fact, what they did was very inexpensive. But adding the authentic looking bumpers would be relatively easy on this car. Why didn't they change the side markers while they were painting the car??????

Caveat emptor with what is claimed and how things were carried out.

Someone should send Daniel Schmitt & Co a link to this thread. They could fix most of these issues for under $5K. OK not the wheels and hub caps.

 

It looks like the Bora, Merak, and even QPIII and Kyalami wheels are all minor variants from the same basic mold. They're all 15x7.5 and at least the Bora and Merak types have the same offset, which is not surprising since the cars share suspension bits.

I bought a set of new closed lug nuts from MIE a year or so ago and at the time they were offered by others on Ebay, but I can't find them now. They're exactly like the original "open face" Bora ones.

On Walter's original question - I once found a reference to 564 on Fchat, but since the search engine ignores numbers, I haven't been able to find it again. I can't remember what it said, but it might shed some light on the history of the car.

 

How about this? it seems it was sold last year (August 2012):

Classic Italian Cars For Sale » Blog Archive » 1973 Maserati Bora