Description lists it as a well preserved driver. The Maserati factory paperwork lists the original color as Rosso Fuoco.
...and an awful listing to boot. The car looks quite OK, despite numerous little inconsistencies. The seller comes off as unknowledgable. As stated above, the factory docs nearly conflict with seller's claims. What a weird spare tire rim. I hope it makes its new owner happy. - Art
But there was no link ... It's an OK car but the engine compartment while more authentic than most has not gotten a freshen up. Bora engine compartments are renown for being crummy right out of the box. I guess they figured with such a nicely carpeted cover who cares and this was way before the era of look look look at my gorgeous engine such as when ferrari began putting them under glass. Italian cars tended to leak a lot too! LOL
The auction companies are surely taking a lot of liberty in their descriptions and perpetuating a fallacy that has for some time irked me ... that the 4.9 liter engine is somehow much better than the 4.7 ... that is simply not true. According to Gooding: "Just 275 of the most desirable top-specification, 4.9-liter Boras were produced, including the outstanding example offered here." Okay; let's look at the facts. Most, if not all, US bound Boras had the 4.9 liter engine. Most Euro Boras had the 4.7 liter engine. Where did Gooding get that the Euro 4.7 liter Boras are less desirable?? I think they got this backwards. The truth is the real difference between the 4.7 and 4.9 liter engine is so miniscule it is not worth mentioning. Most people would never know the difference when driving the car. If anything the 4.7 liter engine revs a little better and is more reliable ... but again, the difference is not that great. Ivan
If that's the worst thing that's a stretch in their description they're doing pretty good. I don't expect auction companies to be quite so knowledgeable but this isn't terribly dishonest. They have a lot of descriptions to assemble ... The slightly more torque has been used as a plus by some elsewhere as have the supposed better revving characteristics of the 4.7. Meh ... The non 4.9 Indy of a friend I drove quite a bit several years ago was a very nice running engine in that car when it wasn't terribly hot out. I don't know if it was 4.2 or a 4.7 but my guess would be a 4.7.
Agree. What completely silly, unsophisticated sales jargon. LOL. Sure, it's the Auction House's job to sell, but skirting the border between truth and fiction in doing so is the opposite of what might attract a knowledgable Maserati buyer. All the more reason a buyer needs the confidence of their own research, or reliable representation at these types of events. (But now that Gooding's broken the ice, I'll gladly use the claim when the time comes to sell LOL). - Art
There is a car advertised in Germany that is supposedly very early and very original. However, it seems to me that the VIN was modified to eliminate the "49" that denotes a US car. Also, for an early car, the grille on the front hood for the radiator seems wrong. The car does have very distinctive rearview mirrors and white leather interior which looks original to me. Does anyone recognize this car? What's the story here? Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It is certainly an earlier car as it has the square headlight cuts in the body and pods. Wrong seat belts, wrong steering wheel. Repainted air filter housing and repainted engine compartment, all shiny paint. The grill under the rear bumper is missing and it seems to have an aftermarket stainless steel exhaust system. I haven't seen many Bora is this particular paint color. I thought I won't like it but the more I look at it the more it appeals to me. It is certainly a different color from most Bora cars.
well said Ivan - and true for Ghibli engines as well; same game with "most desirable SS verison". Had 4.7 and 4.9 and could not figure out any difference at all, but maybe a Little bit better reving on 4.7
It looks like this is (again) the Bora that was one of three Bora's for sale at a firm in Holland in 2014: Maserati-Bora | Joop Stolze Classic Cars According to that site it is AM 117 49 US 950.
Good work guys... Now it has become a 1971 Euro 4.7 Bora: 117.030 This is not an error or inadvertent mistake. Somebody went to a lot effort cutting, welding etc. to try to pull off this con. Maserati Bora 4700 For Sale (1971) on Car And Classic UK [C583125] Thoughts? B.
I don't think this is the same car. Looking up AM117 49 US 950 on Registry of Maserati Automobiles - all models and ages of Maserati are welcome here returns pictures of a car with different steering wheel, front blinkers, rear lamp glass, side reflectors... The car I saw at Stolze in 2013 did not have all these, and I would doubt the supposed 'transformation" was done before that. I think the chassis number Joop Stolze put on his site was a mistake. The car for sale now on carandclassic is definitely the "Stolze' car. Tom, Belgium PS just visited the hellenic car museum in Athens, they had a "special" on Maserati. no Bora but a Ghibli, Mistral, Indy, Khamsin, 3500GT, Merak, QP I and more modern Ghibli cup and 3200GT.
The more I look at this thing the stranger it gets. Has anybody seen such a mickey mouse "COMBINATION choke/heat/AC etc. vacuum control" on a BORA? B.
Well on that first website they did include a picture of seats that do not belong to this car. So that's odd. I love the color but I think that has to be a respray? It looks too good. It does however have the early square cut headlamp buckets so perhaps THAT is what was transplanted into this car and not the later hood vents? It's the same on both websites but the vin # is wrong and I'm guessing it's not the 30th example. Gosh there are some interesting "messes" out there aren't there.
Good catch re the seats staatsof. They have now gone OEM again in the current (second) ad. 117.030 would be the 15th Bora manufactured (Maserati only used even VIN numbers; except for RHD cars; there were no RHD cars in 1971! This can be a lot of things; but IT IS NOT THE 15th BORA manufactured, coming from 'long term single family ownership'. Period. Regards.
I really don't think this is a nefarious plot to defraud anyone, just mistakes that might happen when you have 100+ cars to sell. The Stolze pictures were taken at different times - note the position of this Bora relative to the other cars. The pictures included one of a later seat type; not the same car (notice that the heater controls have a horizontal switch with black knobs for the vertical sliders). and the serial number is for a US car. Isn't it much more likely that whoever has the job of organizing web pictures for 100 cars might just have seen an ivory Bora seat picture and mistakenly put it in this batch, and maybe grabbed the wrong serial number, too? No prospective customer would miss the mismatch. The pictures show a car with European bumpers, square headlight corners, no US-type bumper reinforcements in the rear, no evidence of any side marker lights. The seats are the block-pleat type correlated with early cars. The dash has a vertical rocker switch and two slider heater control with chrome levers. The original Bora brochure also shows a vertical rocker with chrome knobs on the sliders. It doesn't have the escutcheon that ties the two together, but then it has many other differences from later production cars. The car is said to have last belonged to a Dutch family and is first offered for sale by a Dutch dealer. That leaves the vented hood. Didn't some early Boras have the front latched hood fly open at speed? Might this be a car repaired with the production hood of the time? Or maybe the first Italian owner had overheating problems and hoped that a conversion would help. The factory thought it would (whether it did or not). Replacing the hood is a lot easier than cutting and welding everything else (ok, you have to move the latch). And finally, what was the motivation for spending a fortune to make a car look like an early version - including square headlight covers that no one would notice, but not the vented hood that everyone sees? 008, which surely must be the earliest Bora extant sold recently and I don't recall it going for a premium, so where is the payback? My guess is that this is an early car with a late hood.
I'm not sure what you mean by bumper reinforcements as only year 75 and later cars had those for the American market. I also don't know what you mean by block pleat seats and early cars either. It's always been my understanding that you could get the seats either way? But I agree on the problem being errors, certainly the single wrong seats photo was just that. Getting the chassis number wrong IS pretty damn sloppy though. Altogether this car has been presented in a messy manner. I don't think the paint is original and possibly as a result of a hood accident.
