Correct, maximum buyer's fee is 5%. The buyer paid just under $168,000 for a Euro Bora in a very nice color combination with a nuts and bolts restoration. The restoration was done in Argentina where the costs are much lower. The car still needed to be a sorted out since it had been barely driven after the restoration. It appears to have been a superb deal as restoring a Bora to this level in the USA or Europe would easily exceed the amount the buyer paid. Ivan
HI. As nice as this Bora is and it is a nice car but after been through the whole process of restoring a Bora i must be critical of the fit and finish. Both rear clamshell motor cover and frunk do not have a sharp shunt line or sit in line with the adjoining panel work. further adjustment is needed for proper alignment Further the fit of the side black rubber moldings aren't as sharp as they should or are the door and body lines straight where the rubber molding terminate. Just my 2 cents worth. Greg
A previous comment referred to the seats. The picture below is the correct way the seats should have been refurbished to bring it back to original . Image Unavailable, Please Login
Greg, your car is a quite beautiful "restoration" of a Bora. It's probably one of the best I've ever seen but it's not an original example now. You made your car better than Maserati originally manufactured it. That's what's done now. I got mine with 3000 mostly museum miles on it in 1987. It was 11 years old. It would not have passed the scrutiny for what today is considered a 100 point car today and in 1987 it was also not really a barn find. It was a leftover. The last one built. I was a perfectionist and so I went about fixing some of Maserati's sloppiness. Maserati wasn't like Rolls Royce at that time when it came to their higher volume GT cars. It's one of the things that came as a surprise to me considering how expensive they were. I'm going to repeat a story about when Giulio Alfieri saw my car at Concourso Italiano in Monterey California after I'd pulled the engine & subframe to refinish and fix lots of design and materials issues in the engine compartment. For those who've heard this before go on to the next paragraph. I was appalled by the lack of corrosion protection and sloppy fit/finish. There was raw steel under the undercoating in places in the engine compartment. Mine is a USA model so the unibody/monocoque and subframe are different so as to accommodate the larger, stronger bumpers and the necessary exhaust rerouting. It appeared to me that those modification were accomplished by somewhat hastily modifying a European model. The fabrication looked sloppy. As I got the entire thing apart I looked at how inadequate the heat shielding was for what I had experienced driving it home across the Rocky mountains. It was that GD air injection thermal reactor emissions system which melted a lot of stuff because the fuel mixture got too rich @ over 10,000 ft elevation. Once I cut the belt to the air pump it all stopped. I later found the plaque in the engine compartment about not operating the car above 4,000 ft. The OEM emergency brake system had cable housings which were lined with nylon. That nylon melted and fused to the cable. So I did many things to make things like that no longer be an issue. So my car is now non original, it's better than original! I have superior finish materials on everything in that engine compartment including black semi gloss black Imron paint over a properly primed engine compartment. Later cars did not have body color paint but just thin, plain, black paint that rusts rather easily. Have a look at #1044. So when Guilio saw my car he exclaimed "New!" then after looking more closely at everything I had done like double wall SS heat shielding he said "Better than new!" All in Italian of course. So when I asked him why the Bora in particular was finished so cheaply in the engine compartment he gave me what I guess was a line? He was also absolutely flabbergasted and at the same time quite warmed to see so many of his creations so lovingly cared for and OVER RESTORED. A group of us walked through the pits with him at Laguna Seca the next day where he approach racers of his vintage creations such as the Birdcage. That was fun and a rare privilege. This was 1989 or 1990? As for those seats, they came in two styles. Mine has the flatter style cushioning which isn't as comfortable but it does give a bit more legroom which is absolutely necessary for me. So what's in that car is a legitimate style that was used but I don't know if it was at that time or if it was specifically ordered that way for that somewhat early car ... How's the car doing?
This is a photo of the second style of Bora seats from an unrestored car. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
Speaking of Bora seats, I have the original seats from #1046 if anyone knows it’s current location? Also have the door panels. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Did any of the POs ever rebuild the side bolster on the driver's seat of 1044? The foam utilized in that as well as the headrest was a truly comfortable one but it had the unfortunate habit of crumbling to nothing and leaving bit's on the carpeting all around the seats.
I did not but I would not be surprised if at some time the bolster was restuffed. I was seeing bits of crumbling foam under the driver's seat. Ivan
Joe, I must have missed what happened to 1046 after I owned it. My records show that I sold the car in 2002 to Todd Hensley. I know you later bought 1046 but how is it that you have the seats and door panels but not the rest of the car? The new owner did not want the seats? Ivan
Trust me ... you don't really want to know the whole story. What a mess that car was when I last drove it at Pocono. It got even worse after that.
apparently Hensley traded #1046 to Continental Ferrari/Maserati in Chicago. I bought it from them, the car had issues related to shift linkage and ignition among many other things that needed sorted. Bob drove it when i first got it at Pocono on Michelin H rated touring tires which to be kind didn’t exactly perform well on a high speed track like Pocono. the car then went to my business partner. The plan was to restore it back to its original configuration of Rosso Rubino with Mushroom interior, it was a twin to Bob’s #1046 as they were the last 2 production Boras built on the same day. The seats and door panels were out while the car was at the body shop. During that time the business partnership dissolved i ended up with the seats and door panels. The car was sold to Peter Kumar with homemade seats and door panels. I contacted Peter to try to reunite the seats with the car. That didn’t work out. Would like to find the current owner if possible, if not I’ve owned them long enough they are available for sale.
Good evening, i don't know if this was already a topic here, but there are obviously 2 variants of Maserati Bora seats. I've attached a rough drawing (please understand, it's just a rough quick drawing and not a Picasso). Since English is not my mother tongue, I find it difficult to explain it in writing. I hope the pictures say more than 1000 words. One seat variant is made more simply and has a crescent shape due to the stitching (seam), the other (in my opinion more complex and also more beautiful) is the seat variant in which the inner panels are box-shaped and deep pockets are made. But I have the feeling that it doesn't necessarily depend on which seats the Bora has. I've seen both early bora with both variants and late bora with both variants. Greetings from warm Germany Zdenek Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The biggest disappointment with these for me personally is that with my quite long legs as wonderfully supportive as they "look" they provide no support at all and I used to have bring pillows to place under my right leg and even so my leg muscle would get so tired that it became quite painful after long periods of driving. I used to tuck my left foot under and behind the brake pedal for extra legroom.
I know ... but then you're not exactly short either Joe or have you shrunk? The Khamsin, Ghibli, Indy and my Espada I fit quite well in. I think the Merak might even be better too, though I never took a decent trip in one. I cannot ride for any length of time in the Bora's passenger side. That's one thing Stephen James did as a modification to his 1st Bora that worked well. He eliminated the battery box in the footwell of the passenger space.
A pretty good price for this Bora just now at Bonhams in Belgium. Unusual and original colour. The dollar is so strong I wonder if it is going West…. Best to all. Mark Image Unavailable, Please Login
This car belonged to a very good friend and also customer. It was a US-version, converted to EU-specs. This conversion was done in EU some years ago. The condition of that car was very good.
Image Unavailable, Please Login https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2022-11-26/cars/ref-2-1976-maserati-bora-47-litre-jg/ Auction 26th November 2022
