Maserati Kyalami

Maserati
Kyalami
Production period:	1976-1983
Class :	Sports car
Body versions :	Coupe
Engines:	Petrol engines : 4.2–4.9 liters (188–206 kW)
Length:	4598 mm
Width:	1849 mm
Height:	1245 mm
Wheelbase :	2600 mm
Empty weight :	1700 kg

The Maserati Kyalami was a Gran Tourismo coupe from the Italian car manufacturer Maserati , which was produced from autumn 1976 until the end of 1983.

The car was named after the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit , a racetrack in South Africa where Pedro Rodríguez won a Formula 1 race in a Cooper -Maserati in 1967 .

The concept

Comparison of the front sections of the De Tomaso Longchamp (above) and the Maserati Kyalami (below)

The Kyalami was the first new car Maserati presented after being taken over by Alejandro de Tomaso . De Tomaso had already recognized in 1975 that he had to quickly introduce a new model in order to publicly prove the Maserati's ability to act. However, developing a completely new car would have taken a long time. On the other hand, with his De Tomaso Longchamp model, de Tomaso had a sports coupé that was fully developed, but whose sales fell well short of expectations and had not yet amortized its development costs. In this situation Alejandro de Tomaso decided to exploit the concept of the De Tomaso Longchamp one more time and to sell the construction as a Maserati with a few changes.

The Jaguar XJ- inspired chassis of the Longchamp with double wishbones at the front and rear has been adopted unchanged, as has the floor pan and the body structure. The Turin designer Pietro Frua was commissioned to revise the shape of the Longchamp , which goes back to Tom Tjaarda , as easily as possible. Frua redesigned the outer sheet metal parts with the exception of the doors and the trunk lid; but since he essentially took over the layout of the Longchamp , there was a clearly perceptible external similarity between the two vehicles. The front section received a classic Maserati radiator grille with double round headlights that contrasted with the otherwise rather angular lines of the vehicle. The Alfa Romeo rear lights built into the Longchamp have been replaced by slightly wider units from the Citroën SM . Frua's modifications also changed the dimensions of the car: The Kyalami was 50 mm longer and 25 mm lower than the Longchamp with the same wheelbase.

Overall, the Kyalami looked much more elegant than the Longchamp. The body was similar in some areas to that of the Fiat 130 Coupé and the Lancia Gamma Coupé , which was presented around the same time , both of which had been designed by Pininfarina .

In contrast to the De Tomaso Longchamp, the Kyalami was not powered by American Ford engines, but by Maserati's own eight-cylinder. The gearboxes corresponded to Maserati standard. A five-speed gearbox or a three-speed automatic transmission, which testers unanimously described as difficult to shift, was available. The automatic version was bought far more often than the manual car. In total, only 25 vehicles with manual transmissions were built, including the prototype.

The interior was largely taken over from De Tomaso Longchamp. The Kyalami dropped the design and technical features of earlier Maserati models that resulted from the brand's connection with Citroën.

The series models

The Kyalami was shown for the first time at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1976 after just four months of development . Series production did not begin until the end of 1976 because further development work had to be carried out in the meantime. The bodies, like those of De Tomaso Longchamp, were manufactured in external workshops. Most Kyalamis were built at Embo in Turin, some early models possibly also at Maggiora .

Kyalami 4200

Initially, the Kyalami was only offered with a 4.2 liter version of Maserati's own eight-cylinder engine. The engine, essentially unchanged since 1963 and used for the first time in the Maserati Quattroporte I , was equipped with four downdraft twin carburetors (Weber 42 DCNF) and, according to the factory, developed 265 hp (195 kW) at 6,000 revolutions per minute.

In the summer of 1978, the Austrian trade journal Auto Revue determined a top speed of 235 km / h for a manual transmission model and 225 km / h for an automatic vehicle; the automatic model accelerated from 0 to 100 km / h in 7.8 seconds. In a test by Autocar in 1978, the car with manual transmission accelerated from 0 to 97 km / h in 7.6 seconds. Consumption was around 25 liters per 100 km.

Kyalami 4900

In the summer of 1978, Maserati expanded the range of engines: a 4.9-liter version of the eight-cylinder with 280 bhp (209 kW) at 5600 rpm was also available.

Kyalami Cabriolet

Kyalami Cabriolet

In 1978 Pietro Frua produced a convertible version of the Kyalami. It stayed with a single copy. However, the design was recycled two years later when De Tomaso unveiled a Spyder version of his own Longchamp , 14 of which were sold in the following years. The Spyder were built at Carrozzeria Pavesi in Milan.

The production numbers

All in all, the Kyalami was a failure. Only a few examples of the Kyalami were made between the fall of 1976 and the end of 1983. The information on the scope of production fluctuates between 150 and 200 vehicles.

There are different specifications for the motors. Maserati gives a total of 126 units for the Kyalami 4200 and 74 vehicles for the 4900, other sources speak of 186 vehicles with the small and 14 units with the large engine.

Image and market situation

Independent rear section with taillights from the Citroën SM

The Maserati Kyalami had a significant image problem when it was first introduced in 1976, which continues to this day. The reason for this is its clearly recognizable proximity to De Tomaso Longchamp, which, as a so-called hybrid with a US engine, was not perceived as a real Italian sports car. Many Maserati enthusiasts did not see the Kyalami as a real Maserati and described it as a self-made one from spare parts. The contemporary press supported this impression in many publications. The British magazine The Motor, for example, asked in its 08/1978 issue on the occasion of a test of the Kyalami: "Trident or pitchfork" ?, and Auto Revue magazine stated in the summer of 1978 that the Kyalami was "not fish, not meat", but " the most expensive of both. Here the subtlety of the extravagant has slipped below the recognizability threshold ”.

This assessment continues to this day. On the classic market, the Kyalamis do not get any higher price quotations than the De Tomaso Longchamp; Both vehicles were in excellent condition in 2010 for around 40,000 euros.

literature

• Cancellieri, Gianni, et al. (Ed.): Maserati. Catalog raisonné 1926-2003 . Automobilia, Milan 2003. ISBN 88-7960-151-2
• Tabucchi, Maurizio: Maserati. All Grand Prix, Sports and GT vehicles from 1926 until today. Heel Verlag, Königswinter 2004. ISBN 38-9880-211-6
• Richard Heseltine: Understated and Misunderstood . Development history of the Maserati Kyalami in: Classic and Sports Cars, issue 1/2011, p. 86 ff.
• Hans-Karl Lange: Maserati. The other Italian sports car . Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-552-05102-3 .
• David Lillywhite, Halwart Schrader: Encyclopedia of Classic Automobiles . Stuttgart 2005 (Motorbuch Verlag). ISBN 3-613-02552-3 .
• David Sparrow, Iain Ayre: Maserati Heritage , from the "Osprey Classic Marques" series, London 1995. ISBN 1-855-324-415

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Maserati had already withdrawn from Formula 1 in the late 1950s. In the following decade, however, the company continued to supply engines for various Formula 1 teams, including the British Cooper team.
2. ↑ Background: Classic and Sports Cars, issue 1/2011, p. 88.
3. ^ Long: Maserati. P. 54.
4. ↑ Overview of Tom Tjaarda's designs on the website www.tom-tjaarda.net (accessed on December 14, 2011).
5. ↑ Classic and Sports Cars, Issue 1/2011, p. 89.
6. ^ Long: Maserati. P. 54.
7. ↑ Classic and Sports Cars, Issue 1/2011, p. 89.
8. ↑ http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/alfieri102.htm
9. ↑ http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/alfieri102.htm
10. ^ Schrader / Lillywhite, p. 331.
11. ↑ The Kyalami 4.2 on the Maserati Germany website  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ^ Long: Maserati. P. 54.
13. ↑ In English, the term Part Bin Special was used for this. See Classic and Sports Car, issue 1/2011, p. 87.
14. ↑ Quoted from Lange: Maserati. P. 54.
15. ↑ Günter Zink: Oldtimer Catalog No. 24 (2010), pp. 113, 221.

Web links

Commons : Maserati Kyalami  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Private website for the Maserati Kyalami with numerous images.
• Detailed description of the model history of various Frua creations