1/14/09: Here are some photos taken over the weekend:

Some history: This hot rod is Maserati based. It started out as a very shabby 1980 Quattroporte I found at an auction in the DC area. It had a $500.00 "resale red" respray, lots of rust and about a quart of water in the glove box due to a leaking windshield. It was just what I was looking for. I always kind of liked this series 4-porte (quattro tank) because it had cool parts underneath what looked like Italian Detroit iron. The engine is an aluminum 4.9 liter, 4 cam V8 with four 2bbl Weber DCNF carburetors. The Euro version came with a ZF 5 speed manual trans but the US versions came with a Chrysler 727 three speed automatic (good for station wagons and police cruisers but I would have preferred the "Zed Ef"). It had sports-car type front suspension (components similar to Detomasso Pantera) with coil-over shocks (which the 4-porte is too heavy for). Rear suspension was basically a copy of the famous Jaguar IRS with a heavy duty Salisburry differential and vented inboard disk brakes. Steering components include a ZF power rack & pinion and an adjustable Saginaw steering column. Except for the trans, the car had heavy duty sportscar type parts at a very attractive price. These cars were popular with high-rollers in the eighties for their luxury and exclusivity but there isn't much enthusiasm for them today.

I took the donor 4-porte back to New Jersey and proceeded to remove all the mechanical components like the engine, trans, steering, suspension, brakes, instruments, door latches.... much of the remainder was parted out or went to the scrap yard.

After removing a lot of grease and dirt I designed and built a sports car chassis and body to go around all the components. Because the engine is a close cousin of the original V8 designed for the mighty Maserati 450S sports racing car of the mid 1950s, I designed the body of my sportscar to vaguely resemble the 450S in silhouette. I say vaguely because I didn't want to build a replicar.


One problem with the US spec 4-porte engine is that the back end was reconfigured to mate to the Chrysler 727 trans. It's virtually useless in any other Maserati for that reason and makes adapting the Tremec 5 speed over-drive trans I bought, difficult to adapt to it. Today, there might be a used Dodge Viper bell housing to fit it, I don't know, but when I started this project used Viper parts weren't to be had. After messing with a steel aftermarket Chrysler bell housing unsuccessfully I sawed the bell housing off of the 727 automatic trans, welded a plate to the back end and machined it to fit the Tremec.

The engine itself seems to be in pretty good shape and I'm not planning on rebuilding it for now. It's been thoroughly cleaned and it's getting a valve job and a major tune-up for now. Later down the road I'd like to build a monster masserati V8 with a supercharger. I've got an extra 2 liter Lysholm, screw type compressor (like new) on the shelf which will be perfect for it.


11/15/08 Here is the frame in fresh
primer, yesterday we painted it black.







10/15/08 The Maserati based sports car I started building a number of years ago is back on track. The project has been interrupted numerous times, including a couple of years I spent partially restoring and hot- rodding my 1978 Ferrari 308GTB, but we're back on it now and I hope to push it to completion without interruption now. Pictured is the aluminum nose which is now receiving final metal finishing work before prepping it for paint. I made the stand for it out of some surplus exhaust tubing so it will be rock steady during the bumping, filing, sanding while it's off the car and to have it at a comfortable height. While Bob, our body man, gets the nose ready, I'm prepping the chassis for media blasting and paint. First I need to weld the new roll bar hoops in place.

The car had roll hoops already but I didn't like them anymore and cut them off. I did the same with the nose at least 3 times. I would have it all together on the car, decide I didn't like it anymore and cut it apart. That's the reason for the multiple seams in the nose.

The big bulge in the center of the nose wraps around the carburetors on top of the engine and comes to a rounded point down in the radiator exhaust opening.

Speaking of carburetors: The 1980 Maserati Quattroporte 4 cam V8 will go into the car with the carburetors rebuilt and set up but the stock out-put is only about 300 HP. We have an almost new Lysholm type supercharger sitting on the shelf which, at some point after the car has been on the road, is destined for this car along with electronic fuel injection and ignition for a fairly painless 450 HP. Since the car only weighs about 2000 lbs dry at the moment, so it should scoot right along.


Also pictured are the new Wilwood front brake rotors and brembo calipers I just adapted to the front spindles. The original iron Girling brakes and hubs from the Quattroporte would have stopped this car just fine but they weighed a ton and had to go.