Trident

The Numerical Challenge Part One by Andy Heywood

Bora and Khamsin

Having spent the last two years collecting Maserati chassis numbers, I can now confirm that I have reached advanced anorak status. Why, one might ask, would I wish to subject myself to this particularly pedantic pastime? Well, mainly to attempt to answer some frequently asked questions such as how many Khamsins were sold in the UK? Did Maserati make 4.9-litre Boras in RHD? At what point did Meraks gain black bumpers instead of stainless steel ones? Those and many other irrelevances in life did I hope to find out. And have I done so? Well, almost. I have enough information to at least produce the following, which is not definitive, but will form the basis of many discussions to come. It may also prompt those who have further information to share it with the Club as a whole.

There have been some exciting discoveries along the way; mostly patterns of numbers and then some mind-numbing exceptions to the rules but I certainly have a deeper understanding of how Maserati went about the chaos of numbering cars. I have also received a great deal of help from Henry Peder and especially Ermanno Cozza at the Maserati factory. To both of you, thank you.

Newer Club members may be asking themselves why I have not simply gone to Maserati to ask for this information. The simple truth is that although Maserati carry records on every car they built, they currently have no way of crossreferencing information. For instance, Sig. Cozza kindly supplied a list of totals of various models sold in the UK, but not necessarily in RHD. One can ask for details on a particular car and the details will be supplied, but ask which was the first of any particular model change and short of searching through individual details, it cannot be done. In addition, there are many publications that have quoted production numbers for Maserati over the years and as they are all different, it is difficult to know what to believe.

It is important also to state that I have had to make some fairly heavyweight assumptions, the first being that if I identify two ends of a series of numbers, I am assuming that Maserati made every number in between! Obvious you may think - not necessarily!

The intention is to examine various models as and when space in the 'Trident' allows. While I have mostly confined my research to RHD cars, something that is easier to do with later models than early ones as you can tell by the chassis number, I also intend to explain the chassis numbering system for LHD. It is for this reason though that we start with the Bora - the first Maserati that was numbered differently to distinguish left from right hand drive.

Bora chassis numbers explained.

All Boras have the generic 'tipo' number AM 117 and on every car chassis numbers start with this. On a RHD example, a three digit odd number will follow. For LHD, the number is even. This number is located on the chassis plate screwed to the square chassis tube across the middle of the engine bay. It is also stamped directly into the tube and also engraved on the engine bell housing in the area below the same tube. For RHD it makes no difference to the chassis number if the car is 4.7 or 4.9 litre but in LHD, '49' is always inserted after AM 117.

LHD 4.7 chassis = AM 117.816
RHD 4.7 chassis = AM 117.211
LHD 4.9 chassis = AM 117.49.990
RHD 4.9 chassis = AM 117.229

There are of course exceptions and one notable one is the Giugiaro prototype, the Boomerang, which is LHD but chassis AM 117.08l! Also, I know that later US specification cars had 'US' inserted in the number as well.

RHD Bora production.

In order to work this out, we need to start with the last car produced. In December 2000, Poulain Le Fur held an auction in Paris, which featured a Maserati collection. Amongst them was a RHD Bora chassis #233 with the incredibly, low mileage of 189 miles. I later found out through a conversation with Club member Rick Lee that this car was manufactured long after Bora production supposedly finished in 1978. In fact, Rick had seen the car being built at the Maserati factory in the late eighties for a 'special' customer and on completion it went straight into a private collection. Critically, it was however registered in the UK. We now make an educated guess that this was the last ever RHD car.

The figures for UK imports from Sig. Cozza state that 41 Boras were sold here, though not necessarily all RHD and of course, RHD cars could have been sold in other markets such as Australia for instance. However, the earliest RHD for which I have details is chassis 153. Spookily, if you go back 41 odd numbers from 233, you end up at 153. Chassis 153 is currently owned by Richard Downes and is almost back together following years in pieces. This is the car that Brooks sold in their 1996 Goodwood auction as a frighteningly disparate box of bits. Mel Farrah in Sheffield bought it at that time and assembled most of what he had before passing it on to Richard through an H & H auction in 2001.

My database currently contains factual information on 23 cars and bearing in mind my assumption above, I have interspersed these with numbers for what should be the rest of RHD production. Some are known Club cars such as those owned by Peter Bateman and Edwin Faulkner. There are others though which are mere sightings with a registration number and therefore cannot be appropriated as numbers change frequently on these cars. When the cars were new, many were given numbers in the same series; KBH ???K. The most famous of all being KBH 41 K that was the press demonstrator tested by The Motor and Autosport. For years I wondered what had become of this car but eventually and by chance, I was reading an old copy of 'Trident' from 1984 and came across a small article entitled 'Jack Levy's Bora'. It reads as follows; "The car was originally brought into the country and apparently was a demonstration vehicle and the original registration was KBH 41K. Eventually the car was sold and was supposed to be the first one in private hands. The real history of the car is only known since late 1977. The car, chassis number AM 117.155 is, as were the majority of earlier Boras, fitted with a 4.7 engine."

This car was well known to Club members of the time and Jack kept it until the early nineties throughout which period it was registered WOO 24. He eventually sold it during one of his famously complicated part exchange deals and since then, the car has been owned by another Club member, Tony Bernstein. Tony registered the car 18 ORA (1 Bora!) and I had seen the car a number of times before making the connection that this was the press demonstrator. When I did however, it all seemed so obvious as one thing that Tony really disliked about the car was the fit of the bonnet it was raised on one side. Two years ago, a round of bodywork put this right, but looking at the photos from the Autosport road test once again, you can see that the bonnet fit was poor even then!

It is also interesting that 155 was referred to as the first one in private hands. It must have been one of the first but we already know of 153 although it doesn't necessarily follow that cars were sold in the same order as their chassis numbers or even registered as there were many other lower KBH numbers; KBH 12K, KBH 25K, KBH 33K etc. Sad I know, but I would like to know where you all are.

This brings us to the subject of identifying age. Cozza states that the cars delivered to the UK were between 1972 and 1978. A 'K' suffix dates a car to being registered between August 1971 and July 1972 and therefore the KBH cars would all have been the first batch of cars delivered to then importer Citroën in Slough during the first half of 1972. Again from a previous 'Trident', I found a piece by Richard Crump stating cars that he had seen in the service bay while on a trip round the facilities at Slough in early 1973. These included exceptions to the KBH set, CTO 560K - currently Edwin Faulkner's car and also EOE 813K, which belongs to Mike Elliott. The latter is important because it is chassis number 181 meaning that 14 cars were delivered new in the first half of 1972 before the suffix changed - apart from the fact that some lower chassis numbers have later suffixes. The ex-Lincoln Small yellow car for instance is chassis 175 and yet registered on a 'M'. As with most specialist cars however, registration can take place long after the build date.

By the time we reach chassis 211 it is December 1973. This car, now belonging to Robin Sherwood, was originally sold to Dublin and I have checked the build date with the factory. After this, there is a small gap in chassis numbers but a huge gap in time. Chassis 219, which for many years belonged to Henny Cate, has also had its details checked out by Maserati and this car was made in April 1975 - Only 3 RHD cars made in nearly eighteen months and worryingly, I don't have details of any of them. It is worth noting that 219 was also delivered to Citroën in Slough and must be one of the last before MTC cars took over the concession. I then have details of all the numbers from 219 to what we assume to be the end - 233.

I remember some years ago at Silverstone having a conversation with Peter Bateman about whether Maserati made RHD 4.9-litre Boras. We both agreed at the time that they did not. We were both wrong - embarrassingly so in my case, as a previous owner of one of the cars I can now identify as being 4.9 was none other than Bill McGrath. 227 was the last 4.7 as I have the details confirmed. 229 was the McGrath car and definitely 4.9. 233 was the last of all which we have previously discussed - this too was a 4.9. Until very recently I had no details on the one in the middle - 231, but happily can now confirm that this is a 4.9 making three in total. 231 was made in 1977.

Boras changed very little throughout their production life but the 4.9 cars can be identified by the lack of hub caps - using only a motif in the centre of the wheel like a Kyalami and also the use of the Merak SS bonnet. In other words, the bonnet is hinged at the front and has a grille across it, rather than the more normal Bora bonnet hinged at the rear and plain.

Armed with all this information, I was then able to make an educated guess about the first and last cars and so went back to Cozza at the factory. I asked for the details on 153 and 233. The reply was that 153 was not the first but I had been close as he had checked back and it was actually 151 (for which I have no details). 233 however was indeed the last. This means that there were in fact 42 RHD Boras made of which 41 came to the UK.

Khamsin chassis numbers explained.

The generic 'tipo' number for Khamsin is AM120. As with Bora's, a three figure odd number follows this for RHD and an even one for LHD. This information is displayed on the chassis plate screwed to the front inner wing on the RH side of the engine bay and is stamped in the metal of the same inner wing. The engine number matches that of the chassis and is engraved in the top of the bell housing at the back of the engine block. As all Khamsins used the 4.9-litre engine, numbers are straightforward.

RHD Khamsin production.

I had a couple of lucky breaks here. The first was going to view a car some time ago, which had a complete history file containing a letter from Maserati stating that it was the last Khamsin built. This car is chassis AM 120.445, for many years owned by lan Jones in Edinburgh and then latterly by John Jackson. Being the last one of all means that it is certainly the last RHD (!) and it was made in 1982. The other piece of good news came from that inveterate fancier of all things Maserati, Patrick Martin. One of the few who can say they owned a Khamsin 'in period', Pat provided me with a list of RHD production from 1974 to 1978 encompassing the whole of the Citroën era and some of the following MTC era. It does however have gaps, more of which later. Again, the everhelpful Signor Cozza provided a total of UK Khamsin imports at 71 cars - between 1974 and 1982. This is going to be plain sailing methinks.

According to Pat's list, the first RHD car imported was chassis 301 and I have this car on the database. To my eternal shame however, I have to admit that I was instrumental in its downfall as a rusty body was discarded and I sold the remains to form the basis of the Heritage 450S replica. Moving swiftly on, this first car was imported in September 1974 and was one of only 9 imported through Citroën. I have confirmed the existence of 8 of them. The last was chassis 327 in March 1975, which makes 14 RHD cars to that point leading us to believe that 5 RHD cars went to other markets. One detail of early Khamsins was the lack of the three slats in the nose panel (later added to aid cooling). Certainly 301 did not have them and nor does 325 (this is the well known car that has belonged to Cameron Millar for many years). What I have not yet established is whether the others in the first batch are consistently lacking!

There is then a gap in UK imports until MTC cars took over and the first imported through them in June 1976 was chassis 335. The four cars in between must have gone to other RHD markets. Following this there is confusion for 1977 and 1978. The list gives the date of import and the chassis number but they are not in correspondingly chronological and numerically ascending order. For instance, chassis 369 was imported in October 1977 and yet chassis 365 arrived in April 1978! The only reason I can think of to explain this is that Maserati SpA were in considerable chaos around that time De Tomaso had taken over in '76 and was fighting to keep the company alive. It is conceivable that there was a stockpile of cars and therefore the order in which they had been built was irrelevant when it finally came to export. The list of MTC imports stops at chassis 389 after which a total of 20 cars had been brought in. Once again, the actual total of RHD cars from 335 to 389 should be 28 and therefore 8 cars went to other markets.

From 391 to the end (i.e. 445), I have details on 18 cars. The chassis numbers that have been confirmed seem to be in groups with large gaps in the middle - again, perhaps cars were exported in batches to different concessionaires.

Determining the exact age of these later cars is more difficult. I have confirmation from the factory that chassis 431 was made in May 1980 yet is registered on an 'X'. It could be the same old problem of cars not being registered until they are sold but in fact most of that batch of cars are registered on 'X' or 'Y' plates, suggesting that they maybe arrived in the UK long after they were made.

Like Boras, Khamsins changed little throughout the production run. The only external change being the additional cooling slats in the nose (which was consistent from chassis 335). Also, the front seat design changed at around the same time. Unlike the Bora however, the Khamsin was offered with optional automatic transmission but from all the cars on which I have details, only three are thus equipped.

If you still have the will to live after all this you may have realised that there is a problem with all this hypothesizing. If you start at 301 and end at 445 then the total number of RHD production must be 73 cars. We have made the assumption that chassis gaps in the list from Citroen and MTC are for cars sent to other markets than the UK and taking these and later gaps from the total leaves only 47. Yet Cozza has told us that 71 cars came to the UK. Granted there could have been a handful ordered LHD but surely not this many.

When I originally reached this point, it suddenly struck me that maybe I had made one assumption too many. Perhaps an odd number does not just mean RHD; perhaps it signifies a UK import? But no, I have details of other RHD Khamsins on the database that were certainly not originally imported to the UK and these are all in the same sequence.

Armed once more with a broad outline, it was time to ask Cozza for the details of 301 and 445. The reply was good news and bad news. 301 was definitely the first, dated September 1974 matching the information from Patrick Martin. The last, well here's the thing! Cozza states that the last Khamsin to receive a chassis number was indeed 445 but that it was built in September 1981 and the last Khamsin actually built (in May 1982) was an earlier number - 439.

This last piece of information is particularly mind numbing. On one hand, it goes some way to explain the chaos of '1977 to 78' production. If cars were numbered before completion (maybe on receipt of order or even as soon as the bodyshell had been completed), then it stands to reason that they could be finished and exported in a different order to that of the chassis number. If you think about it, this could also be the case with the earlier Bora analysis.

To sum up: 73 RHD cars made from chassis 301 to 445 inclusive. I currently have details for 40 of them.

As with any research of this nature, it never seems to end. Answers always seem to generate more questions and I am still wearing my anorak if you have anything to add to this.

If you think this is madness by the way, just wait until the next issue when we will be talking Biturbo!

This article first appeared in the Spring 2003 issue of Trident

Maserati enthusiasts and collectors who may be interested in acquiring back issues of this highly collectable magazine may do so by contacting Adam Painter of the Maserati Club at

adamkpainter@uk2.net

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