Every car company seeks to link its legendary models of the past to those in the present and future.  Maserati is endowed with an authentically legendary past, and even the briefest of exposure to some of the classic road cars delivers a profound understanding of the brand's depth and continuity.  We recently enjoyed the Khamsin, a bona-fide front engined supercar, the Indy, perhaps the most celebrated GT of its time, and the Series One Quattroporte, the first real sports sedan. 


These cars show why Maserati is a company which has always generated enthusiasm, among both its employees and owners. Many owners and enthusiasts become members of The Maserati Club, which organizes numerous events for everyone who has a passion for the Trident.

One such event is the Pismo Beach Rally, which was held for the fourteenth time in 2008. Run by the club's California chapter, it gives participants the opportunity to exercise their cars, both old and new, in the wonderful countryside of central California's wine region, on roads which are both blissfully free of other traffic and challenging, a marvelous combination.

This year, with the generous help of California chapter president Doug Magnon, we took three historic Maseratis on the rally. The oldest was made in 1966, and was one of the most significant cars in Maserati history – one of the original Quattroporte models. The Indy 4900 was built in 1973; the model was largely based on the Ghibli, given a minor restyle and additional equipment aimed at making the car easier to drive and more luxurious. The Khamsin dated from 1976; its dramatic styling, exhaust note and prodigious torque all showing it to be a direct ancestor of the 2009 GranTurismo S.  In much the same manner, the Khamsin turns heads and drops jaws, in this case aided by bright yellow paintwork.

The three cars are part of Doug’s extensive collection of Maseratis, housed in the Riverside International Automotive Museum. Doug is incredibly knowledgeable about all the cars in his collection, explaining the history of each car, what restoration (if any) each has needed, and where they fit within the overall history of Maserati. His instructions to us on how to get them started – ignition on, wait a few seconds for the fuel pumps to build pressure, pump the gas twice to prime the carburetors, then off the gas and start cranking, gently applying a little gas to help the engine ‘catch’ - proved invaluable. All three cars started first time, every time. Both the Quattroporte and Indy had two gas tanks, one on each side, selected by a switch on the dashboard.

We left the museum on Thursday morning, heading onto the freeway for the long haul to our overnight stop in Arroyo Grande. Right from the start of the trip our little convoy was the center of attention. The imposing front grille of the Quattroporte led the way; it’s rare to see forty-year-old cars cruising on the freeway, so other drivers turned to admire it. Since it was followed by the Indy and Khamsin, with their more sporting styling, onlookers had quite a lot more to admire.

I began the trip driving the Indy – as anticipated, it proved to be a larger, more civilized version of the Ghibli. It was also more practical; while the late 1960's high design Ghibli had a reasonable amount of trunk space it wasn’t particularly accessible, with only a small opening below the large rear window. By contrast the entire rear of the Indy hinges upwards – it even has a retractable load cover, to hide the contents from prying eyes.

From behind the wheel, the Indy’s long, low hood slopes away to the front, and the semi-reclined seating position feels appropriately sporty. The power steering made low-speed maneuvering fairly easy – a welcome improvement over the Ghibli – and the relatively unstressed nature of the 4.9-liter engine meant that there were usually two or three gears which could be used for any situation. The five-speed gearbox has quite a long ‘throw’, but was easy and predictable to use.

On the move, the broad power curve is the defining feature of the car. The Indy doesn’t deliver a ‘kick’ at any point under acceleration, it just builds up speed, pressing at the small of one's back rather than snapping the neck. One of my companions described it as being ‘like a locomotive’ – it may not have the lightning acceleration of modern cars, but it feels simply unstoppable. Personally, no matter what speed I chose on the freeway, I always felt that the Indy would have been just as happy going another 10 or 20mph faster – an ideal characteristic for a Grand Tourer. It’s quite remarkable that a car which is 35 years old should inspire such confidence; even today, an Indy would happily cruise at 100mph or more, given a German autobahn.

We stopped for lunch in Santa Barbara, at the famed Brophy Brothers restaurant with a view over the harbor. As we tucked in to the delicious seafood, the talk was of the cars, and their foibles – apparently, the Indy gave off a puff of oil smoke on the overrun. The motors for the electric windows were a little tired in the Khamsin, especially when raising them; and the fuel gauge in the Quattroporte didn’t seem to be working. However, given that the cars had a combined age of over 100 years, and that Doug has no interest in keeping his unrestored cars to ‘concours’ standard, it seemed a pretty short list.

Continuing to Arroyo Grande we met up with some of the other club members. We had met most of them the previous year – people enjoy the rally, and attend regularly. There were a few newcomers, which helps to keep the event fresh. It also means the mix of cars is always changing – this year the oldest car was a 3500GT, while there was also a Ghibli and a Merak among the mix of modern Coupes, Spyders and GranSports. Talk often turned to the current Quattroporte and GranTurismo; it's clear these will be seen on the rally soon.

On Friday the cavalcade of Maseratis headed out to Cambria for brunch, followed by a tour of the endlessly fascinating Hearst Castle. The guide who accompanied us on our visit was incredibly knowledgeable – the house is packed full of artworks, antiques and curios collected by William Randolph Hearst, and our guide could not only tell us about the piece – when it was created, by whom, its significance – but also the circumstances of its acquisition by Hearst. This always proves interesting to Maserati owners who are obviously enthralled by great works of art, fine design, and great expressions of individuality.

Hearst Castle

I took the opportunity to get acquainted with the original Quattroporte, and found that it took a little getting used to. Firstly, the steering is exceptionally low-geared – there was no real ‘play’ in the system, but it took a significant turn of the wheel to have the car going where I wanted. Second, the gearing of the car seemed odd; first gear was fine, but second gear was a BIG jump, as it could theoretically hit 80mph at the red line. There was little to choose between fourth and fifth gears – at freeway speeds, there was only 500rpm difference between the two. The car was badged as a ‘Maserati 4000’, although the engine – a 90-degree V8, naturally – is nearer to 4.2 liters. At first, it felt quite ‘lazy’, but between 3,500 and 5,000rpm it grew healthy and genuinely muscular.

One area where the Quattroporte shows its age is the aerodynamics. The windshield is very upright compared to modern sedans – the result was an entomologists delight and a noticeable amount of wind noise. Combined with the ‘busy’ sound of the engine, I often thought the Quattroporte was going faster than it actually was; again, this is more a reflection on the advances made in sound deadening in the intervening four decades. On a positive note, the view ahead looked terrific – the two front fenders seem to stand proud, while the hood falls away to give a sporty appearance.  The Quattroporte was surely a revelation to those driving nominally comparable cars in the mid- and late-1960s, having all the comfort associated with a grand luxury sedan and a shocking amount of contemporary sports car feel and road manners.  This is actually a car one could throw down the road, drift through corners, and power through problems while undisturbed by the road surface.  If chauffeurs were uncommon forty years ago, surely the Quattroporte brought them to the edge of extinction: why should the hired help have all the fun?

Saturday saw the rally itself, for which we switched back to the Indy; cars set off from Arroyo Grande at two-minute intervals, following a detailed set of instructions which took us over some truly great roads; the rally is won by hitting the overall target time, set with speed limits in mind – being fastest is not the aim. At one stage we missed a ‘keep right’ instruction in the notes, but the countryside was so enchanting that it took us several miles before we spotted our mistake. That gave us the excuse for some really spirited driving, made all the more exciting because the next stretch of road was narrow, twisting and hilly – and despite the ‘Grand Tourer’ nature of the Indy, it reveled in tackling the tight bends and short inclines.  Our colleagues in the Khamsin, meanwhile, held off a GranSport on the same stretch of undulating road, until the performance improvements of 35 years told on a straight patch where the newer car was finally able to overtake.  Doug himself had the Quattroporte on this road and even he came away astonished at how fast he'd been able to hustle the old sedan, drifting and rolling but never losing adhesion or control.

Eventually we reached our lunchtime stop, at the Parkfield Cafe. The town lies to the north-east of Paso Robles, and we were somewhat concerned to learn that Parkfield is the self-styled ‘earthquake capital of the world’; it lies on the San Andreas fault, and experiences a significant quake every ten or twenty years. Since the previous one was in 2004, we felt pretty safe as we discussed the morning’s driving with our fellow participants. Some light relief came when we saw a herd of cattle being moved down the ‘main street’ of the small town – with a black GranSport dutifully following behind!

We opted to switch cars for the afternoon, taking the Khamsin for the return leg. The contrast was immediately obvious; whereas both the Quattroporte and Indy could be described as ‘laid back’, the only thing about the Khamsin which would justify that description is the seating position! The car is low, and it seemed to require a ‘controlled fall’ to get into the seats- but, once there, the fun could really begin. The super-fast steering is unlike the Quattroporte's – from lock to lock requires just two turns of the wheel. So the first fifteen minutes were spent wandering and twitching within our lane, as I got used to the lightning reactions of the Khamsin. Another ‘trick’ of the steering was that it self-centered at every opportunity; even with the car stationary, letting go of the steering wheel would see it return to the straight-ahead position.

The gearbox has five speeds, with a dog-leg – first gear is bottom left, with second being across and up, above third. This caught us out once or twice, but only through unfamiliarity – the gearbox itself was easy and slick to use. That’s just as well, because the Khamsin feels very quick, accelerating smartly when the throttle pedal was pressed. It also sounded terrific, the 4.9-liter V8 bellowing mightily as the car surged forward. Its brakes and suspension were tuned to complement the engine and steering, stopping power was determined principally by the tires because the braking was strong and immediate, though it could be modulated with practice.  Any comparison with the Indy seemed redundant, despite the two being very similar in size, weight and power output.

It took a little while to work out why the later car felt so different, and then we spotted it. The first Khamsin was produced in 1974, soon after the oil crisis had taken hold; that made high speeds pretty much irrelevant. So Maserati reduced the gearing of the car – despite being good for a theoretical top speed of somewhere around 170mph, our example was geared to hit the red line at about 130mph. No wonder it felt so lively on acceleration...

Added to the wonderful noise and the acceleration, what makes the Khamsin special is the handling – it is the perfect vehicle for getting an understanding of why a low center of gravity is a good thing. It can be hurled around corners at almost unbelievable speeds; I certainly wasn’t brave enough to find where its limits were. The only down-side was that the suspension felt almost too firm. The thought of cornering on or near the limit, and encountering a mid-corner bump, was pretty daunting! But even making allowances for that, the Khamsin was incredible fun and refreshing to drive and showed why it was the preferred steed for long high speed tours in its day, as the GranTurismo is today.

On Sunday it was time to make the long trek south, back to Riverside. We spent most of this final trip in the Quattroporte, which made a good choice for the long stretches of freeway. In its day, it was claimed that the Quattroporte was the world’s fastest production sedan; evening traffic, not to mention speed limits, kept us from verifying the claimed top speed of around 140mph, but it was perfectly content to cruise amidst the other traffic.

We made it back to the museum late on Sunday night, tired but happy after an extremely enjoyable and varied weekend. We covered a combined total of more than 2,000 miles in the three cars – none of them broke down, nothing fell off (with the minor exception of a door locking knob on the Khamsin) and they each did everything asked of them. It’s a testimony to the durability of Maserati cars that, of the eighteen on the rally, a third of them dated back to the seventies or earlier. It’s also testimony to how appealing the historic Maseratis are; each car has its own character, its own appeal. However, the recent models are gaining ground, with more new cars showing up to every event, and always a purchase consideration for the owners of historics.  Our grateful thanks go to Doug Magnon, for once again allowing us to make use of a small part of his impressive collection, and to Bill Losee, for preparing the cars.