Cars - Maserati Biturbo

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	Cars - Maserati Biturbo

After Alessandro de Tomaso acquired Maserati in the 1976, he had ambitious plans for the marque - he knew the power of the racing honed Maserati brand name.

A new model was conceived that brought Maserati into the reach of many more buyers than the earlier high-priced models that traditionaly had made up the Maserati range. This model was called the Biturbo, introduced in 1981.

At the same time, Maserati ceased making supercars, developed during the Citroen era, like the Bora and Khamsin.

The Biturbo was responsible for bringing Italian prestige to a wider audience, with sales of about 40,000 units.

The original Biturbo was a two-door, four-seater notchback coupe featuring, as the name implies, a two litre V-6 with two turbochargers, of somewhat smaller dimensions than the then current BMW 3-series, with a beautiful sumptous interior featuring the traditional round Maserati clock.

All Maserati models (except the Quattroporte) until 1997 were based on the original Biturbo architecture, among them the four-door 420/425, the Spyder with bodywork by Zagato, the 228, and the later Shamal and Ghibli II. Export versions came mainly with a 2.8 litre V-6, while for Italy several two-litre high performance versions were produced (to avoid the whopping 38% sales tax imposed on cars displacing more than 2000 cc at the time).

De Tomaso strove for volume production, partly because the Innocenti factory, which he owned too, was turning out less and less of the Mini-based, Bertone-bodied hatchbacks.

Unlike the sharp and venerated styling of previous Maseratis, the Biturbo was, to the casual observer, barely distinguishable from other mid-sized sedans like the E30 BMW 3-series.

Due to poor quality control, the Biturbos were notoriously unreliable, and while very fast in a straight line, they suffered from dubious handling, particularly in the wet.

Production figures had been promising in the first year, but continued to fall year after year until de Tomaso sold out to Fiat.

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Cars - Maserati Biturbo

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