Long Time Motorhead But New To Maserati

Elderly, retired, multiple gun/car/motorcycle/airplane owning, unapologetic social dinosaur, and new (to me) 2002 4200GT Coupe/CC owner in South Carolina seeking model specific Maserati owner tips and knowledge! Great web site; hat's off to the site owner for all his considerable efforts and that of the moderators. Late comers like me need all the help we can get especially since I'm really more of a motorcycle and airplane than car guy. Saw an ad for the Coupe on the internet at a dealer (traded in on a Porsche GTS) in Chicago. On a lark and $350 later I'm on Delta and getting off at Midway Airport. Picked up for the ride to the Dealer (Joe Rizza Porsche) in a Cayenne. Rode around the block once and then out the door for South Kakelaky (slang for Carolina). 350 miles the first day (Indiana Interstates are worse that combat) and a nice enough motel just north of Louisville. No Owner's Manual so I'm flying blind (and in "Auto" at the suggestion of the Porsche salesman). Next day at the "free" motel breakfast, the morning TV news says all roads through Louisville are totally jammed up. Just then a guy who looked five minutes from the grave staggered in and sneezed. "God bless you" I said cheerfully as he collapsed in a chair two tables away. Everyone else was pointedly looking away as he said "thanks".

"You okay?", I asked. "No", he said "but thanks for asking. Had open heart surgery a couple of months ago and it's still kicking my (back-side) pretty good". "Well, I don't know you, but God bless you pal and best of luck", I said in my usual talk to anyone, happy-to-be-here mode (I meet the most interesting people that way---I could tell you stories...). Anyway, we both went on with our breakfasts with me wondering out loud how the heck to get through Louisville safely with my new "prize". Death-man pops up and tells me exactly which exits and highways to take. Best start to a 750 mile day in a car I didn't know anything about (including where the gas cap release was)---ever. This thing is more complicated than an F-18, but I have the Owner's Manual now, so some of it's mysteries are no longer---mysteries. Anyway, 9:00 am to 6:30 pm (including an adverse time zone change) and I was home. Through Tennessee and North Carolina and down the Saluda Grade (you could look it up), I was nearly always in the lead! No runs, no hits, no errors (sorry, U.S. baseball analogy). Sweetness has been achieved. Great car---everything works. Everything. Wow...

Anyway, great to come across such an enthusiastic owner's affinity group. Hope to contribute a little and to learn a lot.

Warm regards,


Lee...

Lee, welcome and thank you. Has to be the best intro yet......even if you have 1000 more on your car then you should have

Welcome Lee.
You will love the car.
Ignore what Porsche salesmen tell you.....leave it out of auto! More fun and clutch will last longer!
Feel free to use the sport button though!

Welcome to the world of Maserati now just ignore that Auto button, Sport is where you need to be and the smile will be as large as your road trip

Welcome Lee and what an introduction.
There are a few of us in the old category but just remember ignore Auto and keep her in Sport mode and enjoy the cambio corsa.
You have tried the rest your now in the Best.
Phil.

Welcome along and what a great road trip - you sound smitten and enjoy the experience

Welcome Lee and thank you for your kind words by email.

You sound a little mad so you will fit in well with the rest of us oddballs on here.

We love our V8's and we love our Maserati's.

To echo the above, stay out of Auto and make sure the SPORT button is always selected. If you want to turn that smile into laughter, go fit a sports exhaust on it. Search for FD Las Vegas or Larini or post here.

Can we see any pics?

Lee you sound like the type to go for a beer with and mull over some fine stories! If I'm out your way again I'll hook up!

Well done mate, use the car in manual sport mode as much as you can! The Auto mode is an afterthought!

I just collected a Quattroporte with a similar box and it is great.... Also have a 3200 Got another Maser coming this week too, I have a problem, but a good one!

Welcome to the forum...would be great to see some of your collection...love planes but will never have pockets deep enough to own one (thats still flies anyhow).

Welcome Lee, that sounded like a great Road trip.

Welcome Lee, that Saluda grade road looks awesome, love to try it one day.

A big warm welcome to the forum Lee.....Great intro...

Picture please
of everything!
good man

Hey, thanks everyone for the such an earnest welcome, you guys seem like a really fun bunch. Yes, thankfully I got the word pretty quickly on manual and sport modes and have not driven in anything but since I got home with the car. The dealer said they didn't have the manuals etc for it, but after I got home they found them. I now have them all including the original folding case with Maserati logo and the original dealers invoice on the car. I think I have something like 6-8 owner's reference manuals and a number of original brochures and receipts. I got the basic Owner's Manual out and went throughout the car checking every feature. I was slightly astonished to see that everything works; all the lights exterior and interior, switches, and every feature I could find. Amazing.

I bought the car just to have fun with it (I'm a little impulsive that way) and so far I'm definitely getting my money's worth! Put it up on a local shop's lift and all looks good underneath except the rotors, so I signed on for some new ones with you guys. EBC Yellow Stuff sounds about right for the pads, so yes, I've been reading a lot. I'm a former Marine pilot, so I'm perfectly happy sitting watching college football Saturday afternoons and reading references and operational manuals! I'll be on the phone with Lorenzo in Sarasota in about an hour and a half for instructions on removing my console and window switches---they have a little of the dreaded "sticky" disease. He is famous (over here) for fixing them right up---you send him yours, he sends you his (somehow that doesn't sound quite "right"!).

Anyway, as requested, I'll drop a picture or two in of some of my toys to try to keep it interesting. By the way, I spent all of May and June over your way this year. Covered 7,000 km or so in Ireland and pretty much all of the Isle of Man too. Caught the Northwest 200 and the IoM TT which as everyone knows is some of the grandest racing on the planet. Shipped my KTM 690 over for that; then ferried over to Wales and rode the northern half (in some detail) for another couple of weeks. Great fun. Came back to Italy in October and finished off with two weeks riding Corsica on a rented BMW 1200GS. I just retired at the end of April and I'm 74 now, but I really haven't had to slow down all that much. I can tell you that Corsican mountain roads are pretty much "make the turn or die". You can't have much more fun than that.

By the way, the term the "Saluda Grade" technically refers to the old railroad grade (steepest in the U.S.) but everyone around here means the Interstate that aggressively winds down it instead. You could put a 180 at each end and make Lemans look like a cart track! Lots of great roads up that way including the most famous bike road in the U.S., the legendary Deals Gap---318 curves in 11 miles. I've ridden Deals many times including a personal attack on an unsuspecting guard rail. Leapt off my Ducati 996 and gave it a merciless whippin'. Only cost me three months off work!

Okay, sorry, I'm blabbering...gotta go get my tools together for the call. Best wishes to everyone and seriously, thanks again for the warm welcome. And as requested, here's a shot of my homebuilt, an F1 Rocket. Fuel injected IO 540 Lycoming/290 horse and 1,183 pounds empty, 190 knot cruise at 10,500'.




Lee...

If you can build one of those, a Maserati will be child's play to work on.

Impressive - the closest I managed to that was a balsa wood plane powered by a very sleek & impressive elastic band - pound for pound though, I's put it up with any other plane in the sky

Hexadex: LOL, I sure hope so! Took me three and a half years to finish, but I really concentrated on it evenings and weekends (I was still working then). It was built from a kit, so you get a pretty good head start. Even so, most guys take six years or so to get them done. If you change jobs and have to move a couple of times, 10 years isn't unusual. I need to get a shot of it and the Coupe together one of these days.


Lee...

Golly
Hope I am half as active at 74!
Respect

dave richardson said:

Golly
Hope I am half as active at 74!
Respect

Click to expand...

Was thinking that myself....Respect to you Lee.

Was thinking I'm not even that active now! Lol!