Maserati Karif on the bay of E

del mar

Junior Member
Messages
257
I have always found the proportions odd on these, I am sure i could have designed a better rear window !

Whilst in immaculate condition, the shape doesn't work for me.
 

Andyk

Member
Messages
61,038
Same here Andy.....Loved the Karif but hard earned wouldnt be put into it at that money. It's old, looks old and probably not a great drive these days..if you want quirky your SZ fits the bill much better.....still have a soft spot for them though but as with all that era Maserati they have not aged well at all.
 

dickyb

Member
Messages
432
There's a lot of smoke and mirrors and hearsay about the Karif.

Rumour has it that in order to maximise publicity Alejandro De Tomaso requested that the press cars were specially tuned to deliver the 285 bhp that is often quoted, he wanted to make a statement and wanted the Karif to appear as quite an animalistic car. It is said that these engines did not last long and that the chassis couldn't really handle it. It is thought that customer cars actually produced the same 250 bhp that was seen on the 228, 430, Spyder and export market 222, mechanically the engines are identical and carry the same engine code of AM473, so the press cars may simply have been chipped. There are however some rumours that customers could make a special request for the higher output engine but no-one knows how many were specified as such. There is a small postscript in the Biturbo manual which makes refernce to this higher power output that could be requested. Further evidence of most customer cars being of a lower power than quoted at launch is that the catalysed versions produced for some markets developed a mere 225 bhp, it is hard to believe that a catalytic converter could sap such a significant amount of power when on other models with identical engines, the differences between cat equipped cars and non-cat equipped cars was 25 bhp. It is also said that Maserati later stated that they would not be considering the fitment of the updated 24v engine because the chassis couldn't handle the extra power which rather blows their initial power claims out of the water. On the face of it a Karif is just another model in the Biturbo lineup but due to its rarity and the perceived wisdom of extra power it now seems to command a hefty premium. Having said that I think they're rather cool and its nice to see at least some of the Biturbo models are getting the recognition they deserve.
 

Ewan

Member
Messages
6,756
I'd be very surprised if it makes this price. I'd say low twenties was about right. Anyway, is it not just a spider with a hard top (and a not very well designed hard top at that)?

On that note, I see there is a potentially nice looking biturbo spider coming up at Historics on May 18th. Low owners, very low mikes, and a third the price of this Karif. Think of it as a convertible Karif and it's a bargain.