When I was working in Japan recently, I bumped into an old acquaintance—another seismologist who works there frequently. While riding with him back to the hotel one day, I mentioned my interest in vintage Italian motorcycles, and he told me he had an old Maserati that needed a good home. Selwyn had bought the car in 1970 in Milan (It's an Italian model) when the first owner traded it in on a Bora. For 30 years the Q-Porte was regularly driven, covering about a 100,000 miles all over the U.S. He did all his own service and the car was never in a shop. He bought a newer Maserati a few years ago (BiTurbo) and the Q-Porte had been languishing since then, for which Selwyn felt quite guilty.
I wasn't looking for a car, but I have learned not to ignore these kinds of chance opportunities so I explored it a bit further. When I got home I did a little research on Maseratis, about which I knew little, and decided to go see the car, which was in Maryland, near my father's house. The pictures below were taken on that first visit. At the end of the afternoon I told Selwyn that I would buy it.
The care is a 1967 Quattroporte, chassis AM107.1154. Maserati made about 759 Quattroportes from 1963-69. They are numbered with even numbers, so this one should be the 577th one built. All the first generation Q-Portes had the famous DOHC V-8 engine which was derived from the last great Maserati sports racing car in the late 1950s, the 450S. In fact the Q-Porte is the first production Maserati to use the detuned race engine (which made 400 HP at 7000 RPM). Originally it was a 4.2 liter making 260 HP with a surprisingly low redline of 5000 (or 5500, depending on who you believe). It is tuned more for torque than peak power, and the low redline seems to be related to the limitations of the air conditioner compressor (American-made, by York) which was a standard fitment—it simply couldn't handle higher revs. They bored it to 4.7 liters (290 HP) in about 1965, but the 4.2 engine was still available as an option and that's what my car has. It is fed by four dual-choke down-draft Weber carburetors. Mine has the very slick ZF 5-speed transmission, although a 3-speed automatic was also available. Mine appears to have an optional high final drive ratio (4.09:1 vs the standard 3.54:1) which substantially reduces the ultra-high-speed capabilities of the car, but it definitely has more urge for the twisty mountain roads of the Rockies, so maybe it will be a blessing.
