RE: You Know You Want To: Maserati Merak
Discussion
Childhood encounters with a sparkly sea-blue Merak have put it joint top of my utterly-irrational-but-totally-essential lottery list (sharing the spot with a 308gt4 - you can see that I have the sickness quite badly). Not sure about this one at £25k's worth of imaginary money, though.
tommy vercetti said:
What are you on about? How did he ruin these cars?
It's an old episode where they buy 3 classic sports cars and do the usual sort of challenges. The cars are not mechanically sound and are driven from Bristol to destruction. It's one of the saddest episode for anyone who loves these beautiful cars.There was a Series 1 Lotus Esprit they destroyed a Maserati Marek a Ferrari Dino a Lamborghini Uracco IIRC?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0078zdv
Edited by PhilJames on Monday 29th October 16:42
A mid-engined high performance sports car with French hydraulics and Italian electrics from an era when rust was the norm - what could possibly go wrong?
On balance I would rather eat my own arms. Even when new it was never worth more than a grand because you needed the rest to keep it in repairs and maintenance.
On balance I would rather eat my own arms. Even when new it was never worth more than a grand because you needed the rest to keep it in repairs and maintenance.
ukmike2000 said:
A mid-engined high performance sports car with French hydraulics and Italian electrics from an era when rust was the norm - what could possibly go wrong?
On balance I would rather eat my own arms. Even when new it was never worth more than a grand because you needed the rest to keep it in repairs and maintenance.
I may get laughed off the site, but maybe bought in conjunction with someone who understands the structure and with contacts in Italy / France for parts and a reasoned programme to repair essentials rather than 'we'll do this because it would be nice to', it may not be quite such the disaster waiting to happen. Its a 40 y.o. car - an old Batmobile BeeEmTroubleyou is going to be as bad if not worse. And nowhere near as good lookingOn balance I would rather eat my own arms. Even when new it was never worth more than a grand because you needed the rest to keep it in repairs and maintenance.
It doesn't bear comparison to a 456 - that's a modern car, a different era of Euro-insistence of spare parts availability etc etc.
PhilJames said:
tommy vercetti said:
What are you on about? How did he ruin these cars?
It's an old episode where they buy 3 classic sports cars and do the usual sort of challenges. The cars are not mechanically sound and are driven from Bristol to destruction. It's one of the saddest episode for anyone who loves these beautiful cars.There was a Series 1 Lotus Esprit they destroyed a Maserati Marek a Ferrari Dino a Lamborghini Uracco IIRC?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0078zdv
Edited by PhilJames on Monday 29th October 16:42
The Top Gear boys didn't destroy their cars. The cars were doomed to self-destruct and they ran their inevitable course for the segment. Those were sub-£10k cars that were going to break down and, in one case, blow up in short order for any sucker who'd buy them.
Great pick, Chris. Frankly, this Merak looks to be in a much different league than the infamous Top Gear one, and would be worth investigating by somebody who knows what he's looking at.
Having seen several Boras and Meraks on the street and in outdoor car shows, they truly are just about the most beautiful things ever put on four wheels. The Bora should be worth a couple hundred thousand right now, all things considered and with perspective (as should the Ghibli), but instead they're Ferrari F355 money. So much cooler and beautiful and rare.
Great pick, Chris. Frankly, this Merak looks to be in a much different league than the infamous Top Gear one, and would be worth investigating by somebody who knows what he's looking at.
Having seen several Boras and Meraks on the street and in outdoor car shows, they truly are just about the most beautiful things ever put on four wheels. The Bora should be worth a couple hundred thousand right now, all things considered and with perspective (as should the Ghibli), but instead they're Ferrari F355 money. So much cooler and beautiful and rare.
I helped a mate replace the clutch on his one - what a job - inboard brakes on the driveshafts - calipers bolted to the gearbox - was a complete and utter nightmare - couldn't have been any worse if Maserati started the production line with a clutch disc suspended in mid air and built the car around it......
On reflection maybe that's what they did or more likely the whole engine drivetrain and wheels went in in one lump and they built the car round that. Maybe we should have bit the bullet and dropped the lot out as one piece but we were working in a single garage and once the car was in front end first we had no other option.....
Pretty as a pretty thing but maintenance issues would scare me off and I don't normally mind a challenge!!
On reflection maybe that's what they did or more likely the whole engine drivetrain and wheels went in in one lump and they built the car round that. Maybe we should have bit the bullet and dropped the lot out as one piece but we were working in a single garage and once the car was in front end first we had no other option.....
Pretty as a pretty thing but maintenance issues would scare me off and I don't normally mind a challenge!!
365daytonafan said:
Merak is nice but if you are going to go bankrupt buying a Maserati this is the way to do it IMO - Khamsin (yes I know it's a lot more than the Merak but it's a quarter of the price of a Ferrari Daytona!).
http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C330141
Love the Khamsin, by far my favourite of the old Maseratis (except the Ghibli SS Spyder, but I can't afford one of those) But these have shot up in value over the last 8 years or so (could have bought a fair one for £12k in 2004ish), easily doubled in price. Massively overlooked and gratefully so, but with all cars of this vintage, unless you're good with everything automotive, I very much doubt you would recoup the cost of getting it perfect. http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C330141
Flares and Chestwig said:
Car is a tractor, dealers website is good though. Is this dealer linked to Justin Banks.....although whatever you do, dont google Justin Banks...you will thank me later
Bar steward - I assumed it would be complaint stories about dodgy classic cars - argh my eyes 
- and some of those pictures most certainly should not be available on google 
Edited by dapprman on Monday 29th October 21:43
Now I've mentally recovered enough - Merak was one of my school boy fantasies as well. Would be tempted if I had another 25K to keep it on the road, oh and a garage, but even then I'd still be scared it would fail expensively. As to Top Gear - I remember when I first saw it I knew the Merak would suffer engine problems, after all aside from only being 10K, Clarkson was driving it hard on a newly rebuilt engine - no apparent gentle run in.
Edited by dapprman on Monday 29th October 22:00
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