Biturbo spyder?

[sjp63]

Wife has her eye on a biturbo spyder for the summer as a second car. 1988 low miles. Anyone got/had one that can offer advise?

Thanks

[zahal]

Hiya. Had one of those bad boys back in 1989. Navy with OZ alloys. Ran it for around 18 months. It was the carb model not the later fuel injection car. When it worked (for about 11 minutes one Tuesday just after I took delivery), it was a great bit of kit. The rest of the time it was a disaster. It basically never, ever ran fault-free. Everything from electric windows, wipers etc to the engine management system itself which basically caused the car to a) rarely start when warm, and b) refuse to accelerate properly at various random moments. The roof itself was a joke too. It leaked profusely whenever it rained. Maybe mine was a particularly bad experience but there you go.

[andy355]

i had a biturbo coupe, which ran ok tho i never did that many miles in it. I would have thought it would be better to go for the later series with the 2.8 injection engine rather than the 2.5 carbs that the 1986-88 cars had. Or else go for a lhd import, italian cars had 2 litre injection cars earlier on. My knowledge of biturbos basically ceased when i sold mine years ago, but there was a friendly uk maserati club which still exists and would be a good place to seek advice. In general tho, they are indeed high maintanance, maybe costs have come down over the years, if not you have a "cheap" car with supercar running costs. I quite fancy getting an old spyder myself, i always loved the looks of that car, tho im not sure im brave enough!

[sjp63]

Are they 2 seats or 2+2?

[Marki]

I had one for a couple of years ,, they are 2+2 (just)
Not bad cars i had fun with mine , never really let me down but servicing was pretty expensive with all the little things that always needed doing

[sjp63]

Marki said:

I had one for a couple of years ,, they are 2+2 (just)
Not bad cars i had fun with mine , never really let me down but servicing was pretty expensive with all the little things that always needed doing

I'm interested in whether you can fit a couple of small kids in the back with seatbelts or whether its just a bench/shelf at the back...(Spyder that is - I understand its shorter wheel base than saloon)

Thanks

[zahal]

As I recall, it's just a bench with a couple of loose cushions sitting on top. It's going back a fair way, but I seem to remember no seat belts back there. Basically, you would struggle to get two kids back there as the leg room was non-existent. You could sit one adult there lying across it with their knees on their chest.

[Marki]

I did have adults in the back on a couple of occasions
not the most spacious but its possible

[andy355]

the spyder was a shorter wheelbase than the coupe and had 2 cushions on a bit of a backshelf, cant imagine getting an adult in whereas you could with the coupe sortof. def no seatbelts.

Edited by andy355 on Monday 26th March 19:02

[Marki]

andy355 said:

the spyder was a shorter wheelbase than the coupe and had 2 cushions on a bit of a backshelf, cant imagine getting an adult in whereas you could with the coupe sortof. def no seatbelts.

Edited by andy355 on Monday 26th March 19:02

Im sure mine had seats and belts

[andy355]

might have had some kind of retro fit, maybe lap belts but not as standard. As you can see from the below pic theres nowhere really to fix anything to, and also no room for legs!

http://home.att.net/~douglas.holtsing

[sjp63]

The back padding suggests seating.......clutching at straws.

[andy355]

was described as occasional kids seats if i remember right, whereas the coupe was 2+2.

[bertie]

Doesn't look like a lot of room to me to be honest...

[Sharief]

What is the point?!