New motor needed

[Mudfish]

I know this may have already been covered many times before. I am looking at spending under £25k on a prestige sports car that I can mod over time. I am trying to keep cost to a minimum (isn't everybody?) so also looking at possible servicing in the main by doing it myself.

My thoughts are to buy a Maserati 3200 / 4200 and upgrade exhaust, brakes etc and then start some more obvious performance upgrades. I want to end up with a car that looks stock but will provide an experience far from the norm.

Is a Maserati a good choice for a cheap starter vehicle? I want 4 proper seats ideally.
Is it possible to service top marques in the comfort of your own garage?
What would the servicing be like for the major items ie. cambelts etc or is this still better with a franchise or specialist?

I had a 360 Modena previously and want to keep away from this level of running costs. Understand the likes of performance mods like Tubi will cost but these are part and parcel in my eyes.

Any advice experience greatly recieved.
Cheers
Mudfish

[yellowgriff]

If you are going to carry out all mechanical repairs & servicing your self.. this will reflect in the resale price,, If you are competent with this, why did you not service the 360 your self being the easiest cam belt to change on a ferrari..Saving your running cost.

[Mudfish]

yellowgriff said:

If you are going to carry out all mechanical repairs & servicing your self.. this will reflect in the resale price,, If you are competent with this, why did you not service the 360 your self being the easiest cam belt to change on a ferrari..Saving your running cost.

Didn't do the cam belts service (or any servicing for that matter) as only ran it for a year. Cam belts having being completed 3 months prior to my ownership.

At the end of the day, if I purchase a used prestige car for not much outlay, then tweaked it somewhat, my view is that this will be an ongoing project for years to come. The resale value will be minimal anyway regardless of fettling over time.

[lambo_xx]

Mudfish said:

I know this may have already been covered many times before. I am looking at spending under £25k on a prestige sports car that I can mod over time. I am trying to keep cost to a minimum (isn't everybody?) so also looking at possible servicing in the main by doing it myself.

My thoughts are to buy a Maserati 3200 / 4200 and upgrade exhaust, brakes etc and then start some more obvious performance upgrades. I want to end up with a car that looks stock but will provide an experience far from the norm.

Is a Maserati a good choice for a cheap starter vehicle? I want 4 proper seats ideally.
Is it possible to service top marques in the comfort of your own garage?
What would the servicing be like for the major items ie. cambelts etc or is this still better with a franchise or specialist?

I had a 360 Modena previously and want to keep away from this level of running costs. Understand the likes of performance mods like Tubi will cost but these are part and parcel in my eyes.

Any advice experience greatly recieved.
Cheers
Mudfish

I would seriously not advice doing the servicing yourself. Even if you know exactly what your doing it seriously affect resale value. So I would think VERY carefully about that.

As for the Maserati, I have no idea what they are like I'm afraid. If you want a car to modify then I would suggest a Porsche 996 Turbo . I will try and say that quietly as I realise I might be attacked for mentions the Germans in this forum but bear with me. They are very easy to modify. It's quite common to see one with 600bhp, but still looks totally standard. Another bonus is that because so many people modify their 996 Turbo, there's plenty of info about it. I'm not very sure how much info there is on modified Maserati's. They also have 4 seats. Ok the back ones aren't huge but they can fit adults in them if needed.

Hope that helps and let us know how you get on.

[runway78]

You may wish to have a quick squiz around www.maseratiforum.co.uk as there are a number of owners who have done what you propose, with either the 3200 and 4200, both of which are quite tuneable and lots of fun. The Porsche 996 bi-turbo starts at £32k for a good one, whereas a 3200/4200 starts at £15k/£18k respectively for good examples, which would suit your requirements better based on the maths. Better to start with a solid platform if you are tuning. A £25k 996 bi-turbo would be a shed I would imagine, whereas the best 3200's can be picked up for 15k, and leggy well maintained early 4200's can be had for £18k easily. Hope that helps.

Edited by runway78 on Monday 10th August 15:54

[fade2grey]

twin turbo & super charger conversions are available if you are brave enough..

[mr_tony]

Having seriously looked into heavily tuning a 3200 some years back, it will not be cheap, though it is very do-able. After all it's a strong block and you can turn the wick up on the turbos fairly simply (or at least cheaply)

If you're adding a reasonably sum of power you'll need to go for much improved cooling etc etc to keep things from going plop.

More importantly - go drive a stock 3200GT and tell me it needs more power - it really doesn't - and unless you're updating the suspension, traction systems too then it's not going to be fun except in a straight line.

The porker will cost more to start with, but the tuning options are known and will add some value to the 996. tuning on a 3200 won't add value, and if someone knows it's been done I would think it's likely they would walk away - people want ot buy nice stock cars in this kind of class..

Finally - running costs of 3200 and 360M are pretty much on a par, after all a good chunk of the 3200 parts are ferrari parts anyway. Also the 3200 parts are in some cases in short supply, so can cost more than their ferrari equivalents.

By all means go for it, but probably best off buying that 3200 Trofeo that is doing the rounds in octane etc if thats what you really want. Will be cheaper than doing it yourself...