Maserati biturbo/ghibli in the south of England

[matt-man]

Hi all,

Wondering if there ar any other biturbo owners around the south of England? I have a 1992 222se and live in Surrey...would be nice to see another one/bash heads with another owner with some experience!

I've done a lot of work already to her and hopefully will have it back on the road in a few weeks once the suspension has been refurbished...(another minefield!!)

Here's my car BTW...I know they have mixed feelings out there but I wanted one for a long time and took a long while to find it!





Cheers,

Matt

Edited by matt-man on Thursday 3rd January 00:20

[Cerbieherts]

Nice looking car. Those appear to be SR wheels and kit on it?

[matt-man]

Hi cerbieherts, thanks for you kind comment

As far as I am aware it's a 222se kit...the biturbo range is so confusing!

Check this... http://www.maserati.co.uk/maserati/uk/en/index/The...

the wheels are from a ghibli but I dot know if they were delivered with them as an option as I don't have the original receipt. The car was kept in meridians name for the first 6000 miles so it could have been a demo, hence having an upgrade or it was done at some other point...who knows!

[QP Noor]

There should be a few owners on www.maseratiforum.co.uk

[Cerbieherts]

Yes, the wheels in that link are the ones I've normaly seen on SE cars. The ones fitted to yours were fitted to the SR and V6 versions of the Ghibli. Interestingly, that link doesn't state all the differences between the two either. Manual se's used a ZF 'box but the SR used a Getrag. Your car must have been one of the early Meridien sales! Prior to Meridien becoming a dealer Emblem (different company to present emblem) cars used to be the Maserati importer down that way, located in Pimperne........

[matt-man]

Ah, very interesting!

My car, according to the Chassis Number was manufactured in the Milan Plant in 1990 however the car was first registered in the UK in 1992.

My box is a dog-leg manual if that helps??

I assume it must be an early Merdian car...it still has the original Meridian sticker in the rear window and the delivery stamps in the service book..

Its amazing how few of these there seem to be about...

[Pork]

matt-man said:

Ah, very interesting!

My car, according to the Chassis Number was manufactured in the Milan Plant in 1990 however the car was first registered in the UK in 1992.

My box is a dog-leg manual if that helps??

I assume it must be an early Merdian car...it still has the original Meridian sticker in the rear window and the delivery stamps in the service book..

Its amazing how few of these there seem to be about...

Sadly, I dont think they stood the test of time very well and with the price of parts, often cars with seemingly small amounts of damage get broken out for spares.

HAve you ever been to Bill McGraths? They held an open day lasy year and there were a few cars of this generation there, both customer cars and cars they were breaking. Well worth a visit if you have time.

[larrylamb11]

My brother has a plethora of these - I will point him at this thread in case he wants to get involved.
We have had BiTurbos in the family since the '90s. I think they are great fun bits of kit, although they rust horrifically. As you say, very few left now and good ones are extremely thin on the ground.
Hope you enjoy yours.

[Finlandese]

IMHO post-88 Biturbos are an amazing value at the moment. 222SE with a 2.8 litre engine and no cats is about 100 euros from having 300 horses and 460 nm(http://apavlov.pagesperso-orange.fr/maserati/boost/boost.html )... What other eighties car provides you with the same performance, engine sound, interior, and price?

My solution for my Biturbo fever was to buy a ´89 Zagato Spyder SE with 24k miles on the clock.


P.s. Matt-man. When your car was for sale, I was very disappointed to see that it was a RHD...

Edited by Finlandese on Thursday 3rd January 20:18

[duzmeister]

My bro has pointed me to this thread. Very nice to find some like minded biturbo people out there. As has already been said these are seriously scarce cars now and currently uber-bargain fast transport. I have a nice tidy manual 430 for dry weather use and a gnarly old auto 430 for winter use plus a trio of dead and dying carburettor cars. There may be enough among the three to make one good car if I ever get time! I am Berkshire based so would be up for meeting other biturbos in the vicinity. Not sure my auto 430 will complete a long journey owing to wailing diff and whining turbo but the manual is all good when the weather improves!

[duzmeister]

Blue one is the auto, silver is the manual.

[duzmeister]

[matt-man]

Finlandese said:

IMHO post-88 Biturbos are an amazing value at the moment. 222SE with a 2.8 litre engine and no cats is about 100 euros from having 300 horses and 460 nm(http://apavlov.pagesperso-orange.fr/maserati/boost/boost.html )... What other eighties car provides you with the same performance, engine sound, interior, and price?

My solution for my Biturbo fever was to buy a ´89 Zagato Spyder SE with 24k miles on the clock.


P.s. Matt-man. When your car was for sale, I was very disappointed to see that it was a RHD...

Edited by Finlandese on Thursday 3rd January 20:18

Hi! Great looking car!! You are so right, these are very exclusive cars...partly as said earlier by their tendency to dissolve in the rain!!

Just read your page-very interesting indeed...I might get in contact with you soon to discuss if you don't mind??

Regarding my car, I'm glad to see you needed LHD! Lol! I bought it pretty quickly after the dealer put it on his website as it was just what I was looking for...although you escaped the journey home! I drove it 50 miles and then realised the rear main seal was pouring oil, the rocker gaskets were leaking, both turbo seals had gone etc etc etc....it seemed fine on the test drive!

Anyway, all that is fixed now and I am just waiting for the suspension to be rebuilt before it goes back on the road (inc mot eek!) by feb

The main reason I bought mine was that it isn't rotten...there are a couple of small patches but underneath is solid...

Bill McGrath have been great, got all my parts from these guys (and David askew) who are both lifesavers...next time they have a open day I am going to to my best to get there

[matt-man]

duzmeister said:

My bro has pointed me to this thread. Very nice to find some like minded biturbo people out there. As has already been said these are seriously scarce cars now and currently uber-bargain fast transport. I have a nice tidy manual 430 for dry weather use and a gnarly old auto 430 for winter use plus a trio of dead and dying carburettor cars. There may be enough among the three to make one good car if I ever get time! I am Berkshire based so would be up for meeting other biturbos in the vicinity. Not sure my auto 430 will complete a long journey owing to wailing diff and whining turbo but the manual is all good when the weather improves!

Hey there!! The first biturbo owner To come out of the woodwork, and a serial owner at that! Thanks for sharing pics, great to see! I would be up for a meet once the sun starts shining too!!

[Finlandese]

Hi,

No credit for me about the web-pages. They are not mine, but I think the author is active at the Biturbo Zentrum mailing list ( http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/BiturboZentrum...

His main page http://apavlov.pagesperso-orange.fr/ , has a contact e-mail.

matt-man said:

Hi! Great looking car!! You are so right, these are very exclusive cars...partly as said earlier by their tendency to dissolve in the rain!!

Just read your page-very interesting indeed...I might get in contact with you soon to discuss if you don't mind??

Regarding my car, I'm glad to see you needed LHD! Lol! I bought it pretty quickly after the dealer put it on his website as it was just what I was looking for...although you escaped the journey home! I drove it 50 miles and then realised the rear main seal was pouring oil, the rocker gaskets were leaking, both turbo seals had gone etc etc etc....it seemed fine on the test drive!

Anyway, all that is fixed now and I am just waiting for the suspension to be rebuilt before it goes back on the road (inc mot eek!) by feb

The main reason I bought mine was that it isn't rotten...there are a couple of small patches but underneath is solid...

Bill McGrath have been great, got all my parts from these guys (and David askew) who are both lifesavers...next time they have a open day I am going to to my best to get there

Edited by Finlandese on Friday 4th January 19:09

[IMI A]

I love these cars to bits and had one for a year. Jesus it was unreliable though - electrics and clutch! Very very quick!! Don't even list it in my history as the bills were so expensive! Still one of my fav cars for some bonkers reason

[Finlandese]

IMI A said:

I love these cars to bits and had one for a year. Jesus it was unreliable though - electrics and clutch! Very very quick!! Don't even list it in my history as the bills were so expensive! Still one of my fav cars for some bonkers reason

Typical Italian crap grounds. This guy decided to solve them for good:

http://maseraticlub.co.uk/trident66.htm

As the article states, the maintanance manual says that you should grease the grounds every two years. I wonder how many owners have done that..

Edited by Finlandese on Friday 4th January 20:34

[duzmeister]

Hi there all, was inspired by this post to unearth the old blue 430 and take it to work today.... it rewarded with a rare burst of full boost to remind me what a great old wagon this is.... and all for scrap money (I literally bought it to break but took pity on it)

These are just such ridiculously cheap and rare cars... one day the world will realise. Matt-man have a look at howmanyleft.co or com or whichever it is, just see how few of these glorious hand-built Italian weapons are left, yours is a properly rare car on these shores, would be really good to get ours in the same place at some point.

I do know of another chap in High Wycombe who has a couple of these, I'll try to get hold of him.
cheers

[duzmeister]

PS here's a picture of a really bad one... unbelievably with fresh fuel and battery this car ran after 18 years inactive... doesn't look this good now I'm afraid, engine and box are awaiting transplant into another of the projects. that old "B" used to run too, must have a play with it one day....

[pacoryan]

Hi Durran, great to see the silver 430 still looking good, hadn't realised you were developing a Maserati graveyard too but I really shouldn't be surprised!
Hope all is good,
Patrick

Oh and all you biturbo nutters need to know Mike Roberts near Portsmouth, he has all the knowledge you could wish for and a real enthusiasm for biturbos. He serviced my 3200 and was great value.

Edited by pacoryan on Saturday 5th January 18:25