When owning a Quattroporte simply won’t suffice, there can only be one solution: Ottoporte!
A careful word of warning: I’m not entirely sure that today’s Prime Find will be the soundest advice you’ve ever read on ViaRETRO. In fact, it could potentially lead to financial detriment. Now don’t say that we didn’t warn you…
Regardless, I’m sure we can all agree that there are very few saloons which can match a Maserati Quattroporte. Just taste that name as it rolls off your tongue with your best Italian accent. That’s almost enough in its own right. And then there’s still the styling, the luscious interior, the V8 engine and not least the rich Italian history. However, it’s always the series 1 which gets all the attention. Granted, in the perfect world, that’s the one I would opt for too, but price taken into account and suddenly the series 3 looks awfully tempting!
After the catastrophic failure of the whole Quattroporte II project, the new Alejandro de Tomaso era of Maserati soon saw the development of the bigger, faster and heavier Quattroporte III. The masterly Giugiaro was responsible for the brand new design, which at first glance is perhaps easily discarded as ponderous and cumbersome, but tends to grow on you if you let it. Despite its size there’s an elegance to be found in those mammoth square-cut lines. It most certainly has presence and style. Maserati’s signature quad-cam all-aluminium V8 was to be found under the bonnet in either 4.2 or 4.9 litre guise delivering 255hp or 280hp respectively while breathing through four Weber carburettors. There was an option between a 3-speed automatic transmission or a 5-speed ZF manual, with suspension being independent on all four corners. The interior offered acres and acres of the finest Italian leather beautifully set off by briar wood inlays. This was the final hour of the true hand-built Italian supersaloon! The Quattroporte III remained in production from 1979 right through to 1990 by which time 2,155 examples had found customers.
So why am I babbling about an Ottoporte in the opening lines of this week’s Prime Find? Well, surely the only way to outdo one Quattroporte is by having two. And that’s precisely what we’ve found for you in the Netherlands – two project Quattroportes being sold together. All of eight doors!
This package deal comprises a US-market 1980 Quattroporte in a fetching blue metallic and a Euro-market 1984 Quattroporte in silver metallic. Both cars came to the world as top-of-the-range 4.9-litre cars with the 3-speed automatic transmission. More to the point, both cars are now projects. However, neither seems too far gone to save, as both cars have really positive aspects too. According to the private seller’s description, the blue car needs some bodywork sorting along with a few electrical gremlins, there’s some patina to its interior and it has furthermore been disgraced by a pair of awful aftermarket alloys. But the engine is apparently strong, and I personally love the exterior colour. The silver car is apparently an altogether good and healthy Quattroporte both inside and out. However, despite all of its beauty it’s also short of an engine.
Here are some pictures from the advert:
The seller admits to the obvious: His plans were to transplant the blue cars engine into the silver car, thereby getting one really good Euro-spec Maserati Quattroporte III in silver. You could easily continue down this path, or you could be brave and attempt to save them both. Once finished, I would then assess which one I liked the most, and then sell the other to recoup some of my expenditure. Regardless which option you opt for, there’s no doubt that these two Italian mistresses will be high maintenance. They will bring you both grief, grey hair and possibly bankruptcy – but just think how much fun it’ll be in between all the hassle. Here’s a link to the advert: 2 x Maserati Quattroporte III
Are you brave enough to take on an Ottoporte? I know I am certainly terribly tempted…
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us inspire by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk