1988 Maserati Biturbo Si - gning out! + Jag + Fiat + SOLD!

Valid and true I'm sure. Back in my youth (zimmer frame icon required) there was the 911, 944 and 928. There were more factory race cars than road cars.

Same for everyone one now though - Maserati Levante anyone

My sentiment the past few posts may indicate that I'd rather have something else than the BiT but that's not the case. However, I need my cars to work as cars not just garage art. I'm fairly optimistic in my purchases but pragmatic once I'm running them.

I'll persevere a little longer but the 2 weeks usage in the 6 months of ownership won't cut it as a continuing trend.

Looks like back on the road this Thursday and I'll press it straight into some travelling

A cheeky 05.00 start this morning. A short hop on my bike, slightly longer skip on the bus and then 2 trains later had me with the BiT again.

No time for easing it in, I had places to be so plates on and off we (well me and the car we) went.

Peek a boooooost!



First leg driving was about an hour jaunt across B roads which brought me here:



Got it yet......... how about now:



That's correct, I was not content with the risk of the 2.5 hours driving in the BiT but needed to supplement it by throwing myself out of a plane. I have been trying to book a parachute jump for 10 years and always scuppered by the weather. No longer. It's done and I think I'm hooked.

Doing donuts with a parachute is satisfying just like the four wheeled variety.

I'll adjust the plate holder this evening)

Back on terra firma and another 90 mins of B road loping (no blasting today - Not going to tempt fate too much in one go) has me back at base.

I treated it to a wash and now it's back in the garage after the C1 has been shooed out.

I also removed the spoiler, of course resulting in 2 of the 6 (flathead!) screws snapping, to clean the 30 years of crud out from underneath and to check for rust.

Again no rust thankfully. In an ideal world the spoiler needs some stripping, filling, repainting and alignment work but this car is well used and that's a big part of it's charm. If I align the spoiler to the boot then I need to align the boot horizontally and vertically, then I need to bring one side of the bumper up slightly and so on. Sounds like more time I could be driving! So with that in mind I'm going to leave the outside mostly alone.

I will spruce up the wheels but other than that the only question I have is whether to remove the badging from the rear end. Normally I de-badge the rear ends of my cars but there is something so incredibly haphazard about the arrangement here, especially the S i that's floating my boat. Opinions welcome on that.

You have nicely packaged all (almost - Audi RS badges would be the full house) of my most face itchingly annoying badge crimes!

So I had not provided my driving impressions as I've not tested the performance envelope as yet. Initial impressions are that it's really super docile until well into boost (5k+). I mentioned this somewhere and apologies if it was here but in terms of performance is really reminds me of the 1995 Impreza Turbo wagon I had previously. I mean this both in the impressive ability to advance once rolling and the blower(s) are awake and also the questionable retardation abilities.

The steering is not amazing in terms of feel or responsiveness but hardly bad. That's very similar to my old E30 325i actually. The gearbox is a delight though. It's my first dogleg box and it's fantastic. Really all 5 speed boxes should be doglegs. The throw is positive and relatively short, the engagement is slick an has a really satisfyingly selection bite.

In terms of the chassis I don't really know yet but I'll report back soon once I get to the passes. It feels a little up on it's toes which I've yet to decide is a good or a bad thing as it depends upon what happens when it starts to move about.

Oddly the real delight at the moment is not the driving or the reactions but the smell when I open the garage door in the morning. That tangible aroma of Oil, leather and alcantara is great.

Thanks very much. I cannot take credit for the Hnnnnnnng thread but I did spend a lot of time hanging around in there. Speaking of Shamals there is a guy who parks his Shamal at the train station 2 stops down from me. Absolutely beastly.

I have seen him on the road but I was in the family X1 after the kid's swimming so not really an opportune moment for a flag down to chat!

As I mentioned it's in daily service now with two kids seats in the back. Some pictorial evidence:


Leaving the house in the morning



All alone at the station



Snapped by a mate from his bike also at the station

Yay How do you like the noise it makes? I really liked it but some find it gruff and ugly.

Related in that it's car news but unrelated in that it's the rest of the fleet. We disposed of my wife's 2011 X1 2.0D. She loved it but it needed a new set of both summer and winter tyres in the next 6 months and was not in the best of health as she only does a very short daily commute that it really was not liking. Short story we needed to set aside 3k to get it up to par and we would not see that back on the resale so off it went.

We have been looking for a deal on a newer petrol X1 or Discovery Sport but nothing came up so we've gone for a 2003 Forrester 2.0T A/T as an interim solution. I was quite keen on the Forrester as it completes my (I'm excluding Tribecas, XVs, Levorgs and Justys) Subaru set (previously had an SVX, Impreza turbo and a Legacy).

On to my runaround and the C1 will be out the door momentarily and I'll probably replace it with a Merc C200K hatch as next to be ticked off the list is a Supercharged engine.

If I get that done I will cease all automotive buying and selling for 6 months as this year has been pretty full on:

Sierra Sapphire 2.0CLX sold
Fiat Panda 100hp bought
Audi B7 RS4 sold
Maserati BiTurbo bought
Volvo 850 T5 bought
Fiat Panda 100hp sold
Volvo 850 T5 sold
Citroen C1 bought
Subaru Forrester 2.0XT bought
BMW X1 2.0d sold
Mercedes C200K bought (tent.)
Citroen C1 sold (tent.)

12 deals across 9 cars is enough for me in a year.

If I get these last 2 deals done then I will have ticked the following off my automotive bucket list in 2018

Italian car
3 cylinder
5 cylinder
Supercharged
Maserati (I know it would hit Italian also but I bought the Panda for that reason, it's just that the Maserati happened soon after)

That leaves me with a interesting challenge in 2019. What's left on the bucket list are mid-engined, V10, V12, Ferrari or Lamborghini and Lotus.

I had found the planned route to get there in the shortest set of cars was Audi S6 V10, Lotus (Evora ideally but Elise, Exige also) and then a Ferrari 456GT.

Now S6 V10s are reasonably priced and can without too much of a stretch be justified a my replacement daily driver but the others are all getting spicy so we shall see if I need to take a pause from my quest in 2019.

It's been fun moving things in and out with pace this year.

I didn't take any more pictures as I ended up meeting a mate after my appointment but 110km there and back, mostly 2 and 3rd gear.

Running strong! I have some noises that I will investigate in due time. A chatter from the steering rack, a chatter from the gear linkage and I think some rumbling from the passenger side rear.

It's a beautiful day here, 24 degrees so I was joined by a lot of youngtimers on the roads. on the return journey an MGC was pushing hard to stay on my tail so we had a spirited jaunt for 15km or so.

Really enjoyable!