FROM METEOROLOGY TO ASTRONOMY sprockets away from the usual node, the end whip was reduced to about one-fifth. A shaft as 10 Ⅱ g as the full length of the block, runnmg in two bearings at each end and driving the water pump at the front, was driven by duplex chain from the front end of the crankshaft, about 7 当 in. directly below. A pair of sprockets was mounted above the first and second main-bearing webs, one pair driving the duplex chain to the camshafts ⅲ the left-side cylinder head, and the other pair performing the same task for the camshafts in the opposite head. Each chain had a pair Of tensioner sprockets, mounted close below the upper camshaft in each head. A わ c ん可ん se V6 engines 0 ) 0 ~ g their moment 可ケ砒ん , ん e れ go 0 〃 the test dynamometer 、。 4 物川 t 107

THE PROOF OF THE BORA PUDDING was faultless. Where the autostrada had long straights, it would not veer from the straight path, needing Ⅱ 0 correcting hand for a mile or two if driven hands-off. My note pad from this trip says nothing about ride comfort or interior equipment and finish. Since it was a prototype, it should not perhaps be judged in those respects. The following remarks, therefore, are based 0 Ⅱ observation and ex- perience with production-model Boras. Despite being a sports coupé, by any definition, the Bora was endowed with a luxury-car interior. The bucket seats and door panels were covered with genuine leather. The floor and luggage compartment had wall-to-wall carpeting, and a lighting system for b0th the engine and luggage compartments was part Of the standard equ1P- ment. The seats were well padded and contoured for lateral support commensurate with cornermg speed potential. The most unusual thing about the shape Ofthe seats was that they stretched forward The customised 召 0r0 0 / the 0 レ s こ 0 s ん 0 . A Swiss far beyond the norm, sloping right under the knee C リ S こ 0 ′れ er え〃 1 盟 roved ' んえ S Bora pits, and giving support under the whole length 0f ん the big の、 s 〃ん r 0 d the thighs. fitted e ェな 0- あ fog lamps 0 89

Chapter 4 The BO under the mtcroscope The offcial unveiling ofthe Bora was reserved for the international automobile show in Geneva during the first week of March 1971. ln keeping with a recent Maserati tradition, the car was named after a Wind : the Bora being Wind that blows in the Trieste area, the north-east corner Of the Adriatic sea. Visitors to Geneva could see that from every angle, the Bora was a car ofoutstanding beauty. lt successfully bridged the gap that existed between such futuristic prototypes as Bertone's Carabo, Pininfarina's ModuIo, and the production cars displayed by Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Sbarro, BMW Monteverdi, Ferrari and Maserati. The most astonishing thing about the Bora was—well, it depended on whether or not you had read the specification table. If you had, and knew the size of the engine, which demanded a robust structure, big tyres, and so on, it was the compact S1ze Of the car. If you saw the Bora without knowmg about its power and performance poten- tial, the surprise would come when you found out. Space allocation within the short overall length of 170.7 ⅲ . ( 4336 (m) permitted by the central engine location, was well thought out, with the two seats positioned forward of the midway point in the 102.4 in. ( 2600 (m) wheelbase and twin 11- ga Ⅱ 0 Ⅱ (lmp. ) fuel tanks shaped to fit 38

CHAPTER T Ⅵア 0 フ 55 2600 日日 0 4335 The midships-engine two seater coupé had a definite appeal from the point of view of in- novation. lt was a radical idea for Maserati, but very fashionable at the time. And fashion does have a certain influence trends in the market. When Lamborghini displayed the Miura at the Geneva Show in 1966 , it became one of the most talked-about cars ⅲ the world. lt would be useless to pretend that it was not widely imitated, with variations according to the tastes and possibilities of each follower. WhiIe Alfieri did watch the activities of Maserati's competitors closely, he did not have advance information on what they were plannlng. He was familiar with the Mangusta, the Ford V8-powered coupé from De Tomaso, but he could not know ⅲ the summer of 1968 that Mercedes- Benz was playing around with the C111 , using three- and four-rotor Wankel englnes ; that Peter Monteverdi was preparing his Hai, propelled by a hemi-head Chrysler V8 ; and that Ferrari was thinking about a car that was unveiled six months after Maserati had shown the Bora, the 365GT / 4 BerIinetta Boxer with its 380 hp 4.4-litre flat-twelve. Nor could he know that a short time into the ん og え cal 市 os あ〃 the masses え〃 the 召 0r0 ん e. 〃 the car e 〃 balanced 22

CHAPTER EIGHT At first Citroén intended to close the plant at the end ofMay, 1975 , but then relented and agreed t0 assume all liabilities incurred in keeping the plant in operation up tO the 30 June. Omer Orsi, with Giulio Alfieri and the sales director, Ald0 Turrusio, tried tO negotiate with the 0 伍℃ ial recelvers 0 Ⅱ one hand and the workers 0 Ⅱ the other, seeking a way tO keep Maserati in business. Alfieri even tackled new projects, starting with TiP0 124 , a 2 十 2 coupé with ltal Design styling. Production was maintained, but at a slower and slower rate. Worried about losing their jobs completely, the workers began de- monstrating for rescue by the ltalian government. Moving fast behind the scenes, lining up fresh finance quicker than a civil servant can find his date stamp, was the wily Argentinian, Alejandro de TO Ⅱ naso. ln mid-August, the situation was resolved. Maserati was taken over as a jOint subsidiary Of De Tomaso ( 30 per cent) and a state-sponsored investment organisation, GEPI ( 70 per cent). De Tomaso already had a recovery plan in mind, and his own ideas about who would have the task of implementing it. Orsi, Alfieri and Turrus10 were not included. Recounts Alfieri : el had a true filial love for Maserati—up t0 a certain moment. The lawyers called me ⅲ and t01d me I had 15 minutes t0 get out ofthe factory'. The order came, ofcourse, from Alejandro De Tomaso. The date was 25 August 1975. After more than 22 years with the firm, that was Alfieri's reward. AIfieri later 」 oined Lamborghini as general manager. Turrusio found a position outside the automobile industry. Omer Orsi resigned himself to the real-estate business and died in 1981. Maserati's new general manager was a young engineer named Aureli0 Bertocchi (son Ofthe test 116

CHAPTER ONE tO cope—within certain limits. These limits were lmposed by the chassis frame construction chosen by the car manufacture. AII had a lot to learn about body-mounting, vibration damping, and sound deadening. The Maserati englneering department gradually became more and more involved with the complete vehicle and its structure, 1 Ⅱ a manner previously unknown tO th em. How this relates to the Bora may not be obvious tO the reader. When the Bora project was under- taken in September/Oct0ber 1968 , it came t0 take on the flavouring 0f Giuli0 Alfieri's personal beliefs. He was then 44 years 01d and could look back 0 Ⅱ 15 successful years with Maserati. much Of my experience lay in motor racmg, Alfieri reflects, ethat one could well be justified ⅲ thinking Ofme as a racmg englneer. You could say that I am derived personally from the racing car, or even the racing motorcycle. But my outlook was broadened by the experience Of creating a new generatlon Of Maserati touring cars, and I developed a belief in making a certain type 0f car. One could define my idea as a high-performance touring car with less than 100 per cent sportiness but major emphasis on comfort and silence. lt should be powerful and fast, but it had to give an lmpresslon Of effortless performance . lt is not diffcult to trace the causative events and circumstances behind the ripening 0f Alfieri's V1ew Of car design and engmeermg. While he was responsible for both racing-car and production-car engineering, he said he had t0 divorce one concept from the Other. This is not the place for a discusslon about the extent t0 which Maserati touring cars were race-bred but in- evitably, there was a considerable flow Of tech- Ⅱ 010gY transfer. The point here however, is tO demonstrate the complete separation Of purposes 14

FROM METEOROLOGY TO ASTRONOMY two persons aboard. And the back seat was capable 0f accommodating children and pets with reasonable comfort, thus answering some kind of a need, however infrequent it might be. Due to its lower-powered englne, the Merak had to be lighter than the Bora in order to offer acceptable performance. Acceptable, that is, VLS- 0- s the corresponding models from Ferrari and Lamborghini. There was Ⅱ 0 thought of approach- ing the Bora in terms Of acceleration or top speed. With a weight target about 220 lb less than the Bora, it was decided to build the Merak 0 Ⅱ the same 102.4 in. ( 2600 (m) wheelbase. The ad- ditional space in the passenger compartment was obtained by the shortness of the V6, and re- Schematic 可 the 0 法 c か c リ 0 れ s ツ s 襯 0 / the V6 engine, ん wet sump 0 〃 d external 0 I cooler 7 0 ィー 4 、 103

ん e coac ん or ん ) widened cover the lO や ro れん racing い s , 0 れ d weight as ta ん e 〃 0 リ t wherever oss ん , わレ the French Thepenier 召 0r0 failed really. T00 little mo れ 0 d CHAPTER SIX 92 alignment that would help obviate the need for it. Geared for 3 turns, lock to lock, the steering effort was pleasantly 10W except when parking. At speed, the steering was accurate, sensitive, free Of shock and other reactions from the roadway. When some press people (and customers) asked about power steering, they were given the answer that the installation diffculties were t00 great. There 1S some truth in that. Either the pump would have tO be mounted up front, with electric drive, or 0 Ⅱ the engine, belt-driven, with 10 Ⅱ g hydraulic lines tO the steering gear. But it was feasible. However, Maserati chose tO exploit the weight distribution Of the Bora tO eliminate power steering, and probably did the right thing. A slight exertion when manoeuvermg at less than

CHAPTER SEVEN Right There were t 0 rear seats the Merak, わ they co レれ梔 occ リ〃 d ad リ〃 persons for 0 〃ん gt ん 可 time due lack 可 leg r00 〃 ~ Right The 外阨ん as given the steering wheel, えれ s ケレ me 〃 , 0 れ d com.盟ん fasc 盟 0 〃 el om the C ro ~ れ the lowest-cost parts, or buy proprietary units only from the lowest bidder. The men 0 Ⅱ the Merak project had to find a compromlse so narrow in definition as tO make tightrope-walking seem like a stroll ⅲ the park. They also had to take great pains to keep the Merak personality separate from the Bora's. Nothing about the Merak was allowed to dilute the image Of the Bora, which remained exclusive, an ObJect 0f reverle and an image 0f perfection. The Merak was not to be marketed as a quasi- Bora, but as an alternative type of Maserati for customers whose pretensions did not stray quite that far from the motoring ideals of the upper bourge01S1e. A big difference in price was not enough tO 100

CHAPTER EIGHT laid out on his drawing board. Led by Aurelio Bertocchi, what remained ofthe Maserati englneering staff began tO prepare a lighter and more powerful version ofthe Merak. lt was introduced at the Geneva Show in March 1975 , as the Merak SS. About 100 lb lighter than the original, it had the same basic engine with a few modifications aimed at extracting more horsepower. The compresslon ratiO was higher, and the carburettors were bigger. Output climbed to 220 hp at 6500 rpm, with a commensurate swelling Of the torque curve. The front/rear weight distribution was evened out tO 47 / 53 per cent, and a front-end spoiler was added below the air intake to reduce front-end lift at high speed. The SS also got fatter tyres. The road manners of the Merak SS were much improved, with a degree Of cornering stability now approaching the Bora's. TOP speed went up Above 2- 〃な e 外 ra ん , sitting the yard 可 the イ asera ル c えれ Viale C か 0 外イ e 〃 Above right lntroduced as 0 tax-dodge mode l, never gained 〃 0 レい 0 〃 d as S00 〃こ 0 ん e 〃 0 リ t 0 / 盟 rod レ c 0 〃 Right S 取〃れ g differences were avoided keep Other drivers om んれ 0 〃 g e 工 0 んん engine was the イ asera え〃 the mirror 120