1975 Maserati Khamsin - Jay Leno's Garage

well another episode of Jay Leno's Garage today we are talking about my favorite class of automobile original and unrestored this is a 1975 maserati Kempson with less than 20,000 miles on it that's like 500 miles a year original paint original engine original everything sadly the car does not belong to me belongs to my buddy Doug magnate Doug come on in here Doug owns the Riverside International Automobile Museum he is our maserati guru here in Southern California he's the guy to go to when you want maserati parts and information and this is his automobile tell us about it it's a 1975 Maserati Campton from an era when very swoopy exotic looking cars kind of coming out of the aviation space-age era in InDesign now this was designed by Marcello Gandini correct absolutely at Bertoni design we were fortunate enough to have mr. Gandiva here at the garage one time he designed the Miura the Espada the Countach legendary Italian designer started like age 26 I think when he did the Muir so you can see his influence very clean this is the original paint original paint almost of it okay so what do we have 4.9 liter four-wheel disc brakes yes he have 4.9 liter all alloy v8 quad cam so there are four cams Weber carbureted for two barrel Weber DC NFS produces for its era quite a bit of horsepower now we did a book review our friend marks honoree yes he wrote the definitive or certainly one of the definitive books on situaion maserati this car was built under the auspices of Citroen when they were still owned by Citroen so consequently it has a lot of Citroen features in it that I find fascinating the hydraulic clutch the power brake power steering extremely comfortable seats part of that marriage also included the driver's side seat adjustment is hydraulically actuated okay for the up and down movement the power steering is Citroen of course you mentioned the brakes the headlight bucket lifts so turning on the up the headlights and turning on the headlights is a hydraulic switch that you lift up and there move up action and actuated hydraulically and I will probably say it's a couple more times in this video this is not a sports car per se it is a grand touring car which means it is extremely comfortable everything works air conditioning but it handles like a sports car but technically is not a sports car and when people say they want a sports car what they really want is a grand touring car because your wife won't yell at you you know when the Dow it bounces is too hard that my hair is blowing a lot you don't get any of that with this car you know so that's the nice thing about it now this car is I remember when these came to United States originally in 75 they were kind of ugly you you got what the European trim and look on this one absolutely it unfortunately the camps and receive some of the worst treatment ever suffered on a North American homologation for bumper standards causing the rear taillights to go where the bumper is the bumper then went underneath let's start the front end tell us here well now originally this had just a big goofy big steel with two sort of triangular pontoons out in front big rubber baby pom-pom Carla yeah yes so now this is the way it would have appeared in your European trim here with the European lights inset very simple very elegantly designed and incorporated into the overall look of the car very nice I will look at the back in a minute but let's can we open the hood I'm actually see the motor well there is the classic Maserati four cam engine you know so many cars have four cams now and four valves per cylinder this is a two valve correct two valve per cylinder but in 1975 that's about as exotic as a cot and 300 horsepower or 323 2313 ear print European trim maximum output you know it's interesting this is the first time we've opened the hood on this car that I've seen and I can spot the Citroen parts this is citral and power steering a Citroen well that's Citroen over there as well I guess anything green a Citroen isn't it it was the same situation even the fluid is green okay The Gruffalo here it is right here often referred to as frog juice yeah frog juice you know I'm sure there's an insult there somewhere but it and course my favorite look at those Weber's oh there's nothing like Weber carburetors that's fantastic and of course this is it doesn't get more Italian than this madness that looked finishe squirtle finish here I used to love there was some Ferraris in the period did the back yes in this I also thought that was very sexy you've got a functioning hood scoop here as well twin fans obviously thermostatic it's you know it's pretty well laid out there's your fuel filter and everything right there it looks like it's reasonably accessible and like today's motors everything's you can get to pretty readily yeah yeah except the water pump right a lot of pump takes to getting the removing the steering rack to get to the water pump and like sit Rwanda has a self centering steering as well doesn't it oh cool let's move to the back of the car and see what other changes are there there's your famous Bertoni emblem right there those tires seem but those tires that big in 75 they would have been missional XW X's yes sir they're in that size rain and these are is this American this mirror is that European as well the mirrors generally were not put on the cars of the factory so and often didn't come on to the cars till they were absolutely required these car these mirrors are unique to this car but I have period photos of the of the car back in the day with those exact mirrors this looks like you can see some gandini this spoda has this and - father you open this and that's where the gas goes on the passenger side there is a fuel flap right okay let's come around the back of the car this is probably one of the most dramatic places where they've cleaned up the rear-end the US version of this looked horrible didn't tell us what was wrong absolutely and it frustrated Maserati and Marcello Gandini immensely the first thing the d-o-t told the Maserati and regarding the importation of the car was that the taillights were not allowed to be in set into the Plexiglas and they just they just made that up and Marimar try to argue it eventually acquiesced and they had to move the the taillights where the current bumper is where the European bumper is then that necessitated the bumper to be put down lower where the exhaust is a big massive ugly rubber baby buggy bumper yeah kind of thing and then the exhaust has resonators how to be flipped to lower those down and it just became a design that had no function or purpose obviously much cleaner and that's another Gandini signature piece the Espada has this and so many companies that come copied I think that was it the Honda CRX I think they yes I think they might have had a similar piece like this and of course this rear hatch opens can you open that up let's see surprisingly practical car there's a lot of room in it I say that for those of you they're trying to convince a spouse and no honey really I mean you know this would be good we can go places and no nowhere we can take trips and do stuff but you actually get quite a few things in there what's in here is this battery this is a toolkit I don't like it okay and like most Italian cars of the period these tend to wear out in this castle yeah yeah but then I saying is this car is all original full spare tire down there well spare don't get that anymore likes you up in the front actually it is a narrow spare huh oh it is very cool exhaust as I mentioned before your gas cap is here what do you think oh they are right there and you know what's interesting you realize when an artist gandini is look at this shape of this window now it almost you almost take it for granted you go okay but you know sit with a pencil and design the rear window of a car yourself I am NOT a designer I couldn't do it I couldn't make it that elegant this sweeping curve here it's just in it and it sort of it's curved you know it's not easy to do I mean that's what designers do they make it look easier this looks like a car somebody just sketched Oh pure design but it's not so you sit down you all the little details like this that route that window as well but doors open nice and wide the back is hilarious oh that's the funniest rear seats I've ever seen this is the one of the best examples of 70 style I've seen because a lot of 70s cars just they were trying to meet federal regulations they did it just didn't work whereas this is just and what else I like all the little stickers over here this looks like some factory sticker the thought of what does that say datura in Dajjal what does that mean I'm not really quite sure like whatever it is it sounds cool the tourists whatever it is or dodge you I'm not sure yeah but you know it's all those little things that make the car original and unrestored that's what's cool this car has been well maintained for God almost 40 years and why would you only drive this car 500 miles a year for 40 years it doesn't make any sense but I'm glad somebody did and I'm glad you're the right guy to say but what kind of shape was it when you got it was it pretty much we've just maintained it and detailed it and done a little touch-up here and there and did the bumper conversion so we did really do some work around sealing the water pump and yeah very little work done to it and these are pretty bulletproof engines and in that sense they're almost like American v8 this is probably the most American of European v8s in the sense that their low rpm redline torquey at the bottom I'm anxious to take it for a ride can we take it from right absolutely let's do it very torquey v-8 feels like a Mustang that went to college in Europe you know it's got got a big v8 it's got a five-speed and for 1975 is a lot of power a lot of younger guys might not know that the mid-seventies were dark days for performance cars this is one of the few bright lights this would have been considered an extremely powerful car in 1975 what was the horsepower on it pushing up toward the 300 horsepower 300 horsepower was a lot especially for a European car in the mid 70s even the Porsche Turbo was what 250 I think something like that if I'm not mistaken and your trim they would come out detail out to up to 330 horsepower yeah sight lines are good and of course that great Maserati sound you can still feel some of the citroen influences when I first got in this car I press the clutch down I got oh my god it took a lot of force to push the clutch down it's a pretty heavy clutch then of course as soon as we started the hydraulics came into effect and all of a sudden boom it was like touching it with your toe same thing with the brake just a very light touch the rear seats in this thing are hysterical I mean I think they're there just for insurance purposes you could say although it's a four-seater I don't know who would sit there I mean I know with no one could sit back there very sophisticated engine for 1975 for cam all alloy 4.9 liter 300 horse he said what 320 in European trim this cars got a nice patina to it the gears are nice and left in there's a bit of a throw but I like that it when you put your foot in it you feel that Maserati heritage I'm a classic 70s dashboard layout the Countach be a spotter they all have a similar sort of flat panels tachometer here oil pressure water temperature speedometer and miles per hour this is an American model obviously air conditioning vents all over the place and the air conditioning really works oil temperature voltmeter and of course clock and you got just real seventies radio that's that's what people would put in you know that was the aftermarket replacement that was better than the factory radios they don't really do that anymore everything is an integrated system but probably my least favorite thing of this car would be this big pad here this is pre airbag don't forget so that's kind of what you had to do that's the way they did it it's not terrible but it doesn't seem very Italian I like a thin wheel of wooden wheel but by 1975 the feds were starting to encroach and everything you couldn't have that kind of stuff anymore but it's ok it'll probably save your life like an American v8 the red lines about 5500 right I can't get over how comfortable these seats are this is a car you get in you drive to San Francisco or maybe you go to Vegas the air conditioning is Italian or American American compressor Italian okay on the components yeah that's be a very reliable to tell you an air conditioning is that no modern supercars are so wide to me that to Lamborghini Aventador it's a nice car but my god it's so wide it takes up the whole Lane I like the size of it you know this really is a definition of grand touring car extremely comfortable seats power brake just touch it power clutch or I guess would you say how would you say power I probably assisted its power clutch power steering for a very light very light touch light feel it's not the kind of car that's gonna beat you up or wear you out but you know we've only been in third gear running around here let's take it up in the freeway and drop it in the fifth and see what she cruises that fifth gear at 60 miles an hour ten of what 2,600 rpm something like that nice big v8 under stressed wonderful cruising car now truth be told it out super cause of this our real chore to drive but this is very elect and the air-conditioning work wow what a treat to drive an original unrestored car exactly as it came from the factory be sure to check out the Riverside International Auto Museum in Riverside California what's the website WWE Versailles international org yeah very cool we're gonna take our cameras down there one day and do a piece but like I said if you get down there before I do let us know point it on the comments section Doug thank you very much what a treat this was I hope you enjoyed your ride this Maserati as much as I did so what is Tasman mean again camp Singh is one of the winds that blows in the Maivia Mediterranean area that's right it's the wind that blows in the Mediterranean area I don't know what Lamborghinis got Bulls Maseratis got wind I don't know why they do it but as I said extremely original rare car unusual color has all the elements to be a collector car and still reasonably priced so if you find one of these and they're fairly easy to work on aren't they uh yeah really easy not too bad not too bad so we'll see you guys next week you

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 669,582

Rating: 4.9193778 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Automotive, Cars, Garage, horsepower, Jay, Leno, mods, custom car, Speed, Fast, modded cars, mechanic, fastest car, Jay Leno's Garage, cars, exotic cars, interview, custom, Leno car, funny, Leno funny, car show, Rare, Motorcycles, racing, jay leno interview, auto, drive, power, fast, amazing, cool, the cars, vehicle, 1975 Maserati Khamsin

Id: en0vS29sUF8

Length: 16min 51sec (1011 seconds)

Published: Sun May 26 2013