If asked to name something the three sleek coupes above have in common, you'd probably say "Well, they're all Maseratis." And that's true, so far as it goes, but they have something deeper in common, as the white Bora and red Merak, as well as the black Khamsin, were all the offspring of the brief, productive, and stormy marriage of Citroen and Maserati...
Citroen, looking for an engine to power a luxury GT project they'd begun designing in 1961, purchased a controlling stake in the Modenese firm in 1968. They settled on a 90-degree, 4-cam V6 based on a Maserati V8 design, in 2.7 liter size to meet French tax laws, and included their trademark DS-derived hydraulic controls for suspension and brakes, along with new speed-sensitive variable assist power steering. With body design by Robert Opron, the SM won rave reviews when it appeared at the Geneva show in March 1970...
Pietro Frua had designed Maseratis since the Fifties, with his coupes and spiders on the bespoke A6G 2000 series leading to contracts for real production cars, the 1963 Quattroporte sedan and Mistral coupe and spider in 1964. The Citroen takeover of Maserati must have looked like a chance to get another idea into production, and Frua's design for a Citroen SM with wedge profile and flying buttresses completing the fastback shape behind a near-vertical backlight made for a more sporting impression. Because this was a front-engined, front-drive car, one wonders if a conventional fastback with rear hatch would have offered better interior space. The buttress and flat deck idea seemed more suited to a mid-engine design. And within a year, it would be used on a mid-engined Maserati...
When Giorgetto Giugiaro's Ital Design reworked their Bora design into the Merak, with a 3-liter version of the V6 in the SM, the car featured cast-aluminum buttresses with open space where the Bora featured a glazed fastback and sides. It's not certain that Giugiaro was inspired by the buttresses on the Frua-designed SM shown above, but it's likely he was aware of the car.
Maserati Meraks built from 1972 through the end of the Citroen-Maserati combine in 1975 featured the Citroen SM instrument panel with its oval instruments, shown below. As with the Bora, Citroen hydraulics were employed in the braking system, but this approach was changed when De Tomaso took over in 1978. The last Meraks were built in 1981...
The Merak's big-engined brother, the Bora, was introduced the year before it in 1971. Sharing the same 104-inch wheelbase as the Merak, and with Citroen hydraulics controlling 4-wheel disc brakes, the Bora was initially powered by Maserati's 4-cam V8 in 4.7 liter form, with 4.9 liters standard on US versions from '72 on, and available in Europe from '76 on. The car combined civilized accommodations and a relatively quiet interior with stunning performance, and around 550 examples were built by the end of production in 1980.
The Bora's cabin featured contoured seats with a vertical (but not fore and aft) adjustment; instead of that the pedals and wheel were fully adjustable. It resulted in a "user-friendly" place for driver and passenger, before that was a phrase. Unlike the Merak, the Bora had its own, dedicated instrument and control layout.
The end of Ghibli production after 1973 left a gap in the product line between the mid-engined Bora shown below, and the more practical, 4-passenger SM. The yellow coupe lurking in the background was the answer from Maserati, and Bertone...
Marcello Gandini's design for a new front-engined V8 coupe, the Khamsin, appeared in prototype form at the 1972 Turin show, but did not enter production until 1974, the year after the last Ghibli. Unlike the Ghibli, it offered 4-wheel independent suspension, and Citroen hydraulics for the brakes along with the speed-sensitive power steering that was noted by testers for remarkable responsiveness.
The low, tapered wedge made the car look longer than it was; wheelbase was 4 inches less than the Bora. Compared with competition like the Lamborghini Espada and Aston Martin V8, the 4.9 liter Khamsin was lighter, faster, and more fuel efficient. The vertical glass panel between the tail lights added rear vision to the sloping glazed hatch, and provided another detail to puzzle bystanders. Overall, the car was praised for the driving experience it offered, and production continued into 1981.
I encountered this Khamsin when it was a new car, on the street in Nice in September of '74. The metallic paint shows off Gandini's sharply-tapered planes, even in the rain. The meter seemed to have run out, though, as it soon would on the Citroen-Maserati marriage...
Bertone also designed the Quattroporte II, based on the SM chassis, around the same time as the firm was designing a suggested BMW 5-Series. The 3-liter, front-drive Quattroporte II has some similarities to that car, especially the nose profile, but oddly stretched proportions from the 122.2" wheelbase, and fussy detailing on the rear roof pillar. It was a casualty of disagreements between Citroen and Maserati, and only 12 were built starting in 1974; the Citroen-Maserati divorce happened in 1975.
The Frua-designed 1971 Quattroporte prototype below took a distinctly more Maserati-based approach to a new sedan. It was a front-engined 5-liter V8 based on a stretched Maserati Indy coupe chassis, so it featured rear-wheel drive. The wheelbase of 108.3 inches, along with Frua's cleaner handling of the glassy greenhouse, created better proportions and a sharper impression than Bertone's Quattroporte II. Apparently the King of Spain agreed; he purchased this 1971 example, and second Frua prototype went to the Aga Khan in 1974. Despite his success with the first 1963 Quottroporte, with 776 examples built until the end of production in '69 (the Citroen era), Pietro Frua had difficulty getting his ideas into series production by Citroen-Maserati. His sleek versions of the Quattroporte and the Citroen SM are reminders that the rejected ideas from the Citroen-Maserati union were as intriguing as the ones that made it into series production...
Color Photo Credits:
All color photos are by the author.
Monochrome Photo Credits:
Citroen SM: youtube.com
SM compared with Frua SM, plus shot of Maserati Merak dash: citroenvie.com
Frua SM front 3/4 view: mundosobrerodas.org
Maserati Quottroporte II: Maserati, at maserati.com
1971 Maserati Quottroporte Frua prototype: Dirk de Jager, for RM Sotheby's
*Footnote:
We did a survey of Henri Chapron's special bodies for the Citroen SM, as well as his special DS Citroens, and bodies on earlier French classics, in "The French Line Part 3: Henri Chapron---Standing Time's Tests", our post for February 12, 2020. Separate essays on Citroens and Maseratis are almost too numerous to list, but maybe we'll get around to it after getting some real work done...
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