Maserati Quattroporte (1974)

The second set of Maserati Quattroporte is produced from 1974 to 1975 by the Italian carmaker Maserati at the time of the acquisition by the French group Citroën. It was the first and only Maserati with front-wheel drive.

The Quattroporte is also called simply the 1974 Maserati Quattroporte II and comes from the Project AM 123. Its world premiere October 3, 1974 at the Paris Motor Show as a concept car, the car leaves the stylistic canons which characterize the first round of the 1963 Quattroporte, which is a very classic and elegant line that are heavily chrome and a large front dominated by the classic grille of the Trident, to take the lines much more sober and straight, in vogue in the early '70s. The design was the work of the Centro Stile Bertone at the request of the Citroën developed a line characterized by simple straight lines and parallel to the side very clean, had the classic Maserati brand set up on the post back on airfoils. The front instead exposes a mask that separates the small lights, which is also very compact and most developed horizontally. Frames and chrome trim make the whole remarkably elegant though less original than before, oddly, has forced large windscreen wipers to apply three small dimensions in order to ensure optimal visibility. The rear, however, has a style all too easy with a few lights and a chrome rectangular lower bumper unpainted and a large tailgate that houses a spacious and flexible luggage area considerably, although the rear bench seat does not present the possibility of rollover.

For the Quattroporte II had taken the house Citroën 205x70 R15 tires with chrome rims that do not completely typical holes suitable to cool the brake system. The style of hoops is similar to models of large sedans produced by the French as the DS. Only the specimens prepared from 1975 to 1978 have alloy wheels drilled by drawing more sporty. The classic brand identification Bertone was applied on the front fenders in plain sight.

Technical specifications

The model was designed by engineers of the Citroen, but because of scarce financial resources of the French group, with the Quattroporte II were applied shares many techniques with the high range of the French company. In particular, was adopted as the basic frame a new floor with the engine positioned longitudinally in the front and shifts the torque to the front wheels via a 5-speed manual transmission. Sharing components with the Citroën SM model, besides the mechanical pattern relates to the hydropneumatic that guaranteed greater comfort especially on long trips, hydraulic power steering that hardened steering at high speed, servo-assisted braking and the planting of electronic climate control with front and rear speakers.

The mechanical department ended with the refined geometry independent suspension with front and rear configured as outlined in multiple arms. The braking system was composed of four ventilated disc brakes ensuring a full load of 100 to 0 km / h recorded in less than 40 meters.

Engine

The adoption was a 3.0-liter engine. Already in 1968 Giulio Alfieri had to study a V6 gasoline engine and big V8 derived from the Maserati of 2 cylinders. The result was the 2.7 V6 in the C114 family which was sold to Citroen and found lodging in the boot of MS (sister of the Quattroporte II). The C114 underwent an evolution, through an increase in the diameter of the cylinder 87.0 mm to 91.6 mm, the engine capacity grew to 2965 cc and power went up to 210 horsepower delivered at 6,000 revolutions per minute [1]. The new 3.0 engine went immediately into the hoods of Merak and Maserati Quattroporte II grants to the first performance of all respect and for the large performance sedan only modest, particularly penalized by the large size of the car, the front-wheel drive and the great weight of the chassis structure .

The 6-cylinder 90 ° V with Weber 44 carburetor DCNF owned the single point injection and paid the maximum torque at high revs. The compression ratio was 8.8:1. According to Citroën engineers had not been possible to accommodate the large cylinder V-8 engine that equips the previous set of understeer due to the Quattroporte was produced.

Production

Shortly after the presentation, was passed the prototype stage by starting the construction of a small contingent of Pre-series, intended for the hype and tests for approval. The Quattroporte II not reached the production stage, both for development problems to the body, either because it was deemed unprofitable by Peugeot, which in 1974 took control of the Citroen, facing serious financial difficulties.

The Quattroporte II saw even before the birth of a dark fate: the reliable production of the Citroën officially ended in early 1975 after only 13 specimens left the assembly line. Of these, 6 were built according to standards set by the French, while the remaining 7 were later completed and tested between 1975 and 1978 by the new ownership De Tomaso. To date, it is estimated that only 5 of 13 examples of the Quattroporte II are existing

source: http://pediaworld.com/category/cars/