1975 Maserati Bora - Redline the 4.9 - a 10 minute drive compilation.
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2014
- 10 minute clip driving a 1975 Maserati Bora, chassis #932. This clip briefly explores high speed driving, gear selection in twisty sections, and gets the 4.9L engine into redline territory a number of times. The engine doesn't grenade. A lot of work was done to 'Marco' last winter and after several drives this spring I'm comfortable revving the 4.9L engine a lot harder. The gear shift linkages were refurbished, reinstalled and repeatedly adjusted for best position in the gate, which eliminated last summer's 4th gear mis-shift. Also, the LHM hydraulic headlight pistons were rebuilt by Will's Imports in Salt Lake City, and the LHM brake system was fully bled, which eliminated the brief red warning light and stabilized braking action. In this clip I notice some slight mis-firing, which can be attributed to the air filter box being off, but it prompts me to put "airflow-balance the four Webers" on the To Do List. Throughout last winter, Marco was a car willing to be worked on and improved. The Bora is a masterful Grand Tourer and I couldn't be happier with ownership of this Italian creation with French DNA. Thanks for watching. - Art
- Auta a dopravní prostředky
Fabulous video of an amazing car. Thanks for posting!
Sweet sounding under-rated car
Thank you Brian - it's a pleasure to share my Bora with enthusiasts. Yes, compared to the values placed on its nearest competition - the Mangusta, Miura and 512BB - I think it is under rated. But the Bora is gaining recognition for being more "livable": Personal comfort is superior, parts and servicing costs are better. Handling is much better sorted. Those qualities have pushed its value up strongly over the past 3-4 years. And the 4.9L V8 engine was Maserati's "heart and sound" for decades - Classic and Sportscar crowned it the best sounding engine in automotive history. Sorry for the lengthy response.
It roars like a beast! That's what I like in old cars, you MUST learn to handle it, they're not simply electronic and plastic toys! lol
Thanks for sharing!
You are most welcome - the audio on this clip is more intense than the other one... Cheers!
The Bora having a higher top speed than the Merak, it's strange that they gave the Merak a front air dam and not the Bora.
When Road & Track tested the Bora in their May 1973 issue, they wrote that Bob Grossman, Maserati's largest U.S importer, claimed the engine was good for 6000 rpm, though I'm sure you don't want to verify he's right.
I see that before I watched this video, it had as many views as were Bora's produced.
Strike that last sentence; 564 were produced, not 524.
My apologies for the tardy reply! I agree completely about the air dam and have wondered the same. So I asked around among some long-time Maserati enthusiasts about the air dam, wondering if it would be a benefit to find a used one from a Merak to put on my Bora. They had mixed responses. Some felt it a too-obvious departure from originality. Others felt it didn't add much performance anyway. I'm not a total stickler for originality, and I like the way they look, but they aren't easy to find, so, I'll just wait until one drops in my lap. Cheers!
you are driving the car like a snail, could you rev it out in low gears to redline each time so we can actually see what it can do ? by the way the scenery is going by you're driving it quite slow.
Thanks for the question tpt...
I watched this 6 year old video again and I see how differently I drove it then. I bet you want to just reach in and floor the throttle instead of watching me taking it nice and easy. After all the title says I'm exploring the redline, but it really doesn't happen until the end. There was much to learn how to manage the gears and handling, transitioning from sports cars. I drive it differently now, the 2017 '20 minute Soundtrack' video I posted is a little better.
However, let me address your question and the situation as it was 6 years ago. It was problematic to show it being wrung it out on public roads for a couple reasons. I think there is a distinction to be made.
It's not what I call a sports car - with low gear ratios, in which driving is all about quick bursts of revs to accelerate, then brake hard and repeat when apexing a bunch of twisty turns.
The Bora is a Grand Touring car. The gears are tall and you plant your car to carry your momentum through the turns in larger sweeps of action. You can do twisties in a GT car too, but you basically leave it in 3rd and go up and down the revs to use torque down low and HP up high and use the engine rpm to assist in braking between turns.
Redline is only 5500rpm, and in 1st gear that is 55mph, redline in 2nd it's over 80.. so that puts me into jeopardy pretty quick. When you watch the clip, I have 'subtitled' where it hits redline, 5500 comes up fast, and that's just the way it is.
Whether the scenery is going by quickly or not is dictated by the camera's location, lens and view angles, independent of what the car is actually doing. Two easy tricks are 1.) To place the camera outside, much closer to the road or adjacent vegetation, and it makes things flash by the camera much quicker, but I lose the engine sound without an external mic.. 2.) Use a wide angle lens that draws the peripheral scenery to the edge of the screen which makes it seem like it's going by quicker.. That is something I can probably tweak, maybe you can link me to other driving videos where you sense the speed better and I'd be happy to learn from their film techniques.
Other than that it behaves just like a Grand Touring car should - it's not dramatic, and makes going fast look and feel easy. The Khamsin I just bought as a winter project car should be an even more of a plush GT experience (#humblebrag).
Rebuttal or feedback is welcome.
Cheers.
art, those carbs are a little too rich, it's burbling rich
Wow, I'm sorry I missed this comment - two years ago. You are right and the carbs HAVE been leaned 1/8 turn and the checked against plug color, which now have an appropriate tan/brown color.
I deliberately ran it rich for a while to keep temperatures cooler on the new Euro exhaust headers I installed. I had run it too lean prior to that and heat cracked a weld on the original US spec headers.
So I wanted to be cautious with the new headers, but yes it was hiccuping at mid-rpm throttle settings, and I could tell the exhaust didn't smell right.
Now the exhaust smells just right - funny how an engine has a unique exhaust smell. I'm not sure what or why, but it smells fantastic, unlike any of my others. I like to think it's because of its thoroughly efficient fuel burn.. being race-derived and whatnot.
Cheers.