Due for publication in early 2012, the full story of the Citroen Era at Maserati is brought to life by Marc Sonnery, author of ‘The Ferrari Breadvan.’ This is the definitive book on the Maserati Khamsin, Bora & Merak, plus a special section on the Citroen SM project.
Maserati - The Citroen Years 1968 - 1975 by Marc Sonnery
The least documented era of Maserati’s history, the Citroën period of Maserati ownership, was also the most misunderstood…until now, thanks to this tome many years in the making.
Those years started with immense promise as the venerable Modenese firm, previously in dire financial straits, was modernised and reorganised, the clearest evidence being the replacement of obsolete models with plainly old fashioned technology, firstly with the leading edge Bora, the most advanced and well rounded of all first generation mid engine GT cars, then the Khamsin, the most sophisticated and brilliantly competent front engined GT car of the seventies and lastly the Merak, which afforded excellent handling and a beautiful shape to a whole new group of Maserati buyers.
All these are covered comprehensively, likewise with considerable new unpublished material, the Citroën SM which caused the French manufacturer to buy Maserati when seeking an engine for its flagship Grand Tourisme.
Also covered extensively is the still born Maserati Quattroporte II, the special V8 engine which had been intended for it after the initial V6, the SM which was fitted with that prototype V8 , the Bora Group 4 racers which never realised their promising potential, and the Khamsin spyder. The author has test driven all of these cars, and was the first journalist to test a Bora Group 4 since 1973. All the various special SMs from rally to presidential versions are covered.
Included are over 70000 words of interview with Maserati and Citroën participants in the saga - several of whom had never ever been interviewed and several of whom have unfortunately since passed away- and the results of unprecedented research at Maserati and Citroën in Modena and Paris as well as major private archives.
Finally a Registry of Khamsins, with data on more than 75% of them, completes the definitive work on that era curtailed by the energy crisis, the introduction of speed limits, the quadrupling of fuel prices, the political and social unrest, all of which formed a virtual tsunami which the firm could not repel, leading to its closing and sale to de Tomaso with Italian government help, transitioning into the next era.
