Maserati Kyalami: The Swan Song Of The Trident Glory

Right after Alejandro De Tomaso took over Maserati, his first concern was to give a strong sign of leadership. Thanks to Ford’s financial strength, in the previous years he managed to buy companies in the Italian motor industry such as Ghia, Vignale, Innocenti, Benelli and Guzzi. At the time he set up his own company, De Tomaso Automobili, Maserati was about to be sold to Citroën; the Orsi family finally realised that the company needed great investments on infrastructure and new models and it wasn’t prepared to do so. Even Citroën didn’t have broad enough shoulders to carry on with the plans and opted for an exit strategy to minimize the loss. The Italian public company GEPI entered the scene to avoid the risks of social turmoil following the lay-off of so many workers. As it always happens, GEPI could not face the management of such a drifting company and let Alejandro onboard, who eventually bought the shares which are still in its hands.

As anticipated, Alejandro wanted a new model. He was the captain Maserati was in strong need of, he was the right man, ready to radically change the marque’s fate. We all know that to conceive a new model and put it into production may take quite a lot of time, but on the other hand we also know that the ego of Alejandro was second to none. He must have thought he could just make it happen in a few months. Several months passed, in fact, between the 8th of August 1975, when Alejandro signed the agreement with GEPI to acquire part of the Maserati shares, and the Geneva Motor Show in March 1976, when the new model of the trident factory made its debut on the world scene.

In a break with a long tradition of regional wind names, the Kyalami, named after the famous south African race track, was not a new car, it just couldn’t be. The volcanic race driver de Tomaso traded the newly-born Kyalami as a new car, but in fact it was a Longchamp in evening dress. Tom Tjaarda had designed the Longchamp for De Tomaso three years before, in answer to Ford’s CEO Lee Iacocca’s ambition to challenge Mercedes on the ground of the high-performance coupe 4-seaters. At that time, De Tomaso could count on two of the most famous bodyshops in Italy, Ghia and Vignale, so he thought about economies of scale. The Kyalami wasn’t meant to be identical to the Longchamp, hence Alejandro asked Pietro Frua, the wizard of the most beautiful Masers, to work on Tjaarda’s lines and get that evening dress out of it. Pietro Frua worked mainly on the bonnet and front part. It wasn’t merely a face lift, the Kyalami exudes strength and sportiness, yet gracefully. Pietro Frua made a Maserati with few changes, the last Maserati 2-door coupe with a beating V8 heart, the last version of the 450S V8, the swan song of a long tradition of sports cars, but by no means the least glorious.

Alejandro kept as much as he could of the Longchamp: he had to take advantage of what was already available in the factory, namely chassis, front and rear suspensions, body and interior. The change in look was amazing. The effort and investment to make it possible, very little. The tail lights of the Alfa Romeo 2000, Indy 4.7 and Deauville were replaced by rarer units mounted on the Citroën-Maserati SM. In the front section, four round lights (as in the Mangusta) were preferred to the rectangular Ford Granada MK I’s units. Over a period of eight years the Kyalami’s production clocked 206 cars (not many indeed!), enough to make it the rarest of the production sports cars with a V8 engine derived from the 450S’ unit. The Kyalami’s chassis has been designed by Gianpaolo Dallara, just like the de Tomaso Longchamp and Deauville. He gave the car exceptional handling features even at high speed, and according to the test drivers of the period he made it “the best driving Maserati”. I completely agree with them! Driving the Kyalami is a unique experience, the feeling behind the wheels is definitely the one of a “modern” car although the car’s aesthetics remind us that we are in the ‘70s and not ‘90s. Great road holding and braking power, chassis stiffness, easy driving are some of the main features I found on this car. The Kyalami was introduced four years after the Mexico was discontinued, but it’s a completely new generation of cars. I always wonder what would be like driving a Mexico with a Kyalami chassis, the answer will be certainly: super! After the launch, a 4.9-litre unit became available on the market, slightly more powerful than the 4.2, but with a considerable higher torque. Only 25 cars were fitted with the automatic gearbox (3-speed BorgWarner fitted also in the QP3).

Ermanno Cozza, after a lifetime spent at the factory of Viale Ciro Menotti, still recalls Mr. de Tomaso’s instructions to replace any faulty automatic gearboxes under warranty, as the labor cost was way more expensive than the cost of the parts.

During the years the Kyalami didn’t change, as very few improvements were installed. It stole the heart of Luciano Pavarotti who eventually bought one in 1978. He was just one of the famous owners of these special coupes. As a matter of fact, not many cars can count in their palmarès two of the designers that made the biggest difference in cars history, Tom Tjaarda and Pietro Frua. Both of them found in the proportions of lines, curves and surfaces the key to beauty and harmony. The car that was born to show the world the multitalented Alejandro de Tomaso slowly faded away, almost left to starvation. In the last three years of production roughly 30 cars left the factory. It was no longer time for an “old school” V8, the newcomers had to take over, the Biturbo range was waking up.

The “best driving” Maserati is a significant car under every respect, possibly the quintessence of the brand of the Trident. Its only fault was that de Tomaso wanted it and Maserati aficionados traditionally have never liked the white and blue race driver who came to Italy to find its place in the pinnacle of Italian car manufacturers.

Words and photos by Manuel Bordini