One to Buy: Celeste 1972 Maserati Bora
/
While upstarts Lamborghini and De Tomaso threw themselves into the market for large displacement mid-engined cars at the earliest opportunity, Ferrari and Maserati took a more cautious approach with multi-year development programmes that ensured the products that emerged were as polished as their demanding clientele had come to expect.
Both Ferrari and Maserati took refinement levels very seriously and, as a consequence, the resultant BB and Bora were very much in the mould of mid-engined Gran Turismos as opposed to the kind of cramped, noisy and really quite impractical offerings produced by their recently established domestic rivals.
Arguably the most well rounded of these first generation mid-engined supercars was the Bora which continued Maserati’s approach to all-round excellence. However, with its Ital Design coachwork styled by the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Bora’s exciting looks belied just how impressive it was under the skin.
Unfortunately from Maserati’s perspective, the 1970s was a tough time for high end Italian auto makers owing to a combination of widespread industrial action and poor economic conditions exacerbated by an Oil Crisis caused by war in the Middle East that led to much reduced demand for expensive gas guzzlers.
Accordingly, only 524 copies of the Bora were completed between 1971 and ‘78, a really lovely example of which will be going under the hammer at Bonhams’ Bond Street sale in London on December 16th.
Completed in December 1972, chassis AM117.432 emerged from Maserati’s factory in arguably the best colour scheme for one of these cars: Celeste with Senape upholstery. It was delivered via the Walter Bordese dealership in Turin on March 26th 1973 and the extensive history file contains copies of previous Italian and French registration documents.
While in the care of its most recent custodian, a noted collector from Britain, chassis AM117.432 has undergone more than £50,000 of expenditure at McGrath Maserati which included an engine rebuild plus overhauls of the suspension, differential, crown wheel and pinion, new fuel lines and an air-conditioning service.
Upon completion in September 2021, the Bora departed for a 1500km tour of Europe without issue. AM117.432 heads to auction as probably one of the best sorted examples of its type.
