Throughout my youth I had a dream garage in my head. With a maximum of five cars allowed, a revolving stream of exotica came and went, with only one car a constant, the Lamborgini Espada. Maybe its time to revisit the garage and shake things up a bit..
Here we have the Maserati Kyalami, launched at the 1976 Geneva Motor Show. This model was essentially a reworked De Tomaso Longchamp, with a styling makeover by Pietro Frua. The Kyalami was the first Maser developed under the ownership of Alejandro de Tomaso.
Built from ’76 to ’83 the Kyalami was launched with a Maserati four overhead cam 4.2 litre V8, enlarged to 4.9 litres in ’79. The Longchamp had used USA sourced Ford V8 engines.
The Kyalami is named after the Kyalami Grand Prix circuit here in South Africa, where a Maserati-powered Cooper T81 won the South African Grand Prix in ’67. Only 210 Kyalamis were made, making this a rare sighting, and this being a right hand drive model rarer still.
This car was parked outside Crossley and Webb, a classic car dealership, and I snapped the hell out of it. I guess I was trying to get my head around the design, and falling in love with it at the same time.
In the first photo you may have noticed smoke billowing in the background. It was coming from a fire on the slopes of Table Mountain. After shooting the Kyalami I worked my way up to Oranjezicht, a suburb high on the slopes, to get a closer look. The helicopters, as always when there is a fire on the mountain, scoop water from a dam just across from the green house.
Parked slightly to the right of the action was a wonderfully patinated old Ford truck. They were sold here but you don’t see them often. When I was a teenager we had one very briefly; the high petrol consumption saw to that..probably also the reason they are scarce now.
Around the corner I came across this wonderful DS, with it’s Jaguar 420 companion. The DS production ended in ’75, the 420 in ’69, so they would have shared roads with the Kyalami back in the mid ’70’s. Each had a really strong national flavour, a wonderful thing.
Here’s an Austin Healey 3000 come to look at the helicopters scooping water from the dam. Fires on Table Mountain are a regular occurence in Summer, and with high winds and steep mountain sides making it dangerous for fire fighters on foot, using the helicopters is a safe and effective method.
I couldn’t get the Kyalami out of my head and returned another day to take more pictures and see if my feelings had changed.
I’d seen my first Espada earlier this year, its innards out, at Auto Azzuri, and had been taken aback at how low it was, as in impractically low, dangerously low in Cape Town’s dense unforgiving traffic. Unlike the lovely Kyalami, which is the perfect man-about-town express, not showy, just masculine, authoritative and quite timeless.
I seldom take pictures of car interiors in the street. Here in Cape Town, looking inside someone else’s car isn’t cool. It will get you a dirty look or worse. the Kyalami’s dash is a nice squared up affair, which looks like its topped with suede or Alcantara.
My Dream garage will remain just that, a dream, but it needs an update. This Kyalami elbows out the Espada, as it is such an elegant car in the flesh, and is a great 2018 garage addition. I was lucky enough to see it in action too, and the way it hustles up the road carried on its deep V8 woofle had me completely smitten. The rest of the garage? another conversation another day…
Whoah. That’s a beaut of a car, even with the Euro Ford Granada hints. I like Frua style.
The ’77 to ’85 European MK II Granada? now you say it I see common themes. This Granada had a lot of clean minimal style for a mid priced car at the time.
in two door form it was quite rare.
the ultimate senior citizen mobile.
I bought my Granada from a senior citizen when I lived in Germany. Loved that car. It was a wagon that looked just like this one. Looks nothing like the featured car
My neighbour’s grandpa had one exactly like that circa 1989.
The MkII wagon was built around the earlier, rounder hard points of the Euro Granada MkI.
Yes, the MkII. Old person carrier or not, it was well styled.
[img]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Ford_Granada_2_Tuerig_bei_Rhein.jpg/800px-Ford_Granada_2_Tuerig_bei_Rhein.jpg[/img]
working image?
The Kyalami hasn’t too much that’s different from the Longchamp, but it’s sufficient to alter it entirely. It looks much finer.
Have another look at “your” Espada, though. You might just get bored with the Maser eventually, whereas the drama of the Lambo will never fade.
As a minor note, the later Longchamp 351 engines were for some reason made by Ford Australia. It’s so near to Italy, I suppose…
Yet again, superlative photos. Nothing like the casual addition of a helicopter putting out fire to enliven the montage.
Guess I am being too hasty ‘dumping’ the Espada, as a kid cars like this were a lifeline showing what was possible out there in the big modern world beyond my little end-of-the-bus-route existence!
Are you sure the copter wasn’t really airdropping classic cars instead of fighting a fire? That’s an amazing set of cars in one location!
Amazing photographs with the helicopters in action; nicely done.
…and this is its origin…
Looks like a Fiat 130 Coupe gone semi wrong
I guess photo is your “other thing”. Congratulations!!
Thanks! Haha! you got me.. when Doug asked about the ‘other thing’ the other day I was wondering if I should say something but though I’d rather shut up..
Great post and pictures. I am also a fan of both the Lamborghini Espada and the Maserati Kyalami. When I had first become aware of the Kyalami, my first impression was that in a supercar world full of fastbacks (almost exclusively), the Kyalami’s stylists (which I learned were from the house of Frua, thanks to you) made a notchback coupe look at least as sexy.
One thought when looking at the profile shot of this car: the +2 seats in the back would be utter torture to a 6′ guy like me, even sitting sideways back there for even a few blocks.
I love the coming together of cars from around the same general era (if only loosely) from four separate countries. You are right, the culture of each car comes through in the company of the others. If only you had found something German or Sweedish or Japanese to add to these. 🙂
Does a picture taken on the same day count? I took this image of a 911 at a Club 9, a classic dealer, later in the day. I actually had the image in the story, but dropped as I didnt want it to clash with the Kyalami.
“Does a picture taken on the same day count? ”
Absolutely! This one carries on that nationality-based theme perfectly.
Haha! Lesson learnt! Thanks. This theme deserves further time amd effort.
There is a late model 911 visible through the windshield and driver’s side window on the interior shot of the Kyalami. How’s that?
Amazing observation Charlie! I didnt see it before and went back to my photos to see if other shots shed light. I conclude its another car; the small white car in the passenger side window is part of the reflection on that side of the road, encompassing the white wall, the corner, and the white car parked around the corner. Also the smaller car has bright wheel finishing, while the car across the road has black wheel centres.
I hadn’t noticed that there were two of them! And now that I look closer, I also see a Range Rover parked on the side street. Boy, that’s some neighborhood!
Beautiful car and pictures!
Very nice pictures. For some reason I’m not a fan of sports cars, perhaps because I grew up riding relatively small cars and always wanted larger ones, with high speed not being high on my list. My dream car would be a last generation-RWD Volvo S90, so coolness is a non-issue.
But, but, this Kyalami looks a lot like a sports sedan, too low, but a large car anyway, with the right proportions…and it’s automatic. And photos are great.
Rear lights look to much like Fiat 130’s. Anybody knows if effectively they were taken from there.?
I saw a red Kyalami at the Monterey Historic Car Races years ago when Maserati was the featured marque. However, we were entering the gates right behind him, so I got to sit behind him the whole way up the long entry hill which was moving extremely slowly. Just a hint of smoke from the exhaust pipes, the sound was great, and a lovely sight. It moved way up in my personal dream garage ranking right then and there, much as it has for you.
It’s lower and wider than one would expect and the later Maserati BiTurbo coupe draws some inspiration from it as well. But as others have mentioned there are sure hints of Euro Granada in it, the style of which I’ve always been a fan of.
Congratulations on a very rare sighting, curbside no less!
I’ll take the Ford-powered DeTomaso version, thank you.
Once again you’re enchanted me with your superb photography in a far-away place, and today with such a splendid find (along with the others). I will admit that the Kyalami had somewhat fallen off my radar, and I enjoyed the opportunity to get reacquainted. A beautiful coupe, if a bit wide and flat at the rear. But that was hardly uncommon at the time.
Amazing photos. The one with the white vans looks like it was set up for a Volkswagen ad.
Yes, that one caught my eye too.
I too enjoy the looks of the Kyalami, but I will admit, it doesn’t feel as special to look at. My problem is that the Kyalami came out right after what were, in my opinion, three of the best looking cars that Maserati ever made, the Bora, Merak, and Khamsin. Something that came out after had to look really special, and this wasn’t as special. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a fault of the car, that’s just my expectations at work because those three cars seemed impossible to live up to from a styling point of view. But, the Kyalami still suffers a bit. I still like it, and I still think it is a good looking car that only looks better the more it ages, but it’s hard to deny the lofty expectations it couldn’t live up to.
(Before anyone chimes in, I am aware that Maserati just got sold to De Tomaso after Citroen’s bankruptcy when the Kyalami hit the scene, and that De Tomaso didn’t have as much cash as Citroen to throw at new designs, so I do acknowledge that has to be taken into account.)
Still, I enjoy the Kyalami for what it is and it is still pretty good looking. Besides, as far as Maserati’s go, it’s not the ones from the 90s, which is always a good thing.
I remember sitting the school library as a kid and stumbling across an article about the Maserati Khamsin in a car magazine. I don’t remember which car mag it was, but I remember thinking the Khamsin was the most beautiful, desirable looking car I had ever seen.
My opinion hasn’t really changed.
The Merak wasn’t my cup of tea, but the Ghibli was best of all. I like this Kyalami very much, and if I came across a good one with the proper number of three pedals in the footwell it might cause a check to be written… unless my much wiser wife caught me in the act.
When looking at Maserati under De Tomaso, one cannot help but wonder how Maserati would have fared under Fiat despite the latter’s problems during the 1970s.
Would have been interesting seeing the Kyalami, Quattroporte III and IV as well as the various Biturbo-based models instead being derived from the Fiat 130 platform (and even a RWD replacement for the latter from the late-1970s along with a Fiat 132/Argenta-sized model for the Biturbo analogue).
One could argue Lancia was more deserving of such treatment including RWD for both the Gamma and Flaminia replacement yet Stratos and Monte Carlo aside, the trend for Lancia mainstream models was in fact FWD with the Flaminia replacement in such a scenario probably using an enlarged Gamma platform of similar dimensions to the related FWD Maserati Quattroporte II.
A real Kyalami, incredible find, well done!
Beautiful photos of a great car – congrats! Plus all that helicopter action…
That Maser looks better than its Longchamps cousin. All hail Pietro Frua, whose powers were waning at the time but could still pull off some great tricks.
I understand your reticence at taking shots of interiors. Bent windows can make that v wry difficult, and I can imagine many folks looking at you funny isn’t something you want in South Africa. Over here in SE Asia, folks (even security guards) usually couldn’t care less. Or if they care, they won’t say anything. The non-confrontational ethos of Buddhist people is a true boon for the CC hunter-gatherer. In other settings, I can imagine one could get into a lot of trouble.
Are you sure that’s a Jaguar 420, btw? Looks more like an S-Type…
Thanks Tatra! Apologies! that is an S Type, I was in the area this weekend and drove past and looked properly. I occasionally catch myself out by being convinced of something rather than checking it..