The Maserati Bora was officially released to European and American markets in 1971, the car was a significant milestone for Masterari – a marque that had developed a reputation for using outdated engineering technologies.
Designed by the legendary Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Bora had the classic wedge-shape used by many of Giugiaro’s creations throughout the 1970s and 1980s including the Lotus Esprit, the DeLorean DMC-12, the De Tomaso Mangusta and the Porsche Tapiro concept car (to name just a few).
The Bora was a revelation for its era and had significant impact on supercar design throughout the ’70s, it was exceedingly well built and much thought had been given to making it a drivable, liveable supercar rather than a racing car with blinkers – which could describe many high performance sports cars of the time.
Maserati ensured that the Bora had ample trunk space (in the front) so it could be used as a GT car, they also bolted the engine to a rear subframe that was mounted to the main chassis with vibration dampers – to reduce cabin shaking. The engine bay had sound-proofing and was separated from the main cabin with a pane of glass, to keep the hum of the engine low, even at autobahn speeds.
The cabin of the Bora was beautifully appointed, the steering wheel and pedal cluster were both movable to allow the driver to adjust the cabin to suit his or her size and driving style – the moveable steering wheel also made it far easier to enter and exit the cabin.
Powered by a 4.7 or 4.9 litre V8 the Bora produced 310hp at the rear wheels and had a listed top speed of 175mph, all this power was pushing through a ZF-1 5-speed transaxle (the same one used on the GT40, BMW M1 and the Pantera). From a handling perspective, the Masterati Bora was a revelation, it was fitted with fully independent suspension on all four corners with coil springs, telescopic shocks and anti-roll bars – making this the best handling car the marque had built up until this point.
If you’d like to park this particular Bora in your garage, you’ll need to make your way to the Auktion 100 Klassische Automobile & Motorräder due to be held on the 30th of November 2013 – click here to read more.
Via our friends at Classic Driver.
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