LETTERS


Letters to the Bulletin on any topic connected with Brooklands – past, present or future, or about the BTM, are most welcome. Please send them to Chris Bass via chris@chrisbass.co.uk or 2 Riverside Close, Brookwood, Woking, Surrey GU24 0AP.


Maserati Quattroporte II Dear Chris, To follow up on Steve Glynn’s letter in the September-October Bulletin, the Maserati Quattroporte II was somewhat a victim of the period in which it was conceived and never really made production. From 1968 to 1975 Citroen owned Maserati and the Bertone-styled Quattroporte II was based on the French company’s SM model (which had an engine built by Maserati) and this would explain the small steering wheel on the Manx museum’s car (the SM had hydraulic steering). The fuel crisis of 1974 pushed Citroen into a


take over by Peugeot and Maserati was allowed to become bankrupt in May 1975. Around 10 years ago Maserati published the book Maserati Quattroporte – the History in which author Jurgen Lewandowski states ‘at this stage [the bankruptcy] we lose track of the Quattroporte II of which a dozen prototypes were made’. It would be lovely to see the Manx


Quattroporte II at next year’s Auto Italia, here’s hoping, perhaps matched with other series Quattroportes.


Yours, Gareth Tarr, via e-mail


Gareth saw this SM at last year’s Chantilly Arts et Elegance show on the Citroen Club stand. He says: ‘It’s a one-off Frua bodied SM which looks somewhat similar to the Maserati Merak (note the rear buttresses). Frua designed the original Quattroporte and the


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special one at this year’s Auto Italia which started this chain of letters. In the photo behind the Frua car is an SM but this is one of the special four-door saloons of which a tiny handful were built by Chapron (some for the French President).’


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