I know you said you were gonna move to mostly new cars, but doing one like this is extremely satisfying and shows that you are still in touch with your base. Keep it up Doug!
If he started only doing new cars I’d probably stop watching his content lol. You should subscribe to motorweek and check out the retro reviews. Those videos are pure gold
He's probably doing only new cars now, but we can watch some classics he had in reserve. I expect they will end soon. I like them WAY more - I practically don't watch new cars reviews, but I still won't unsub. This channel doesn't deserve such treatment from the viewers. Don't act like children.
Only on paper! I bought this car in 1984 and it was a disaster. Maserati tried to put the turbo BEFORE the carburetor, which meant the carb was pressurized. It never worked right, running lean, running rich, or not running at all. Combine that with "heat soak", where all the gas evaporated in the lines if you went to lunch and then tried to restart it again. You'd sit there cranking the thing for 15 seconds before it would start to fire. I had the BiTurbo convertible and the leather that would cover the top when down shrank in the sun. It would then never snap into place again so it all flapped as you drove. The final end of the road was when the engine blew due to Masearti covering up one of the head oil return galleries with the gasket. Within 11,000 miles, that cylinder was so starved for oil, it seized and snapped the timing belt. The engine was toast. Yes, after the 3 year warranty expired... I rebuilt the engine, traded it for the new 1990 300ZX TwinTurbo and never looked back.
@@aussie2uGA I had a 85 and 86 Quatroporte with 4 webber carb set up....don't get me started. Breathtaking car to look at and sit in, and drive actually. When it worked !
@@aussie2uGA that’s a crazy coincidence to see an owner from this period actually on one of these videos. The 300zx was definitely a space ship compared to this in technology
Doug I hate to tell you, but this interior ROCKS! Despite it being for all the wrong reason as you said it still comes together to form something magical.
@@DavidRavenMoon you were royalty if you were allowed to sit on the plastic couches lol. Not Italian but other southern european... Italians Spaniards Portuguese we were all the same with the plastic furniture
@@pistonburner6448 Well my aunt's (and my mother's) parents were born and raised in Italy before coming here as adults in the early 1900's. So while my mom was Italian American, she was first generation. My mom was born in 1913 in Queens, NY. And I have been to Italy. :)
The context is important when it comes to the Maserati Biturbo. In the early 80s, the car was quite unique in this segment. The BMW E30 323i, which was the top model since the 325i first came on the market in 1985, only had 150 HP. The E30 M3 first came on the market in 1986. Mercedes-Benz had the W201 2.3-16 (185 HP in Europe) which was however a much more expensive car and similarly also with the Porsche 924 Turbo (177 HP in Europe) which had similar performances. The Porsche 944 had slightly less power (163 HP in Europe) and was in many ways in a class below. Similarly also with the Alfa Romeo GTV 2.5 which had 160 HP in Europe.
It got even better in the late 80s/early 90s with the 2,0L V6 from the Ghibli at 306 HP (even up to 330 HP on the "Cup" models). Best specific output at that time and I believe it remained that way for quite some time. And most importantly these engines are actually reliable.
@@finkbraugg The Porsche 924 Turbo (internal number 931) came in a number of different versions with more power. The best known is probably the 924 Carrera GT (internal number 937) with 210 HP. However, there was also the 924 Carrera GTS with 245 HP, the 924 Carrera GTS Clubsport with 270 HP, the 924 Carrera GTP with 320 HP and the 924 Carrera GTR with 375 HP (internal number 939).
My dad got one of these around the time I was born. Raising a family, he of course got the sedan. The best thing about this car was the smell of the interior and the exhaust sound. I remember him needing to leave it running if he left the car because it would take a miracle to start it back up. For that reason, he rarely drove it, only around town with me and my brother. It was sad when he got rid of it in 1995, but I'm sure he was relieved to get rid of that headache.
At no reserve I'd still bid like $4,000 on it.....if only the stupid IRS would pay me my refund/covid money! Seller tries to sue Doug for conflict of interest, LoL! Can't roast and sell a car at the same time, that's illegal!
@@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785 How is it illegal and why would the sell try to sue Doug? He's just making fun of how unreliable the Maserati Biturbo is. It's also completely legal to roast a car, even if don't own it. It's not like police would arrest you for roasting a car. Suing someone for making fun of a car just seems silly, if Doug starts to make fun of people or insult them for buying the Biturbo, then it would make sense. Doug probably isn't like most car enthusiasts, most car enthusiasts tend to make fun and insult people for buying or driving any car that's not a sports cars like NSX or Supra.
My dad had an 85 Liquid Intercooled Biturbo and we both loved the way it drove. I love the way this car looks - it is a slightly different than every other car out there at the time. Too bad, they swapped the carb for fuel injectors too late. I now have a Spyder 90 and I love it. Granted, I bought it, drove it for about 3500 miles and then the fans stopped working allowing the car to overheat. Fortunately, a cheap fix. Also, I get the AC working, new tires, brakes and the car had a new top. Because the rubber all around the windows is in bad shape, the interior is loud. It is a silly fun car to drive and it has the 2.8 engine. Shockingly quick. Love this car.
My cousin had one of these back in ‘91. At the time, it was the fastest car I’d ever driven. It was an EXPERIENCE and that’s what these cars are about.
Doug, that's a Biturbo E model with 205 bhp from dealer added Spearco water to air intercoolers, visible underhood. Limited to 500 examples with the Liquid Intercooled badge shown on the trunk lid. Oddly, the test car lacks the wooden Nardi steering wheel and alloys fitted to the E and has upgraded BBS wheels. The air-conditioning on the Biturbo models was colder than my full-size Cadillacs! Fun car. Perfect for date nights! What looks like leather is often PVC, especially the puffy console lid cover!
It's not an E, E was made in 85/86, and it has a wing on the bottom and 1 half the car is gray, I know because I have an E but with no intercooler, from the factory they did not come with an intercooler.
@@mehdibanaei9753 The intercoolers were installed by Spearco in the USA on all E models. It's definitely a dealer sold E. I was an owner and am in the Owners Club with a classic Ghibli.
@@alallen1030 happy new year, the one here is not an E, trust me, it does have the under skirt but not an E, not all E had the intercooler installed, you could pay your dealer as an option you could have it installed, all E are late1985/86 and have a two toned paint side skirts and a rear apron. I have a E a 430i and a 84 euro model 2.0 also had 87 425i and a 86 425 with the intercooler. I've had my 430i since I was 17 back in 1998, I eat and breathe biturbos. Love your taste with your classic.
@@unpolire ? Does southern California make cars? Yes most all my cars are European and a few are the euro market cars. I don't really get what your comment means. All I know is that I know the biturbos very well and the car here is not an E model, is that realy a big deal?
You have my respect Doug on reviewing a variety of cars from supercars to classic quirky vehicles to everyday cars and everything else. Epic Tour on the Maserati Biturbo! You also gotta love the fact on how this one is a very pristine one of those. Looks like a very fun classic Maserati to drive in. Cars and Bids is automotive heaven where you would always find cars in pristine condition. No wonder why it is so successful. Keep the amazing vids comin Doug!
Cars and Bids is one of the most ingenious business moves I've seen anyone make in a good while. He makes bucks on the site, it provides him a steady influx of content for the channel, and he can use the channel to promote both the site and the cars on it. His success is well earned and deserved.
I love Biturbo's! They are for people who take the time to learn how to use and maintain them. If you do, they are fun reliable cars. I have owned a 1986 420 Biturbo for 8 years. I always liked the proportions of the sedan body better. Mine was a low mileage Italian import that had been garaged for 12 years when I bought it. The body and interior were in great shape and with some mechanical work it was near perfect and proved to be reliable as a weekend car. I chose the early 420 model because of the relatively affordable technique (no power steering, adjustible dampers, intercoolers, huge wide tyres or double exhaust systems). Compared to other 'mass' produced cars a Biturbo really is special. And quite quick, especially for the era. Make fun of those seats all you want Doug, they are some of the most comfortable I ever sat in in any car! 😉
I remember feeling sad when I saw Top Gear crushing and destroying a few of these. I like cars like this because you need to be passionate and dedicated to own them. A "labor of love" as I would call it even. Internet is very biased towards the more common, reliable stuff and that's fair. Not everybody can or wants to have a car that is a bottomless pit of money, but this leaves many little jewels like this to be very overlooked.
Reliability is one thing. If a car breaks mechanically, you have a chance of fixing it. The rust was another thing. In the UK climate, these disappeared into a cloud of iron oxide very quickly.
@@tcm81 - Same here in Canada. These and the Quattroportes rusted and depreciated as though rust and depreciation were having a race, and the cars were the loser.
My 1984 Biturbo was a great little car with a nice ZF 5-speed. I also had an original Ghibli, so I know Maseratis. Mine was stolen after I fitted Gotti 3-pc rims and Acura NSX tires. Miss it!
@@tcm81 They did rust, but how many cars did rust like that back then? Virtually all of them! Back in the early to mid 80`s, most manufacturers were offering 1 year warranty on everything, including bodywork, if you got a new car & wanted to keep it, you had to get it rustproofed yourself, that was the norm, & if you didn't, you`d have bloody great holes in your sills, floors, wheel arches, door bottoms, roof pillars within 5 years... Thats why theres so few 70`s & 80`s cars now in the UK!
A true jewel is no demanding mistress . A true jewel rewards your TLC by living long and be reliable , not betraying you by rotting away in ten years or less . NEVER a spagetti-racer again !!!!!!!!
The Biturbo platform was used to much better effect in the Ghibli (2.8) and especially the Ghibli Cup (2.0) which at the time had the highest BHP per litre of any production car. The shamal as you rightly said was a V8 and a very different car, although fabulous too! Interesting that you mentioned the RS2 and turbo lag, as the S4 and RS4 in the B8 lineup had a biturbo that I’m sure owed a lot to the best bits of the Maserati Biturbo.
*FACT:* Maserati once experimented with a 6-valve-per-cylinder engine for the Biturbo in 1985, with the 6.36 - a 2.0-litre 36-valve twin-turbo V6 with 257 hp, but Maserati cancelled it and instead continuted to evolve the original 3-valve-per-cylinder engine throughout the life-span of the Biturbo and its derivatives.
Hi Doug I like watching your videos. Cool! I have a 1984 Biturbo myself. It was retrofitted with intercoolers many years ago and sat in a collector's garage for a long time. With me he can move freely. Yes, what you say is true: 1. they are not very reliable (unless they get good care), 2. they drive absolutely great! 3. it is a very special but discreet 3 box car from the 80s. Keep it up!
My father has 2 of them (1 for spare parts in terrible condition) and 1 thats being worked on. Still in terrible condition. But that's what you get from 20+ years of inactivity. I'm trying to bring the main back to the road but it seems impossible
In my book, this Maserati has aged pretty well when it comes to design. Love watching your video's, Doug. They are all very informative and entertaining. Cheers.
I like the 80s Quattroporte. It's boxy and kind of American looking but somehow sleek. The seats look so comfortable. I wouldn't mind owning one with an American V8 and a complete rewiring.
I had an uncle who had one of these, bought new. From the day he drove it off the lot it was nothing but problems. Something was always breaking on it and dealers were never nearby so every little repair became really expensive. I got to drive the car a few times and it was a fun to drive. The over stuffed seats were great, to this day it was the most comfortable drivers seat I've ever sat it.
I have owned three of these. An 87Si was fairly reliable… after I completely rebuilt it. I had a full on race version with a 2.8 injection engine, which was a lot of fun, but impossible to keep in California without a shop - I sold it to a guy with a shop and a passion and it’s still out there. I had another which was a typical $1500 basket case. It was unsalvageable due to rust but it had amazing covered more than 120,000 miles before someone dumped it by the side of the road in Oakland. When they work they are a lot of fun, not power at all until 2300 rpm and then they have a habit of breaking traction really easily, which is fun with an LSD. Although they only had around 180 HP you could mess with boost (of course) and get 400, which the bottom end tolerated. Badly. They also only weighed 2400 lb so you didn’t really need to, to be fair. I loved two of mine but no more for me.
Maserati North America was at 1501 S. Caron Ave Baltimore Maryland. Always lots of BiTurbos & Quattroporte’s there well into the 1990’s. Country club motors in Glen Burnie serviced this era of Maserati for years. Last time I drove by, they were still busy with Maserati repairs
My boss had a 430, it was the cleanest example you could probably find and well sorted. It was definitely a fun car, it drove great! It will do Maserati things, that’s just how it is. No matter how much money you throw at it, it will be quirky. Think of it like a b5 s4 engine feel with an e30 chassis. Sort of.
I believe the low popularity of this car is mostly a product of its time when it came out. If you look at it today, it is a fairly good driver and it looks really good actually (the wheels definitely help).
The warning label for the factory turbos because of coking issues. My biturbo was my first car and with 45000 km on it the turbos coked because the previous owner didn't do this. Now it lives on with port injection, upgraded turbos with reworked piping and cleaned up the vacuum hoses to be simple, forged internals for 29psi (2.0 bar), custom bell-housing T56 and coilovers. The coilovers and more durable transmission helped the most. So much fun because it's lightweight and easy to kick out the back end now. Currently being fully repainted because I ran into rust issues but got that resolved and new body work going on. Took 6 years to find panels. Next is headliners for me too and fix my gauges because the gears need to be rebuilt. Going to tweak the fueling some soon and going to try some new valve springs because I'm getting some float. Motor can take more boost hoping for 2.48 bar with no problems. Good video
For what it's worth, I owned one of these in the 1990s (also a 1984 model), and it was VERY reliable. I don't think it needed anything except for oil and brake pads). It was my daily driver for 3 years and I even drove it through snow. But being rear-wheel drive, the biturbo gets very skittish on anything wet or icy! While the seats look very pillowy, they are actually very comfortable and suprisingly supportive. Although on these earlier cars, they didn't use real leather or real wood, so they detriorated very quickly.
Theres a guy near me in London still using his 89 Spider as a daily, in all weathers. I`d imagine any surviving ones have had any electrical issues permanently fixed by now, so its a bit of a non-issue, especially as its a much more basic system compared to anything made in the last decade or 2.
An intercooler does NOT do anything about engine overheating. Its purpose is to cool the intake air, so that you can cram more of it into the engine and make more power. This car is from that brief weird time where people tried to use turbos with carburetors, and in this case it looks like the carb is mounted inside a pressurized air box. I don’t know if maybe there was a problem with the carburator being fed hot pressurized air that an intercooler might solve, but it seems doubtful.
Owning and maintaining a car like this must really be a labor of love. When you see something like this on the road, you know the owner is a true automotive enthusiast!
Some say, that for every Maserati logo on the car , it gains 5hp . This was a great review and definitely unique and quirky. Thank you as always for these fun vids.
I had a neighbor in the 90s who loved these and had several. He was a mechanic so that helped. If you remember wings west body kits they had a Maserati bi turbo kit and his car was the car they used in the ads.
Back in the day, when Dad worked for Kjell Qvale, he drove a couple of these as demo cars. We loved the driving experience, but yeah... they had issues, especially in the southern California heat. I remember Dad saying he was 'shocked' the TR7's were so reliable in comparison!
As a guy who lusted after these when they first came out, I really enjoyed your review of this vintage machine. I too still feel that they are an attractive car (considering the era), albeit a bit goofy on that overstuffed Italian sofa interior. Now I find myself wanting to look up (specifically) what the mechanical gotchas were back then. If I remember correctly, a main one was something bad in the engine design (so a fairly big deal!). Thanks for this fun review!
I had a neighbor growing up in the 90's, who had 2 of these. I always used to stop and stare at them because I'd never seen one anywhere else, and this dude loved them so much he bought 2.
I was given a 1984 biturbo for free, it hadn't been on the road since 1988 and had 32,000 miles, i rebuilt the dcnvh carburetor, put a battery in it and it fired up without an issue, ended up selling it when moving half way across the country....wish I still had it
@@MrPabsUk I'm in the USA, the person I sold it to was going to use the drivetrain in another vehicle.....or keep it as a project, either way that was about 13 years ago.
It would be cool to test the Ghibli Cup (evolution of the Biturbo)with the 2.0 liter 330 hp engine. That was in like 1996--most 2.0 liter turbos don't make match that specific output TODAY! There was also the 3.2 V8 Shamal (another Biturbo evolution) with 322 hp turbo V8. I love these 80s/90s Masers!!
It was my first car, S version in red with NACA air scoops on the bonnet and intercoolers from factory - sounded fantastic, pulled like a train and looked gorgeous and special. Loved it to bits, miss it a lot.
The shifter layout was common in Italian cars of the time. Most 5-speed manuals had the reverse above the first gear, compared to the conventional layout of R being placed after 5th gear.
The idea is that you have the two most used gears on a curvy road - second and third gear - close together, with the ability to quickly and accurately shift between them in a linear motion.
And when driving in 5th, you would need to rest your hand on the lever, because it would pop out of 5th gear..... after a few minutes, your won´t feel your hand, it vibrates like a ladies friend on batteries.... :) :)
As someone who`s owned loads of 70`s-90`s Italian cars (but no Maserati`s), I recognise all the switchgear, vents, boot release, rear blinds, quarter glass levers, the Vegliaflash stopwatch clock etc, so none of its quirky to me.. Its all very standard 70`s/80`s Italian car parts & construction style. The only slightly weird thing was the central locking switch position, especially as I`m sure my 83 Fiat Argenta had a central locking switch in exactly the same style as the instrument binnacle switches.. I`d imagine the c-pillar "fake fuel cap" is actually an interior vent.
With the Biturbo, Maserati was trying to take some market share from BMW 3 series during the go-go 80's. And yes, you had to let the oil in the turbos cool down after boost otherwise the turbos start to fry - and there was a lot of fried biturbo's for sale in late 80's. But I heard there was also a lot of biturbo nos parts in north America.
My uncle next door growing up had one of these in his garage for years. It never ran while I was alive, it was black with a tan and green interior, and I always wanted to fix it up and drive it. I used to sneak in the garage just to stare at it, and I would brag to my friends that my cool rock and roll uncle had a Maserati in his garage. It just recently it made its way to the scrap yard, which was absolutely soul crushing to find out and felt like the death of a dream. Or perhaps it was saving me from a nightmare. I wish I could've ridden in that Biturbo with my uncle and fulfilled my childhood dream, but it will always hold a special place in my heart
my grandfather had one and all of his friends and his own kids say the same thing: It was the biggest pile of junk on the road and my grandfather was so happy when my grandmother crashed it into a tree and totaled it. Prior to that it started burning oil profusely and smoking up a storm. The dealer was refusing to do anything under warranty so my grandfather offered to leave it idling in front of the richest country club in town during a high end event. They then changed their their tune and gave him a loaner while they fixed his.
Maserati wasn't exactly flush with cash at the time. Not that that's any excuse, but the dealer was probably afraid they'd never get reimbursed for the warranty claim and weren't too enthusiastic about losing money on the job. Glad it worked out though lol
A friend wanted to buy one new in 1983. Told them the factory they were built in was an unorganized mess which was a bad sign for quality. We go and drive one. Some old guy wearing one of those Skipper from Gilligan’s Island caps was our salesguy. Appropriate as he probably knew more about boats than cars as he knew nothing about Biturbos. My friend takes it out. Skipper shotgun. Me in the back. We go a few blocks. Water temp pegs. Electric fans not coming on. We get back to the lot. Pop the hood. Skipper for whatever reason twists the radiator cap off - releasing a flood of boiling hot coolant all over the engine. No sale.
One of my former employers was the service manager at Miller Motorcars in Greenwich, CT when these were new. He always said “They’d break if you looked at ‘em funny.” “Brand new car out on the lot; needs a starter, go throw a starter in it.” Just one of his stories that stands out in my mind
The turbos had that warning because they weren't water cooled in the '84 model year. Also, I think the analog clock in that car has been removed and replaced. I had one of these cars for a while and I would buy another - but would buy an '87 or later when they became fuel injected!
The first models actually came with these digital clocks, not analog ones. They made itvas cheap as possible. Only later models came with the expensive analog clocks.
You could really break those turbos if you didnt idle them after driving. Shutting off the engine would stop lubrication to the still spinning turbocharger and it would wear out faster. Same with old Volvos and Saabs.
Dear Doug,I own a Biturbo S that is in far better condition than this,also with the original wheels (this one has horrendous aftermarket wheels). The Biturbo was a great idea developed without money,and that's why expecially the early models have many faults. Year after year they introduced improvements that made this a better car,such as intercoolers,M.a.b.c. (Maserati automatic boost control),fuel injection,a limited slip differential by Torsen,and so on.Mine is still with the carb but has the intercoolers,and is as new,perfectly mantained in Maserati service by her first and only owner before me. That's why is reliable.Of course is a car full of faults,but if you look at her as a classic car to use during the weekend,is really a nice car,powerful and with an intriguing sound and a very good ZF manual gearbox. It seems that the interior is badly assembled but,even if they produced 35000 Biturbo and derivates from 1982 to 1994,they were largely hand made,and this adds charm,in my opinion. I can say that is not a car for everyone:you have to drive her respectfully,and this does not means that you have to go slow,but that you have to know how to start,to switch off and to drive her.People who like to do these things generally love their Bitutbo,and find them also pretty reliable.My Biturbo S was an improved model,with the italian market 2 liter V6 developing 210 Bhp,and with Modena number plate. Biturbos are still a bargain but not many of them survive and for the special limited edition models,like my S (only 1038 built),or the SI(990 built),or the Karif (221 built),or the Racing (210 built),or the Spyders the prices are growing because they are nice and fun to drive,and they have top performances.It's always a pleasure to watch your tests!!
The test drive in 1984 that I did was the most memorable for one reason: the sales associate managed to disintegrate the engine during the first part of test drive. No idea if the Maserati engines were equipped with rev limiter. He was very embarrassed when that happened. So, no sale...
Most carb cars don't have rev limiters. And considering they were still using manual (rather than automatic) chokes back then, I'd hazard a guess and say no rev limiter. What did you end up buying instead of the Maserati?
Thank you for doing this review Doug. I was dreading watching it as I own two of these cars myself and a Ferrari 308 that you essentially compared it to but you gave it deserved and fair criticism considering it's media coverage over the years. I like the Biturbo as well, I'm a cool quirky 80's guy and it's a cool quirky 80's car so I was hooked when I bought my first one. You were spot on when you essentially said Ferrari's often have more reliability issues but don't get as much hate because they're Ferrari's. That was a great analogy. Just wanted to say this is one of my favorite videos you've done. I may be biased but it's nice to see you come back down to earth for a bit.
I had one, and when it came time to change the timing belt, I was sad to discover there was a designe problem, the belt is not properly routed, as to prevent jumping a tooth... the belt does not hug the gear driving it, and the belt will jump. Another problem is the rear end.... Salisbury rear end, it is ready to bite you, it is almost impossible to drive in the wet, both wheels will quickly engaged, just like driving a positive rear end... in the streets.... for sure will catch you distracted one day, and you will loose grip on both rear tires... crashing.... other than that, it is a beautiful car, and very wide, more than normal....
@P¡nned by Doug DeMuro Doug, something to look at it, is the chasis, it is all welded, fenders and the like, they are not bolted, or glued, welded, this chasis is very strong and unusual.... how I know you asked?... well, merging to the 118, I pressed the gas, 1, 2, 3 freight train force pushed me, and in a second I lost the rear end, hitting the barriers with the front fender, nothing major happened really... took it to a shop, and refuse to work on it, could not just replace the fender, needed to hammered it out and then paint.
I always liked the Biturbo. It is classically 80s and I absolutely LOVE that RS style of BBS wheels. My favorite wheels of all time (yes I was an 80's teen )
been watching for almost 5 years and this video brought me some of the most joy of any i've watched. regardless of money and views, this just has a classic Doug DeMuro energy, prime Doug even. thanks Doug!
Man, these 80s Italian sports cars are REALLY cool. I don't know much about Maserati, but I can say that this is a really fun and cool little car, despite the reliability problems and it's bad fame
ha, that is hilarious! They are underrated and under appreciated. Maserati were a 'tech' company and pioneers in their day - who else would do a blow-through biturbo in 1980? Or a six-valve/cylinder engine? Full-disclosure, I have a 1994 Ghibli II. The engine is a gem, all the mechanicals are pretty straightforward but the electrics are a nightmare!
I love that the oil pressure is the central gauge in the gauge cluster. Clearly Maserati knew this was the most important one with a car this "reliable"
@@Flared Eh not entirely fair. That is a stereotype mostly born out of poorly built Fiats in the 70s. Lancias and Alfas were no less reliable than British cars. Ferraris were quite reliable considering their performance. The Ferrari 512BB and especially 328GTB are pretty bulletproof.
@@EEvtg True, Fiat did not help themselves back then. The deal to use sub-par Russian steel also made them infamous for rust too. I wasn't saying all Italian cars were unreliable, as not all British ones are either. Old Italian cars' greatest enemy is not being used. They really do not like sitting for even a short while if they are not used semi-regularly. That's when a lot of the problems arise.
Another thing that sits right in the middle of the instrument cluster, staring back at you, is the oil pressure gauge. It must have been important to pay close attention to its reading.
incorrect. intercoolers give you slightly less performance since they block the flow of boost a little. they would overheat and the intercooler did help
I have always thought that derivatived from Biturbo Ghibli Tipo AM336 was beautiful and 4th gen Quttoporte Tipo AM337 was gorgeous cars. And now, when modern cars have such wild and screaming design, those restrained Italian beauties look astonish.
Earlier (or later 🤷♂️) versions of this car had a differently styled instrument binnacle with an oval shaped analogue clock rather than the digital one used here. And those BBS alloys are so endemic of the 80s! So many British and European car manufacturers of that era used them. One of the most hated cars of the 80s? I’ve always liked them, even from new…I’m old enough to remember, reading those reviews in Car magazine at the time.
Doug, the US suffered the carburettored 2.5 so that the rest of the world didn't have to. Development hell gave us injected 2.8s that had none of the reliability issues that killed sales in the US.
In the late 80s I had friends that had this and a 4 door one. I was so disappointed when I got my 1st look at them. I had expected SO MUCH more than I was looking at. The Chrysler TC makes much more sense looking back now from the 21st century.
somehow it still looks gorgeous. I always respected maserati drivers because they could have got way more for their buck, but they decided to bring a bit of style to everyone's daily lives
The turbo warning is there to give it time to run slightly cooler oil through the oil feed line & into the turbo; lowers the chance of oil burn off within the turbo when the car is turned off
I remember test driving a used red one in 1990. I was young, and they were pushing me to buy it for $10,000. I ended up with another interesting car, a Shelby Charger for less than half the price. Still, I’ve always liked the Euro sedan look. Maserati still wears it well, even if a comparable BMW can be had without the headaches.
This is one of my favorite cars of all time. I tried so hard to justify getting one as my first car. But I just couldn't get around how hard they are to keep on the road as a daily....got an Alfa instead(lol). But I'm still hoping to own one of these in future
Alexandro De Tomaso bought Maserati in 1976 and was decided to launch a volume car to turn the company viable. After the Kyalami (basically a De Tomaso Longchamp with Maserati V8 engine) and the Quattroporte 3, they finally announced the Biturbo in 1982(the correct pronounce is bee turbo), which was the volume car he promised (at least for Maserati standards). Facing serious financial problems to finalize the project and desperate for cash, De Tomaso launched the car without the necessary tests and development. Although a good project, this was the main problem and the reason for the car’s bad reputation. They basically finalized the project during the early years of the production span and the car’s initial huge success simply became a nightmare for the small Modenese company. This is also the main reason why the real good biturbos were the ones produced after 1985/1986, because they were properly developed, with larger engines, intercoolers etc etc. There’s no doubt about the huge prejudice the Biturbo brought to Maserati’s reputation. Maserati was the aristocratic company of the Modenese trio (Ferrari/ Lamborghini/Maserati) with the best finishing and reliability of them, with pedigree and racing heritage. The brand of the low profile millionaires and models like 3500 GT, Mistral, Mexico, Ghibli, Indy, Bora, Khamsim were there to proof. So, if you’re looking for a Biturbo, search for the later models, if you’re looking for a vintage Maserati, go for the big V8s of the 60’s/early 70’s or straight 6 from 50’s/60’s. They are legitimate Italian gran turismo cars and surprisingly reliable and affordable(specially comparing with their 2 other Italian rivals)
Way back in the 80's I dated someone whose parents let us take thier BiTurbo Spider to homecoming and surpise! It broke down out in the middle of nowhere. Never made it to the dance and we spent most of the night explaining our 'detour.'
So excited for this! I own a 97 Ghibli biturbo GT, the 2.0 V6 Italian spec engine. It's beautiful and drives well but it needs to be maintained religiously. If you skimp, it will come bite you. Some parts are no longer available, so I find myself driving it less and less for fear something might happen to it. Would have loved a Shamal but unfortunately prices have taken off and are ridiculously high right now, they only built a few hundred of them. Also I don't find any of the biturbo era cars ugly. In the metal they are serious and masculine cars imo. I love the designs. These early ones require even more of a commitment to keep running.
Reason Maserati put logos on everything is they realised as a highish volume car (i.e. brought by many doing a lot of miles) they would stand to make a lot of money from selling spare parts. Most of the parts of the car were shared from fiats, and a few British brands, everyone buying them 2nd hand would know if one hand been on a budget, buying the generic parts or the Maserati logoed parts. Car makers do it to this day. Although not with logos, but high end car brands where manufacturer servicing is very sort after, they make repairs but only with the expensive branded parts.
I had one of these in the 90's I had the later fuel injected version that had more power. It was super light and that thing would FLY in 2nd gear on up, it had turbo lag but not too bad and once it kicked in it was very quick. It was a horrible car, it was so unreliable that I thought the 944 that I had next was like a Toyota. Doug there was one thing you missed. The spare tire on these cars was in a cage under the trunk. You had a bolt on the floor of the trunk that you would have to crank to lower the cage and get to the spare tire. That was a quirky feature that I would have thought for sure you would cover! Also as terrible as it was in reliability and being able to find parts (although many of the parts are just Renault and Nissan parts so if you could find out which part was also on another car you could just order those) I loved it and miss it. Just not getting it fixed.
@@mbawg More like the person who owned it before me did not take care of it. I regularly had it in the shop fixing all the stuff that was broken when I bought it. But on a number of things even after getting things fixed they would break again. It leaked oil and the mechanic said it was some seal, we got that fixed and it blew out the one on the other side.
@@mbawg So is this your car now? Definitely keep on any oil leaks because it will spit it onto the turbos. Also make sure you let the car idle for a couple of minutes after you park before you turn it off.
I remember years ago some guy traded one of these Maseratis in for Cash for clunkers, I remember seeing it on TV and I was like why would somebody do that. Even though it's not the best Maserati ever made. But it's still considered an '80s Italian classic.
im surprised you havent bought it. i love quirky cars like that. if i was a millionaire i would own probably three of these. one with 2.0, 2.5, and of course the v8.
The gear pattern on the shift knob you can actually follow, if you push the stick in the direction of the letter or number you are wanting to go to, it actually makes sense.
I have an '87 Spyder 2.5 carb. Never had so much fun. Cheap to buy, expensive body parts, mechanicals are bullet proof. Maintenance essential. The handling (in the dry) the noise, the roof down - nothing beats it for a 36 yr old car. Love the looks. I'd recommend a later model with 2.8 injection engine but you can inject the 2.5 easily, the factory did make a few - they have the letter E on the rear. They rusted as they came off the production line but front wings are replaceable and can be bought new. Put on a sports exhaust and listen to the pop pop pop . Oh one more thing,,,,13 mpg from the V6
First time I saw one of these, it was in a junkyard and I thought about pulling the drivetrain. Then I thought "do I really want to trust a Maserati engine when they're not known to be reliable, and do I really want to trust one from the 80s? So I didn't lol
Get the whole thing, pull the drivetrain, and throw it away so you can put something else in. I wonder how reliable the body and suspension is when these are swapped. Looks like it'd be a fun candidate to do it in...
Next, up Doug Demuro reviews the Volve 780 Bertone Turbo Coupe, which looks exactly like the Maserati Biturbo but doesn't break down on the way home from the shop. Please 😀
As a young man growing up in the 80s. This was a car I wished I could buy. Seeing it in all the auto publications. 2 turbo. Wow. Then after I read it was junk later on. I lost my thirst. Gorgeous interior. Cool.🤔😎😎🤑😍🥰
Okay I'm going to try this, I've always been curious about the Maserati biturbo with that said I'm still not sure I can watch Doug demuro for 24 minutes
Had more than a half dozen of these over the years including a 425 and 430 currently in storage the last 15 years. Living less than an hour away from the U.S. distributor in Baltimore helped getting parts quickly. The main issue I recall was that because the carburetor was completely enclosed, it was prone to flooding and hard starting in hot weather. Fuel injection cured that in 1987, but I learned the trick of spraying starting fluid into the plenum with a carburetor cleaner straw stuck into the vent fitting.
I know you said you were gonna move to mostly new cars, but doing one like this is extremely satisfying and shows that you are still in touch with your base. Keep it up Doug!
Ikr! Massive respect to Doug.
If he started only doing new cars I’d probably stop watching his content lol. You should subscribe to motorweek and check out the retro reviews. Those videos are pure gold
new cars are so boring lol. Touchscreen everything, boring engines, electric cars, fake noise
@@noel7187 You're so right!
He's probably doing only new cars now, but we can watch some classics he had in reserve. I expect they will end soon. I like them WAY more - I practically don't watch new cars reviews, but I still won't unsub. This channel doesn't deserve such treatment from the viewers. Don't act like children.
I got my 86 Bi-Turbo in 1990 for $3,500. 9 months and $3,000 later, I sold it for $3,500. Those seats were really nice.
they do kook comfy
It's a very cool car, and in 1982 a 2.0 Maserati Biturbo engine was capable to do the 0-60 in 6.1 seconds..
At this time this was astronomical
Can it do 185?
Only on paper! I bought this car in 1984 and it was a disaster. Maserati tried to put the turbo BEFORE the carburetor, which meant the carb was pressurized. It never worked right, running lean, running rich, or not running at all. Combine that with "heat soak", where all the gas evaporated in the lines if you went to lunch and then tried to restart it again. You'd sit there cranking the thing for 15 seconds before it would start to fire. I had the BiTurbo convertible and the leather that would cover the top when down shrank in the sun. It would then never snap into place again so it all flapped as you drove. The final end of the road was when the engine blew due to Masearti covering up one of the head oil return galleries with the gasket. Within 11,000 miles, that cylinder was so starved for oil, it seized and snapped the timing belt. The engine was toast. Yes, after the 3 year warranty expired... I rebuilt the engine, traded it for the new 1990 300ZX TwinTurbo and never looked back.
@@aussie2uGA I had a 85 and 86 Quatroporte with 4 webber carb set up....don't get me started. Breathtaking car to look at and sit in, and drive actually. When it worked !
@Sohc_Vtec nowaday, definetely it is
@@aussie2uGA that’s a crazy coincidence to see an owner from this period actually on one of these videos. The 300zx was definitely a space ship compared to this in technology
Doug I hate to tell you, but this interior ROCKS! Despite it being for all the wrong reason as you said it still comes together to form something magical.
Facts it’s so dope
It’s very Italian, like my aunt’s living room in the Bronx back in the 70s. Now it just needs red velvet and plastic slip covers!
@@DavidRavenMoon American 'Italian' and real Italian are often a very different thing.
@@DavidRavenMoon you were royalty if you were allowed to sit on the plastic couches lol. Not Italian but other southern european... Italians Spaniards Portuguese we were all the same with the plastic furniture
@@pistonburner6448 Well my aunt's (and my mother's) parents were born and raised in Italy before coming here as adults in the early 1900's. So while my mom was Italian American, she was first generation. My mom was born in 1913 in Queens, NY. And I have been to Italy. :)
The context is important when it comes to the Maserati Biturbo. In the early 80s, the car was quite unique in this segment. The BMW E30 323i, which was the top model since the 325i first came on the market in 1985, only had 150 HP. The E30 M3 first came on the market in 1986. Mercedes-Benz had the W201 2.3-16 (185 HP in Europe) which was however a much more expensive car and similarly also with the Porsche 924 Turbo (177 HP in Europe) which had similar performances. The Porsche 944 had slightly less power (163 HP in Europe) and was in many ways in a class below. Similarly also with the Alfa Romeo GTV 2.5 which had 160 HP in Europe.
It got even better in the late 80s/early 90s with the 2,0L V6 from the Ghibli at 306 HP (even up to 330 HP on the "Cup" models). Best specific output at that time and I believe it remained that way for quite some time. And most importantly these engines are actually reliable.
@@finkbraugg The Porsche 924 Turbo (internal number 931) came in a number of different versions with more power. The best known is probably the 924 Carrera GT (internal number 937) with 210 HP. However, there was also the 924 Carrera GTS with 245 HP, the 924 Carrera GTS Clubsport with 270 HP, the 924 Carrera GTP with 320 HP and the 924 Carrera GTR with 375 HP (internal number 939).
The only match for this car I can think of are Alpina e30 productions.
My dad got one of these around the time I was born. Raising a family, he of course got the sedan. The best thing about this car was the smell of the interior and the exhaust sound. I remember him needing to leave it running if he left the car because it would take a miracle to start it back up. For that reason, he rarely drove it, only around town with me and my brother. It was sad when he got rid of it in 1995, but I'm sure he was relieved to get rid of that headache.
How long did he own it for?
“Top Gear ENDLESSLY made fun of this car”
“… by the way, this car is for sale on Cars and Bids!”
Great sales pitch Doug!
At no reserve I'd still bid like $4,000 on it.....if only the stupid IRS would pay me my refund/covid money!
Seller tries to sue Doug for conflict of interest, LoL! Can't roast and sell a car at the same time, that's illegal!
@@pex_the_unalivedrunk6785 How is it illegal and why would the sell try to sue Doug?
He's just making fun of how unreliable the Maserati Biturbo is. It's also completely legal to roast a car, even if don't own it. It's not like police would arrest you for roasting a car.
Suing someone for making fun of a car just seems silly, if Doug starts to make fun of people or insult them for buying the Biturbo, then it would make sense.
Doug probably isn't like most car enthusiasts, most car enthusiasts tend to make fun and insult people for buying or driving any car that's not a sports cars like NSX or Supra.
I'd still buy it
My dad had an 85 Liquid Intercooled Biturbo and we both loved the way it drove. I love the way this car looks - it is a slightly different than every other car out there at the time. Too bad, they swapped the carb for fuel injectors too late. I now have a Spyder 90 and I love it. Granted, I bought it, drove it for about 3500 miles and then the fans stopped working allowing the car to overheat. Fortunately, a cheap fix. Also, I get the AC working, new tires, brakes and the car had a new top. Because the rubber all around the windows is in bad shape, the interior is loud. It is a silly fun car to drive and it has the 2.8 engine. Shockingly quick. Love this car.
My cousin had one of these back in ‘91. At the time, it was the fastest car I’d ever driven. It was an EXPERIENCE and that’s what these cars are about.
Doug, that's a Biturbo E model with 205 bhp from dealer added Spearco water to air intercoolers, visible underhood. Limited to 500 examples with the Liquid Intercooled badge shown on the trunk lid. Oddly, the test car lacks the wooden Nardi steering wheel and alloys fitted to the E and has upgraded BBS wheels. The air-conditioning on the Biturbo models was colder than my full-size Cadillacs! Fun car. Perfect for date nights! What looks like leather is often PVC, especially the puffy console lid cover!
It's not an E, E was made in 85/86, and it has a wing on the bottom and 1 half the car is gray, I know because I have an E but with no intercooler, from the factory they did not come with an intercooler.
@@mehdibanaei9753 The intercoolers were installed by Spearco in the USA on all E models. It's definitely a dealer sold E. I was an owner and am in the Owners Club with a classic Ghibli.
@@alallen1030 happy new year, the one here is not an E, trust me, it does have the under skirt but not an E, not all E had the intercooler installed, you could pay your dealer as an option you could have it installed, all E are late1985/86 and have a two toned paint side skirts and a rear apron. I have a E a 430i and a 84 euro model 2.0 also had 87 425i and a 86 425 with the intercooler. I've had my 430i since I was 17 back in 1998, I eat and breathe biturbos. Love your taste with your classic.
@@mehdibanaei9753 Sounds like all of your experience is in the European market, not Southern California USA.
@@unpolire ? Does southern California make cars? Yes most all my cars are European and a few are the euro market cars. I don't really get what your comment means. All I know is that I know the biturbos very well and the car here is not an E model, is that realy a big deal?
You have my respect Doug on reviewing a variety of cars from supercars to classic quirky vehicles to everyday cars and everything else. Epic Tour on the Maserati Biturbo! You also gotta love the fact on how this one is a very pristine one of those. Looks like a very fun classic Maserati to drive in. Cars and Bids is automotive heaven where you would always find cars in pristine condition. No wonder why it is so successful. Keep the amazing vids comin Doug!
You always write the same comment 😂
@@grunkohlaktionar7474 Gotta get the likes lol.
OUR boi doug is amazing thanks for sharing
Found doug’s burner account
Cars and Bids is one of the most ingenious business moves I've seen anyone make in a good while. He makes bucks on the site, it provides him a steady influx of content for the channel, and he can use the channel to promote both the site and the cars on it. His success is well earned and deserved.
I love Biturbo's! They are for people who take the time to learn how to use and maintain them. If you do, they are fun reliable cars.
I have owned a 1986 420 Biturbo for 8 years. I always liked the proportions of the sedan body better. Mine was a low mileage Italian import that had been garaged for 12 years when I bought it.
The body and interior were in great shape and with some mechanical work it was near perfect and proved to be reliable as a weekend car. I chose the early 420 model because of the relatively affordable technique (no power steering, adjustible dampers, intercoolers, huge wide tyres or double exhaust systems).
Compared to other 'mass' produced cars a Biturbo really is special. And quite quick, especially for the era. Make fun of those seats all you want Doug, they are some of the most comfortable I ever sat in in any car! 😉
I remember feeling sad when I saw Top Gear crushing and destroying a few of these. I like cars like this because you need to be passionate and dedicated to own them. A "labor of love" as I would call it even. Internet is very biased towards the more common, reliable stuff and that's fair. Not everybody can or wants to have a car that is a bottomless pit of money, but this leaves many little jewels like this to be very overlooked.
Reliability is one thing. If a car breaks mechanically, you have a chance of fixing it. The rust was another thing. In the UK climate, these disappeared into a cloud of iron oxide very quickly.
@@tcm81 - Same here in Canada. These and the Quattroportes rusted and depreciated as though rust and depreciation were having a race, and the cars were the loser.
My 1984 Biturbo was a great little car with a nice ZF 5-speed. I also had an original Ghibli, so I know Maseratis. Mine was stolen after I fitted Gotti 3-pc rims and Acura NSX tires. Miss it!
@@tcm81 They did rust, but how many cars did rust like that back then? Virtually all of them! Back in the early to mid 80`s, most manufacturers were offering 1 year warranty on everything, including bodywork, if you got a new car & wanted to keep it, you had to get it rustproofed yourself, that was the norm, & if you didn't, you`d have bloody great holes in your sills, floors, wheel arches, door bottoms, roof pillars within 5 years... Thats why theres so few 70`s & 80`s cars now in the UK!
A true jewel is no demanding mistress .
A true jewel rewards your TLC by living long and be reliable , not betraying you by rotting away in ten years or less .
NEVER a spagetti-racer again !!!!!!!!
The Biturbo platform was used to much better effect in the Ghibli (2.8) and especially the Ghibli Cup (2.0) which at the time had the highest BHP per litre of any production car. The shamal as you rightly said was a V8 and a very different car, although fabulous too! Interesting that you mentioned the RS2 and turbo lag, as the S4 and RS4 in the B8 lineup had a biturbo that I’m sure owed a lot to the best bits of the Maserati Biturbo.
Very true
100%
*FACT:* Maserati once experimented with a 6-valve-per-cylinder engine for the Biturbo in 1985, with the 6.36 - a 2.0-litre 36-valve twin-turbo V6 with 257 hp, but Maserati cancelled it and instead continuted to evolve the original 3-valve-per-cylinder engine throughout the life-span of the Biturbo and its derivatives.
You know this is true because the guy said "fact" in all caps.
@@KartKing4ever I was taught to take people at their word. Do you have any proof differently?
@@bwofficial1776 No, because I read a similar thing on Wikipedia of the 6 valve. Although I did not read the part about it replacing the 3v.
Not exactly, later they were developing 4-valve designs, not 3.
@@KartKing4ever driving4answers have a video on that, it's true.
Hi Doug
I like watching your videos. Cool! I have a 1984 Biturbo myself. It was retrofitted with intercoolers many years ago and sat in a collector's garage for a long time. With me he can move freely. Yes, what you say is true: 1. they are not very reliable (unless they get good care), 2. they drive absolutely great! 3. it is a very special but discreet 3 box car from the 80s. Keep it up!
My father has 2 of them (1 for spare parts in terrible condition) and 1 thats being worked on. Still in terrible condition. But that's what you get from 20+ years of inactivity. I'm trying to bring the main back to the road but it seems impossible
Nice. I have a 4.24 with a 2 liter bi-turbo engine. Regards from Belgium.
In my book, this Maserati has aged pretty well when it comes to design. Love watching your video's, Doug. They are all very informative and entertaining. Cheers.
I like the 80s Quattroporte. It's boxy and kind of American looking but somehow sleek. The seats look so comfortable. I wouldn't mind owning one with an American V8 and a complete rewiring.
When I saw it in the Civic Type-R video Carsandbids ad, I thought it was a BMW 2002
It kinda reminds me of the Audi Quattro, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a 5cylinder swapped one
I agree. My Dad had a early '80s Audi 5000. Also the VW Golf had those creased edge lines.
I had an uncle who had one of these, bought new. From the day he drove it off the lot it was nothing but problems. Something was always breaking on it and dealers were never nearby so every little repair became really expensive. I got to drive the car a few times and it was a fun to drive. The over stuffed seats were great, to this day it was the most comfortable drivers seat I've ever sat it.
@P¡nned by Doug DeMuro Totally not a scam or anything like that.
I have owned three of these. An 87Si was fairly reliable… after I completely rebuilt it. I had a full on race version with a 2.8 injection engine, which was a lot of fun, but impossible to keep in California without a shop - I sold it to a guy with a shop and a passion and it’s still out there. I had another which was a typical $1500 basket case. It was unsalvageable due to rust but it had amazing covered more than 120,000 miles before someone dumped it by the side of the road in Oakland. When they work they are a lot of fun, not power at all until 2300 rpm and then they have a habit of breaking traction really easily, which is fun with an LSD. Although they only had around 180 HP you could mess with boost (of course) and get 400, which the bottom end tolerated. Badly. They also only weighed 2400 lb so you didn’t really need to, to be fair. I loved two of mine but no more for me.
Probably weigh closer to 3000lbs.
Maserati North America was at 1501 S. Caron Ave Baltimore Maryland. Always lots of BiTurbos & Quattroporte’s there well into the 1990’s. Country club motors in Glen Burnie serviced this era of Maserati for years. Last time I drove by, they were still busy with Maserati repairs
Maserati only stays in business because of repairs 😂😂
C club automotive kept my 430i for 6years to do repairs, I drove it there and had it tow it back after 6 years of the guy coming up with excuses.
Doug the kind of guy to sing Baby Shark on Karaoke
got the whole squad laughing bro
@@gianni99999 nono thats when ya motha was getting railed
No, just no.
And good for him!
Bruh 😂😂😂😂😂
My boss had a 430, it was the cleanest example you could probably find and well sorted. It was definitely a fun car, it drove great! It will do Maserati things, that’s just how it is. No matter how much money you throw at it, it will be quirky.
Think of it like a b5 s4 engine feel with an e30 chassis. Sort of.
I believe the low popularity of this car is mostly a product of its time when it came out. If you look at it today, it is a fairly good driver and it looks really good actually (the wheels definitely help).
The wheels are pretty nice, however the original magnesium ones are even better.
Actually mostly as a result of its horrible unreliability. They looked great broken-down on the side of the road.
The warning label for the factory turbos because of coking issues. My biturbo was my first car and with 45000 km on it the turbos coked because the previous owner didn't do this. Now it lives on with port injection, upgraded turbos with reworked piping and cleaned up the vacuum hoses to be simple, forged internals for 29psi (2.0 bar), custom bell-housing T56 and coilovers. The coilovers and more durable transmission helped the most. So much fun because it's lightweight and easy to kick out the back end now. Currently being fully repainted because I ran into rust issues but got that resolved and new body work going on. Took 6 years to find panels. Next is headliners for me too and fix my gauges because the gears need to be rebuilt. Going to tweak the fueling some soon and going to try some new valve springs because I'm getting some float. Motor can take more boost hoping for 2.48 bar with no problems. Good video
For what it's worth, I owned one of these in the 1990s (also a 1984 model), and it was VERY reliable. I don't think it needed anything except for oil and brake pads). It was my daily driver for 3 years and I even drove it through snow. But being rear-wheel drive, the biturbo gets very skittish on anything wet or icy! While the seats look very pillowy, they are actually very comfortable and suprisingly supportive. Although on these earlier cars, they didn't use real leather or real wood, so they detriorated very quickly.
Theres a guy near me in London still using his 89 Spider as a daily, in all weathers. I`d imagine any surviving ones have had any electrical issues permanently fixed by now, so its a bit of a non-issue, especially as its a much more basic system compared to anything made in the last decade or 2.
An intercooler does NOT do anything about engine overheating. Its purpose is to cool the intake air, so that you can cram more of it into the engine and make more power. This car is from that brief weird time where people tried to use turbos with carburetors, and in this case it looks like the carb is mounted inside a pressurized air box. I don’t know if maybe there was a problem with the carburator being fed hot pressurized air that an intercooler might solve, but it seems doubtful.
Those over stuffed seats are way better than the rock hard ones we have today
That was a luxury car standard outside of Germany
??? What are you driving?
Owning and maintaining a car like this must really be a labor of love. When you see something like this on the road, you know the owner is a true automotive enthusiast!
or a fool
He's also Wimp that endures a Bitchy Wife...
This is the perfect weekend car to own when your daily is a Corolla. Same size, but the opposite in every other way.
Some say, that for every Maserati logo on the car , it gains 5hp .
This was a great review and definitely unique and quirky. Thank you as always for these fun vids.
I had a neighbor in the 90s who loved these and had several. He was a mechanic so that helped. If you remember wings west body kits they had a Maserati bi turbo kit and his car was the car they used in the ads.
Back in the day, when Dad worked for Kjell Qvale, he drove a couple of these as demo cars. We loved the driving experience, but yeah... they had issues, especially in the southern California heat. I remember Dad saying he was 'shocked' the TR7's were so reliable in comparison!
I had one for a week !! Turbo lag for miles and leaked like the titanic in car washes. But was still a Maserati.
As a guy who lusted after these when they first came out, I really enjoyed your review of this vintage machine. I too still feel that they are an attractive car (considering the era), albeit a bit goofy on that overstuffed Italian sofa interior. Now I find myself wanting to look up (specifically) what the mechanical gotchas were back then. If I remember correctly, a main one was something bad in the engine design (so a fairly big deal!). Thanks for this fun review!
I had a neighbor growing up in the 90's, who had 2 of these. I always used to stop and stare at them because I'd never seen one anywhere else, and this dude loved them so much he bought 2.
Doug the kind of guy to come out as Biturbo
Comedy really isn't your thing
@@slowery43 I laughed so you're wrong bye bye
@@slowery43 someone's turbo is still in the closet....
I was given a 1984 biturbo for free, it hadn't been on the road since 1988 and had 32,000 miles, i rebuilt the dcnvh carburetor, put a battery in it and it fired up without an issue, ended up selling it when moving half way across the country....wish I still had it
Have you checked the plate on the DVLA to see if it still exists?
@@MrPabsUk I'm in the USA, the person I sold it to was going to use the drivetrain in another vehicle.....or keep it as a project, either way that was about 13 years ago.
It would be cool to test the Ghibli Cup (evolution of the Biturbo)with the 2.0 liter 330 hp engine. That was in like 1996--most 2.0 liter turbos don't make match that specific output TODAY! There was also the 3.2 V8 Shamal (another Biturbo evolution) with 322 hp turbo V8. I love these 80s/90s Masers!!
I love the Ghibli cup and Shamal,i'm waiting to Doug Review this Maseratis!!!
It was my first car, S version in red with NACA air scoops on the bonnet and intercoolers from factory - sounded fantastic, pulled like a train and looked gorgeous and special. Loved it to bits, miss it a lot.
The shifter layout was common in Italian cars of the time. Most 5-speed manuals had the reverse above the first gear, compared to the conventional layout of R being placed after 5th gear.
The 70’s transaxle Porsche’s too. My ‘79 928 has this dogleg pattern
The idea is that you have the two most used gears on a curvy road - second and third gear - close together, with the ability to quickly and accurately shift between them in a linear motion.
It tells you how to shift it
And when driving in 5th, you would need to rest your hand on the lever, because it would pop out of 5th gear..... after a few minutes, your won´t feel your hand, it vibrates like a ladies friend on batteries.... :) :)
The shifter is a german ZF, classically with the first gear down.
As someone who`s owned loads of 70`s-90`s Italian cars (but no Maserati`s), I recognise all the switchgear, vents, boot release, rear blinds, quarter glass levers, the Vegliaflash stopwatch clock etc, so none of its quirky to me.. Its all very standard 70`s/80`s Italian car parts & construction style. The only slightly weird thing was the central locking switch position, especially as I`m sure my 83 Fiat Argenta had a central locking switch in exactly the same style as the instrument binnacle switches.. I`d imagine the c-pillar "fake fuel cap" is actually an interior vent.
With the Biturbo, Maserati was trying to take some market share from BMW 3 series during the go-go 80's.
And yes, you had to let the oil in the turbos cool down after boost otherwise the turbos start to fry - and there was a lot of fried biturbo's for sale in late 80's. But I heard there was also a lot of biturbo nos parts in north America.
My uncle next door growing up had one of these in his garage for years. It never ran while I was alive, it was black with a tan and green interior, and I always wanted to fix it up and drive it. I used to sneak in the garage just to stare at it, and I would brag to my friends that my cool rock and roll uncle had a Maserati in his garage. It just recently it made its way to the scrap yard, which was absolutely soul crushing to find out and felt like the death of a dream. Or perhaps it was saving me from a nightmare. I wish I could've ridden in that Biturbo with my uncle and fulfilled my childhood dream, but it will always hold a special place in my heart
my grandfather had one and all of his friends and his own kids say the same thing: It was the biggest pile of junk on the road and my grandfather was so happy when my grandmother crashed it into a tree and totaled it. Prior to that it started burning oil profusely and smoking up a storm. The dealer was refusing to do anything under warranty so my grandfather offered to leave it idling in front of the richest country club in town during a high end event. They then changed their their tune and gave him a loaner while they fixed his.
Maserati wasn't exactly flush with cash at the time. Not that that's any excuse, but the dealer was probably afraid they'd never get reimbursed for the warranty claim and weren't too enthusiastic about losing money on the job. Glad it worked out though lol
Oh man that’s a gangsta move by your grandpa
A friend wanted to buy one new in 1983. Told them the factory they were built in was an unorganized mess which was a bad sign for quality.
We go and drive one. Some old guy wearing one of those Skipper from Gilligan’s Island caps was our salesguy. Appropriate as he probably knew more about boats than cars as he knew nothing about Biturbos.
My friend takes it out. Skipper shotgun. Me in the back. We go a few blocks. Water temp pegs. Electric fans not coming on. We get back to the lot. Pop the hood. Skipper for whatever reason twists the radiator cap off - releasing a flood of boiling hot coolant all over the engine.
No sale.
One of my former employers was the service manager at Miller Motorcars in Greenwich, CT when these were new.
He always said “They’d break if you looked at ‘em funny.” “Brand new car out on the lot; needs a starter, go throw a starter in it.” Just one of his stories that stands out in my mind
The turbos had that warning because they weren't water cooled in the '84 model year. Also, I think the analog clock in that car has been removed and replaced. I had one of these cars for a while and I would buy another - but would buy an '87 or later when they became fuel injected!
The first models actually came with these digital clocks, not analog ones. They made itvas cheap as possible. Only later models came with the expensive analog clocks.
That digital clock was shared with a lot of Italian cars at the time & had a built in stopwatch.
You could really break those turbos if you didnt idle them after driving. Shutting off the engine would stop lubrication to the still spinning turbocharger and it would wear out faster. Same with old Volvos and Saabs.
They have journal bearings. They stop almost instantly. The only reason is not to let the oil get too hot and reduce in quality.
Makes no sense. Turbos still spin at idle. The real reason for this is to cool the oil for a short period to prevent coking.
Old cars makes the best reviews! Always loved the Biturbo, never understood the hate.
Dear Doug,I own a Biturbo S that is in far better condition than this,also with the original wheels (this one has horrendous aftermarket wheels). The Biturbo was a great idea developed without money,and that's why expecially the early models have many faults. Year after year they introduced improvements that made this a better car,such as intercoolers,M.a.b.c. (Maserati automatic boost control),fuel injection,a limited slip differential by Torsen,and so on.Mine is still with the carb but has the intercoolers,and is as new,perfectly mantained in Maserati service by her first and only owner before me. That's why is reliable.Of course is a car full of faults,but if you look at her as a classic car to use during the weekend,is really a nice car,powerful and with an intriguing sound and a very good ZF manual gearbox. It seems that the interior is badly assembled but,even if they produced 35000 Biturbo and derivates from 1982 to 1994,they were largely hand made,and this adds charm,in my opinion. I can say that is not a car for everyone:you have to drive her respectfully,and this does not means that you have to go slow,but that you have to know how to start,to switch off and to drive her.People who like to do these things generally love their Bitutbo,and find them also pretty reliable.My Biturbo S was an improved model,with the italian market 2 liter V6 developing 210 Bhp,and with Modena number plate. Biturbos are still a bargain but not many of them survive and for the special limited edition models,like my S (only 1038 built),or the SI(990 built),or the Karif (221 built),or the Racing (210 built),or the Spyders the prices are growing because they are nice and fun to drive,and they have top performances.It's always a pleasure to watch your tests!!
thank you SO MUCH for keeping on reviewing this rare old quirkfests!!
I've owned my 1985 Biturbo for 3 years now. I love it. It's my favorite driving car that I own. The digital clock is also a stopwatch lol
The test drive in 1984 that I did was the most memorable for one reason: the sales associate managed to disintegrate the engine during the first part of test drive. No idea if the Maserati engines were equipped with rev limiter. He was very embarrassed when that happened. So, no sale...
Most carb cars don't have rev limiters. And considering they were still using manual (rather than automatic) chokes back then, I'd hazard a guess and say no rev limiter. What did you end up buying instead of the Maserati?
Thank you for doing this review Doug. I was dreading watching it as I own two of these cars myself and a Ferrari 308 that you essentially compared it to but you gave it deserved and fair criticism considering it's media coverage over the years. I like the Biturbo as well, I'm a cool quirky 80's guy and it's a cool quirky 80's car so I was hooked when I bought my first one. You were spot on when you essentially said Ferrari's often have more reliability issues but don't get as much hate because they're Ferrari's. That was a great analogy. Just wanted to say this is one of my favorite videos you've done. I may be biased but it's nice to see you come back down to earth for a bit.
So you're "cool", eh, bro? OK give me a mo to stop laughing, but at least you have no ego or humblebragging probs.
Yeah, I have some cool cars myself and I own a business working on supercars for a living. I think that qualifies.@@caribman10
I've always loved the Biturbo, but there's so many things about it I didn't know until now. Great review, Doug!
I had one, and when it came time to change the timing belt, I was sad to discover there was a designe problem, the belt is not properly routed, as to prevent jumping a tooth... the belt does not hug the gear driving it, and the belt will jump.
Another problem is the rear end.... Salisbury rear end, it is ready to bite you, it is almost impossible to drive in the wet, both wheels will quickly engaged, just like driving a positive rear end... in the streets.... for sure will catch you distracted one day, and you will loose grip on both rear tires... crashing.... other than that, it is a beautiful car, and very wide, more than normal....
@P¡nned by Doug DeMuro Doug, something to look at it, is the chasis, it is all welded, fenders and the like, they are not bolted, or glued, welded, this chasis is very strong and unusual.... how I know you asked?... well, merging to the 118, I pressed the gas, 1, 2, 3 freight train force pushed me, and in a second I lost the rear end, hitting the barriers with the front fender, nothing major happened really... took it to a shop, and refuse to work on it, could not just replace the fender, needed to hammered it out and then paint.
I always liked the Biturbo. It is classically 80s and I absolutely LOVE that RS style of BBS wheels. My favorite wheels of all time (yes I was an 80's teen )
been watching for almost 5 years and this video brought me some of the most joy of any i've watched. regardless of money and views, this just has a classic Doug DeMuro energy, prime Doug even. thanks Doug!
Man, these 80s Italian sports cars are REALLY cool.
I don't know much about Maserati, but I can say that this is a really fun and cool little car, despite the reliability problems and it's bad fame
Actually reliability is bad only in the first series with carburators, since the late 80's the Biturbo use elettronic inition and run quite good
ha, that is hilarious! They are underrated and under appreciated. Maserati were a 'tech' company and pioneers in their day - who else would do a blow-through biturbo in 1980? Or a six-valve/cylinder engine? Full-disclosure, I have a 1994 Ghibli II. The engine is a gem, all the mechanicals are pretty straightforward but the electrics are a nightmare!
I love that the oil pressure is the central gauge in the gauge cluster. Clearly Maserati knew this was the most important one with a car this "reliable"
That old top gear joke was originally about Lancia.
@@KarlHamilton Well aware of that, but it applied to most Italian cars of the 70s and 80s in all honesty lol
@@Flared Eh not entirely fair. That is a stereotype mostly born out of poorly built Fiats in the 70s. Lancias and Alfas were no less reliable than British cars. Ferraris were quite reliable considering their performance. The Ferrari 512BB and especially 328GTB are pretty bulletproof.
@@EEvtg True, Fiat did not help themselves back then. The deal to use sub-par Russian steel also made them infamous for rust too. I wasn't saying all Italian cars were unreliable, as not all British ones are either. Old Italian cars' greatest enemy is not being used. They really do not like sitting for even a short while if they are not used semi-regularly. That's when a lot of the problems arise.
Another thing that sits right in the middle of the instrument cluster, staring back at you, is the oil pressure gauge. It must have been important to pay close attention to its reading.
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intercooler is about performance not reliability, Doug's gaps in technical knowledge are quite amazing, considering that his life is all about cars
incorrect. intercoolers give you slightly less performance since they block the flow of boost a little. they would overheat and the intercooler did help
You don't wish to have hot air into the intake, believe me.
I have always thought that derivatived from Biturbo Ghibli Tipo AM336 was beautiful and 4th gen Quttoporte Tipo AM337 was gorgeous cars. And now, when modern cars have such wild and screaming design, those restrained Italian beauties look astonish.
Earlier (or later 🤷♂️) versions of this car had a differently styled instrument binnacle with an oval shaped analogue clock rather than the digital one used here. And those BBS alloys are so endemic of the 80s! So many British and European car manufacturers of that era used them.
One of the most hated cars of the 80s? I’ve always liked them, even from new…I’m old enough to remember, reading those reviews in Car magazine at the time.
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Doug, the US suffered the carburettored 2.5 so that the rest of the world didn't have to. Development hell gave us injected 2.8s that had none of the reliability issues that killed sales in the US.
In the late 80s I had friends that had this and a 4 door one. I was so disappointed when I got my 1st look at them.
I had expected SO MUCH more than I was looking at.
The Chrysler TC makes much more sense looking back now from the 21st century.
The eye of the beholder (and all that), I'd take the Maser over the TC any day, design-wise. Just my personal opinion.
@@talosiv4927
I agree, the thing is...
In 1989 I was 17, had high expectations of what a Maserati was and was extremely let down.
Thanks for still doing these cars!
somehow it still looks gorgeous. I always respected maserati drivers because they could have got way more for their buck, but they decided to bring a bit of style to everyone's daily lives
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The turbo warning is there to give it time to run slightly cooler oil through the oil feed line & into the turbo; lowers the chance of oil burn off within the turbo when the car is turned off
"I would never buy this."
"Here's your free EV, sir."
"Fine, I'll buy the POS Poseidon car"
I remember test driving a used red one in 1990. I was young, and they were pushing me to buy it for $10,000. I ended up with another interesting car, a Shelby Charger for less than half the price. Still, I’ve always liked the Euro sedan look. Maserati still wears it well, even if a comparable BMW can be had without the headaches.
This is one of my favorite cars of all time. I tried so hard to justify getting one as my first car. But I just couldn't get around how hard they are to keep on the road as a daily....got an Alfa instead(lol). But I'm still hoping to own one of these in future
Alexandro De Tomaso bought Maserati in 1976 and was decided to launch a volume car to turn the company viable. After the Kyalami (basically a De Tomaso Longchamp with Maserati V8 engine) and the Quattroporte 3, they finally announced the Biturbo in 1982(the correct pronounce is bee turbo), which was the volume car he promised (at least for Maserati standards). Facing serious financial problems to finalize the project and desperate for cash, De Tomaso launched the car without the necessary tests and development. Although a good project, this was the main problem and the reason for the car’s bad reputation. They basically finalized the project during the early years of the production span and the car’s initial huge success simply became a nightmare for the small Modenese company. This is also the main reason why the real good biturbos were the ones produced after 1985/1986, because they were properly developed, with larger engines, intercoolers etc etc.
There’s no doubt about the huge prejudice the Biturbo brought to Maserati’s reputation. Maserati was the aristocratic company of the Modenese trio (Ferrari/ Lamborghini/Maserati) with the best finishing and reliability of them, with pedigree and racing heritage. The brand of the low profile millionaires and models like 3500 GT, Mistral, Mexico, Ghibli, Indy, Bora, Khamsim were there to proof.
So, if you’re looking for a Biturbo, search for the later models, if you’re looking for a vintage Maserati, go for the big V8s of the 60’s/early 70’s or straight 6 from 50’s/60’s. They are legitimate Italian gran turismo cars and surprisingly reliable and affordable(specially comparing with their 2 other Italian rivals)
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Way back in the 80's I dated someone whose parents let us take thier BiTurbo Spider to homecoming and surpise! It broke down out in the middle of nowhere. Never made it to the dance and we spent most of the night explaining our 'detour.'
This was the first Italian car I purchased. A week into ownership the differential housing broke. I have been a Porsche guy ever since.
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So excited for this! I own a 97 Ghibli biturbo GT, the 2.0 V6 Italian spec engine. It's beautiful and drives well but it needs to be maintained religiously. If you skimp, it will come bite you. Some parts are no longer available, so I find myself driving it less and less for fear something might happen to it. Would have loved a Shamal but unfortunately prices have taken off and are ridiculously high right now, they only built a few hundred of them.
Also I don't find any of the biturbo era cars ugly. In the metal they are serious and masculine cars imo. I love the designs. These early ones require even more of a commitment to keep running.
Reason Maserati put logos on everything is they realised as a highish volume car (i.e. brought by many doing a lot of miles) they would stand to make a lot of money from selling spare parts.
Most of the parts of the car were shared from fiats, and a few British brands, everyone buying them 2nd hand would know if one hand been on a budget, buying the generic parts or the Maserati logoed parts.
Car makers do it to this day. Although not with logos, but high end car brands where manufacturer servicing is very sort after, they make repairs but only with the expensive branded parts.
I had one of these in the 90's I had the later fuel injected version that had more power. It was super light and that thing would FLY in 2nd gear on up, it had turbo lag but not too bad and once it kicked in it was very quick. It was a horrible car, it was so unreliable that I thought the 944 that I had next was like a Toyota. Doug there was one thing you missed. The spare tire on these cars was in a cage under the trunk. You had a bolt on the floor of the trunk that you would have to crank to lower the cage and get to the spare tire. That was a quirky feature that I would have thought for sure you would cover! Also as terrible as it was in reliability and being able to find parts (although many of the parts are just Renault and Nissan parts so if you could find out which part was also on another car you could just order those) I loved it and miss it. Just not getting it fixed.
yea, the spare tire is still in it. daniel, you clearly just didnt take care of yours. this is a great car
@@mbawg More like the person who owned it before me did not take care of it. I regularly had it in the shop fixing all the stuff that was broken when I bought it. But on a number of things even after getting things fixed they would break again. It leaked oil and the mechanic said it was some seal, we got that fixed and it blew out the one on the other side.
@@mbawg So is this your car now? Definitely keep on any oil leaks because it will spit it onto the turbos. Also make sure you let the car idle for a couple of minutes after you park before you turn it off.
I remember years ago some guy traded one of these Maseratis in for Cash for clunkers, I remember seeing it on TV and I was like why would somebody do that. Even though it's not the best Maserati ever made. But it's still considered an '80s Italian classic.
Thanks for raising the prices of these Doug
Looks awesome on those BBS wheels.
im surprised you havent bought it. i love quirky cars like that. if i was a millionaire i would own probably three of these. one with 2.0, 2.5, and of course the v8.
The gear pattern on the shift knob you can actually follow, if you push the stick in the direction of the letter or number you are wanting to go to, it actually makes sense.
I assume those are not factory wheels. But they look pretty good on this car.
I have an '87 Spyder 2.5 carb. Never had so much fun. Cheap to buy, expensive body parts, mechanicals are bullet proof. Maintenance essential. The handling (in the dry) the noise, the roof down - nothing beats it for a 36 yr old car. Love the looks. I'd recommend a later model with 2.8 injection engine but you can inject the 2.5 easily, the factory did make a few - they have the letter E on the rear. They rusted as they came off the production line but front wings are replaceable and can be bought new. Put on a sports exhaust and listen to the pop pop pop . Oh one more thing,,,,13 mpg from the V6
I think this is a super cool design especially the exterior
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Doug everything was turbo charged in 1984 from Mercury Cougars “XR7” To Saab 900 turbos
First time I saw one of these, it was in a junkyard and I thought about pulling the drivetrain. Then I thought "do I really want to trust a Maserati engine when they're not known to be reliable, and do I really want to trust one from the 80s? So I didn't lol
Get the whole thing, pull the drivetrain, and throw it away so you can put something else in.
I wonder how reliable the body and suspension is when these are swapped. Looks like it'd be a fun candidate to do it in...
@@Khrrck this was 10+yrs ago, but an LS swap or built SBC or SBF would be fun. Definitely wouldn't be something you see often if at all
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND now I'm in love with the Biturbo. I always liked them before, but now
i must have one!
Hey Doug, what happened to the old Biturbo video (convertible) you teased a few times?
I'm still waiting on his review of the Clio V6 he teased well over an year ago...
Doug is the type of dude to negotiate pricing on the clearance rack at a flea market in Mexico
🏁🏁🏁🏁Doug is the type of guy to walk in a restaurant and ask if he can order in the drive-thru 😂 Baby Shark Shark Shark 🦈
Do do do do baby shark 😂
Next, up Doug Demuro reviews the Volve 780 Bertone Turbo Coupe, which looks exactly like the Maserati Biturbo but doesn't break down on the way home from the shop. Please 😀
A female friend of mine: "Hey, I just saw a car with an Aquaman symbol in the front." Women. LOL. 😀
Loving these increased releases of videos about cool older cars. Thanks Doug!
The Jeremy Clarkson has destroyed like two of them, and James may 1 of them 😂😂😂😂
As a young man growing up in the 80s. This was a car I wished I could buy. Seeing it in all the auto publications. 2 turbo. Wow. Then after I read it was junk later on. I lost my thirst. Gorgeous interior. Cool.🤔😎😎🤑😍🥰
Love the wheels!
Looks like a de tomaso de ville and an xj40 .tool kit realy shows they were aiming at the 3 series crowd.
Okay I'm going to try this, I've always been curious about the Maserati biturbo with that said I'm still not sure I can watch Doug demuro for 24 minutes
Had more than a half dozen of these over the years including a 425 and 430 currently in storage the last 15 years. Living less than an hour away from the U.S. distributor in Baltimore helped getting parts quickly. The main issue I recall was that because the carburetor was completely enclosed, it was prone to flooding and hard starting in hot weather. Fuel injection cured that in 1987, but I learned the trick of spraying starting fluid into the plenum with a carburetor cleaner straw stuck into the vent fitting.