Schaefft's Bargain Barge Extravaganza - Renault VelSatis 3.5 V6

[MAF260]

These coupes are nowhere near as unreliable and financially ruinous to run and maintain as the uneducated would have you believe. I owned a 3200GT for a few years and have also had 2 GranSports, one of them for 8 years. Parts availability is the big issue, with many seemingly routine parts NLA. Clutches are big money due to the labour involved and the suspension arms (8 of them in total) can be hard to find and expensive - I believe pattern parts are available now and some have found ways to change balljoints without changing the whole arm. Sadly many of these cars have been removed from the road due to some of the parts costs and availability. At one point a set of brake discs was heading towards £1k territory; I spent a lot of time and effort working with a manufacturer to produce better quality replacements for a third of the price.

They're great cars, I hope you have a lot of fun with yours.

[R Lutz]

21 hours ago, DVee8 said:

I'll have to keep an eye out for this around here. If you get a blue Nissan flashing it's lights, it could be me.

And if you get a red Nissan flashing its lights, it could be me. 

[Schaefft]

4 hours ago, MAF260 said:

These coupes are nowhere near as unreliable and financially ruinous to run and maintain as the uneducated would have you believe. I owned a 3200GT for a few years and have also had 2 GranSports, one of them for 8 years. Parts availability is the big issue, with many seemingly routine parts NLA. Clutches are big money due to the labour involved and the suspension arms (8 of them in total) can be hard to find and expensive - I believe pattern parts are available now and some have found ways to change balljoints without changing the whole arm. Sadly many of these cars have been removed from the road due to some of the parts costs and availability. At one point a set of brake discs was heading towards £1k territory; I spent a lot of time and effort working with a manufacturer to produce better quality replacements for a third of the price.

They're great cars, I hope you have a lot of fun with yours.

I might have to send you a message should I get stuck with this at some point then. I'm hoping that it won't need much for the mot (parking brake shoes are the obvious issue right now) and Mr. Horriblemercedes was very generous including a set of discs in the deal. The bolt pattern isn't different to many other models out there, the rather large center bore however is what sets this Maserati apart from them all. Which means you are basically left with two options: Maserati brakes or Ferrari brakes. Neither of which are cheap. Same story with the wheels naturally.

[MAF260]

15 hours ago, Schaefft said:

I might have to send you a message should I get stuck with this at some point then. I'm hoping that it won't need much for the mot (parking brake shoes are the obvious issue right now) and Mr. Horriblemercedes was very generous including a set of discs in the deal. The bolt pattern isn't different to many other models out there, the rather large center bore however is what sets this Maserati apart from them all. Which means you are basically left with two options: Maserati brakes or Ferrari brakes. Neither of which are cheap. Same story with the wheels naturally.

Feel free to message any time. You'll also find a bunch of friendly enthusiasts on sportsmaserati.com for advice, parts etc.

[yes oui si]

20 hours ago, Schaefft said:

The bolt pattern isn't different to many other models out there, the rather large center bore however is what sets this Maserati apart from them all. Which means you are basically left with two options: Maserati brakes or Ferrari brakes. Neither of which are cheap. Same story with the wheels naturally.

02-14 Volvo XC90s are the same pcd and center bore, and the offset is only 4mm out so hopefully the bells on the discs will fit. Certainly worth a try given the difference in parts prices. 

[Schaefft]

4 hours ago, yes oui si said:

02-14 Volvo XC90s are the same pcd and center bore, and the offset is only 4mm out so hopefully the bells on the discs will fit. Certainly worth a try given the difference in parts prices. 

Yeah, strange outlier but good to know should I ever need any. Fortunately the car came with a new set!

As previously mentioned, the XJ Sport went to an enthusiast today, here's what remained of it on the drive:

Hilariously enough the new owner said its the least rusty XJ he owns, and he's got 5 others😂 The drivetrain and subframes (if salvagable) will live on in another car, his mate will take the rest. I think this is the best outcome the car could have seen, most of it will live on in other cars. It really doesn't look all that bad in the photos but trust me, the rot sits deep.

That means I now got space on the drive to park the Maserati and start to have a closer look to find out what it really needs:

As always I love automotive archeology whenever a new car arrives so lets have a look at what iteams we find this time.

The aforementioned brake discs, for a Ferrari 575 no less if I'm not mistaken. Gives you an idea how much bootspace the Maserati Coupe provides (not much).

A total of 4! O2 sensors. From what I can tell 3 old ones, one new sensor still in genuine Ferrari packaging. One of the boxes is empty so I assume that already went on the car. The Check Engine light is illuminated so we all know where the remaining sensor will go soon. Also spare MAF that looks like a BMW part.

Not sure why there's a new shifter assembly in the boot as the gearshift (up to 3rd gear anyway) feels fine but I guess its good to have. I haven't seen a receipt for a clutch replacement yet but if it's really needed this will go in when the gearbox needs to come out. There's also this:

Guess something to hang on the future garage wall. It also came with these mandatory Halfords V8 badges which go in the bin tomorrow:

What is standard are the quad exhaust pipes. I don't think the exhaust system ever received any attention (it sounds great as is), I did find paperwork for an ECU remap though (about 75k miles ago) which will have an impact on performance numbers. A nice little bonus.

Wheels are still standard as well, not my favorite design for the Maserati Coupe and in pretty rough shape but the tires are excellent. Naturally the rears are wider than the fronts, too. There was an extra wheel included which didn't look cracked or buckled, this one has been refurbished before and has a different finish:

Fronts:

In case you forgot what you are driving:

Similar to the Alfa 166 Maseratis have a serious problem with gooey soft touch coatings. It's not quite as extreme as in the Alfa where the whole lower dash and center console is covered in them but this will need attention eventually. Oddly enough the infotainment system is completely different from the 166 which uses a Porsche unit I believe:

I haven't played with it yet so no clue how much use you'd get out of the satnav in 2024. The Hvac vents are very Alfa Romeo, the analog clock however definitely isn't:

That's all there's to report so far. Depending on how much time I'll have after work I'll see if I can make a start on cleaning it tomorrow.

[horriblemercedes]

Don't throw the V8 badges away! They're original from the factory, not ebay/Halfords! 

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, horriblemercedes said:

Don't throw the V8 badges away! They're original from the factory, not ebay/Halfords! 

You are right, looks like some had them while others didn't. Guess they'll stay, thanks for letting me know!

[MAF260]

19 hours ago, yes oui si said:

02-14 Volvo XC90s are the same pcd and center bore, and the offset is only 4mm out so hopefully the bells on the discs will fit. Certainly worth a try given the difference in parts prices. 

The only discs which fit these are for the Maserati coupes or Ferrari 550. F456 brakes are 1mm out on the offset but apparently people fit them! At one point a few years ago discs in Maserati branded boxes cost more than double the same disc in a Ferrari/Brembo branded box. Once word got out about this and Maserati owners were buying the Ferrari discs the supply was shut down - retailers had to return all stock so it could be controlled centrally. I spent almost a year talking to brake manufacturers trying to get high-quality pattern discs made. Many refused to discuss it or went quiet very quickly - I later found out that somebody at Maserati was following my progress (stupidly posted on a forum!) and was 'encouraging' the manufacturers to not get involved. Eventually I worked with Apec who produced discs which are better quality than OEM for about a third of the cost as I took no profit. Several hundred sets of discs have now been produced and purchased, keeping more cars on the road.

[Supernaut]

The wheel situation sounds familiar to me.

I had the hilarious* idea of putting some steelies on the SLK, on the basis that it's the same 5x112 as VW wheels.

Ah, but what about the centre bore? 6mm-odd larger!

[GeordieInExile]

That Maserati is pornographic. 

I like how you jumped on the chance to buy that without hesitation but passed on my C6 because of the bork potential 😂

[Schaefft]

@MAF260 Its bs like that that ruins the ownership experience with these cars. I know Maserati is trying hard to squeeze every penny out of people to stay afloat. However, a manufacturer actually going to the lengths of following what most would call a brand ambassador trying to improve owner's situations and reaching out to parts suppliers to prevent it all from happening is next level. Maserati is at the brink of collaps and as in most cases of car manufacturers going bust, it's absolutely justified.

5 hours ago, GeordieInExile said:

That Maserati is pornographic. 

I like how you jumped on the chance to buy that without hesitation but passed on my C6 because of the bork potential 😂

The first question is always: How likely is it that I can find the same car in similar or better condition for similar money. The C6 was a bargain but it wasn't a unique enough car to justify the hassle of trying to get that parking brake sorted. If it wasn't for that I totally would have had it.

Funnily enough the handbrake is the main problem of the Maserati as well. Since its all mechanical I don't see much preventing me from fixing it though. I've also read the fault codes triggering the CEL today, O2 Sensor 1 bank 1 heating circuit failure, which happens to be the new sensor in the box above. They look fairly easy to reach from underneath so fingers crossed that'll sort it. I've been busy starting to clean the car today though, more about that tomorrow.

Lets have a quick look at some of the paperwork that came with the car instead. 4 Previous owners and 20 years so there's some interesting findings. Like the bill of sale when the 2nd owner bought it from Stratstone Maserati/Ferrari  Manchester. It could have been one of the cars out front:

That was back in 2008 though, they are long gone from that location.

I'm not sure what the original MSRP for the car was 3 years prior but I'm sure thats some pretty severe depriaciation at work there. 10k miles at the time of sale. The owner didn't waste any time to install a tracker, which means its only a matter of days before I discover some hacked up wiring:

The 2nd owner had it for another 3 years before the last custodian of the Maserati took over, thats where the car started to rack up the miles. Fortunately the owner kept some records:

Hold on, ECU remapped? Mr. Horriblemercedes reckons this added about 40bhp to the peak output which would let the 4.2l V8 comfortably sit at over 400 now. And tyres, many many tyres not just in these notes but many of the receipts following them. And O2 sensors, more than once!

Shocks and springs at around 75k miles, some eye watering parts prices there. I wonder if it's still on stock coils?

Front wheel bearings and minor collision damage repairs. Also front right O2 sensor, the same I need now 7k miles later...

One of the most recent bills. This is probably where the Maserati specialist finally had enough, charged 400 quid to remove two bolts from a control arm and sent it out the door:

Also 600 quid for a single used control arm! Which might be the reason I also found this in the stack of paperwork, plus a novice's introduction into engine management systems:

Yes, you can service your "supercar" in your garage. It's no different to any other car out there. Maserati even included a toolkit for you, all still complete. But where's the trident logo? That's the least I'd expect to stare at while desperately trying to get the car going again at the side of the motorway.

And since the boot can't hold a spare wheel without massively compromising the luggage space you get this tire compressor and bottle of goop all free of charge:

So yeah, with a fairly complete service history, book pack and all the other bits and pieces these cars were delivered with still here we can slowly form a fairly complete picture of what we are working with now. I'll try to get things cleaned up a little more tomorrow, the lower car is covered in tar all over which takes a bit of time to get off. Should look much better already by tomorrow night though!

[MAF260]

Maserati are renowned for having no interest in their older models (or their owners!) and having little to no support for them. Even the more recent GranTurismos are suffering from NLA part supply. They have recently launched a Classiche programme for older models, mainly due to the rise of classic car values where some of their 60s and 70s cars have risen to high five figures and six figures in some cases.

Your service history is very interesting and shows committed owners who were prepared to pay to maintain the car properly. Migliore is a very well respected indie - those labour charges will be genuine, not created from anything other than the time it will have taken them to remove famously difficult to remove suspension arms - I note a used arm was £600 in 2022, but a new one was £630 in 2014 - there is no justification for this that I can see other than greed.

The ECU remap will have given next to no power increase on its own. I documented a load of changes I made to my GranSport at the time including better flowing exhaust manifolds, 2 deleted cats, 2 replaced by sports cats, a H-pipe, high-flow air filter and a ECU remap. Measured on a hub dyno before and after all of that (probably £8k in cost) was around 40bhp from memory.  I mainly did it to replace the factory cats which have been known to break up and be sucked back into the engine causing catastrophic failure. Despite the high cost it was cheaper than a new engine, gave a little more power and made it sound like thunder - I'll see if I can find any videos if you're interested!

The handbrake is almost pointless in these cars - you'll see the handbrake standing to attention at the end of its travel in most coupes; a phenomenon known as the horses cock! The handbrake shoes delaminate inside the disc and can get caught, causing problems. They're a bugger to adjust and still don't work very well even with all new hardware and fully adjusted. As you car is a manual I would suggest always leaving it in gear when parked.

Lambdas are quite easy to change, but I needed the proper tool to do the job - just make sure you replace the heat shield underneath the car as the exhaust heat can affect oil temperature and the car could throw a CEL.

They're relatively straightforward cars to work on at home, although there are a few jobs I would always leave to a specialist. Before I forget - check the condition of the front subframe thoroughly - it's Italian and loves to rot, often from the inside out!

As mentioned, Sports Maserati.com is a great forum full of friendly, helpful owners who have experienced just about everything these cars could throw at you. I posted prolifically there with the same user name when I owned the cars.

Sorry if I'm coming across as a Maserati bore, or know it all. I owned 3 coupes over about 12 years (and even bought a new Ghibli when they came out) so have a lot of fondness for the cars. I hope you enjoy the car as much as I did with mine - feel free to reach out with any questions and I'll answer what I can.

 

[loserone]

This is enlightening and I wish I had the balls / deep enough pockets to run something like this.  A Clio 182 was more than enough stress for me and that was more reliable and had cheaper parts than my old Nissan Almera 😂

[Schaefft]

1 hour ago, MAF260 said:

Maserati are renowned for having no interest in their older models (or their owners!) and having little to no support for them. Even the more recent GranTurismos are suffering from NLA part supply. They have recently launched a Classiche programme for older models, mainly due to the rise of classic car values where some of their 60s and 70s cars have risen to high five figures and six figures in some cases.

Your service history is very interesting and shows committed owners who were prepared to pay to maintain the car properly. Migliore is a very well respected indie - those labour charges will be genuine, not created from anything other than the time it will have taken them to remove famously difficult to remove suspension arms - I note a used arm was £600 in 2022, but a new one was £630 in 2014 - there is no justification for this that I can see other than greed.

The ECU remap will have given next to no power increase on its own. I documented a load of changes I made to my GranSport at the time including better flowing exhaust manifolds, 2 deleted cats, 2 replaced by sports cats, a H-pipe, high-flow air filter and a ECU remap. Measured on a hub dyno before and after all of that (probably £8k in cost) was around 40bhp from memory.  I mainly did it to replace the factory cats which have been known to break up and be sucked back into the engine causing catastrophic failure. Despite the high cost it was cheaper than a new engine, gave a little more power and made it sound like thunder - I'll see if I can find any videos if you're interested!

The handbrake is almost pointless in these cars - you'll see the handbrake standing to attention at the end of its travel in most coupes; a phenomenon known as the horses cock! The handbrake shoes delaminate inside the disc and can get caught, causing problems. They're a bugger to adjust and still don't work very well even with all new hardware and fully adjusted. As you car is a manual I would suggest always leaving it in gear when parked.

Lambdas are quite easy to change, but I needed the proper tool to do the job - just make sure you replace the heat shield underneath the car as the exhaust heat can affect oil temperature and the car could throw a CEL.

They're relatively straightforward cars to work on at home, although there are a few jobs I would always leave to a specialist. Before I forget - check the condition of the front subframe thoroughly - it's Italian and loves to rot, often from the inside out!

As mentioned, Sports Maserati.com is a great forum full of friendly, helpful owners who have experienced just about everything these cars could throw at you. I posted prolifically there with the same user name when I owned the cars.

Sorry if I'm coming across as a Maserati bore, or know it all. I owned 3 coupes over about 12 years (and even bought a new Ghibli when they came out) so have a lot of fondness for the cars. I hope you enjoy the car as much as I did with mine - feel free to reach out with any questions and I'll answer what I can.

 

I've had a look at the handbrake assembly (virtually), looks like there isn't much adjustment inside the car at all. The handbrake lever has 0 travel left resulting in no parking brake action at all, that why I thought it might be the adjuster or cable at fault here. There is some noise indicating something touching the rear disc insides though, I'll have a look later this week to find out what exactly I need to order. Autodoc offers shoes for 17 quid, vs. over 400 from OEM.😬

[MAF260]

4 hours ago, Schaefft said:

I've had a look at the handbrake assembly (virtually), looks like there isn't much adjustment inside the car at all. The handbrake lever has 0 travel left resulting in no parking brake action at all, that why I thought it might be the adjuster or cable at fault here. There is some noise indicating something touching the rear disc insides though, I'll have a look later this week to find out what exactly I need to order. Autodoc offers shoes for 17 quid, vs. over 400 from OEM.😬

Cables can stretch, but it's not common AFAIK. Adjustment is via a hole in the brake disc and is a bit fiddly. If you have noise coming from the rear discs it's more than possible the shoes have delaminated and will need replacement. The OEM cost is criminal - I had a set relined by Belfast Brakes many years ago for a small amount, but if you can get something on Autodoc it's worth a go. Many owners get away with the useless handbrake at MOT time as the car can't be tested on the rollers due to the LSD. They're meant to take them for a road test, but rarely do. If you can get it working enough so that the MOT tester can feel some resistance you should be good.

[Schaefft]

Update time! Put some temporary cover on the Maserati and drove it to the MOT station today to see what it might need to pass!

The good news is, things look better than expected, aside from a driverside upper front balljoint (which is a bolt-on part) and an O2 sensor (passenger side rear, we fixed the driverside front fault code by wiggling it's connector so might get lucky with this one, too) it won't need much I wasn't aware of already. The bad news is, the things I already knew about are a little grim. The passenger side parking brake assembly was completely missing, aside from a pair of mangled backing plates there wasn't much left of it. The driverside looked complete but the shoes were coming apart as well when I pulled off the disc, things certainly didn't improve on my drive.

The rear subframe is a little crusty as well. It will pass an MOT with a bit of bodging but it will need some welding in the future. Its solid enough in all the right places but it certainly isn't great. Easy fix with the sparkly stick but not something for right now. The brake discs are pretty bad as well but those were included with the sale of the car.

I've reached out to a Maserati breaker that was recommended to me and sent a list of bits I need, unfortunately I've been waiting a few days for a response now. Alternatively it seems like I can just order bits from E46 BMWs and Mercedes Sprinter vans to assemble the hardware needed. Im hoping that sorting the brakes, balljoint (not easy to find locally) and O2 sensor will be all thats needed for a test.

[dome]

21 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Update time! Put some temporary cover on the Maserati and drove it to the MOT station today to see what it might need to pass!

The good news is, things look better than expected, aside from a driverside upper front balljoint (which is a bolt-on part) and an O2 sensor (passenger side rear, we fixed the driverside front fault code by wiggling it's connector so might get lucky with this one, too) it won't need much I wasn't aware of already. The bad news is, the things I already knew about are a little grim. The passenger side parking brake assembly was completely missing, aside from a pair of mangled backing plates there wasn't much left of it. The driverside looked complete but the shoes were coming apart as well when I pulled off the disc, things certainly didn't improve on my drive.

The rear subframe is a little crusty as well. It will pass an MOT with a bit of bodging but it will need some welding in the future. Its solid enough in all the right places but it certainly isn't great. Easy fix with the sparkly stick but not something for right now. The brake discs are pretty bad as well but those were included with the sale of the car.

I've reached out to a Maserati breaker that was recommended to me and sent a list of bits I need, unfortunately I've been waiting a few days for a response now. Alternatively it seems like I can just order bits from E46 BMWs and Mercedes Sprinter vans to assemble the hardware needed. Im hoping that sorting the brakes, balljoint (not easy to find locally) and O2 sensor will be all thats needed for a test.

Good work, will be following with interest. My local factors let me poke through their brake shoe hardware stock to try and find some for the 911, I ended up having to go to the dealer but it might be worth you trying that

[MAF260]

1 hour ago, Schaefft said:

Update time! Put some temporary cover on the Maserati and drove it to the MOT station today to see what it might need to pass!

The good news is, things look better than expected, aside from a driverside upper front balljoint (which is a bolt-on part) and an O2 sensor (passenger side rear, we fixed the driverside front fault code by wiggling it's connector so might get lucky with this one, too) it won't need much I wasn't aware of already. The bad news is, the things I already knew about are a little grim. The passenger side parking brake assembly was completely missing, aside from a pair of mangled backing plates there wasn't much left of it. The driverside looked complete but the shoes were coming apart as well when I pulled off the disc, things certainly didn't improve on my drive.

The rear subframe is a little crusty as well. It will pass an MOT with a bit of bodging but it will need some welding in the future. Its solid enough in all the right places but it certainly isn't great. Easy fix with the sparkly stick but not something for right now. The brake discs are pretty bad as well but those were included with the sale of the car.

I've reached out to a Maserati breaker that was recommended to me and sent a list of bits I need, unfortunately I've been waiting a few days for a response now. Alternatively it seems like I can just order bits from E46 BMWs and Mercedes Sprinter vans to assemble the hardware needed. Im hoping that sorting the brakes, balljoint (not easy to find locally) and O2 sensor will be all thats needed for a test.

Good news that it doesn't need too much. Keep on top of Stu as he's always really busy and sometimes needs a reminder or 2!

[hairnet]

https://www.superformance.co.uk/3200/suspension.html

[Schaefft]

2 hours ago, hairnet said:

https://www.superformance.co.uk/3200/suspension.html

Excellent link, thanks for sharing! They got them for 98 quid which seems to be a decent price.

3 hours ago, MAF260 said:

Good news that it doesn't need too much. Keep on top of Stu as he's always really busy and sometimes needs a reminder or 2!

Turns out he's currently in Spain and won't be back until mid- October. Since I need the parts until end of next week I'll have to get them from somewhere else for now.

I've had a closer look at the second O2 sensor this afternoon since that only popped up on my way to the mot garage. Well, I'd say that will do it:

Somehow the connector came apart. I stuck it back in and the code disappeared but it will need replacing eventually, it snapped right off and won't be weather tight like that. Fortunately one of the old sensors that came with the car has the same connectors so I can just solder that on and it should be good to go.

I've also refilled the washer fluid so we now have a 20 year old Italian sports car with no warning lights on the dash:

I've also changed the sparkplugs since it came with a set of OEM (NGK) plugs of the correct type. Fortunately accessibility is actually excellent:

The other side is even better. The old ones didn't look bad at all, they all looked pretty much the same:

In case anybody needs the part number for their non-Maserati branded plugs, it's PMR8A.

The OEM plugs are PMR8B, with the only difference being that originally only the center electrode was platinum tipped.

I've also taken the driver side parking brake apart again. While doing so the friction material of one of the pads just fell off. Quality. So it's getting a set of pads in the back as well now. Hopefully the parts arrive soon and I can get a test on it.

[hairnet]

Point at 4 o clock when its done

[R Lutz]

On 10/09/2024 at 09:54, MAF260 said:

Sorry if I'm coming across as a Maserati bore, or know it all.

 

I'm absolutely loving the Maserati chat over here of late. My mate bought a GT in 2019 and I wrote about it for CM. Wonderful stuff. 

Incidentally, I was in the Press briefing for the Bentley Continental GT back in the day held at the Geneva Salon and the engineer there told me in the strictest confidence they'd decided a Maserati V8 made the best V8 sound on the planet. And had therefore benchmarked it .

[MAF260]

41 minutes ago, R Lutz said:

I'm absolutely loving the Maserati chat over here of late. My mate bought a GT in 2019 and I wrote about it for CM. Wonderful stuff. 

Incidentally, I was in the Press briefing for the Bentley Continental GT back in the day held at the Geneva Salon and the engineer there told me in the strictest confidence they'd decided a Maserati V8 made the best V8 sound on the planet. And had therefore benchmarked it .

I'll do some picture whoring here then (sorry, OP)

These were my coupes. I fell in love with them when I bought a 3200 about 17 years ago. After that had gone there were a few cars in between, but I fancied the naturally aspirated 4.2 engine and one of just 3 yellow GranSports sold in the UK caught my eye. I owned this car for 8 years, covering about 20k miles including numerous trips to the continent where I used to attend the Le Mans 24 hours races for a number of years (hence the stripes!). It even featured in an edition of Evo magazine and had its own little phot shoot. The black GranSport was such a good price at the time I snapped it up, improved it and sold it on after a few months.

[Schaefft]

How does the driving experience compare between the 3200 and 4200? They may look similar but things really changed significantly under the bonnet, I wonder how much that's actually noticeable on the road.

Loving the black paint btw. Should I ever have too much money I'd seriously consider getting a respray done on mine. It would need it to looks properly decent again anyway and darker colors, especially Nero, suit them the best I think.

Anyway, ordered all the parts needed now. To recap:

"Uprated" balljoint, brake shoes and oil filter for Maserati

Parking brake hardware for a BMW E46 and Mercedes Sprinter

Rear brake pads for an Audi 80 Avant (probably RS2 though)

If it wasn't for the trip coming up soon I could have ordered most of these bits for very cheap on Autodoc, with hardly any of it available within the UK I had to settle for some pricier alternatives on ebay though (Autodoc might just take too long). Fingers crossed it all fits and I can get these brakes sorted asap.

[MAF260]

They're a very different drive despite the similarities in looks. 3200 is a typical 90s twin turbo small capacity V8 - not much going on in the lower rev band and then a sudden whoosh as the turbos kick in. I bought an auto as the manuals were known to suffer with catastrophic end float issues due to the clutch operation. In Sport mode it was hilarious, flinging you at the horizon at warp speed. The 3200 is very much a GT - softer, but still very capable in the handling department. It didn't embarrass itself on a track day I did at Goodwood to explore the limits safely. The later 4.2 engine delivers power in a much more linear way which I preferred. Not much more power overall, but easier to explore and exploit. The other major difference is the 4200/GranSport has a transaxle set up compared to the 3200's conventional gearbox attached to the engine. Balance and handling is way better due to the weight distribution. The GranSport was Maserati's swansong version of the coupe which had a massive 5bhp over the 4200 and improved handling characteristics with lower suspension and quicker steering. I believe the gearbox software also provided quicker changes; I had mine upgraded with Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale software and it was one of the best modifications I made to the car. The ride in the GranSport is much harsher with bigger wheels and lower profile tyres, especially in Sport mode. I've never driven a manual 4200, so am interested to see what you think of yours. It's a slightly strange set up in that it's a manual converted version of the same cambiocorsa gearbox found in all other 4200s and GranSports using cables. Those who choose the manuals certainly seem to love them.

[Schaefft]

Great to get some insight there, I didn't know the 3200 didn't have the transaxle setup, it really looks like Ferrari thoroughly reengineered the car when they got in charge.

Since I'm waiting for parts I though why not have a look at the front brakes? I already have the discs and pads (pads are for an E34 or E38 BMW!) so it should be fairly straight forward.

Its a fairly large disc and an appropriately sized 4-piston caliper. Turns out the discs aren't all that terrible. Considering there's only a lip just about noticeable on the back (and the discs are anything but cheap) I'll see if I get away with keeping them on the car for now. Should they turn out to be warped etc I can always put the new ones that came with the car on later. However:

That doesn't look great. Turns out the pad on the back is more or less completely gone:

The other side of the car didn't look much better, the wear is pretty much identical which means this must be normal for these cars to wear out pads like this:

It's certainly been a while since the last brakepad change, here's the same pad but new...

Unfortunately I also made the discovery that one of the pistons on the driver side caliper is seized up. I don't think theres much of a chance to get that going again either. The passenger side has been replaced before and all four pistons compressed normally (making me think that the seized piston didn't have an effect on the pad wear much, they wore the same on all sides), the old caliper for that side was still in the boot of the car and trying unseize that only resulted in part of the piston snapping off:

That means a new* caliper is in order, a good used one is 150 quid so it could be worse. I will have to paint that one silver though to have all 4 matching, of I wanted one in the right color it would be another 100 quid on top... Fingers crossed I won't make the same discovery in the back. At least I got one corner done today:

Fingers crossed everything arrives swiftly and I won't have to stare at this for too long then:

[MAF260]

Pads should wear evenly on both sides. Make sure you clean the calipers inside thoroughly, paying special attention to the stainless sliders the pads move in. Also check the pads slide easily - they sometimes need a little sanding on the edges to make them fit better. Disc look like it will go again and will benefit from the holes being cleaned out periodically to stop the build up.

[Schaefft]

39 minutes ago, MAF260 said:

Pads should wear evenly on both sides. Make sure you clean the calipers inside thoroughly, paying special attention to the stainless sliders the pads move in. Also check the pads slide easily - they sometimes need a little sanding on the edges to make them fit better. Disc look like it will go again and will benefit from the holes being cleaned out periodically to stop the build up.

There's no stainless hardware the pads slide on other than the pins holding them in place, there's nothing in the parts catalog either. Do you have more info?

A few quick detailing shots for the end of the day. As previously mentioned the car was covered in what looked like a million little splatters of tar that took a little while to get off.

Copious amounts of tar remover were used but most came off eventually. I've also gave the exhaust and grille a little love with some steel wool, not perfect but much better. The whole car needs a polish desperately.

And often forgotten, the area around the bootlid:

Probably a decade or two of crud removed.

[MAF260]

The calipers should have some stainless guides which the lugs of the brake pads slide within. I've looked for an old photo but can't find anything unfortunately.

Best reference pics for brakes I can find is this guide I wrote a few years ago:

https://www.sportsmaserati.com/index.php?threads/how-to-change-brake-discs-and-pads-3200-4200-spyder-gransport.17743/