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My journey owning several exotic & sports cars in India

11th August 2023, 14:05 by Ananth Iyer

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It all started on 23rd May 2021. We were in the midst of Covid; I was bored sitting in the office so went to meet my father's friend who lived near Alwarpet (Chennai) Starbucks.

He was in a WhatsApp group which shared luxury cars for sale. While chatting with him, he took out his phone and showed me some beautiful pictures of a Maserati. He told me it is for sale for 25 lakhs. I immediately fell in love with the car and the short exhaust note clip which he shared with me on WhatsApp.

I went home and couldn’t sleep; I wanted the car. I thought even if the car was a non-runner, I could use its Ferrari engine as a dining table, the seats as a sofa and the Brembo brake callipers as a wall display. I asked him to find me the seller but he couldn’t; I then checked OLX and found that the car was in Bangalore.

I tried to chat with the person who listed it but did not get any reply from him. I at least knew that the car existed, the price was real and that it was in Bangalore. I asked a good friend of mine who is into car tuning (Mr. Y) to locate the car. He called back within a short time, saying that it was with his known person.

During this time my father’s friend also told me there is a person called “CAR” Baba in Coimbatore. He needs a photo of the car buyer and the car’s photo which the person intends to buy and will tell whether it'll be lucky or unlucky for the person. So I requested him to enquire for me, which he happily did and told me that car will finally come to me for (X) amount and if I would buy it, it would give me a lot of expense but at the same time would make me famous.

As soon as I kept his call, I got a call that the seller wants to sell at the rate that Car Baba suggested I buy it. And I immediately said yes. I just wanted the damn car. Due to Covid I couldn’t go to Bangalore to inspect it myself and made a blind purchase, and the car came on a flatbed to my home in Chennai.

The car couldn’t even be taken off the flatbed as the seller had sent the car without a battery. We had to install the battery from my Mercedes Benz E350 and get the car started so it could be removed from the trailer.

From then on, began my journey in getting the car right. It was a 2009 Maserati Quattroporte, grey colour, single owner GJ number, run just 29,000 km, done with Kreissieg exhaust.

I had to go through several internet forums and YouTube videos to find as many details about the car as possible. Since very few units of this model were made and sold, details were scarce throughout the Internet.

The first thing was to locate the right battery; during the process of changing it, we realised that the previous person had caused damage to the fuses which weren’t available in India and that direct wires were used in place. So I had to order fuses for 2 euros, but there were only found in Italy and were used in other sports cars including Ferraris.

Every week I ordered parts and every weekend we called a mechanic home to get them fixed. I noticed that the spare key was missing, and found that Fiat Punto had the same spare key; so got another key reprogrammed for 1/10th of the cost. The fog lamps were broken and they also were the same as that on the Fiat Punto; so got them replaced.

Once during a test drive on a weekend, I had taken the car to East Coast Road and totally forgot that I had driven so far away from the city, that on my way back, the police weren’t allowing cars into the city as they required the Covid E-pass. I thought what the heck have I got myself into? Once I approached the police barrier, I told them I was a mechanic and that the car had come to me for service, so I am taking it back to the owner’s home; they believed it and let me go.

The car has 90 litres fuel capacity and during each full tank, I wondered which country I could fly to with that money. It only gave a mileage of 3.5 km/l irrespective of how slow or fast I drove. So I always kept the car in sports mode.

Driving the car: The car has the most glorious V8 sound to ever have on any car. The Ferrari V8 naturally aspirated is the same as the 458 Italia and F430; coupled with the Kreissieg exhaust, it is killer. In manual shift mode (the car had the reliable ZF6 speed gearbox) with paddle shifters, we could create sounds under the tunnel which could wake Gods up and show us heaven. It was pure magic, the acceleration was fantastic for the 2-ton car. The car handled just like a sports car (no body roll at all), even though it was a proper four-door saloon. The whole family could have fun. I remember driving back home after Diwali Pooja with my mother and father; I didn’t need crackers that day as I had my Maserati to make the real crackling sound.

This was the car which properly introduced me to the Chennai racetrack, even though I had visited the track many times before with my father who was a regular there since my childhood. I'd also visited a few pay and practice sessions in my own car and once in an Esteem saloon racing car.

One fine weekend, I heard that the track was open and along with a few friends, we drove down to the race track. Little did I know that it was a test drag event, where people could take their cars and have a proper, timed drag race open to anyone who wanted to compete. I was pitted against a Rolls Royce Ghost. To everyone's surprise, our Maserati which cost peanuts compared to Ghost with its glorious sound came out on top with just a fraction margin. It was a victory to remember and put me on the map and made me a regular from then on at the racetrack.

List of work done: For some parts such as the A/c filter, I found that cutting 1 inch from the filter on the Porsche Cayenne would suit this car. The coolant hose gave up which turned out to be the same as that on the Swift. The water pump belt is the same as that on the Maruti 800. Many original parts were ordered from Singapore through a Maserati Genuine Parts Dealer. Over the course of a year, I ended up spending 7 lakhs doing up the car little by little. And also made my own detailed spares' OE number list and service tips and tricks.

I am sharing a list of all the parts that were changed by me during my period of ownership.

MASERATI Quattroporte 4.7S 2009
FRT brake disc 235318
FRT brake pad 673012044
FRT brake line 196275
Rear brake disc 228411
Rear brake pad 673012040
Rear hand brake shoe 248418
Engine bed *2 226572
Gearbox bed 196865
Water pump belt 214271
Compressor belt 239617
Rh head cover Gasket 211219/264986
223982 4 pieces each side gasket * 2
LH head cover gasket 211220/264987
Intake manifold gasket 203134 or 255738 8 pieces
Air filter 205468 BMC FB546/20
Ac filter 66855200
Fuel filter 220074
Oil filter 289571/ H24W07 Hengst
Spark plug 239242 * 8
Ignition coil 281449 * 8
Starter motor 180169
Rear shocker 306174 *2 ball joint 163918 *2 washer 228842 * 2 233122 or 233125 * 2
Rear suspension bush kit 980139890 * 2
Rear tie rod end for toe adjustment 276636 *2
Rear ball tie rod end 259572/259573
FRT shocker 306173* 2 shock absorber pad 233122/233125. Ball joint 157630 *2 hyper block 204606/228842
Front BALL tie rod end 259573/259572
Front suspension bush kit set 980139889*2
Coolant Shell Glycoshell
Rear Axel oil 1 ltr 75w-90 GL 5
Brembo rear parking brake P02001n
Battery 12V 100 or 95 AH
Engine oil 5w-40 9 Ltrs
Power steering oil atf d2
Front tyre psi 34
Rear tyre psi 34

I had many great adventures and wonderful drives with the car. The last of which was just before I got engaged (to my now wife); she had secretly come down to Chennai from Bangalore a week before selling the car. I had gone to the airport to pick her up and we were around the whole day until the evening when I had taken the car to the railway station to drop her off.

I had decided to give up the car around early November 2021 as I wanted to move to a car which I could use regularly on a racetrack. Also, one final note: the car was not practical even on city speed bumps since it was very long, so taking car to unknown roads was out of question.

Final notes: it is the most underrated, drop dead gorgeous car. You can just sit and drool over it all day long. It sounds better than any V8 AMG, and handles as good as an M car. It was my “four door Ferrari” that made me famous.

I was lucky to have a racing simulator that I had got second hand from a famous Indian racer who currently races in DTM in Europe. It was a proper set up, Fanatec wheels and pedals which used to load up Asseto Corsa and R factor 2 game with the same Maserati as mine that I could drive on fantastic roads and tracks from around the world. During Covid, I used it to hone my skills on real life race track successfully.

The search: after the sale of the Maserati, I started searching for my next car. I had also sold my racing simulator to increase my budget. Around December I had spotted a car on Team-BHP classifieds. I contacted the seller directly and we went back and forth for the price and on November 16th 2021, I had purchased the car.

987.2 Cayman S (manual). 2009 model. Yellow, 13,000 kms done.

This was my second purchase and again blind without driving the car or visiting seller. I had got engaged by this time to my wife and originally wanted to drive it down to Chennai with her. But I knew the idea of driving low sports cars in bad roads are not worth and had cancelled the plan. The car was single owner neatly kept from new stock condition and no modifications. It had arrived from Nashik on lorry to my home. I had never seen a car which was 12 year’s old but looked brand new.

Without wasting time I ordered all filters and changed every oil on car including gearbox and rear axel oil. Got the alloy wheels painted back to original silver colour. Replaced front boot strut. Put on new Michelin tyres. Upgraded brake’s to etc yellow pads and brand new Brembo discs. The car was better than ever. The car also had full PPF done.

Driving: The car’s clutch was maintained very well. But was very heavy to press in city traffic. I learned that to get most power out of the cayman you need to rev up engine each time properly and shift the gear as it was a naturally aspirated 6 cylinder boxster engine. The power came after 3500 RPMs. In city the car was slow till speed of 50 kph compared to current modern car’s but once it built up the speed it was rapid. The sound was good but no where near the sound of Maserati and I missed the V8 very much for its torque and sound.

The car handled like a dream. Was lightweight. Steering was direct and brake’s were more than sufficient. It felt car was underpowered for the wonderful chassis it had. Unlike Maserati I could easily judge the braking point and car would slow down as I wanted it to. The most wonderful thing was mileage in city around 8 kmpl and in highways around 13kmpl. It had 60 ltr tank capacity. Car was most reliable and cheapest to service and maintain.

Race Track: The Cayman was purest fun I ever had on racetrack. It was where the car came alive. I could reel in Bmw m2, Ferrari’s and many faster cars in the cayman. Since my height is 6’2”, I have a big foot and pedals were too small so I could never properly heel and toe and the truth is I didn’t know also how to heel and toe. So each time under hard braking I used to down shift I could feel the rear swivel as couldn’t match the sudden change in rpm since car didn’t have auto rev match built in unlike newer manual sports cars. You can never make deadly mistake with this car on track. It was always predictable and made you feel like your a better drive then what you are. No matter how many ever laps pounded at track in heat the car would never overheat and not the car put too much stress on tyres as the chassis was so light and good you could do lap after lap with same lap-times. The car never got tired.

Highways: The car was also very brilliant on highway I could remember the day I had pre wedding photo shoot with my wife. So I had to take her to a resort on the east coast road. The car was sublime with me doing very high speed’s she couldn’t even tell the speed’s we were doing and we both were so comfortable throughout the journey. The car had excellent luggage space with boot in front and rear which was very usable and spacious. Also for day to day the car was practical I had many fond memories of my late father with the car going to office in it. Felt like a mini Carrera GT to me.

Parting ways: During my owner ship of the car my father had passed away and with my marriage approaching in few months I didn’t have much time to drive the car. My wife felt car was too basic in interiors. And I was frustrated the car felt very weak on low rpms and sound was not as good as Maserati. I got a good offer for the car which I thought at that time was worth it. So I made up my mind and sold the car on 9th may 2022.

Maserati Granturismo S 4.7 F1 shift.

After marriage and once I came back from Europe trip. Life felt empty without a good sports car. I went on again in search of my next car. Through Olx I found wonderful 1st owner 2009 Maserati Granturismo f1 shift. It was through a Dealer in mumbai 1st owner just 16k kms done dark grey colour with the most wonderful alloys I had ever seen in my life. As always it was a blind purchase without me actually going and driving it. I had my friend go finish negotiations and get the car shipped to Chennai around 25th October 2022.

With my previous experience on Maserati I knew most of part number and were same and engine was same expect this was a 4 seater 2 door car and it was single clutch f1 shift instead of reliable ZF gearbox.

Again without wasting time I got on about my work by quickly getting the general service done and this time using Bmc air filter as I found it was cheaper than Oe and had more performance and was reusable and readily available in India. The oil filter was same as Bentley and I could buy it for just 1200 Rs instead of OE which was 8000 Rs. I recorded the whole general service on my GoPro and uploaded on my YouTube channel which I thought was fun. We even got the radiator cleaned. The clutch life was 70% and I didn’t want to touch the clutch fluid as it required too much labour and way more expertise.

Experience: It was the Most stunning looking car ever. Even more than many Ferrari’s and 100% more better car than Ferrari California any day. It was a work of ART. Even when not in motion you could spend a whole day looking at it. It was same kerb weight as the Quattroporte and same dimension as well. But it had few more extra horse power and the F1 single clutch gearbox which was mounted in rear of the car was from F430 Scuderia and the 599 GTO was Epic. Once you started and warmed up the car switch on the sports engine mode and in manual gearbox mode the car would enter into the MC shift mode which was stunning quick shifts and every downshift and upshift was an event in itself. The car was a Madonna. It had a certain way it was to be treated. You didn’t drive the car. The car drove you. Coupled with the excellent Ferrari v8 engine the exhaust is the most stunning original exhaust to come out on any car one earth from factory. The interiors was red and stunning. This was not a sports car but a hidden supercar. It was a beautiful Italian creature you can’t tell car was 2009 even in 2022. Designed by pininfarina to me its the best modern Maserati ever. The cold start was thundering.

Parting ways: The car required lots of patience and attention while driving it. While starting the car it had to be heated and primed once or twice using semi start key twist before fulling twisting key to start it as the car had CAM variator issue due to lack of oil reaching the CAM cover for all models till 2010. Since car was single clutch it was a total manually shifted car for best driving experience. The auto mode was just there for emergency and would result in higher clutch wear and jerky shifts. The reverse gear in car was to be used as less as possible as it caused very high clutch wear and even more so on upwards sloping reverse. Any new person can’t drive without knowing the fine workings of the car. The clutch once worn out was around 9 lacs to get it replaced and programmed which not anyone could do. After few months of owing I got a good offer and since I couldn’t us the car on racetrack and for long drive’s as it was heavy and low I decided to give up the car as not many people on earth can claim twice selling Maserati for higher sum than purchase cost. On 3rd December 2022 I sold it.