Classic Maseratis impounded
Look what’s happened to Joe’s Maserati! Rob Maetzig reports on unfortunate circumstances at a landmark motoring event.
Life’s not so good right now for Joe Walsh’s Maserati 5000GT. The Eagles rock star once owned the 1964 model, and it is included in the lyrics of his 1978 hit Life’s Been Good: ‘‘My Maserati does 185/I lost my licence/Now I don’t drive.’’
Right now that very Maserati can’t drive either - because it is one of eight of the Italian classic cars that have been impounded by the Australian Border Control for checking for the presence of asbestos.
They had been shipped to Australia to participate in the first-ever Maserati Global Gathering, in which a fleet of Maseratis ranging from a 1956 model to the very latest versions are touring from Melbourne to Sydney.
A furious Maserati Owners Club of Australia, which organised the gathering, claims it sought exemptions for the classic cars last year, with supporting paperwork.
But there was no response from the authorities until two weeks before the event started, and then an entire shipment of the eight Maseratis was selected – apparently at random – for the checking.
This checking process is highly invasive and involves holes being drilled into vehicles to test for the presence of asbestos. The cost of this checking – which has to be met by the vehicle owner – could be as much as $30,000.
The shipment of the classic Maseratis was organised and paid for by a Brisbane businessman, and on the opening day of the Maserati Global Gathering he said he intended shipping them out of Australia again rather than bear the cost of the testing.
Meanwhile, Maserati fans from overseas who had paid up to $4000 to drive the impounded cars in the big event, are now renting more modern versions and sharing the driving.
It’s all cast an unfortunate pall over a five-day drive that has been organised as a celebration of all things Maserati.
Open to Maserati clubs around the world, the event has attracted club members from Italy, Norway, UK, France, Switzerland, South Africa, New Zealand and USA, while road-going Maseratis taking part in the event range from 1956 – when Maserati began volume production of road going cars – through to current models.
‘‘It’s a tremendous honour to be given the responsibility by Maserati of organising the first ever Global Gathering of Maserati owners’ clubs,’’ says Maserati Owners Club of Australia chairman John Gove.
‘It is also a recognition of the role Australia has played in the history of Maserati, whether it is the number of cars that have been raced here or the fact that some the earliest Maserati road cars found homes in Australia more than 60 years ago.
‘‘Maseratis have always been designed to be driven and that is why this Global Gathering features a 1500km drive across Australia.
‘‘Maseratis are always at their most supreme when you see and hear them moving on the road and our event fully reflects this,’’ says Gove.
Just about every famous Maserati from a 1956 150S to the present range are in the event and driven by owners from around the world.
Accompanying the classic cars is a fleet of the latest modern Maseratis, most of which were launched in Australia just weeks before the event.
These include the new Ferrariengined Maserati Levante S, the new 2018 Maserati sports cars, the GranTurismo and GranCabrio, as well as the 2018 Maserati Quattroporte and 2018 Maserati Ghibli.
The motoring media is involved as well, driving new Ghibli and Levante S models.
Stuff was there for the second day of the gathering, driving from Torquay on the coast east of Melbourne to Bendigo via a car display at the historic gold town of Castlemaine.
It’s a pity Joe Walsh’s 5000GT is impounded rather than on the roads through Victoria, ACT and New South Wales.
Although the Maserati brothers founded their car company on December 1, 1914, in Bologna, having concentrated highly successfully on motorsport and racing cars, it was not until 1957 that the company managed to launch its first volume production road car, the 1957 Maserati 3500 GT.
That vehicle was succeeded by the 5000 GT, and they set the Maserati standard of taking engines derived from racing machines and putting them in road cars to produce vehicles with superb performance allied to superlative handling and road holding.
It’s a policy maintained right to the present day with latest Maserati, the Levante S, which is powered by a twin-turbo engine designed by Maserati and built by Ferrari.
With the Bora, Maserati built its first mid-engined sports car and bracketed this car with handsome coupes such as the Khamsin and Mexico.
At the same time there’s been the Quattroporte which is now into its sixth generation.
Although today’s petrolpowered cars all have twin turbochargers, Maserati’s first outing with a pair of turbochargers – and indeed, the first road going car with twin turbochargers – came with the Maserati Biturbo in 1981 which sired a family of power plants and models through to 2001, including the fourth generation Quattroporte.
The foundations for the current success of Maserati were laid with launch in 1998 of the Maserati
3200GT and confirmed by the Ferrari V8 powered Maserati Coupe in 2001.
The fifth generation Quattroporte launched in 2004 became both the best and fastest selling Maserati of all time, titles it relinquished to the GranTurismo in 2008.
The current generation of Maseratis made their debut with the sixth generation Quattroporte in 2012, followed by the Ghibli in
2013, taking Maserati into a whole new area of the market.
And Levante, the Maserati SUV which debuted in 2016, has driven Maserati sales to new levels.
It’s a fascinating history, one which should be celebrated via such events as the Global Gathering in Australia.
Unfortunately the random testing for asbestos in classic cars, introduced just last year, has got in the way.
You could say life’s not so good for a few old Maseratis, including Joe Walsh’s former ride.