The forgotten mid-engined Maserati Merak sports car

Have you ever heard of the classic Italian sports car produced by Maserati from 1972 to 1983 named Maserati Merak. We bet You know it. As the world's automotive fans, off course You know this Maserati's sports car of the 1970s.

The Maserati Merak sports car is produced ranging from 1972 to 1983. (Picture from: https://bit.ly/2L0gSrF)

At that time, the Maserati Merak sports car competed with the Lamborghini Urraco and Ferrari Dino 308. While the name is actually not related to the beautiful exotical feathered bird species in Indonesia called 'merak' ('peacock' in English). As quoted from Dkclassiccars.dk, the naming is taken from a star lied in the constellation Ursa major.

The Maserati Merak sports car is uses a dashboard and part of the interior that was adopted from Citroën SM, on models produced before 1976. (Picture from: https://bit.ly/2L0gSrF)

Maserati Merak (Tipo 122) was born as a 'wedge' designed sports car that has distinctive sharp lines on the body, and it reminds us of the best cars of the 1970s. The sports car was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro of Italdesign, it is also known as the sibling of Maserati Bora (another Maserati's sports car) that built from 1971 to 1978 and uses a 4,700cc V8 engine.

The Maserati Merak sports car is uses a 3.0 L V6 engine capable of spewing up to 192 PS (142 KW; 190 bhp) of power. (Picture from: https://bit.ly/2L0gSrF)

The Merak sports car was designed for the first time during Citroën's ownership of the Maserati (1968-1975), and uses a 3.0 L V6 engine capable of spewing up to 192 PS (142 KW; 190 bhp) of power. This V6 engine was also used by Citroën SM. In addition to the 3,000 cc version, Merak also has a V6 variant with a capacity of 2,000 cc, which is labeled Merak 2000GT. This engine version is capable of bursting power of 168 bhp (125 KW) with dimensions of 122 cubic inches.

The Maserati Merak sports car has more balanced front-rear weight distribution than the Bora. (Picture from: https://bit.ly/2L0gSrF)

The advantage of the V6 engine using on the Maserati Merak makes production costs lower, besides that it also gives a little space for the the rear seats placement. Physically, the sports car has an elegant design and is fairly futurist in its time. The Maserati Merak is also featured with a characteristic of 1970s cars, namely the pop-up headlight, besides uses a dashboard and part of the interior that was adopted from Citroën SM, on models produced before 1976.

In addition, Merak's handling is better because of its lighter body weight, with a more balanced front-rear weight distribution than the Bora. Aesthetically, despite sharing the same bodyshell, the Maserati Merak looks quite different from the Bora, especially in the opened rear support design.

Unfortunately, Maserati Merak is not very well known in the classic car market. Because, its V6 configuration engine is fairly small besides that for 11 years, Maserati has produced the sports car in quite a large number, which is around 1,830 units worldwide. And currently, the price of the Maserati Merak in good condition is around €50,000 (approx Rp.700 millions). *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | MASERATI ]

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