Maserati Kyalami - World Of Classic Cars -

Maserati Kyalami 1980

For the origins of the Maserati Kyalami we must go back to 1972. That year, at the Turin Motor Show, DeTomaso Automobili launched their 'Longchamp', a two-door coupe. By 1975, Maserati was in the hands of a partnership between Alejandro DeTomaso and GEPI. Given Maserati's financial restraints, his solution was to call in Pietro Frua's design studio in Turin to re-style the Longchamp and so was born the Kyalami. The Kyalami, factory designated the Tipo 129 and launched it at the Turin Motor Show in 1976. The Kyalami didn't follow the Maserati Mistral, Ghibli and Khamsin tradition of naming models after a wind, but followed another tradition of naming its cars after the scene of its racing successes. This model was named after one of the world's great racetracks, Kyalami in South Africa, where in 1967 a Maserati-engined Cooper, driven by Pedro Rodriguez, won the South African Grand Prix; the Cooper Maserati was powered by a 12 cylinder Tipo 10/F1 engine.