Maserati Karif

Saturday 23 March 2013
The Maserati Karif (Tipo 339) is a luxury coupé produced by Maserati between 1988 and 1992. It was designed to be luxurious but also sporty and agile to allow the driver to "feel like a racing driver again or for the first time". The Karif uses the same shortened chassis as the Zagato-bodied Maserati Spyder model, leading to a somewhat truncated look in the sideview. It was met with mixed reviews as it did not live up to expectations of another Bora.
In a reversion to Maserati's earlier naming practices, the car was named after the wind called "Karif" which blows South West across the Gulf of Aden at Berbera, Somalia.
The Karif had an engine it shared with the Maserati Biturbo, the AM473, a 2.8 L V6 engine with 3 valves per cylinder. It produces 285 brake horsepower (213 kW) at 5500 rpm which can take the car from 0–97 km/h (0-60 mph) in 4.8 seconds and up to a top speed of 255 km/h (158 mph). Other sources claim 248 brake horsepower (185 kW), and 224 bhp (167 kW) for the catalyzed model. With these lower power outputs, claimed top speeds were 233 and 230 km/h (145 and 143 mph) respectively.



Technical data:
- engine: V6
- capacity: 2800 cc
- horsepower: 285 HP
- gearbox: 5+1
- top speed: 255 km/h