Four-Door Biturbo: 1986 Maserati 425
1986 gave us many things, including the Chornobyl nuclear disaster, the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion and the tragic loss of seven crew members, and let’s not forget mad cow disease. That fateful year also produced a four-door twin-turbo Maserati in the form of the 1986 Maserati 425. The seller has this example posted here on craigslist in Waverly, Virginia and they’re asking $3,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Mitchell G. for sending in this tip!
As is almost always the case with craigslist ads, the photos aren’t the best. There is only one photo showing the entire car, the leading photo in this post. Otherwise, they’re cut-off partial photos. But, they show most of the car and that’s what’s important in case a potential buyer didn’t want to have an inspection company take a look at this one. It appears that this car has an ill-fitting, dented black trunk lid in the photo above. The seller says that this car is wearing its original paint, so I’m not sure what’s going on there.
I’m being hard on the seller, my apologies for that, but when buyers have one way to see something that you’re selling online, it just makes sense to me to provide as many good, clear photos as possible. That being the case, I’ve always liked the Biturbo series, especially the 425 and 430 sedans over the two-door or convertible body styles. It just adds to the quirkiness of these cars to have a four-door twin-turbo sedan made in Italy with big, puffy seats.
Speaking of those seats, we don’t see the back seat area, which is really unfortunate in a four-door sedan where getting in and out of the back seat is easy, but the front seats look good from what we can tell from the photos. There are some issues inside, there’s a lot of three+ decade-old leather in there and some of it appears to have shrunk and has some normal wear and tear. Hagerty is at $2,900 for a #4 fair-condition car and $4,200 for a #3 good car, just for the record.
The engine should be Maserati’s 2.5-liter twin-turbo V6, which had 185 horsepower and the seller says that it hasn’t been started in over a year so I’d expect to do some tinkering. Or, a lot of tinkering, given the sometimes contentious history of these cars. Once it’s going, though, you can relive the 1980s in style. Have any of you owned a Maserati Biturbo?
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Comments
That’s a rather grim look back at 1986 isn’t it 😂
Ha! There had to have been great things that happened in 1986. I really like this car, and the Biturbo sedans, in general. Nice find, sir!
The Mets won the World Series!
I was working in 1985 at the general importer for Maserati in Vienna, Austria. The Biturbo is a very nimble and quite quick. 0 to 60 mph in 6 seconds. First models needed a slight overbore of the valve guides. Outlet valves sometimes were sticking a bit, so the shims fell off. No damages, but very bad noise. Of course, dismantling of both cylinder heads necessary to overbore the guides by 0.0008 inch… problem solved. Sometimes the IHI turbochargers “died”, if the driver didn’t allow the chargers to cool down during running the engine and allow the oil circulating for a while without Turbo boost.
Posted 20 days ago.
Didn’t even know a 4 door bi turbo existed! I’ve always liked the bi turbo, but the horror stories I’ve heard kept me away. Now if I can find one we’ll sorted, I might pull the trigger.
As a sharp-eyed car-spotting 12 year old kid near the northern border in 1986, this is one of my multiple-almost-spots. It was just barely different enough to the Chrysler K-Cars and GM J-cars to be noticeable but every time I thought I’d see one in the corner of my eye a closer look revealed it to be a Hyundai Stellar driven by a visitor from Canada.
If this was in My area I would probably buy it. I worked on one bi-turbo a long time ago. The only downside is it’s the blow through carb and not the later intercooled injection one. I also like the emerald green paint. Would clean up to be a nice cars and coffee driver. These cars got a bad rap and were no worse than any Italian car of the era. It’s definitely no Honda or Toyota. They do need special attention with a compassionate owner. The bi-turbo Spider I drove was very rewarding.
I have never owned a Bi-Turbo. But, I’m not into self hate.
Mechanic at the dealership bought one that was on trade really cheap about 25 years ago.Black convertible.Not a lot of power and nothing but driveability problems.He had the same set up with a blow thru carb as someone stated here which was junk imo. He thought he was cool because it was a Maserati. At least it was a convertible.Used to store it in my extra garage for 50.00 a month.
I have had experience with these and the early ones had a problem of the oil not circulating after the engine was shut down. That caused a cooking of the oil in the turbo and leading to early deterioration of the engine as the carbon deposits got lose and acted like sand paper to the engine internals, WOOPS. This car should have the updated systems but that is something I would look for first. The second engine problem is the head gaskets. When doing work with the head of, DO IT EXACTLY THE WAY THE COMPANY SAYS TO DO IT. Otherwise you will blow a head gasket sooner than you might expect. A friend had one and did his own work and blew thru three sets of head gaskets and finally he took it to an expert and saw how to do it properly and never had a problem after that.
These in size and in general look are very much like the BMW E-30 Series cars but a bit more angular. Those seats are very comfortable as is the suspension and given some of the road in Italy they are designed for rougher surfaces than most with a bit more lean than the BMW but it corners about the same. These can be great fun and the rust problems are not that bad for an Italian car. The fun factor is high but they NEED PROPER CARE. If they do not get it they are a money pit. The same can be said for Jags, Porsches, and other European cars. As for me I like the looks of them.
I had to look twice at the thumbnail because at a glance I thought it was a Chevrolet Cavalier , then I was wait a second that’s not a Cavalier its even worse. This is not a machine I would be willing to take on. Maybe send a link to Tyler Hoover
Sold one new in 86 Broiled and overheated from the factory did have a fantastic pull in 2nd gear at 2400 rpm lots of warranty claims head gaskets turbo issues fit and trim issues
I had an ’84 Biturbo back in1994 when I was 24 and looking for a status symbol to drive. I bought it with the intention of being looked at from the public as being elite. But between the gray color and the non-descript body design, nobody even noticed the car.
In 2009 I bought an ’89 430 from a widdow who wanted it gone asap. It had 3850 original miles on it and plastic remnants on the seat from the factory. It was so new that I was afraid to drive it. I later sold it to a collector in Beverly Hills.
Overall, I like these cars but they are high maintenance. One of the best things about them is that when you’re on an open highway and the dual turbos kick in, they’re FAST FAST FAST!!!!
Ah yes,Bi-Turbo. Worked at dealer who sold these with Porsche,Audi.
Took one home for lunch,er,’test drive’. Did a 360 on a back road before I knew what happened. No harm,no foul.
Blow thru carb was definitely problematic.
Leather was buttery soft. And thin.
The ‘hole’ in the dash? Maserati clock. You can find replacements in ex Mas mechanics toolbox. Always missing.
Warranty claims killed Maserati, dis-honest dealers did their part…