Chrysler Maserati......or is it Maserati Chrysler?

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/586097098609824/

Turbo

Convertible

Hard top.

Leather

CHEAP

Seems like stuff some of you weirdos likes.

Technically "Chrysler TC by Maserati"

The raw engineering brain trust of a third rate American automotive firm, the assembly prowess that can only be brought to you by 1980's Italy

At $600, it'd have to be about $602 cheaper for me to want to bring it home.

That's not a K Car with a port hole?

While everyone else sees an easy opportunity for worn out snark, I see an intercooled Turbo-II in a package with enough unobtainium parts to zero out the cost of the drivetrain...

Cooter said:

While everyone else sees an easy opportunity for worn out snark, I see an intercooled Turbo-II in a package with enough unobtainium parts to zero out the cost of the drivetrain...

Turbo I, no intercooler.

psteav said:

Cooter said:

While everyone else sees an easy opportunity for worn out snark, I see an intercooled Turbo-II in a package with enough unobtainium parts to zero out the cost of the drivetrain...

 

Turbo I, no intercooler.

Try again.  The TC only had the intercooled 2.2L (in either DOHC and SOHC forms) and was the only K-based car that came with one and an automatic (it was detuned to help the auto survive compared to the 5-speed versions in other k-cars).  So if its an auto Masi TC, it is either a 3.0 SOHC V6 or a 2.2L T2.  5-speeds were almost always the Maserati DOHC 2.2L Turbo.

In reply to Stefan :

Exactly.

How many of those removable hard tops could still be in existence at this point?  It's a small pool of need/want for it I'm sure but there HAS to be some dude somewhere who wants it.

The hard tops outnumber people looking for them.  You're lucky if you can get $100 out of one.   Undamaged porthole windows are in pretty high demand, however.  
 

In reply to Cooter :

Love that plaque! very cool.

More, if it was closer. 

If you ever see one and the owner is around, they will tell you all about it. The guys that have them, love everything about them, including the beige color that most of them are...

Steve_Jones said:

If you ever see one and the owner is around, they will tell you all about it. The guys that have them, love everything about them, including the beige color that most of them are...

Can vouch for this. 

In reply to Stefan :

Huh. TIL.  My apologies Cooter, that's very clearly intercooled.  I always thought the 8V turbo TC was a 2.5 T1.    So this is a detuned 2.2 TII?

The funny thing is that the engineers behind that thing made it as gaudy and ridiculous as possible in an effort to kill the car(they didn't care to be the ones trying to tack the Maserati name onto a LeBaron)...management went ahead with it anyway....its unfortunate it doesn't have the TIII engine like some of them though.

Wicked93gs said:

The funny thing is that the engineers behind that thing made it as gaudy and ridiculous as possible in an effort to kill the car(they didn't care to be the ones trying to tack the Maserati name onto a LeBaron)...management went ahead with it anyway....its unfortunate it doesn't have the TIII engine like some of them though.

They never received the TIII, it was a Maserati designed cylinder head and had nothing to do with the Lotus designed TIII head.  It was actually a better head design than the Lotus unit and combined with the Getrag transaxle (which the internals were originally spec'd for a mid-engined Corvette product that never happened), it has the most power output potential of all of the 2.2 engines.

Also most of the design and body work was done by Maserati, which is why it was so badly delayed that it coincided with the Lebaron's intro, instead of a year or two before it which hurt sales as the Lebaron was essentially the same car for less (though it didn't have the T2/Auto and the Maserati DOHC engine).

BTW, the Maserati head was actually cast by Cosworth, which is a little ironic considering the Lotus head wasn't.

https://www.allpar.com/model/tc.html

I did some work on a 16v Masi TC in a museum once. I left thinking the main thing I liked from that model apart from the other TCs was the wood shift knob.  Not to say i don't want a TC, i do!! But I'd prefer a 3.0v6 at this point. I already have the 5spd manual trans and turbo manifolds sitting around for it. I've got plenty of other cars for 2.2L's to go into that weigh less... including my MINIVAN! 

Vigo said:

I did some work on a 16v Masi TC in a museum once. I left thinking the main thing I liked from that model apart from the other TCs was the wood shift knob.  Not to say i don't want a TC, i do!! But I'd prefer a 3.0v6 at this point. I already have the 5spd manual trans and turbo manifolds sitting around for it. I've got plenty of other cars for 2.2L's to go into that weigh less... including my MINIVAN! 

Did it have the wood center caps?