The “engine bottom end was destroyed” according to the listing on EuroSpares.co.uk, which means that the Maserati Merak SS featured on the fourth episode of the seventh season of Top Gear is dead. Consider how rare these things are and the fact that Jeremy Clarkson loves supercars from the 1970s, he’s not the only one who’s sad this Merak is getting scrapped.
The three amigos were each given £10,000 to buy their cars, with Richard Hammond and James May choosing the Ferrari 308 GT4 and Lamborghini Urraco. Jeremy Clarkson’s Maserati came with a terrible braking system from the get-go, but even so, the car did its job. Until the engine gave up, that is.
Considering that S7 E4 aired in December 2005 and the Merak was built in 1974 during an era when Citroen was running the company, it’s no wonder the car is now a parts bin. But then again, 55,707 miles on the odometer is no small feat for a vehicle as unreliable as this red-painted Italian supercar.
Oh, and by the way, Jeremy found an invoice of £38 for an SS badge. To this effect, the car isn't the Merak SS the producers believed it to be at first. It couldn't be anyway, more so if you consider this Merak was built in 1974 and the Merak SS started production in 1976.
Codenamed AM122 and designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign, the Merak was produced in limited numbers from 1972 to 1983. Approximately 1,830 examples left the assembly line, and thanks to the Citroen ownership of Maserati, the SM has a couple of things in common with the Merak.
As the name implies, the SS is a lighter, more performance-oriented version. 50 kilograms lighter and 30 horsepower more potent thanks to three carburetors and a compression ratio of 9:1, the Merak SS differs from the Merak from a visual standpoint as well.
The black grille between the pop-up headlamps is one of those differences. U.S.-spec models feature a traditional hydraulic system instead of the Citroen-sourced high-pressure system.
Also related to the Merak is the Bora, which held its value far better if the asking price in the classifieds is to be believed. One of the reasons the Bora is more of a collectible comes in the guise of the V8 engine. But then again, the brushed stainless steel roof and the 1,138-mm height are the most recognizable characteristics of the Bora.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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