He was a man of many enterprises, a maverick and a dreamer, a plotter and a schemer. There was a time when the Argentinian émigré Alejandro de Tomaso seemed intent on vacuuming up Italy’s motor industry, or at least those marques not owned by Fiat. Having been a so-so racing driver and an intermittently successful car manufacturer under his own name, he acquired Maserati when it was at its lowest ebb. He then set about turning it around. You could argue that the arrival of a new model would therefore have been cause for marching bands and a tickertape parade, but no. The Kyalami was – and remains – a cuckoo in the nest.
In order to understand its place in the marque firmament, first you need to understand Maserati. For all its success on-track and its grandee status among Italian marques, there have been just as many blows and bankruptcy hearings. Serial ownership, Italy’s political ructions and the pressure of outside forces have shaped one long fantastical yarn – one that often seemed just one tug short of unravelling. In many ways, on many levels, it is what makes Maserati so compelling. That, and maddening. When Maserati
