This Maserati Mash-Up Is Your Restomod Of The Week

2024 really feels like it’s been the Year of the Restomod, and with two months left of the year, there’s still plenty of time for a few more to pop up. Here’s one, based on a classic Maserati.

So, what cars from this storied brand has Modena Automobili, a young Italian company based just down the road from Ferrari, chosen to overhaul? The timelessly elegant 3500 GT of the early ’60s? The daring mid-engined Bora from the 1970s? Maybe the ageing-like-fine-wine 3200 GT from the late ’90s, with its exquisite boomerang tail lights?

Erm, no. Modena’s instead zeroed in on Maser’s awkward, but retroactively quite cool, ’80s and early ’90s period, a time when the company was underpinned by the boxy Biturbo and its many, many spinoff models.

The most sought-after of these was the Shamal, produced in just 369 units between 1990 and 1996. It endowed the second-gen Ghibli – itself a heavily revised Biturbo – with some mad ’90s styling and 322bhp from a 3.2-litre twin-turbo V6.

That’s the car that’s provided the visual inspo for what Modena Automobili calls Project MA-01, although it’s based on the far more pedestrian and less sought-after Biturbo. The restomod treatment sees the chassis stripped to its bare shell and strengthened (presumably once the inevitable rust’s been sorted) then clad in that new body, made from a mixture of carbon fibre and steel, that puts a few modern twists on the Shamal’s boxy looks.

Notable changes include a new front end integrating a bigger grille and LED headlights, an upswept rear that blends into a new rear spoiler, and some truly delicious box arches.

Modena has also thrown away the Biturbo’s, erm, biturbo V6, and replaced it with another one: the 3.0-litre from the recently-discontinued third-gen Ghibli, here in 404bhp S form. That car’s eight-speed ZF automatic is carried over too.

Automobili Modena reckons the first prototype will be done by early next year, at which point it should be ready to start crafting the 33 it plans to sell, starting at €585,000 – around £490,000 – a pop.

Interestingly, it’s not the first modern-day take on the bizarre but cool Shamal – in 2020, Maserati itself teased ‘Project Rekall’, a sort of retro-futuristic reimagining of its rectilinear style, but it ultimately came to nothing.