The original Maserati Quattroporte was built between 1963 and 1969. It was a large sedan car powered by 8 cylinder engines—both firsts for a series production Maserati. The task of styling it was given to Turinese coachbuilder Pietro Frua, who drew inspiration from a special Maserati 5000 GT he had designed in 1962 for Prince Karim Aga Khan. While the design was by Frua, body construction was carried out by Vignale.

The Quattroporte was introduced at the October-November 1963 Turin Motor Show, where a pre-production prototype was on the Maserati stand next to the Mistral coupé. Regular production began in 1964. The Tipo 107 Quattroporte joined two other grand tourers, the Facel Vega and the Lagonda Rapide, capable of traveling at 200 km/h on the new motorways in Europe. It was equipped with a 4.1 litre V8 engine, producing 260 hp at 5000 rpm, and either a five-speed ZF manual transmission or a three-speed Borg Warner automatic on request. Maserati claimed a top speed of 230 km/h. The car was also exported to the United States, where federal regulations mandated twin round headlamps in place of the single rectangular ones found on European models.

The first generation Quattroporte had a steel unibody structure, complemented by a front subframe. Front suspension was independent, with coil springs and hydraulic dampers. Rear suspension used a coil sprung De Dion tube featuring inboard brakes on the first series, later changed to a more conventional Salisbury leaf sprung solid axle with a single trailing link on the second series. On both axles there were anti-roll bars. Brakes were solid Girling discs all around. A limited slip differential was optional.

The long lived quad cam, all-aluminium Maserati V8 engine made its début on the Quattroporte. It featured two chain-driven overhead camshafts per bank, angled valves, hemispherical combustion chambers, insterted cast iron wet cylinder liners, and was fed through an aluminium, water-cooled inlet manifold by four downdraught twin-choke Weber carburettors—initially 38 DCNL 5 and 40 DCNL 5 on 4200 and 4700 cars respectively.

The car shown here is a very special Quattroporte 4700, delivered new with lots of specially requested features. For starters it’s the only Quattroporte Maserati made with fuel injection and a 4700 engine! Of the ‘Type 107’ 249 examples were produced with 4.1 litre and one with 4.7 litre, of the ‘Type 107A’ 499 were produced with 4.7 litre and one with 4.9 litre. This car is the only ‘Type 107’ with a 4.7 litre engine.

It was ordered by Dottore Enrico Wax from Genova, Italy on 6 May 1965, and delivered just the following month, on 7 June 1965. Dottore Wax owned a big canned food factory, imported Johnnie Walker and Connolly leather. Furthermore, he was close friends with Enzo Ferrari. From 1953 to 1960 he ordered four special Ferrari’s, a 250 Mille Miglia Berlinetta, a 250 GT TdF Competizione, a Superamerica S2 Coupe and an alloy bodied 250 GT SWB Berlinetta.

When Dott. Wax ordered this Maserati in 1965 he specified it with a lot of specially requested options. The car was painted in Nero Perlato Savidin, with red Connolly leather. It was equipped with a 4.7 litre engine fitted with a Lucas fuel injection system, Bosch ignition, an automatic 3-speed Borg Warner automatic transmission, power steering, chrome wheels with a red trident logo (instead of the normale blue logo), chrome interior details, enlarged 100 litre tank consisting of two 50 litre units (normally two 35 litre ones) and two sets of double exhausts. Furthermore it was the first European Quattroporte to be fitted with twin round headlamps, this was only used for the US model and later for the Series II model. It featured a state of the art audio system, consisting of a Blaupunkt radio, two speakers in the front and two in the rear, an electrical antenna, and a record player in the centre console! Besides that the car was also delivered with a personalized steering wheel, a dashboard with special stitching, heightened seats and a passenger footrest.

On request of Dott. Wax the car was later retrofitted with four double Weber Tipo 38 DCNL 5 carburettors and two Lucas fuel pumps. The Borg Warner automatic transmission was replaced with a manual ZF S5-325 unit. In the end the record player was not meant to be and had to make way for an airconditioning unit.

The car was partly restored over the years and is in a solid rust free condition, and presents well as a good driver. The mechanics were rebuilt where necessary; the engine was rebuilt as were the dynamo and starter motor. The engine runs well and the gearbox is very nice. The interior is partly original like the dashboard and some leather pieces have been fitted to match the remaining original parts. The car comes with a Maserati Heritage Certificate, official documents of the factory and a history file with lots of invoices. The car has Dutch registration and is ready for inspection.