Manufacturer Maserati Body style 2-door coupé Platform AM 339B28 | Production 1988 - 1993
222 units Layout FR layout | |
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Class Entry-level luxury sports car (S) | ||
The Maserati Karif (Tipo 339) is a luxury coupé produced by Maserati between 1988 and 1993. It was designed to be luxurious, but also sporty and agile to allow the driver to "feel like a racing driver again or for the first time". At the car's unveiling, Alejandro de Tomaso declared a very limited production run of 250 examples. Of these planned 250, only 222 were actually sold.
In a throwback to Maserati's earlier naming practices for two-seater GTs, the car was named after the wind called "Karif", which blows South West across the Gulf of Aden at Berbera, Somalia.
The Karif was built on the same shortened chassis as the Zagato-bodied Maserati Spyder model, adding a fixed notchback coupé roof. It used the most powerful Maserati Biturbo engine: the AM473, a 2.8 L 90° V6 engine with 3 valves per cylinder, producing 285 PS (210 kW) at 5500 rpm. According to Maserati the Karif could reach 100 km/h (62 mph) from a standstill in 4.8 seconds, and achieve a top speed of over 255 km/h (158 mph). Other sources claim 248 PS (182 kW), and 224 PS (165 kW) for the later catalyzed model. With these lower power outputs, claimed top speeds were 233 and 230 km/h (145 and 143 mph) respectively.