Helped by funding from the new owners, Citroen, the Bora (Tipo 117) debuted at the Geneva Motorshow in 1971. A completely new design, it followed the trend of designing mid-engined sportscars with a quad cam alloy 4.7-litre V8 (with four twin choke Weber DCNF carburettors) mounted longitudinally behind the occupants and bolted to a ZF transaxle. It also featured independent suspension (double wishbones) all round, for the first time on a Maserati. Other novel features included Citroens no-travel braking system and the same companies hydraulic seat and pedal adjustment and headlight raising arrangement.
The body was designed by Giugiaro, now at Italdesign, whilst the chassis was again unitary (a combination of square-section tubular elements and sheet) with subframes front and rear carrying the front suspension and engine/transmission/rear suspension respectively. A few of the first cars had aluminium bodies.
From 1975 a 4.9-litre engine was fitted (for the US market, this came to Europe in 1977), and despite a lack of further development (due to financial difficulties) production continued until 1979. A total of 571 examples were built.
Technical Details
| Engine | 4719cc (93.9x85mm) quad-cam V8 with 310bhp @ 6,000rpm 4930cc (93.9x89mm) quad-cam V8 with 330bhp @ 5,500rpm |
| Suspension | front : double wishbones with coil springs plus anti-roll bar rear : double wishbones with coil springs plus anti-roll bar wheelbase : 2600mm track (front/rear) : 1474mm/1447mm |
| Brakes | ventilated discs all round Citroen high pressure (no-pedal-travel) system |
| Transmission | 5 speed manual ZF unit, limited-slip differential dry, single-plate clutch |
| Steering | Rack and pinion, 3 turns lock to lock |
| Kerb weight | 1520kg (42% front, 58% rear) |
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