Stumbling Upon the Rare Birds – Brett Finds a Maserati

Maserati is a fine Italian auto company.  They have ties with Ferrari and back in the day they had ties with Chrysler right here in America.

So what does a super luxury car company do with American vehicle platforms?  They take a Chrysler LeBaron, put an Italian Engine in it and slap some Maserati emblems on it.

Yes indeed, that is a LeBaron all the way but its the little things you have to pay attention to.  The headlights are a tad thinner, the bonnet is longer and some things you can't see in this picture, like the interior and tail lights, are completely different.

So, why is this such an amazing find for me?  I love automotive mistakes and as Maserati said, this is one of their biggest mistakes in their entire history.  This car was in production for just three years from 89-91.  That means there are not a whole lot of these cars left in the world.  It's very rare however it doesn't fall into the "Ultra Rare" column such as the MC12 or the A6GCS.  But I managed to stumble upon the "TC by Maserati" in the middle of no where near Petersburg, Indiana.

Just driving along,  I see it on the side of the road and pass on by thinking to myself, no way... there's no way that is what I think it is. I've only read about these online and I was much to far from civilization for that to be a Maserati.  On the return trip, my curiosity was bleeding profusely.  I stopped to check it out and sure enough I see that Italian emblem, meaning it was indeed a Maserati.  I was standing before one of the biggest mistakes in Maserati's history.

I snapped a few pictures and realized that there were no houses around and there was no for sale sign in the window but if there was, I was considering breaking my Cadillac only rule.

Where they were in the 90's to where they are today.  Is practically breathtaking.