This past weekend was my college's homecoming weekend, and today's post is a 1971 Maserati Indy. What's the connection? Bear with me here. In 1971, the Hulman family donated the assets of its family foundation to Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana. The size of the donation was significant enough to warrant a change of the college name to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. That's the connection to the model year. And the model name? Well, many of you are familiar with the fact that the Hulman family owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, or Indy Speedway, for short. That wasn't too much of a stretch, was it?
The Indy name itself is more of a stretch, when you take elapsed time into account. See, Maserati did win the Indy 500 twice back-to-back in their 8CTF, but that was 30 year prior to the launch of the Maserati Indy. Whatever. Ford milked the GT40 story for its 2005 GT and that didn't seem to bother people. Shameless marketing.
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1971 Maserati Indy 5-Speed
This 1971 Maserati Indy is an extremely desirable 5-Speed manual example with matching numbers. Very attractive blue with black leather interior and only 55k miles. It has only two small rust bubble spots on the drivers door and rear quarter. It is otherwise very solid and a great original driver. A very smart buy at just $67,500
The Indy didn't receive the 4.7L and the 4.9L engine options until Ghibli production was winding down - most likely to avoid cannibalizing sales. A wet sump differentiated the Indy units from the Ghibli. The 4200 in this Indy should be more than sufficient to motivate the aerodynamic unibody car along the road.
The seller notes rust, and our lack of bodywork experience causes us to avoid rust at any cost. But, the right buyer could find a way to remedy the rust. To do it right could be costly. Mechanically, the ad leaves many things to question, but this Weber-carbed V8 and live rear axle configuration doesn't worry us too much. The Giugaro AM115 Ghibli is tough to match, but the Indy comes close, and at a much more affordable price.
-Graham