The old maxim goes that a bad penny always turns up. The seller of today's Maserati Bora is also a previous owner. That doesn't mean this car is a bad penny, but you'll still have to determine if it costs a pretty penny.

Yesterday's 1972 Opel GT cost one million, four hundred thousand pennies, however paying for in with that many copper Lincolns might just . For at least 73% of you that Opel was arresting, and its Nice Price win was based partially on just how few of these beauties you see currently on the road.

Being current was Maserati's objective in the creation of the Bora - but despite that they named iit after an ancient eastern European wind. The Italian company watched ias one by one its competitors went mid engine - Lamborghini with the Miura, DeTomaso with the Mangusta and Pantera - and they heard rumors that Ferrari's 365 GTB replacement would likewise be dancing the mid-mounted move. Those competitive forces drove the layout of Maserati's Ghibli replacement, which the company determined must have an engine that's got its driver's back.

The resultant car is much like a Jag XKE in reverse what with its stressed steel monocoque up front, and tube structure in back supporting the engine and suspension. This allowed for the parts of the car that were really expensive to develop – firewall, cabin structure and pop up headlights – to be shared with the less-powerful and expensive V6 Merak. That slower clone car featured flying buttresses tying its vertical backlight and flat rear deck, while the Bora got a breadvan-like glass and metal clamshell affair keeping its engine out of the weather. Double glazing and a carpeted cover over the powerplant helped bring a level of civility to Maser's big wind.

That engine is Maserati's trident and true double overhead cam V8. In American Boras, it displaced 4,930-ccs and pumped out 280-bhp, partially thanks to its quartet of Weber 42 DCNFs. The seller makes the claim that this 4.9 runs strong, but that the hydraulics may be in need of work. If you're familiar at all with the Bora, that statement may strike fear in your heart because this major Maser has hydraulics by Citroën. Instead of creepy self-centering steering and suspension, the Bora gets by with the system only affecting its brakes, headlight actuation and the seat height adjustment. Those seats, by the way, look like barcaloungers from 2001's space station, and if you're more monkey than man you'll find the fact that both the steering wheel and pedal box can be moved to accommodate nearly any permutation of arm/leg length to be to your liking.

Here those sausage-ribbed seats look to be in fine shape, and the whole interior would be right at home in an English pub as it's black and tan. Eight gauges fill the driver-oriented instrument panel, and for you total control freaks, the stereo sits just above your left knee, well out of your passenger's reach unless they happen to be... well, you know what-ing you, in which case they should get to choose the music. Then seller says the ebony black paint is mostly original, which leads to the question of what parts aren't, and why? This isn't a trailer queen, and exhibits the road warrior's scars to prove it, but still the seller claims that it cleans up nice. He also says that one of the car's most distinctive features - its Biarritz-like stainless steel roof and a-pillars - is free of dents.

The Bora was styled by Italdesign and that bright roof was one of Giorgetto Giugiaro's strokes of brilliance in differentiating this car from the V6 Merak. Another was the chrome reverse-dish centers on the alloy wheels, a feature missing on this car, although this being a later car, these wheels are totally appropriate. It also has the massive rubber baby buggy bumpers appended to each end, a pox inflicted upon all cars here in the U.S. back in the day. Here they blend in better with the car's black paint than they would on a light color, but geez they're big.

The Bora is a car of firsts and records - it was the first Maser with independent suspension all the way around, as well as the company's first use of their V8 engine midships in a road car. That engine pushed the car to a world-leading 165 mph top speed, and allowed it to squeeze off zero to sixty runs in around seven seconds.

Despite sporing those kinds of numbers, as well as a rep for being an extraordinarily well handling car, this one - one of only 275 4.9-engine cars built - has only 35,000 miles on it. That means that whatever warts it may exhibit are most likely the result of time not distance, but those foibles will still need to be addressed. The market for Maseratis has never had the kind of furvor as that for Enzo's children, but still, they aren't just giving them away. As you might imagine, the seller isn't giving this one away, and in fact is asking $65,000 for the opportunity to board his Bora. Along with that there's the potential that he may one day - and that day may never come - when he may wish to buy it back from you. What do you think, is that a fair price to emulate Sammy Hagar? Or, does that make you say Bora no-more-a?

You decide!

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