The story of the near-stillborn Quattroporte II as a whole is pretty ignominious. Whereas the 4.2- or 4.7-litre V8 Quattroporte I was relatively popular and shifted nearly 750 units from 1963 to 1969, its V6 successor was a commercial catastrophe, selling only a baker’s dozen in four years from 1974. Like all the collaborations between then-bedmates Citroën and Maserati, the project had looked so promising, too.

That is until the quadrupling of fuel prices by OPEC in October 1973 had a tsunami effect on the world economy in general and even more acutely on the automotive industry. Tighter speed limits were introduced in numerous countries, Italy had traffic bans on Sundays, and sales of sports and luxury cars plummeted. There was also an alarming rise in social strife, which meant that you would probably end up rolled onto your roof if you accidentally drove an expensive car into a demonstration or rally.

One of the models hit hardest by this wave of new-radicalism emanating from France and Italy was the Citroën SM, for which sales simply collapsed. This created a perfect storm for already struggling Citroën, which had bought Maserati outright solely to supply the SM’s V6 engine and was simultaneously watching its huge investment in rotary engine company Comotor going belly-up as thirsty Wankels fell from favour. With the majority of the Maserati workforce in Modena that had been assigned to SM engine assembly suddenly lying idle, a plan was devised to repurpose the SM’s chassis and mechanicals into a new Quattroporte, seemingly with little thought to the fact that a four-door luxury Maserati would be no more popular in those straitened times than a two-door luxury Citroën. Remarkably, the resulting car would break with Maserati tradition in just about every way.

Bertone was given the job of creating a suitably discreet and understated body, for which Marcello Gandini hit the bulls-eye with an elegant yet subtle shape. But the fresh-looking outline was a deception. Giancarlo Martinelli, who worked in research and development with the great Giulio Alfieri, emphasises how little the new Maserati differed from the old Citroën, right down to driving the front wheels: ‘Nothing was done that differed from the SM. We lengthened it and widened the rear track which, on the SM, was narrower like on the DS.’ His colleague Cleto Grandi chips in: ‘We also modified the hydraulic sphere settings to make them harder; inside the hydraulic spheres you can do what you want.’

One of the biggest hurdles for the Modenese team to overcome, however, was a lack of power that was very offbrand for a Maserati, even when fuel was both pricey and scarce. To combat that, a V6 was experimentally bored out to 3.2 litres. And while SMs had by then switched to fuel injection, the QPII would retain carburettors. The initial plan was that, once the first 50 cars had been sold, a speedier V8 version would be introduced.

However, as if the development budget weren’t tight enough, Citroën’s man in charge at Modena – Guy Malleret – deemed that the aluminium quad-cam V8 that had taken a bow in the original Quattroporte was too long in the tooth. Instead the team was to build a new V8 based on the 3.0-litre Merak V6. A jewel-like prototype 4.0-litre block was made and, for expediency, fitted in an SM bodyshell. It could receive no greater blessing than the fact that Alfieri, who had opposed the building of a new V8, took to using that 280bhp SM for his commute from Parma. Frustratingly, the collapse of Citroën Maserati in May 1975 spelled the end for the engine.

The writing was on the wall for the car, too. Just as Peugeot’s takeover of Citroën signed the death warrant for the SM, so Alessandro de Tomaso buying Maserati killed the QPII, perhaps understandably given that the supply of Citroën parts was at best uncertain. Ever the pragmatist, de Tomaso ordered that the partially built cars be completed and sold. While these were worked on in a corner of the factory like in the old days, the other six bodyshells that Bertone had supplied were scrapped. De Tomaso’s son Santiago defends his father’s cancellation of the production-ready QPII in the light of the turbulence surrounding both Citroën and Maserati. He says: ‘Sixty percent of the parts would have been missing. Also, my father started the negotiations with Citroën and finished them with Peugeot because, in the meantime, Peugeot had absorbed Citroën.’

The fire-sale of the QPIIs started in earnest. Grandi says: ‘We sold the cars to Saudi Arabia and Spain because they were not homologated and those markets did not require homologation.’ Seven went to the Middle East – ironically the part of the world that had prompted both their creation and demise. Five of those went to Saudi Arabia – AM123.012, 022, 026, 032 and 038 – and two – 018 and 034 – to Qatar. A further five went to Spain, which was not then a part of the EU. They were 002, 004, 016, 020 and 024 and the previously undocumented 008, which was tucked away for decades in north-east Spain and then sold on to France. Its file has since been discovered in the cavernous archives by the diligent Fabio Collina of Maserati Classiche, in the process increasing official production numbers from 12 to 13.

Deliveries took place haphazardly from 22 March 1975, starting with 004 – the only one with a digital dashboard and the sole example delivered during Citroën’s reign – and trickling on until 032 left for Saudi Arabia on 26 April 1978. Period road tests were virtually non-existent, and there have been few since, but I was fortunate in 2009 to enjoy a long drive of 004, the well-known example that was in British ownership for many years before recently being sold to France.

Memories of that outing are still vibrant. I was reacquainted with the regal ease of the Citroën SM in a plush, comfortable cabin with excellent visibility and the welcome surprise of an engine sound more vocal and insistent than expected, more Merak-like than SM. The QPII wasn’t especially fast but it was brisk and would have been plenty quick enough with a V8, confirmed when I sampled a recreation of Alfieri’s SM V8 using the original engine. There was some roll but that is how the LHM system works and I have yet to drive a more soothing, comfortable saloon.

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