Here is the Best Car Never Made! The Maserati Boomerang

The Maserati Boomerang was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and unveiled in 1971

The late Sixties and early Seventies were surely the zenith of concept cars. One of them even made it into production: the Lamborghini Countach, designed by Marcello Gandini for Bertone in 1971, although it was another three years before it actually went on sale.
Then there was the Lancia Stratos Zero. A Bertone-designed concept, it was shown to the public in 1970. But while the name might be familiar, this distinctly long, wide and low wedge bore little resemblence to the small and nimble Stratos rally car.
Another of Gandini’s wondrous creations was the Alfa Romeo Carabo, which debuted at the Paris motor show in 1968 and earned acclaim as much for its iridescent green and orange paintwork (the car’s name was derived from the carabidae ground beetle) as its stunning styling. There’s one in the Alfa Romeo museum just north of Milan – if you never do anything else while you’re in Italy, go and see the thing close-up.

Just for good measure, Alfa Romeo donated many examples of it 33 Stradale chassis, complete with rear-mounted V8 engine, for decoration by Italy’s leading stylists. And they didn't disappoint, with Giorgetto Giugiaro’s 1968 Iguana for Italdesign another highlight.
However, for me, the most striking concept of them all has to be the Maserati Boomerang, a car that caused quite a stir again this weekend, when it went under the hammer at Bonhams’ Chantilly auction and sold for €3.3 milion (£2.4 million).
Designed by Giugiaro (the genius behind the original VW Golf and Lotus Esprit), the Boomerang was the standout car at the 1971 Turin show. What’s more, it was fully functional; it borrowed its mechanical underpinnings and 4.7-litre V8 engine from Maserati’s first mid-engined production car, the then recently introduced Bora (another Giugiaro car), and was good for 186mph.

Inside, the Boomerang's standout feature is a steering wheel that rotates around the instruments

The Boomerang’s sharp angles and ruler-straight lines would characterise Giugiaro’s designs for many years, but equally forward-thinking was the interior, in which the steering wheel rotated around a stationary instrument binnacle in a manner that makes a Citroën DS look distinctly passé.
After making an appearance at the 1972 Barcelona show, the Boomerang was sold to a resident of Benidorm. And it was still there in 1980 when a holidaying German Maserati enthusiast discovered it and was able to buy it.
Following careful restoration, the Boomerang made its reappearance in Paris in 1990, when Giugiario added his signature to the rear panel.

 



















Then in 2002 the car changed hands again and was treated to a refreshment of its previous restoration, which had been mainly cosmetic. Electrical and mechanical work was also carried out, the owner’s brief being that the Boomerang should be road-usable. And after 18 months and about £20,000, the car was road registerd and used by its owner.
It passed into Chantilly seller’s hands in February 2003. Before, in 2005, he reinstated the "77" logos (Giorgetto Giugiaro's initials on the Boomerang’s rear quarters and Maserati's famous trident emblem – the largest ever applied to one of the margue's cars – on the nose.
One-off prototypes and concept cars in private hands are extremely rare, and fully functioning examples such as the Boomerang rarer still.


culled from the telegraph