Whilst following a thread entitled "Dave Burnham is a BIG Biturbo fan" on the Biturbo Zentrum discussion group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/BiturboZentrum/info, a very informative and knowledgeable forum for Maserati Biturbo Era owners, I became aware of a very particular Biturbo.

My site was started back in 1999, and I dedicated it to the Biturbo, for it was this model that prevented the Maserati marque from disappearing into oblivion. It was back in 1975 that De Tomaso stepped in, When no other Italian manufacturer was interested in saving the "House of the Trident", and the rest is history.

Every now and then one comes across a fellow Maserati enthusiast who is not only passionate about their Biturbo, but who is also mechanically skilled enough to turn their road car into a competitive race/track car.

Dave Burnham, who runs a specialist Citröen workshop in Delanson NY ( http://daveburnhamcitroen.com/ ), is such an enthusiast. His workshop is 98% Citröen but also receives a number of "Citröen Era" Maseratis in his shop. They also rebuild many of the 90 degree Maserati V6 engines from the Citröen SM and Merak, and has one that he uses in his winter ice racing car but that's a whole different thread.

But we're here to talk about his very special and quick Maserati Biturbo.

He bought the car in 1997 and has been using it mostly on the track since 1999, but it is still registered and road legal (sort of) in New York State.

Since 1999 he has raced it on the following tracks: Lime Rock Park in CT, Pocono (North, East, and South courses) in PA, Monticello Raceway in NY, Summit Point in West Virginia, Beaver Run in PA, Mosport in Canada, Waterford Hills in Michigan, The Hershey Hill climb in PA, many auto crosses and road rallies.

He admits that the car handled terribly from the factory and had terrible brakes but over the years has changed many things on it and now, in his own words, "It's really great !". He likes to tinker with it and keep making improvements; "Don't get me wrong these cars are just fine the way they are for the street, but trying to get the most you can out of them on the race track takes some changes."

Some of the things done to make it better and faster are:

Generic Koni double adjustable shocks made to fit.

300 lb/in front springs and 200 lb/in springs in the rear bought at a race car flea market.

Purpose made front and rear anti roll bars.

Removed a lot of the rubber out of the suspension.

Installed generic camber/caster plates at the top of the struts.

Replaced the caster rods that hold the lower control arms in place with heim joints.

Found a couple of sets of the 7" wide Biturbo wheels, and use Hankook 225 50 14 DOT race tires.

Made a front splitter.

Installed a rear wing I bought for $8 at a flea market.

Installed a race seat and roll cage.

Installed a much stronger clutch.

Installed an oil accumulator because the car would loose oil pressure in the turns on the track.

Fitted a Spearco air/air intercooler.

Installed a blow off valve.

Re-jetted the carburettor on a dyno. It now has 215 bhp at the rear wheels.

Raised the rear suspension mounting points (because when the car is lowered too much the arm point down and you loose forward traction).

Moved the battery to the trunk.

Installed a Torsen differential from a 1985 Biturbo.

Installed a differential oil cooler.

Took a lot of weight out of the car. It now weights 2,490 lbs with Dave in the car. He still considers it too heavy, and is working on further improvements.

Made a large tube exhaust system with no catalytic converter and a straight through Borla muffler.

Installed vented front brake discs from an Acura.

Made mounts for Brake Man racing brake calipers front and rear with racing brake pads.

Changed the air filter to individual K & N filters in a high pressure area in the bumper.

He has been working with this car for many years and it finally handles quite well, having adequate power from the stock engine, and his laps times are quite good now. In 1999 at Lime Rock he was doing 1 minute 14 second laps, now he can do 1 minute 3 second laps.

Anyone interested in coming to a track day with any kind of a car but especially a Biturbo should email Dave at racing48@nycap.rr.com.

The next event he is attending is at New Jersey Motorsports Park on September 8th with NECC Motor sports. Check it out here: www.corvair.org/chapters/necc/.

My grateful thanks to Dave Burnham for allowing me to publish his photos.