E V O L U Z I O N E
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3.2 Litre V8, twin turbos and 32 valves setup, standard power output is 335BHP, 450Nm of torque at 4,400 RPM. That is, before Baron Thomas modified it... |
Article created with kind co-operation from Baron Thomas of LITEX HOLDINGS LTD.
It was a cold but sunny January afternoon when we received a phone call from the Baron Thomas, "I have just cancelled the my purchase of a Subaru Impreza and I have decided that the rear seats on the Maserati are a great deal roomier. I have just handed over a cheque to Ferrari-France; delivery should be in two weeks time. Please made available a water injection system suitable for this car at your earliest convenience".
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 We weren't certain which was the best system for this car at the time until the full workshop specification manual arrived at our office a week later. We decided to go for a fully mapped system2s with twin Highspeed valves to supply independent flow to each jet. A boost increase to 1.5bar was already planned.
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Baron Thomas is not new to engine tuning, in fact he was the first person to pioneer bolting a turbocharger onto a motorbike,  fully equipped with water injection of course. It took him quite a while before he progressed to four wheels. Having owned a 550 BHP MARANELLO- small rear seats (what rear seats?) as well as a GM truck (too many rear seats), he badly needed something in between, Marserati was the natural choice. Good excuse though!
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The Maserati was systematically stripped according to strict instructions from Baron Thomas; First, the catalysed exhaust system then the injectors, the induction pipes, the exhaust manifolds etc.- too many items to list on this page.
In fact there were not many parts left while the work bin in Ferrari's workshop was full.  Most of the parts were sent to various specialised engineering companies to perform improvement work. A new exhaust system had to be made. Similarly, fuel injectors were blue printed and exhaust manifold were ceramic coated etc. In fact the Maserati underwent 1,889 modifications, 2 of which were subtle and discrete. The doorsills were untouched. We received two induction pipes a few weeks later.
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The Water injection system was sent to Ferrari-France where the all modified parts was re-assembled by, of course, Maintenance Chief Mr. Dumas, assisted by his Maserati Deputy Maintenance Chief, and by Chief Electronicist Mr. Carlos.
 Special damping pads were used to ensure pumping noise was kept to a minimum.
Two 0.6mm jets were used, one on each induction pipe  leading to the twin port throttle plate; this would ensure even water distribution into each half of the V8. Running the water pipes to the twin-high speed valve was neatly routed and the installation was flawless. All electrical cables were shrouded with matching ribbed conduit, typical workmanship from a dedicated team of Ferrari technicians. So I am looking forward to see this flying machine after it has been run-in in due course.
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The long awaited day arrived. I flew to France on the day of the Solar Eclipse, a weird day since all Lorries were banned on the French autobahn during the hours of the eclipse. I was met by a chauffeur driven Mercedes from the airport and hurried toward the Grand Hotel de l'Aigle Noir in Fontainebleau, south of Paris. The journey took just over one hour, watching the eclipse as we travelled. On arrival I noticed my hotel was right opposite the Fontainebleau Palace, I could see that I was going to enjoy my two nights there. Soon after checking into this magnificent hotel, I met the man himself, Baron Thomas. We stayed for lunch at the hotel restaurant, it was ...nice; more than nice. So what drove Baron Thomas to start this project? The answer was quite simple, there just isn't a sports car with such nice rear seats! The extra capacity for carrying three people at the back alters the power to weight ratio by a factor of 1.25 so power has to be increased accordingly, 420 BHP was the target. The boost pressure is now running at 1.5 bars instead of 0.8, giving a pressure ratio increase of 38%. On paper the power should be around 465 BHP so now the performance should match any 2+2 sports car. The reason was simple and obvious. After finishing off the last drop of coffee at the lunch table, we looked forward  to the whole afternoon in front of us tuning the water injection system on the Maserati. As we walked out of the hotel door, a 550 Maranello was parked across the front courtyard as Baron Thomas urged me to jump in and be on our way to meet the Maserati. The journey took about twenty minutes when I finally met the flying machine. I was shown the roads where we would be doing some road testing. The weather was sunny and the ambient temperature about 22C.
 So, there it was, all ready and equipped with the latest anti-radar and laser jamming device on board (never leave home without it). My work started here. It took me some time to locate the MF2 controller; we eventually found it just behind the centre console, after ripping out most of the thick carpets and dashboard!  Ferrari had done an excellent job but hadn't told Baron Thomas where the MF2 was. A thermocouple temperature probe was placed in front of the throttle plate and a diagnostic readout was spliced into the MF2 loom, water pressure was confirmed and was set to 7 bars by Baron Thomas. Apart from filling up the water tank, we were ready to start the road test, something I had been looking forward to for sometime. |
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It was a perfect weekday where there weren't many traffic around. Baron Thomas took the wheel. A week prior to my arrival, I was told that the yellow warning lamp keep flashing up on the dashboard indicating the system has developed a problem, here is the complete account of the event: ...
I went on a "mad run" with it yesterday and uncovered a problem with the water injection. When I'm running at WOT in 4th,5th, & 6th gears (beginning at speeds of around 180 Km/H and then up), the water injection yellow LED warning light will come on a few seconds after I've fully depressed the accelerator, and will stay on until I back off the accelerator. It is almost as if the system is so adjusted presently that it cannot meet with the demand for water. I've backed off the pressure adjustment screw in the manifold as you advised in your last e-mail, and we did increase the water output in the box as you said. I also checked that the pump was indeed pressurising, I opened up the outlet water pipe a little bit at the manifold and saw that we did have water and bled it off of any possible air there. The actual water consumption seems too low in comparison with previous adjustments, although I cannot see why this would be so except for this possible starvation at high speed/WOT conditions. What do you think this might be? My immediate reply was the jets must be clogged. Please do your best to clean them, or I will check the system out next week. Yes, the injectors were completely clogged shut by what I believe to be windshield washer detergent scum. As I have no air compressor here at the country house and as my lungs, although efficient, could never generate the pressure required to blow these out, I used old-fashioned country ingenuity....In short, I microwaved them mercilessly for about 8 minutes, albeit in the purest and very best Burgundy wine vinegar !! They obviously appreciated this immensely as they are now as clean as a whistle. You may wish to include this advanced technique in your future user's manuals ... Back to the road test, sorry about the interruption, I believe that the above event should be noted that some windscreen additives may contain too much Glyco and could cause clogging of the jet if the mix ratio is too high (50%+) During the journey to the test track (road), we noted down the initial inlet temperature, it was reading between 42C (off boost) and 68C at WOT, idle temperature was 38C. The boost pressure was controlled by the HKS boost valve and dialled in at 1.5bars. The water injection was switched off. The car was just a jet-propelled plane without the noise.  As soon as we have arrived at the intended stretch of road, Baron Thomas has noted that the boost pressure was dropping progressively during the journey, and only 1.35 bar boost was shown. I have also observed the inlet temperature has risen to 48-74C under the same conditions, idle temperature has also climbed progressively to 44C. Lost of acceleration has also been felt.
Water injection was switched on, delivering approximately 200-300 CC/minute through two 0.6mm jets, water cuts in at one bar and progressively increase to 80% at 1.5bar. Water is injected between 3000 rpm and 7000 rpm, peaked at 4000 rpm. The car was parked and we waited until the idle temperature has returned to 2C over ambient (22C) at 24C. We mapped out the stretch of the road and did approximately twelve runs at each direction. Increasing the maximum water rate by approximately 10% for each subsequent run until we arrived at 80% injection rate via the MF2 controller. There were no audible knock observed as the knock sensor will automatically kick into action when knock was detected and dial in timing retatd. Data collected are shown below: |
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The result of the test runs were pretty remarkable, each time the water flow was increased, the inlet temperature fell. The boost pressure was sustaining at 1.5bar, at the same time the car got a bit more manic - probably due to the ECU dialling in more ignition advance as the charge temperature was dropping. The inlet temperature has now dropped from 68C to 38C at WOT at 1.5bar, idling temperature has dropped drastically from 40C to 23C, below ambient!!! (24C). Further engine bay temperature was noticed as we opened the bonnet and put our hands on to the Plenmums, they were cold to touch. Early runs before water was used, we could not touch them without parting the outer layer our fingertip. We have about an hour or so left before the traffic build-up, so we dashed to the nearest DIY shop and obtained an arm full of ready mixed Methanol and Ethanol in half-litre bottles. The lady at the check out commented that we should have waited for the off-licences (liquor shop) to open... We replied that our engine couldn't tell the difference, is Italian. We estimated the ratio of alcohol is approximately 5% at the start of our journey, we continue to do more test runs and filled the tank back to the top until a full 1/2 litre of the "special brew" was emptied into the washer tank, which would be then be at about 10% ratio. Unfortunately the traffic has now build up and further road test were abandoned, our last run showed a further decrease of 4 deg. C drop due the addition of alcohol. |
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Baron Thomas has arranged a surprise trip for me to visit the Ferrari Head office in Paris; there I will meet all the interesting people that was involved with the creation this flying armchair. On the way to the centre of Paris, an unfortunate Turbo Porsche was upset by the disappearing act activated by the depression of Baron Thomas right foot. He eventually turned off in a puff of black smoke and never to be seen again.
As I don't speak much French, I have very little to report, so I spent most of my time taking quite a few pictures, here is some of them that you may enjoy. |
Ferrari
Ferrari again
3200GT
3200 Engine bay
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It wasn't long before Baron Thomas was getting restless as he was walking around the all new Maserati 3200GT, of course that were quite a few there to be examined. "Excuse me, jump into the silver one and could you please push the front seat as far back as possible" Baron Thomas asked from the rear seat. I wouldn't be surprised that in a month few or two, I will receive another set of induction pipes and the story will be told again more on less along the same vein. I am looking forward to visit Fountainebleau again in the "Not to distant" future. Until then, Richard Lamb reporting from Paris... August '99, AQUAMIST NEWS.
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the Sequel
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Nov '99
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Three months on, we have received an email from Baron Thomas... " They've had the rocket for two months now playing with it, by the way..... I am convinced that they have no intention of giving it back, or if so, I shall have to bring up a 155mm howitzer to their door to get them to return it!! " He wrote, referring to Ferrari-France. This car is too soon be sold back to Ferrari-France as a development demonstrator in view of Litex Holdings Ltd., pursuant to reaching agreement with the manufacturer, offering these modifications as an OEM kit to the factory and its authorised dealers World-wide. The objective is to have the dealer be able to offer Customer "SuperSport" versions of the Maserati QUATTROPORTE and of the 3200GT at time of purchase, to be either factory or dealer-installed, and which are fully capable of dominating, by overwhelming and brutal performance, any potential competitor in their class. ERL-Aquamist is an integral, crucial partner and equipment supplier to achieving this performance with utter repetitiveness and reliability. "The car is totally reliable now, and performs fabulously. Just the other day I was on the A5 motorway between Melun and Montereau, where there is a nice straight stretch of perfect road, not too often visited by local gendarmes with their vulgar toys (although we have all we need to find those......), but especially where the TGV (high-speed train) tracks run alongside for about ten miles or so. TGV's on the way from Paris to Lyon are at about 300 Kph there, and just flout on by the motorcars. NOT THIS TIME ! "
He continued.
"I just nailed the Quattroporte in fifth then sixth, and held it wide open to see what would happen. It would either work or blow-up, this was IT! The boost stabilised at about 1.25 Bar (outside temp on that day was about 15 degrees C). I just ran it up to max RPM's and let it bounce on the rev-limiter, indicating around 300 KPH. I caught up with the engine of the TGV and just stayed nose-to-nose with him for those ten miles! Such performance is unthinkable in a standard Quattroporte, and even the 3200 GT could not do it (due to intake air overheat and lack of enough boost). Now the 550 Maranello with its huge power and advanced aerodynamics will gobble up those TGV's easily on that same stretch of road, as I've had it wound-out to a max indicated 335 Kph. However, to stay even with the nose of a TGV in a 4-door sedan (!) whose aerodynamics date back to the eighties is, frankly, pretty impressive stuff. There was no boost loss, no engine overheat, no loss of oil pressure, just the muted bellowing of a Maser in full cry, gargling down its 50/50 water/alky mix, courtesy of Aquamist!!! I am utterly delighted with it." |
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We will, of course continue to update this page as we hear more from Baron Thomas, until then...
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