The Maserati Karif 1988 not exactly the best-looking car ever sold, and its performance more than 35 years later is nothing to scoff at. However, only 221 were produced. To be quite rare. Just ignore that whole thing Maserati reportedly planned to build 250 of them and couldn’t find enough buyers. This is a rare and special car built to the highest standards for the most discerning luxury sports enthusiasts. After all, if a sales brochure says so, it must be true, right?
As our friend Car Brochure Addict shared on Twitter recently, the official sales brochure for the 1988 Karif states: “It’s a car with a strong personality and an innate tendency to make driving The car becomes a joy, an expression of sensuality, strong emotions are guaranteed.” for anyone who knows how to experience them.” The text then reads: “From the moment it was created, there was no doubt that the Maserati KARIF would become a collector’s item: a two-seater with a stylish front end. powerful, hiding an extremely generous engine under the bonnet.”
Sure, it only made 250 horsepower and 284 pound-feet of torque, but remember this was the late 1980s. A world where you could buy a 300-horsepower Toyota Camry doesn’t exist yet, so we won’t be too harsh on Maserati for mentioning the Karif. What we will continue to discuss is how scary and strange things take place in another paragraph:
Maserati KARIF: an exceptional road “animal”, an exciting driving experience, an invitation to feel like a racer again or for the first time; the exquisite joy of feeling the pulse of so many racing horses and knowing that you can control them. Although the car overall looks modern, it exudes a classic style that has created a strong attraction for us, while keeping up with the “modern” situation that modern technology has accustomed us to.
It was a different time, but come on. Surely someone has read this and at least thought, “You know, maybe we should leave out the ‘feeling a sharp pain’ and getting hit by a horse part,” right? At least one person? ARE NOT? Nobody? They literally read “the exquisite joy of feeling the thrill of so many rushing horses and knowing that you can control them” and thought to themselves: “Publishing has my company name on It’s completely normal for us to be up there.” move forward until it is actually published. In the official UK sales brochure.
Now, to be fair, especially since the rest of the copy is a bit clunky, it’s entirely possible that it’s been translated into shoddy English. Perhaps in the original Italian, words like “thump” and “thump” do not carry such sexual connotations. Again, we’re talking about Maserati in the 1980s. If you’d told us this line was written while the head of marketing was taking a break from inhaling greasy lines of coke and sexually harassing our teenage secretaries, then maybe we’ll believe you. After all, it was a different time.
