Member Article

How Maserati Gott A Lift

Experts at Gott Technical Services have provided a bespoke vehicle lifting solution to meet a niche requirement – to safely lift cars worth more than £130,000.

Garage equipment suppliers Gott Technical Services were called in by Benfield Motor Group to help them create a vehicle lift that would support everything from the electric Nissan Leaf to the luxury Maserati Quattroporte.

The two North East-based, family-run companies have been working together for more than 20 years, however this was the first time Gott Technical Services’ bespoke installation service has had such expensive implications if anything was even one millimetre out of alignment.

Benfield’s Nissan and Maserati dealerships are home to a wide range of cars, all of which need to be serviced from the same workshop and by the same staff. Benfield required a selection of two and four post lifts that would be able to lift any of the vehicles at the workshop, however each vehicle had very different specifications and needed to be handled in different ways.

Gott Technical Services director Ian Gott said: “The issue at hand was that sports cars such as the Nissan GTR and Maserati have very specific lifting points with zero margin for error, which even some of the best vehicle lifts on the market are not set up to comply with.

“After an on-site assessment we decided that we wanted to use both the Rotary two and four post lifts for the GTR and Maserati but it became clear that some manufacturer-approved modifications would be required to make them capable of lifting these cars.”

Benfield Maserati general manager Dax Pearce explained the difficulties of lifting luxury sports cars: “The expensive sports vehicles we deal with have been designed specifically to be streamlined which means their centre of gravity is so precise that if the car is lifted even slightly off-balance it can cause severe damages.

“For instance on a two post lift, the Maserati Gran Turismo is lifted from almost directly below the front of its windscreen. If this is even a few millimetres out of place it can create too much pressure on the windscreen and cause it to shatter, which costs £1,000 to replace.

“Also sporting vehicles have incredibly low profiles, the ride height of a Nissan GTR is just 5 inches, therefore it cannot drive at an upwards angle of anything more than 9.2 degrees. The standard four post lifts we had at the time had ramps set in excess of this so would have damaged the diffusers were we to attempt to drive them on, which costs £1,290 to replace.

“Therefore we couldn’t even open our workshop to these vehicles until we had the right lifts in place so that we could service the cars properly without risk of damage.”

Gott Technical Services director Ian Gott said: “With the two post lift, the issue was being able to sweep the arms in under the car – they were too long and couldn’t get past the wheels and also once under would have not connected in the correct lifting point on the car.

“To get around this we configured the standard specification of the lifting arms set-up, so that the arms can now be retracted to be as short as necessary for the sports cars.

“With the four post lift we eliminated the issue of the angle of the ramps by sinking the lift into the ground. This means sports cars can be driven straight on to a flat profile before being lifted, so the front diffuser doesn’t have to tackle any unwanted ramps.

“Obviously the first time you lift such expensive vehicles on a new lift you have to check and double check everything, however it was a great challenge and testament to our bespoke service offering to see it work successfully and safely. We’re proud to have worked with the region’s only Nissan GTR and Maserati dealership to provide them with reliable bespoke vehicle lifts.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Gott Technical Services .