Behind the Maserati Bora on a Japanese Coca-Cola Cap

Maserati Bora #3 — Coca-Cola Crown Cap, Japan

A Bottle Cap as a Collectible

This is a genuine metal crown cap — the type used to seal glass Coca-Cola bottles in Japan — printed with a color illustration of the Maserati Bora. The cap itself was the collectible: children saved them after drinking, traded with friends, and tried to complete full series. The surface carries the car’s name in katakana alongside the Japanese word for Italy, confirming it was produced for the Japanese market only.

The #3 designation places this within a numbered, multi-car series. The series appears to have organized European supercars by country and maker, though its official name, total count, and complete roster of vehicles have not been definitively confirmed. The caps most likely date to around 1976 to 1978, though similar Coca-Cola promotions are known to have continued into the early 1980s.

The Maserati Bora

The Maserati Bora was produced from 1971 to 1978 — almost exactly contemporaneous with this campaign. A mid-engine GT car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign, its name comes from the bora, the northeastern wind along the Adriatic coast. The engine was a V8 of 4.7 liters, later enlarged to 4.9, and because the car was built during Citroën’s ownership of Maserati (1968–1975), Citroën’s hydraulic technology found its way into the braking and power seat systems. In 1970s Japanese print media the Bora was regularly featured alongside Ferraris and Lamborghinis, and the teal coloring on the cap illustration likely reflects how the car appeared in those magazines and press photographs.

Japan’s Supercar Boom and Crown Cap Collecting

The supercar boom in Japan peaked around 1976 to 1978, fueled largely by the manga “Circuit no Okami” (Circuit Wolf) by Satoshi Ikezawa, serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 1975 to 1979. Real supercar exhibitions toured cities nationwide, and manufacturers of snacks and beverages moved quickly to release themed merchandise. Unlike food-toy inserts, which came packaged separately, the crown cap was the bottle’s own seal — you drank the Coke, kept the cap, and hunted for the variants you were missing. Completing a series meant drinking enough to encounter every design.

These caps now sit at the intersection of three collector fields: Coca-Cola memorabilia, Showa-era Japanese nostalgia, and automotive brand collecting. The Maserati Bora appears less often in supercar merchandise than Ferrari or Lamborghini equivalents, and having the specific model named on the cap reflects the depth of European automotive knowledge that defined Japan’s supercar boom at its peak. The uncertain total size of the series makes even a single cap part of an open question about what else was produced.