Cernobbio, 23rd - 25th of May
The highlight of this year’s concours was without doubt the
spectacular class of Maserati celebrating its centenary.
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Oldest example was the glorious 1929 Maserati V4, a sixteen
cylinder racer designed of two straight eight engines with their
crankshafts geared together. With 4 litre displacement this engine
produced no less than 300 bhp making this the fastest road going
sports car of its era. The V4 was driven by Borzacchini and
Fagioli both in 1930 and 1931 as well as setting a speed record of
more than 150 mph for a road car. This wonderful Zagato
designed Maserati was just shown at Amelia Island in March
where it received a late invitation to Como and fortunately the
owner brought the car over to Europe. Unfortunately the Maserati
was very fuel and tyre consuming in its time but it set a lap record
on the high speed Monza circuit lasting for almost 25 years
showing its potential, this is certainly one of the most important
Maserati of this Era when the Maserati brothers were purely
building sports and GP race cars.
In 1937 the company was taken over by the Orsi family and soon
after the war Maserati started to build street cars as well in small
series. The Maserati A6 GCS started its career as a small sports
racer but beside the Fantuzzi spiders later in 1953 and especially
in 1954 on the A6 G/54 several coupé and cabriolet were built by
Allemano, Frua, Zagato and Pininfarina, in Como all four
designers were present. One of the rarest designs is the
Pininfarina Coupé that was available with a higher and a lower
roof. Although many might prefer the lower roof line the example
in Como entered by the Panini family of the famous Maserati
collection was one of the stars of the weekend. Not just a
spectator’s favourite the small coupé was also awarded second in
class and most exciting design by the jury. Just as exciting but
more regular seen is the Zagato design on the G/54, the example
in Como was just restored to perfection and took part at the Mille
Miglia a week earlier showing that it is not just a concours car but
also a great driver. Very interesting is the fact that this is one of
the few Zagato designs used on road racing cars that did not
feature the famous double bubble (that just found its way on one
of the A6) making the design maybe even more elegant. Maybe
less exciting but more usable in street use is the Allemano
Berlinetta version with proper boot. The final version of the 2-litre
Maserati in the class was the one-off Frua designed 150 GT.
Based on the sports racer 150S this was intended as a small
series production car bodied by Fantuzzi after the Frua design but
after completion of this prototype the project proved itself too
expensive to be built in larger numbers. With a lot of racing
technology and a very elegant small spider body this might be the
most exciting way to drive a Maserati of this era on public roads.
Sold by Gooding&Company at Scottsdale 2013 it ran through
mechanical refreshment since and seems to be sorted by now
with the mechanics matching the stunning looks. The car will be
featured at the centenary display of the marque the Casa Enzo
Ferrari in Modena in a few weeks.
The very interesting class was rounded of by a Quattroporte.
Report & Images ... Peter&Wolfgang Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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