Maserati: In Search of the Road Cars By S. Scott Callan VELOCITY GROUP All Rights Reserved 2012 ­ 2014 2 INTRODUCTION well placed. The FE was neither a spindly and anemic voiturette, nor merely a reduction of IF’s 8­liter, side­ valve, chain driven cars. It was an en­ tirely new category of car. Its chassis was Our focus here is on the road cars that light, but constructed in the robust Ital­ were to take Maserati to the public. It’s a ian manner. It’s engine was a single over­ classic redemption tale. From its compe­ head cam design, displacing 1208cc with tition focus and foundation it ascended shaft drive. With fenders and lights, a the international automotive firmament. road car, without, a racer. Its style & performance established a It is this latter sentence that defines the mythic reputation on the road, the cars to come from the young man at the printed page and in conversation. Fifty controls. Cars that went from circuit to years on, as the industrial sector shud­ road, pit to garage, with a swiftness that dered, factors external and internal left little time to reshape engineering or weighted its descent. And with the new temperament. To stand next to an early Century, resurrection. sixties 3500 coupe idling is visceral me­ As all industrial tales it is a complexity chanical intensity that soon has you rub­ of characters and event, engineering and bing the hairs on your arm as if they style, manufacturing and capital. have become possessed by static electric­ Recently I came across an old photo­ ity. Many drivers boast of being pressed graph that presages this story. It is a shot into their seat on clutch lift and throttle of Alfieri Maserati sitting at the controls drop. Whether at fisted grip of a twin of an Isotta Fraschini EF in Argentina. plug six or quad cam eight, the comment It’s tagged as having been taken at a is made real, memorable. commercial exhibition in 1911. Here we will tell our story through the The car, Isotta Fraschini’s FE, is con­ experience of ownership. Taking the sidered by many to have been the first reader on this journey, in search of the sports car. This automotive definition is road cars. 4 5 were the Ruggeri brothers out of Milan. taken with it. And later that same year, he Chapter One And, you know, so the whole thing is all was at a, at the Monaco auction, and saw major Italian racing thinking and so forth the Michelotti sketch. The Michelotti An tied together. But this car was a one­off de­ sketch was being auctioned off. And he signed to be a spectacular showpiece by bought it and sent it to me.” Vignale, built by Vignale, but designed by “ Really, of what car was the sketch?” I A6 Michelotti.” asked putting the Antione’s Ferrari book EMERGES “ Now, so this is a case of Guglielmo Dei back omn the shelf. The phone on the deck came to life. I know, mid­year 1950, and completed, I ac­ ordering the rolling chassis and taking it “ Of mine.” reached over and hit the record button in tually have the build sheet somewhere, over to Vignale and contracting Vignale “Oh, you’re kidding? Really? Paul.” case it was Paul. No caller ID on this old not in front of me, so when we, before we himself, correct?” “ Yeah, the design sketch.” Western Electric touch tone. get there, I’ll get you that too, but built for “Correct. And I don’t know which one “Oh, how fantastic.” “Good afternoon.” intent to be the display car at the 1951 of them hired Michelotti, but this was the “ And you can use that. You know, I’ll “Hey, Scott, this is Paul.” Paris auto show, the feature on Maserati’s first of the Michelotti design executions of make you a copy, and we can use it if you “Hey, Paul.” stand. And in typical Maserati fashion, which he did quite a few for . .” want to . .” “I tried to call you a little while ago, but they persuaded a customer to foot the bill, “ Really? Was it?” “ Oh, please. Absolutely.” it wouldn’t go through. So here I am.” the customer’s name being…I’ll think of “ Well, he had built a couple 212 Fer­ “ And on the envelope, in Michelotti’s “ Oh, okay. Great. Yeah, I, it was prob­ it. Oh, here. I’ve got his name.” raris, and a 166…” writing, it said Maserati A6G, you know, ably when I was trying to call you to see if “ Wasn’t it Simone, the French distribu­ “ Oh, yeah.” I replied, reaching behind November 1950 or whatever it is. And I had, I was supposed to have called you.” tor?” me to the bookshelf for Prunet’s book on then a line underneath it says in later writ­ (laughter) “ No, this was built for Guglielmo Dei, the Ferrari road cars. I was curious about ing, dash, Cunningham 1953. (laughter) “Well, one way or the other, we are in on order from Guglielmo Dei.” date and design. And, of course, for the Cunningham, it was contact.” “ Oh, right.” “ 166 and 212s (Ferrari) were similar, not built on a much larger scale.” “Okay. Very good. So, you know, let’s “ Guglielmo Dei was the long­time all exactly the same, but similar. And then “It had to be, yeah.” go back. Tell me a little bit. Where shall Maserati associate. He had a car dealer­ the last major use of it was as the Cunning­ “ Built on the, you know, for the big we start, in the beginning when you saw ship in Rome. He also was the backer of ham. Chrysler. But the guy who paid, who it on the street, or where do you want to the Centro Sud racing team.” “I actually have an original Michelotti ended up the customer for it, and let me start telling me about it?” “ Exactly, yeah.” Scotch, sketch. I could use a scotch, think of his name, Marcel Schwob dʹHeri­ “ Well, let me identify it first. We’re “ And he was the talk and the power (laughter) but I have a sketch that was sent court, and I have, he was a Parisian of Ar­ going to talk about Maserati A6G 2000, behind the development of the 4CL final to me. Mick Walsh, the editor of Purebred gentine or Brazilian business association, variously described as an A6G 2000, version with the two­stage supercharger and Classic, I guess it is, the British sports but he lived in Paris, and in the original A6GCS, A6 or 2000 GT, car number 2031. also for the customer. And the customer car magazine, saw 2031 when it was on order book it lists Marcel Schwob dʹHeri­ “2031 was laid down in, oh, I don’t also with heavy engineering involvement display in Pebble Beach and was quite court, Paris at, dash, either Rio or Buenos 6 7 Aires. I can’t remember. I’ll have to look lot, indiscriminate lot with a chain link sion on what the settlement will be regard­ “The…and I didn’t know anything about at the sheet. fence around it full of wrecked cars, but ing the Maserati, and we haven’t turned in the car at the moment. I mean, I recog­ “So the car was used at the Paris auto with no business office or anything there, the title yet, so it’s not a salvage sale. But nized the significance…recognized it was a show, and then Hericourt, working with just a lot. And several rows back in the, we need to get it taken care of right away. Vignale body… but the, it had the Maserati Maserati test driver Albertini, or Maserati among the wrecked cars, I observed the He said if you’d like to come over and emblems on it, but the entire driveline had factory driver Albertini, I always hesitate three­quarter, upper, three­quarter, rear look, I can meet you whatever day. been removed, and it had been American­ to say factory, because the Maserati fac­ view of this body. And I knew it was “So I juggled my schedule around and ized with a Shelby type approach to a tory at that time was about 2,000 square something exotic Italian, but I couldn’t tell went over there to meet him. And we Ford, small block, V8, Ford transmission, feet. what it was. went in, and the car, you know, had been Ford rear end. And, anyway . (laughter) “So I made a notation of location, came sitting outdoors for several years with bad “And that was all still in it?” “ Yes, I hesitate using the word indus­ back a couple days later and crawled impact damage front and major impact “ That was all still in it. And so the guy trial.” around. There was nobody there, and the damage rear, driver’s window down or was…not the easiest person to deal with, “ Right.” You could still hear the Irish neighboring businesses said that they partly down, and so forth, somewhat the the adjuster. And I said, you know, I might humour in Paul’s voice. “Anyway, well, thought the lot was used by State Farm worse for weather and wear.” be interested in buying it. What kind of a the Orsi’s did have the big industrial com­ Insurance Company as a storage area for “ What color was it at that time?” price? So on and so forth.