Maserati Cars Performance Portfolio 1957-1970

Ł13.95

1957 was a hugely significant year for Maserati. It was the year when the company won the Formula 1 World Championship with Fangio, and a year when it almost went under when its entire team of 450S sports-racers was written off in the Venezuelan round of the world sports car championship. Yet this, too, was the year when Maserati began to focus on low-volume production of high-performance road cars to supplement its traditional fare of GP cars and sports-racers. The mechanical constant of the early cars - all bodied by Italy's finest coachbuilders - was the race-bred twin-cam 3.5-litre six. This grew to 3.7 litres for the Sebring from spring 1964, but by this time Maserati had also introduced the first of its renowned V8s. There were 4-litre, 4.2-litre and 4.7-litre editions of this, and - later - the engine was even stretched to 4.9 litres for the Bora and Kyalami of the 1970s. True Maserati aficionados tend to refer to the models of this early period by their type (Tipo) codes, but for most people the names of 3500 GT, 5000 GT, Mistral, Quattroporte, Sebring, Mexico, Ghibli and Indy are more evocative. All were low-volume specialist cars, but sales volumes increased as time went on and the practical Indy four-seater GT of 1968 saw Maserati operating on a worldwide stage. But this period was about to draw to a close as the Orsi family, which had controlled Maserati since 1947, decided to sell an interest in the company to a major manufacturer. Models covered: GT3500, Coupe, 5000GT, 2500 GTI Vignale Spyder, 3500 GT Vignale, 3500 GTI Sebring, Berlina GT, Quattro Porte, Mistral, Ghibli, Mexico, Indy & Ghibli Spyder. 136 pages, 300 illus. Including 16 pages of colour. SB. SKU: MC57PP ISBN: 9781855206014