The following article is taken from the Summer 2005 issue of Trident magazine.
A6G Maseratis at Villa D'Este 2005
by Andy Heywood.
The 2005 Villa D'Este Concours featured two more beautifully restored Maseratis from the collection of Texan John Bookout. John has a particular affection for the A6G series, now
owning something in the region of fifteen examples. Both of the following pieces were featured in Auto Italia's coverage of the event, but I feel that it is important that the restoration of such cars is recorded in the Trident. In addition, I subsequently received some further information on both cars from the Historical consultant, Dott. Adolfo Orsi, who oversaw both restorations. I was not able to include all of this information in Auto Italia and therefore I include it now. Thanks to Adolfo for his information.
The Zagato Coupe.
 It was only with the advent of the twin overhead camshaft 2.0 litre engine in the A6G 54 that Maserati finally produced a series of road cars with real performance, and none more so than when fitted with ultra light aluminium bodies by
Zagato. Over 20 cars were bodied thus between 1954 and 1957 and every one was different. Early versions seem even more minimalist with their slab sides and stark grille apertures whereas later cars grew more elaborate detailing and pronounced haunches. However, even against a backdrop of such bespoke artisanship, there is one Zagato that looks nothing like any
of the others - this car, chassis 2155.
Originally built in 1956 as a more recognisable Berlinetta, 2155 was back at the Zagato works in October 1957. The car should have been used by Elio Zagato in a race in Monza, but the engine was still being run-in. His brother Gianni Zagato drove it to put some mileage on the engine, went to Autostrada Milano Torino, was involved in a serious accident in which the
bodywork was heavily damaged. Over the winter of '57 the car was rebuilt by the Zagato craftsmen but in a new style, including a trademark double-bubble roof, the second of only two Maseratis to have this treatment. It was reminiscent of the styling exercise the company had proposed for the new Maserati 3500GT. (In 1957, at the Geneva Motor Show Maserati presented the Touring and Allemano versions, and distributed a sheet with the sketches of the Zagato version). Luckily for Maserati, they had the good sense to go with Touring of Milan as this was the time that Zagato entered their 'eccentric' stage, which some say they have yet to leave. However it is in many ways the most modern looking of all of the A6G cars.
Once back in circulation, the car changed hands a number of times and in the early sixties gained a 'Kamm' tail, supposedly because Zagato found when testing that the `coda tronca' offered better performance (this was a customer modification, Zagato was not involved). Then the car remained in the same ownership for thirty years, gaining various modifications for racing and eventually being repainted in dark red.
Fast-forward to the nineties and a photograph of 2155 appeared in Auto Italia as the car was shown at the Zagato exhibition at the Bonfanti museum in Bassano Del Grappa. From there it appeared at auction in France in 2000, where its current owner, John Bookout bought the car.
Although to most casual observers, the coupe would have seemed to be in good condition, Bookout and his historical consultant Adolfo Orsi knew that the bodywork was incorrect and only a broad facsimile of that early 1958 look. They therefore began a complete strip down and restoration in Modena, which has only just been completed this year in time for Villa D'Este. The car had been modified only in the front and rear, the whole side, doors, engine, bonnet, roof, was still original.
As with many historical artefacts that were modified in their era, it is a complex debate to establish what is original and to which style they should be rebuilt. Some might argue that the more conventional Zagato body would be the most correct for this car, and yet it has extra cache for having been crashed by coachbuilding royalty, as well as subsequently rebuilt to a style that was never to prove famous. To my mind, the restoration team has made the right choice from an historical perspective, and it is all the more refreshing to note that it would probably be more valuable had it been rebuilt with Mille Miglia friendly Zagato clothes.
Adolfo Orsi admits however that they never had any doubt on how to restore it because at the time they were unable to locate any photographs of 2155 in original form and yet on the other hand they had a beautiful period colour slide of the second body.
A6G 2000 Berlina Pinin Farina.
 As a preview before the 1951 Paris Salon, Maserati displayed three of their road cars in the Parc des Invalides, under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. A svelte Frua Spyder was the centrepiece, flanked by a distinctive Vignale Coupe and this car, the `standard' Pinin Farina Berlina. All three were examples of the new A6G 2000 series.
Following on from the A6 1500 cars, which had only been mildly successful in the late forties, the 2.0 litres were initially a development to answer the critics' harsh words about the lack of power from the smaller engine. 65bhp was less than would be expected from a Maserati and the company learnt a lot about what road car customers wanted in those early years. They were not so different to their racing clientele after all, apart from the fact that they desired coach built bodies instead of hastily hammered barchettas.
Pinin Farina had been the coachbuilder of choice for the A6 1500 and became the staple for the new 2000 series with 9 of the total output of 16 cars sporting the new Berlina body. As a design, it has more in common today with the Farina of Austin fame than the Pininfarina who only a couple of years later drew the Coupe version of the A6GCS. It was overly cumbersome, a little ungainly and remarkably unremarkable, a style that perfectly encapsulated the sackcloth and ashes feel of the immediately post-war Italy. Only the incredibly high purchase price (some 5.5 million Lire) marked the car out as something special - that and the engine.
In two-litre form, though still with a single overhead camshaft, the 6 cylinder made 100bhp. It was enough to pacify the press for a short while at least, and gave the car over 100mph performance. This was now broadly the same engine as in the A6GCS sports racing cars, something that cannot have harmed sales and the A6G 2000 series of chassis run concurrently with those of their racing cousins.
Following the Paris show, this car (chassis 2022), which was unusual for its wire wheels, went back to Maserati before being sold through the Roman Maserati dealer Guglielmo Dei, to Francesco Feliciangeli in 1952. By the end of the fifties, like many of the early Maserati road cars, it had found its way to North America and in 1963, it was bought by Max Trumpower from the Beverly Hill Hilton hotel.
As was a common problem, the Americans could not repair the original Maserati engine when it went wrong and Trumpower was no different. Sometime in his thirty-year ownership, a Corvette engine and transmission was shoehorned in. These cars had little intrinsic value to anyone other than eccentric car people for so long that this made perfect sense. But as interest grew in these old cars, the headache of re-instating original parts began.
Some of these cars may never be restored to original as there are so few spare parts remaining but this car was saved by the patrician attitude of its American collector owner, John Bookout.
Since his purchase, it has been subjected a painstaking five-year restoration in Modena and is shown for the first time since the sixties in original form here at Villa D'Este.
Adolfo Orsi on the Pinin Farina Berlina.
Firstly, please remember that Maserati, from 1948 till 1952, were still undergoing incredible problems in business, and for a while it was questionable whether they would continue at all. Therefore, any models that they launched during that period were the result of enormous effort.
Secondly, the Pinin Farina styling appears perhaps normal in 2005. But I found an article in the Italian magazine 'Auto Italiana' covering the Paris Motor Show, which describes the car 'as one of the most beautiful of the Show'. I found also a photo of the sister car (black 2023) at the Modena Autodrome and a piece written on the car by the famous German artist Walter Gotschke in the German magazine 'Das Auto + Motor and Sport' n. 24/51, which is reproduced here (excusing translation which I think may have been from German to Italian to English! - Ed.):
"Criticism of form: Maserati Coupe by Pinin Farina. Is this car beautiful? If yes, why?
The question for pure "beauty", isn't it wrongly asked? It is the characteristic of the criticism of laymen, because it does not care for coherences and is already drunk before, as soon as it is only a special two-seater, even if it would be full of form errors.
But despite all soberness: this car is beautiful. It is infused in most European countries unknown principle of the horizontal, the vertical and the tense straight line, and therefore it escapes like all 'Italians' on the one hand the bellied clumsiness and on the other hand a muggy urge to design. Thus the roof-tail-line is no arc, but in principle an angled line. So the actual roof stays horizontal, and tail and hood finish finally vertical. Both are kept (and enhanced) by high flanks (wing-tails), which again are determined by the horizontal and the vertical.
Pleasing is the light shoulder section of the pontoon body, in which the interior seems to be softly hanged in, and which somewhat mildest the forceful parallel guiding of the horizontal. Thus it rules on the whole discipline and order, the same definiteness in window cutouts, profiles and fittings. Chrome wheels are a necessary accent, which replace the sprightliness and friendliness of the white walled tyres. The face is in fact faultless, but still too much from the stage of 1948. Today in individual cases more distinctiveness by another simplicity thinkable. The air intake on the bonnet seems primitive and strange in front of the following chrome ridge.
All in all: The car is beautiful, only one should not forget one thing: like the chanson catches the tune easier than the symphony, the sportcoupe impresses easier than the limousine. And the 'Hohe Schule" [lit. high school; = big art] remains further a stepchild, even in Italy'.
|
|
