 Paulo Boffi describes himself as a `standard bearer for Italian style kitchens'. His 70-year-old
family furniture business bears the somewhat tautological epiphet, `massed produced craftsmanship'. There is no doubting Sig Boffi oozes Italian design - it's in his genes, and it is therefore fitting that such an Italian gentleman should commission that most archetypal of bespoke Italian automobiles, a Zagato.
The Maserati Gransport Zagato is the latest in an illustrious line of special cars with very special coachwork by the famous design house. Zagato eschews the hothouse plants that emanate from German tuning houses with telephone number torque figures. Zagato renditions of other people's automobiles are hybrid orchids. Things of beauty to be admired. Zagato is all about form not function.
Indeed had any particularly interesting technical alterations been made to this re-bodied Gransport Spyder, no doubt the
editor would be writing this and not me.
The car shares its underpinnings with the Spyder being 118mm shorter than the Gransport and has a bespoke aluminium closed coupe body. It makes no pretence of being other than a two seater having what some commentators have, to my mind rather incongruously, referred to as a `hatchback' at the rear. (No doubt very useful for your tools if you happen to be in the kitchen business!).
 Mechanically it varies not a jot. Same V8 with Cambiocorsa box although on the strength of the shortest and gentlest of test runs round Lake Como by the US magazine Road and Track, they declared it tauter and more responsive than the Spyder. No doubt it has dieted down a not inconsiderable 180 kilos, and replacing the ragtop should serve to temper the Spyder's nervousness on uneven road surfaces. However this being Snr Boffi's personal car you can understand why Andrea Zagato, CEO and
grandson of the founder, wasn't going to lend it to the Stig for a more searching examination of its dynamic capabilities.
Back to the plot then. As a thing of beauty, does it do the business? Well Snr Boffi thinks so and when all is said and done in the world of bespoke automobiles nothing else matters. He's voted with his chequebook too. If you fancy joining Sig Boffi's club (there will only be nine chairs for dinner) bring along your shiny new Gransport Spyder and 350,000 Euros and you can be one of the eight other lucky owners. Why nine you say? Andrea Zagato says it's his favourite number and in any case he's the boss so it's his decision!
Designers like to talk of inspiration. Zagato in their press material, issued prior to the cars debut at the Concours d'Elegance Villa d'Este in Cernobbio, spoke of the A6G Zagato of 1954 as the inspiration for this study. Whilst some
obvious features like the quirky double bubble cockpit are retained I struggle a bit to see it personally, even squinting through my fingers without my glasses on. There are of course many hints of other more contemporary offerings from the design house. I see shades of Aston Martin, last year's debutante, Ferrari 575 GTZ, and looking back through my Geneva Salon shots there are even hints of the Diatto Ottovu project and the Spyker C12, both unveiled by Zagato there. It is however an undoubtedly imposing and handsome addition to the ranks of Maserati motorcars. Whether it will be judged a classic remains to be seen. |
