1955 Maserati A6 Zagato - Something For The Weekend (Part 1)

The arrival of the race-bred A6G54 opened up a whole new road going chapter for Maserati - and this Zagato-bodied variant surely remains the marque’s ultimate GT

1955 Maserati A6 Zagato

Although it's difficult to appear off-color when your skin is already a very pale shade of white, maneuvering this car into position is freighted with anxiety. This is due as much to the many obstacles within inching distance as the lack of ground clearance. And seven figure value. And rarity. And the fact that the car is about to leave for a concours in Italy. Oh, and we have spectators, who are circling the scene like leopards at a watering hole. You can feel the weight of their stares.

1955 Maserati A6 Zagato

The truth of the matter is that this sublime Maserati A6G54 deserves the otherworldly backdrop our location provides. Just 60 or so of these ultra-exclusive machines were made in period, with a third of them being bodied by Zagato as here, so your chances of ever seeing one are slim. In many ways the model represented the jumping-off point for Maserati as a road-car manufacturer, even if it was encoded with racer genes. Yet this strain of GT is greatly misunderstood, various iterations being funneled into a catch-all category of 'A6 Maseratis'.

To understand this car's place in marque lore, you have to consider that motor sport was all that mattered for much of the firm's first half-century. The 1950s represented the last great decade for Maserati as a major player at the highest level, but racing costs money and in those heady days before coffin-nail sponsorship came along in the late '60s, it was left to manufacturers or moneyed patrons to bankroll a competition programme. Maserati had almost gone to the wall in '37, only to be saved by Adolfo Orsi. The epitome of a bootstrap capitalist, this self-made industrialist was aware that winning races had a halo effect on his many other enterprises, but making cars wasn't a mere hobby. Maserati had to be self-sufficient, which is where the A6G series came in.

Strictly speaking there had been a previous attempt at producing a road car, all things being relative. However, the earlier A6 1500 had emerged somewhat underpowered. The rather sober Pinin Farina outline didn't help, either. It was only with the arrival of the A6G54 strain in 1954 that road going Maseratis attained a level of appreciation with the target market.

The A6 1500's straight-six was derived, in a roundabout way, from the race-proven, pre-war 6CM unit. In time, this venerable engine was taken out to 2.0 liter but, for its application in the A6G54, it gained twin-overhead camshafts and hemispherical combustion chambers. That this newest variation appeared outwardly similar to the firm's Formula 2 race engine offered in the sister A6GCM and A6GCS models was no coincidence. Indeed, the style of two cam covers and spark plugs in-line down the middle would remain a constant for Maserati engines for decades to come.

However, beneath those cam covers this was clearly no competition unit. There were no gear-driven cams and hairspring valves here. Instead, the Vittorio Bellentani devised 'road' engine featured an alloy block and head, along with Diecast aluminum pistons. At the bottom end, the steel crank was carried in seven thin-wall Vandervell bearings. The ignition system used a single distributor instead of magnetos, and it was offered with either single or twin plugs per cylinder. Predictably, carburation was by Weber; either single choke 36D04 type or gurgling twin-choke 40DC03s with gorgeous polished trumpets.

But if the engine only slightly resembled those found in the firm's sports-racers, the chassis was somewhat closer in make-up. An oval tube ladder frame supported double-wishbone suspension with brass bushes up front and quarter-elliptic springs out back. Similarly, the large drum brakes were also borrowed from the competition department, albeit with some of the cooling fins blanked over in an effort to try to retain temperature in them for their new application. And, just like the racing cars, there were unequal length steering arms and no idler.

Yet for many it was the outer dazzle that mattered and, as with most penny-number exotics of the day, a variety of coachbuilders left their mark on the A6G54. Pietro Frua and Serafino Allemano both produced lovely outlines, yet Zagato typically went its own idiosyncratic way and shaped a series of pared-back road-racers. Aside from the coupés, the Milanese styling house also fashioned a Spider variant, which sadly remained unique.

Pietro Frua and Serafino Allemano both produced lovely outlines, yet Zagato typically went its own idiosyncratic way and shaped a series of pared-back road-racers.

The car pictured here, chassis 2107, emerged from Zagato's Terrazzano di Rho facility in 1955. Later examples had slightly flared rear arches and broader hindquarters, along with larger back windows mounted higher in the body. These cars may be even better balanced stylistically, but it's hard to pick fault with this, the fourth A6G54 bodied by Zagato. The proportions are exquisite, although the identity of who, precisely, styled the car is lost in the midst of time. It represents the alluring alchemy of grace and eccentricity that typified the firm's output in the 1950s.

That said, there is a bit more tinsel than you might expect, but then this particular example did spend its early life trotting the automotive catwalks. The car was first seen publicly at the September 1955 Paris motor show, where it shared a stand with an Allemano-bodied version and a 150S sports-racer. Distinct from its siblings, it was originally supplied by Maserati's Paris agent with full-width front and rear bumpers rather than the usual quarter items. However, the 'lighter is faster' mantra remained intact, as they were made out of polished aluminum rather than coppered and chromed steel. In a bid to further save weight, Perspex was used for all glazing bar the windscreen.