Zagato knew its market segment; that for all the A6G54's
road going aspirations, punters would invariably want to compete. Here was a
car perfect for the gentleman driver who wanted to trade in his double
pinstripes and swivel chair for comfortable slacks, a crash hat and string backs
come the weekend. And this example is no different - it was fielded in the 1957
Tour de France, among other events.
Once you've stooped to enter it, the cockpit is predictably
stark but no less attractive for that. The seating position is a little
compromised thanks in part to the vastness of the wood rim wheel, but you
barely notice after a while. The speedo and rev counter dominate the body colored
dash, with minor dials and switchgear randomly sited in keeping with Italian
exotica of the time.
Cabin is
relatively sparse but beautifully detailed. Vast wood-rimmed wheel compromises
the seating position a little but there's plenty of headroom, even without
Zagato's usual ‘double bubble' roof style.
Yet for all the cabin's sparseness there are some
beautifully thought-out details here, such as window-winders that are hinged so
they sit flat against the door card when not in use. Or the Perspex aero-foils
mounted on the doorframes that rest in their own aluminum channels. It's
uniformly lovely, although there is clearly a degree of commonality between the
Maserati's cabin furniture and that found in Zagato's take on the Fiat 8V, or
its assorted interpretations of the Fiat Millecento theme for that matter.
But unlike a great many Zagato offerings of the period, not
least other Maseratis, this car does without the corporate double-bubble roof
treatment. Headroom is still plentiful, despite the car's small scale, and the
doors don't crowd you, either; there's loads of room for your elbows. It really
is an appealing office, albeit one that soon becomes steamily hot thanks to a
lack of meaningful ventilation.
1955 Maserati
A6G/54 Berlinetta by Zagato
Turn the ignition key and there's a distant whirring from
the fuel pump in the boot. This is followed by a raucous din as the straight six
fires. In no way is this quiet car, the fanfare from the exhaust pipes out back
matched for volume by the harmonic thrumming through the structure. You don't
need to be told that the car's aluminum skin is on the thin side. And once
under way, it isn't long before a giddying aroma of petrol and oil pervades the
cabin as your right leg warms itself against the transmission tunnel.
What is clear, even after only a few miles, is that the
steering is on the vague side but at least the vast tiller gives you something
to cling to. It isn't fearfully imprecise; it's just that the steering doesn't
exactly communicate messages back to the driver. Yet as the car's custodian
Andy Heywood points out, these chassis were conceived with racing n mind. And
directional changes would have been performed using the throttle to balance the
car.
This is a car that rewards familiarity. Initially it seems a
little truculent, but gets it up to around 5000rpm and the twin-cam six comes
alive. The note takes on a slightly metallic timbre: the engine just keeps
pulling, to the point that you want to try that bit harder. Yet marque
authority Heywood, whose Bill McGrath Ltd team restored the car, warns against
keeping it in the upper reaches of the rev range: the engine's Achilles heel in
period was the unsupported valve stem arrangement, which sometimes resulted in
premature wear to cams and valve guides.
This is a car that
rewards familiarity. Initially it seems a little truculent, but gets it up to
around 5000rpm and the twin-cam six comes alive
The factory claimed a top speed of 125mph, which doesn't
seem overly optimistic, but there's more to the car's repertoire than just
outright performance. The best bit by far is the gearbox. Most A6G54s featured
in house transmissions, although at least one marque historian insists that all
Zagato cars featured ZF 'boxes as here. It snicks in and out of gear with only
a short throw, and is so good that it's all too difficult not to blip your way
up and down the 'box just to listen to that strident straight-six popping and
fizzing.
Commendably, the American collector who owns the Maserati
isn't above giving it a little exercise, not least on last year's Mille Miglia
retrospective. Unfortunately, that outing meant the drum brakes took a bit of a
pounding, so it wanders a little under braking. To the left, mostly. But that
and slightly inert steering aside, the A6G54 is a joy to drive. The competition
breeding is all too obvious, yet the ride quality isn't thrashy, so you won't
need to visit an osteopath after each sortie.
Which is what you want from a GT car? In many ways, the
A6G54 represents a halfway house between a racer and a pure-bred gran turismo,
and as such it's infinitely more fun to drive than the 3500GT fine car though
it is - that followed in its wake. In fact, Maserati has produced no linear
descendant since; no road cars that are palpably rooted in motor sport with the
possible exception of the MC12 and that was a Ferrari in all but name.
And for many people that is precisely the appeal of owning a
Maserati: that they're cosseted luxuriantly rather than obliged to grapple with
an ornery racing car. But in this particular instance, the A6G54's competition
lineage is the big draw. Well, that and the gorgeous styling, which only
increases the attraction. Maserati provided the pomp and Zagato the
circumstance, the result being a car that tugs on your heartstrings totally and
utterly and forever. It's perfectly imperfect.
