A Maserati A6G/54 wearing Zagato bodywork will cross the auction block in mid-August expected to sell for U.S. $3,250,000–3,750,000. For once, we can say that the price looks justified – hardly any other coupe of that era has a history as impressive as this one.
The car on sale was number 17 in a batch of 20 examples coachbuilt by Zagato in 1956, but a serious crash on the racetrack left it with a number of unique components. The Italian coachbuilder hand-crafted exterior panels for these chasses to keep them as lightweight as possible for the Mille Miglia tournament. The owner of this particular Berlinetta was in such a hurry to participate that he took the car to the track in just a few days from taking delivery. The company never even had a chance to paint it.
The racing debut culminated in a crash: the driver lost control on a wet track and sent the car tumbling. He then returned it to Zagato for an overhaul. The company took the liberty of revising some of its exterior – the radiator grille was downsized, the headlights moved to new locations, and so on. While this remains unconfirmed, sources say that the car also received its ‘double-bubble’ roof and slim side trims at the same time. At any rate, none of the other A6G/54 models has these.
The track weapon proceeded to change multiple owners, participate in numerous races and survive through a few more incidents that saw its exterior modified more and more. In the mid-80s, it even wound up with pop-up headlights, but a large-scale restoration that began in the early 2000s and took several years reverted it to its near-original state once again. A team of coachbuilding experts from Italy consulted historical documents to once again make the Berlinetta look like it did in 1958.
Powering the exotic is a 2.0-liter inline six-cylinder engine with two carburetors. It shares the design with Maserati’s racing engines of the time and produces around 160 PS (158 hp / 118 kW), according to unconfirmed sources.