1956 Maserati A6G-54 Coupe

Maserati introduced the A6G/54 at the Paris Motor Show in 1954, representing the ultimate evolution of the company's first postwar sports car, the A6 series. It was an exclusive gran turismo developed from the A6GCS sports racing cars and the earlier single-cam A6 road car. Several features from the A6GCS were incorporated into the A6G/54, and its platform was a lightweight tube-frame chassis. Power was sourced from an all-aluminum twin-cam six-cylinder engine that Gioacchino Colombo had originally developed for racing. Engineer Vittorio Bellentani altered the original design, making it more suitable for road-going guise, implementing wet-sump lubrication, a revised valve train, and chain-driven camshafts. Breathing through three Weber carburetors, the engine could be optioned with a twin-plug cylinder head.

Among the coachbuilders who clothed the A6G/54 chassis were Allemano and Zagato, along with Carrozzeria Frua who crafted approximately 15 examples, with spiders outnumbering coupes in a ratio of about two to one.

This particular Coupe wears Frua coachwork and is the last of four similar styled examples. It was delivered to Frua in February 1956 and returned to Modena in July as a complete car. It wore Nero (Black) with Avorio (Ivory) leather, a highly detail grille, a graceful roofline, split bumpers in the front and rear, subtle hood vents, and a distinctive rectangular instrument panel with beautiful Veglia instruments.

The Frua Coupe was invoiced to the official French Maserati importer Simon & Thepenier, delivered to Garage Mirabeau on Avenue de Versailles in Paris. It passed its Service de Mines homologation test on August 2nd of 1956 and registered with the Parisian registration no. 1007-FH75. The car's original owner was Jacques Fildier and shortly after taking delivery, it was exhibited on the Maserati stand at the 43rd Paris Motor Show, held at the Grand Palais between October 4th and 14th of 1956.

On July 12, 1957, it was sold to Marcel Chalas of Paris and it is believed that while in his care, it was updated in the latest Frua style, with updated taillights and a new front grille.

The car's third Parisian owner was Roger Baillon who purchased it in December of 1959. M. Baillon paid 1,900,000 francs for the three-year-old Maserati, painted the roof section a distinctive turquoise color and re-registered it as no. 267 CMP 92 in January 1968. After a bankruptcy sale forced M. Baillon to sell several cars at auction in 1979, ownership of his remaining classics – approximately 55 in all – was transferred to his wife Solange.

In February 2015, the Baillon Collection was presented for sale at auction at Rétromobile where this Maserati was acquired by its current caretaker. The new owner enlisted Phil Reilly & Company of Corte Madera, California, to perform a sympathetic mechanical recommissioning, while preserving the car's unrestored patina. After the work was completed, the car was awarded Second in the preservation class at Pebble Beach and selectively displayed at exclusive events, including Villa d'Este and Hampton Court. More recently, it completed the 2021 California Mille.

Currently, the odometer shows less than 55,000 km (approximately 34,000 miles), the car's original mileage.

By Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2021

The 2-liter 6-cylinder Maserati A6 was launched in 1950 at the Turin Motor Show, and 1954 witnessed an improved version with an overhead twin-camshaft engine in the A6G/54. Between 1954 and 1956 a total of sixty A6Gs were built. The coachwork for all the A6Gs was contracted to such Italian carrosserie as Frua, Allemano and Zagato, and this car is one of four A6Gs bodied by Frua. It was delivered to France for its first owner Jacques Fildier of Paris and was exhibited at the Paris Auto Show in the Grand Palais in October 1956. Sometime between 1956 and 1959 a unique and elegant radiator grille was added at the factory. The car was sold to Roger Baillon, a 'garagiste' and enthusiastic collector in Paris in 1959, and it remained in the same family until this February when it went to auction in Paris along with many other original and unrestored motorcars.