1956 Maserati A6G-54 Cabriolet

This is the prototype for the third A6G/54 series, which consisted of just ten cars. It differed from its peers with a dash that matched the exterior color of the car and it did not have a decorative plate behind the gauges. In recognition of its significance, the car was featured in several magazines in 1957, including Motor Trend, Quattroroute, Classic Cars International, Auto d'Epoca, Automobilism and Routeclassic. From 2003 through 2008, this Maserati underwent a painstaking restoration - overseen by Dr. Adolfo Orsi, whose family owned Maserati - and in 2014, it was invited to the 100th-anniversary celebration of Maserati at the Museo Enzo Ferrari in Modena. At the close of the exhibition, the car went back to Autosport, was stripped to bare aluminum and re-dressed in its original colors. It returned from Italy to the United States in June 2016, and has enjoyed the stewardship of its current owner since 2020.

The Maserati inline 6-cylinder engine grew to a two-liter displacement size in 1950. The resulting A6G 2000 continued to use single-overhead cam valve actuation of the original A6, while a more powerful sports-racing A6 GCS built for competition applications utilized a dual-overhead-cam.

The A6G 2000 road was updated four years later, becoming a second series, with its engine based on the competition car's detuned Formula 2 motor. The A6G 2000's gear-driven chain was replaced with a triple-timing chain, and a finned light-alloy dry-sump replaced the former wet-sump lubrication. Approximately 60 examples were built in two series through 1957. Horsepower was rather impressive, rated at 160 bhp giving the car a top speed of 115 mph.

The majority of the coachwork was completed by Allemano for the A6G/54, sixteen examples wore coachwork by Carrozzeria Frua (including six coupes and ten spiders). They often were given two-tone paint schemes with a contrasting hood stinger.

This particular example is one of the first of nine Frua-bodied spiders built on the third series of the A6G 2000 (the second series of A6G/54). Two coupes were also built on the third-series platform.

This Maserati was dispatched to the Carrozzeria Frua on May 19, 1956, and by August the Spider coachwork was complete and the car returned to the Modena factory. It is distinguished from the other examples that followed by its painted dashboard (the others were upholstered) and a lack of decorative plates behind the gauges. It is finished in a two-tone paint scheme. It is finished in rosso paint with an avorio (ivory) hood stripe) and an interior of avorio leather. It was then extensively photographed for promotional images that would appear in the motoring press, including Quattroruote and the May 1957 issue of Motor Trend.

It was sent to Maserati agents Simone & Thepenier in Paris in October of 1956 and later purchased by a gentleman from Venezuela named Cavet. By the mid-1970s, the car was owned by Thomas Dailey of California. In June of 1978, he sold it to Louis Rader of Mount Zion, West Virginia, at which point the original motor had been removed. It was equipped with a Ford Hi-Po 289 CID V8 engine. It had also been repainted in a monochrome dark blue, and the interior had been changed to black. Mr. Rader, who owned the car for more than a decade, endeavored to restore the car and repainted the exterior in rosso. Around 1990 he sold the Maserati to two co-owners, Dana Beall of West Virginia and Mick Brackett of Bardstown, Kentucky, and they retained possession for the following nine years while initiating a refurbishment.

The car was acquired as a non-running project by its current caretaker in 1999. In 2002, he sourced a proper replacement motor, engine no. 2146, which had originally been installed in an Allemano-bodied A6G/54. A proper gearbox and differential were also acquired.

In 2003, the rolling chassis, body, and drivetrain elements were shipped to Modena to be comprehensively restored. The exterior was completed with a bare-metal repaint in the original factory livery of rosso with an avorio hood stripe, while the interior was trimmed with avorio leather complemented by a matching soft top.

The work was completed in April of 2008, after which a FIVA passport was procured. A month later, it was shown at the Villa d'Este Concorso d'Eleganza in Italy, winning first in class. Later that year, the spider returned to America for presentation the Classy Chassis Concours d'Elegance in Houston.

Chassis 2180 was displayed at the Museo Enzo Ferrari in Modena, where an exhibit celebrating Maserati's 100th anniversary was held from September 2014 to April 2015. While in Modena, the car returned to Autosport for additional attention. Additional tubing sections were added for increased rigidity followed by another bare-metal repaint of the body in the proper factory color scheme.

In June of 2016, the car returned to the United States.

By Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2017