The 25 models that make up this exciting collection

At the 2003 Frankfurt Motor Show, Maserati launched this new Italian luxury saloon. This car designed by Pininfarina reveals a modern elegant line that brings back memoeies of the original Quattroporte of the Fifties. The result is an outstandingly beautiful exclusive luxury foor-door saloon powered by a 400 bhp V8 engine.

The Spyder is the result of a project to design a coupe based on an entirely new chassis, engine, gearbox and transmission. The most obvious change in direction is the adoption of a new normally aspirated engine giving a less peaky torque curve, ensuring a smoother drive.

The 250F, one of the most extraordinary and best loved front-engined monopostos in Formula One histor. It is the car that driven by Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1957 World Championship, thus elevating the name of Maserati to the list of car manufacturers that have achieved the greatest prize in motor sport.

For their 2002 Coupe, Maserati kept the same overall design of the Giugiaro 3200GT but due to pressure from US market forces did away with the charismatic 'boomerang' rear light cluster. For the power unit, Maserati installed the normally aspirated V8 engine fitted to the Spyder, thereby shelving the turbocharged unit of its predecessor.

A car with excellent road holding and extraordinary power. It was developed to compete for the World Sportscar Championship and its performance was so great that during its lifetime very few drivers were able to handle its 400 bhp.

It is one of the most beautiful sports cars to ever grace a motor racing circuit and built to achieve success in important races such as the Mille Miglia.
Produced in 1953, thanks to its memorable good looks and innovative mechanics it soon touched the hearts of Maserati's sporty patrons and its 'commercial' success was guaranteed.

At the 1964 at the Salone di Torino a new coupé appeared on the Carozzeria Ghia stand. This two door coupé was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, a highly talented young designer who so impressed Omer Orsi, the son of Adolfo, that he employed the design for the next Maserati Gran Turismo.
In 1966, Maserati launched the Ghibli at the Salone di Torino initially to complement, but eventually to replace, the Mistral, but above all to satisfy the demands of its customers who now demanded an even faster and more powerful car. Characterized by its low harmonious line and long wide flowing bonnet, it embodoied all the typical sporting concepts one associates with Maserati's sporting tradition.

Maserati entrusted to Pietro Frua the task of designing a new two-seater coupé, based on the Tipo 109 chassis. So was born the Mistral, the first in a series a classic Maseratis to be given the name of a wind and the last model from the Casa del Tridente to be equipped with a straight six cylinder engine before Maserati moved on to V8 engines for their production cars.

This model was named after an Egyptian desert wind and was put forward as the likely successor to the Ghibli. The result was the splendid Khamsin, designated Tipo 120 by the factory, a car designed by one of Bertone's more talented young designers, Marcello Gandini. Gandini created an unusual two-plus-two seater coupé with a slender pointed line and exceptional performance. However, production was soon brought to an end in 1974 due to the oil crisis, as a result of the 'Yom Kippur War'.

“Alfieri, 6 cilindri, Ghisa”, thus an explanation for the name given to this model, that at the time was both mysterious and technological.
We are speaking of an attractive shapely 'barchetta' powered by a very potent engine, with a cast iron block (ghisa), and a particularly aerodynamic body.

The 4200 GT was prepared in this configuration for the Trofeo Challenge, a monomaque race series staged at the world's most important circuits.
It was presented in the traditional blue and white colours of the US Camoradi race team to promote the return of Maserati to the North American market.

In response to a demand for a high quality GT from its foreign customers, and from its home market thanks to an improving economy, in 1957 Maserati produced the 3500 GT. In 1961 it was renamed the 3500 GTI, due to a shift from carburettors to fuel injection, giving improved performance whilst drastically reducing its fuel consumption.

A car with an extraordinary career; it boasted one of the longest and most illustrious of any competition car.
Built to compete in the Grand Prix category, in 1939, driven by Wilbur Shaw, it gained a sensational victory at Indianapolis and a feat it repeated in 1940. The only Italian marque ever to win the Indianapolis 500.
From that moment it became the indisputable standard-bearer not only at the Indianapolis 'brickyard' but also at all oval tracks in the United States.

Described in promotion literature as a 'berlinetta', the Karif was based on the mechanics of the Biturbo. Returning to a Maserati tradition, it was named after a wind, this time, a strong southwesterly wind on the southern shore of the Gulf of Aden.
This two-seater 'berlinetta' whose body was based on the short wheel platform of the Biturbo Spyder, was equipped and finished to a very high standard and powered by a potent 2.8-litre V6 engine.

This berlinetta, built specifically to race in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, was based on a traditional design with its front-mounted engine and a tubular chassis made from large diameter tubing. However its cut-off tail and and its low barycentre are evidence of the remarkable technical progress being made as a result of advanced aerodynamic research.

"If a racing car’s first victory is also its greatest, this cannot be seen as a criticism. After all, not every new racer wins on its first outing. Among those that have, the Maserati 150S stands out for the dramatic nature of its success, scored on one of the greatest circuits of all, Germany’s tortuous Nürburgring. France’s Jean Behra drove the brand new Maserati 150S to victory over 22 laps (500 kilometres) of the ‘Ring on 28 August 1955." -

By the mid-seventies, Maserati was in deep trouble and set to go out of business. Alejandro De Tomaso aided by GEPI, a state institution set up to aid companies in financial difficulties, re-organised the company. His aim was to produce an affordable Maserati that could compete with the BMW 3 series.
The Maserati Biturbo was launched on the 14th December 1981. A four-seater sports coupe powered by a twin-turboed 180 bhp 2-litre V6 engine capable of 0-62 mph in 6.5 seconds with a top speed of around 135 mph.

Now that I have all the models in my possession, far from being the previously described by me as "the most disappointing model so far", it is a rare A6G 2000 Spyder with coachwork by Zagato.

When I saw an earlier photo, I didn't recognise this model, so to be certain, I sent a photo to a Maserati expert and here is his reply:

"Enrico,

This looks like a mixture between a 3500GT Vignale Spyder at the front, Zagato A6G Spyder in the middle and Frua A6G Spyder at the rear, with a little Alfa Giulietta Spider thrown in for good measure. Safe to say I won’t be ordering one!!

Cheers."

This two-seater sports coupè, with its centrally mounted engine, was named Bora after a wind from the Northern Adriatic Sea. The bodywork was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro as a compromise between the modern trend at the time and the traditional design so typical of Maserati's long sporting tradition.

This was characterised by the remarkable comfort and quietness offered to both driver and passenger, guaranteeing maximum comfort but not at the expense of its sporting soul.

Following on from the commercial success of the Bora, Maserati produced this lower priced sporty coupe, adopting the Tipo C.114 3-litre 6-cylinder engine designed By Giulio Alfieri for the Citroen SM. It was designed to appeal to a broader market and to compete with the Ferrari 308 GTB and the Lamborghini Urraco.

Designer the Giorgetto Giugiaro had used a good many mechanical and body parts from the Bora to keep production costs down.

During the middle of the 1980s Maserati decided to add a spyder to their Biturbo range. The design and construction was entrusted to Zagato of Milan.

The resulting design, based on the Biturbo's wedge shaped form, was both elegant and pleasing to the eye. The Biturbo Spyder was available with a 182 bhp 2-litre engine for the home market and a 192 bhp 2.5-litre (later 2.8-litre 225bhp) version was available for export.

The Quattroporte V8 Evoluzione was the final 'evolution' of the Quattroporte IV and was launched in 1998. Produced in 1994 and available with a choice of 2.0 or 2.8-litre V6 engines, a 3.2-litre V8 engine was available in 1996.

This high-powered front-engined sports saloon equipped with rear-wheel drive possessed truly blistering acceleration and a remarkable top speed. It was described by one Italian motoring magazine as a 'Family Rocket'. Production of the Quattroporte IV ended in 2001.

The 420M/58 - Eldorado was constructed in 1958-59 for the '500 Miglia di Monza' and the 'Indianapolis 500' it was powered by a 4.2-litre V8 (derived from the 450S but reduced in size to meet Indy car regulations) with a maximum power output of 410 bhp.

The body was specially designed for the banked circuits of Monza and Indianapolis by Medardo Fantuzzi with special attention paid to its aerodynamic aspect. The high rear fin and streamlined body are the result.

Production of the 'Eldorado' was made possible by the sponsorship of the Eldorado Ice Cream Company. The company in return requested the cream-white livery to advertise their product.

In 1958 Maserati were asked by the Shah of Persia to build a one-off road car based on the 450S. The Maserati engineers decided to use a modified version of the 3500GT's tubular chassis into which went the massive V8 5-litre 4-cam engine with body styling by Touring.

A second car almost identical to the Shah's car was presented at the 1959 Turin Motor Show. A total of 34 cars were produced between 1959 and 1964.

The GranSport name has special symbolic significance for Maserati as it was first used in the 1950s for the elegant two-litre coupe designed by the Carozzeria Frua on the chassis of the famous A6 G model.

The Maserati GranSport’s normally aspirated 4244cc V8 engine produces 400bhp and has all the character of the most advanced racing engines with dry sump lubrication and twin overhead camshafts per cylinder bank and four-valves-per-cylinder hydraulic tappets. The intake cams also feature variable phase timing.