EXPERIENCE No. 42
The Maserati GranTurismo Convertible is the first open-top four-seater Maserati but this doesnt mean that it is without noble ancestors. On the contrary, entire chapters of the history of the motor car have been written by open top Trident cars, although they were strictly two seaters. The first is the legendary A6G Frua Spyder, produced in a very limited series in the 1950s: it is in the details that the individual cars are distinguished from one another, details, which in the unique Frua, soar to the level of a masterpiece.
To have a better understanding, one has to look no further than the front end with the chrome surround and the sunken fog lights, which a few months later, in the A6G 2000, would be transformed into the oval-shaped radiator grille, typical of the Maserati, with the large trident in the middle. The same blood flowed through the mechanical veins of the A6G Frua Spyder that would then ennoble cars such as the 3500 Gt Spyder by Vignale, a matchless source of inspiration for the great Italian coachbuilders of the 1960s, who made a competition out of dressing them with elegant suits hand-forged by master panel beaters. The 3500 Gt Spyder was so beautiful that it even turned heads in Hollywood: it was used countless times in major studio films, it acted, for example, with Lee Marvin and John Cassavetes in The Killers and together with Kirk Douglas in Two Weeks in Another Town, in both cases wearing stage outfits signed by Vignale.
The legend continues into the 1960s: by which time a new wind was blowing. Which became urgent in 1964, when the Mistral Spyder made its appearance: compared to the aesthetic rules of its time, it was almost minimalist, but anyone having the fortune to own one was driving a pure thoroughbred capable of propelling itself at 255 km/h. The Mistral wind turned into the Ghibli and even enchanted Henry Ford II, who drove around Detroit with his Spyder and to anyone commenting on the betrayal responded: The Ghibli will disappear from my parking lot only when youve designed me a Ford that is just as beautiful.
As we run through Maseratis general ledger we also meet one of the cars that could be considered to be a direct descendant of the GranCabrio: the 2001 Spyder, the car that gave rise to the carmakers renaissance that can be seamlessly linked back to legendary names and denominations such as the A6G 2000 GT, 3500 GT, Mistral and Ghibli. Understatement, passion and elegance. These are the distinctive traits of the new Spyder, which is more than a simple dream car with a great temperament, endowed with a technology adding greater prestige to Maserati. The transmission, for example, is located in the rear axle in unit with the limited-slip differential. The effect is balanced on-road performance, enhanced by an automatic suspension system that adapts to the road with a speed ten times higher than the systems employed to date.
26M Gransport Castagna
To find the GranTurismo Convertibles four-seater ancestors one has to search through the archives of coachbuilders who in the 1930s applied their art to the mechanics supplied by the car manufacturers. And so it was precisely during those years that the Castagna coachbuilder, an automobile workshop at the peak of its splendour, ventured into fitting out a Maserati 26M which was converted into a delicate light coloured elegant four-seater convertible, whose beauty was to be crowned at the end of 1932 with the first Villa DEste Concours dElegance in the open-top car category. To achieve the four seats, a 970 mm wide, 3890 mm elongated chassis was used. This structure was the subject, at the time, of a huge amount of attention and had the merit of maintaining an excellent weight distribution balance, which is still today the crowning glory of all Maseratis. Again during the same years alongside this unique specimen there are two other cars, less aristocratic but still worthy of mention, commissioned by the English company R.A.G. Patents Ltd of London, again on the 26M chassis. These were designed to be used in endurance racing for which four seats were required.
Legendary design
The Maserati GranTurismo Convertible is the first open-top four-seater Maserati but this doesnt mean that it is without noble ancestors. On the contrary, entire chapters of the history of the motor car have been written by open top Trident cars, although they were strictly two seaters. The first is the legendary A6G Frua Spyder, produced in a very limited series in the 1950s: it is in the details that the individual cars are distinguished from one another, details, which in the unique Frua, soar to the level of a masterpiece.To have a better understanding, one has to look no further than the front end with the chrome surround and the sunken fog lights, which a few months later, in the A6G 2000, would be transformed into the oval-shaped radiator grille, typical of the Maserati, with the large trident in the middle. The same blood flowed through the mechanical veins of the A6G Frua Spyder that would then ennoble cars such as the 3500 Gt Spyder by Vignale, a matchless source of inspiration for the great Italian coachbuilders of the 1960s, who made a competition out of dressing them with elegant suits hand-forged by master panel beaters. The 3500 Gt Spyder was so beautiful that it even turned heads in Hollywood: it was used countless times in major studio films, it acted, for example, with Lee Marvin and John Cassavetes in The Killers and together with Kirk Douglas in Two Weeks in Another Town, in both cases wearing stage outfits signed by Vignale.
The legend continues into the 1960s: by which time a new wind was blowing. Which became urgent in 1964, when the Mistral Spyder made its appearance: compared to the aesthetic rules of its time, it was almost minimalist, but anyone having the fortune to own one was driving a pure thoroughbred capable of propelling itself at 255 km/h. The Mistral wind turned into the Ghibli and even enchanted Henry Ford II, who drove around Detroit with his Spyder and to anyone commenting on the betrayal responded: The Ghibli will disappear from my parking lot only when youve designed me a Ford that is just as beautiful.
As we run through Maseratis general ledger we also meet one of the cars that could be considered to be a direct descendant of the GranCabrio: the 2001 Spyder, the car that gave rise to the carmakers renaissance that can be seamlessly linked back to legendary names and denominations such as the A6G 2000 GT, 3500 GT, Mistral and Ghibli. Understatement, passion and elegance. These are the distinctive traits of the new Spyder, which is more than a simple dream car with a great temperament, endowed with a technology adding greater prestige to Maserati. The transmission, for example, is located in the rear axle in unit with the limited-slip differential. The effect is balanced on-road performance, enhanced by an automatic suspension system that adapts to the road with a speed ten times higher than the systems employed to date.
26M Gransport Castagna
To find the GranTurismo Convertibles four-seater ancestors one has to search through the archives of coachbuilders who in the 1930s applied their art to the mechanics supplied by the car manufacturers. And so it was precisely during those years that the Castagna coachbuilder, an automobile workshop at the peak of its splendour, ventured into fitting out a Maserati 26M which was converted into a delicate light coloured elegant four-seater convertible, whose beauty was to be crowned at the end of 1932 with the first Villa DEste Concours dElegance in the open-top car category. To achieve the four seats, a 970 mm wide, 3890 mm elongated chassis was used. This structure was the subject, at the time, of a huge amount of attention and had the merit of maintaining an excellent weight distribution balance, which is still today the crowning glory of all Maseratis. Again during the same years alongside this unique specimen there are two other cars, less aristocratic but still worthy of mention, commissioned by the English company R.A.G. Patents Ltd of London, again on the 26M chassis. These were designed to be used in endurance racing for which four seats were required.
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