A genuine and exciting restoration project
1958 Maserati 3500 GT

Body no. 5209

• The 100th production Maserati 3500 GT built
• Delivered new in Italy
• Originally painted Light Blue over Blue leather interior
• Californian registration document with customs clearance documents

"The 3500 GT Maserati is a much-underrated motor car, being overshadowed by the prancing horse from up the road in Modena. But it is not so long ago that the prancing horse was very much on the prongs of the Maserati trident in motor racing, and there is that lovely big six-cylinder engine under the bonnet to remind one of the glories of the 250F." - Edward Eves, Autocar, 3rd July 1976.
Despite numerous racetrack successes that included Juan Manuel Fangio's fifth World Championship - at the wheel of a 250F - and runner-up spot in the World Sports Car Championship with the fabulous 450S - both in 1957, the marque's most successful season - Maserati was by that time facing a bleak future. Its parent company's financial difficulties forced a withdrawal from racing, and Maserati's survival strategy for the 1960s centred on establishing the company as a producer of road cars. The Modena marque's new era began in 1957 with the launch of the Carrozzeria Touring-bodied 3500 GT, its first road car built in significant numbers. A luxury '2+2', the 3500 GT drew heavily on Maserati's competition experience, employing a tubular chassis frame and an engine derived from the 350S competition sports car unit of 1956. Suspension was independent at the front by wishbones and coil springs, while at the back, there was a conventional live axle/semi-elliptic arrangement.
The 3500 GT's designer was Giulio Alfieri, creator of the immortal Tipo 60/61 'Birdcage' sports racer and responsible for developing the 250F into a World Championship winner. The twin-overhead-camshaft, six-cylinder engine was a close relative of that used in the 250F and developed around 220bhp initially on carburettors, later examples producing 235bhp on Lucas mechanical fuel injection. Built initially with drum brakes and a four-speed transmission, the 3500 GT was progressively updated, gaining five speeds, front disc brakes, and all-disc brakes before production ceased in 1964.

This Maserati 3500 GT is the 100th Type 101 production chassis. It was delivered new in Italy, in Milan, by Franco Cornacchia, as attested by a period sticker still displayed on the rear window. Painted in metallic light blue, with a dark blue leather interior, we know that it was then imported to the United States, before being found in the 2000s in a scrapyard. Already fitted with engine no. 101628, the car was acquired by a Frenchwoman wishing to restore it, it was then entrusted to a San Francisco garage in 2008. Unfortunately, professional obligations put an end to the project, as the new owner had to return to France. Remaining in San Francisco, the Maserati was sold to its current owner in 2009, who entrusted it to a specialist garage in Los Angeles to source the missing parts for the project. A few months later, the 3500 GT returned to Europe and has since been kept in dry storage by its current French owner.
Sold with its customs clearance documents, its Californian title, its FFVE certificate and a large batch of parts, this is an exciting restoration project for one of the most beautiful Italian GTs of the 1950s.