By Rick Carey
Pictures copyright and courtesy Rick Carey
Maserati 5000 GT Coupe, Body by Michelotti; S/N AM103016; Estimate $300,000 - $400,000; Hammered Sold at $275,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $302,500 -- Alfredo Brener collection. First owned by Briggs Cunningham.
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Scroll down for a complete list of Maserati auction results.
It wasn’t the featured marque at any of Monterey’s many show and sale venues, but Maserati could well have been, with a presence that pervaded the peninsula, particularly at RM Auctions’ Monterey Sports & Classic Car Auction (it’s grown the "& Classic" moniker this year even though "classic" was not a commonly-applied term to the 185 or so cars at the Doubletree.)
The leading purveyor was Alfredo Brener, whose massive disposition of rare
Maseratis which began at RM's Amelia Island auction earlier this year with
the Touring-bodied 5000 GT 103.004 (sold for $495,000), continued with an
offering of ten cars through RM including several important cars at no
reserve. Brener's cars were complemented by three (plus one that was
cataloged but withdrawn) from John Bookout and the Tipo 61 Birdcage offered
at Christie's.
As Alfredo Brener disposed on many of his unique and unusual Maseratis he debuted on the lawn at Pebble Beach what is arguably the most outstanding of all the Modenese marque’s creations, 450S Costin-bodied coupe s/n 4512. Aggressive and purposeful in black, 4512’s fresh restoration had some tongues wagging about contesting with John Mozart’s freshly-restored Ferrari Testa Rossa to break the post-war Best of Show jinx.
After finding the Costin coupe at the Maserati factory, Staver thought it might be a good road car and brought it back to Virginia, Minnesota where he owned a foundry. It didn't last the winter.
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4512 illustrates one of the conundrums facing restorers: which of the car’s several versions to use as the basis for restoration. 4512 had, while in Maserati’s hands, at least three lives, starting out as the first 450S sports-racer (s/n 4501) and later coupé-bodied by Zagato to a design by Frank Costin and renumbered again as s/n 4512 for Stirling Moss to drive at Le Mans in 1957. Unsuccessful there, and renowned for its oven-like driving environment, it was tossed upon Maserati’s scrap heap where it lay for a year until American Byron Staver recognized its value and had it resurrected by Maserati who stretched its chassis and body 20cm to provide adequate interior room for its new owner to drive it. Painted black and dressed up with some chrome exterior trim as well as a full interior and some badly-needed insulation, it survived relatively untouched until its acquisition by Alfredo Brener.
The Editor had a chance to buy this Frua A6G/54 for $7500...in 1974.
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Brener chose the final street version, passing on the opportunity to re-create the shorter Le Mans configuration …or the 450S sports-racer. Frank Palmer (who manages the Brener collection) and Keith Duly (who advised on the restoration) explained the reasoning they followed. First, 4512 was presented in the form in which it finally left the Maserati factory. Second, shortening it to its Le Mans configuration would have meant cutting the chassis and body and replacing much of the parts and panels which had been with it since 1958, as well as re-creating from the whole cloth many of its (crude) as-raced features like the 4-piece windshield and reverting to the original righthand driving position. In fact, the restorers were directed to go to great lengths to retain all original pieces if at all possible, including straightening and reconstructing damaged original body panels that would have been more cost-effectively replaced.
The nice thing about the choice of the as-delivered configuration chosen by Alfredo Brener and his team is that it encompasses within its presentation the entire history of the car, without losing later chapters which choosing either the Le Mans configuration or even the 450S sports racer would have entailed. It keeps as much as possible of the car as delivered by Maserati in 1958
without going the "new body" route". The restoration embodies a sympathetic sense of history and still has the menacing, aggressive, unmistakable presentation of the 1957 Le Mans Costin Coupé.
The nomenclature V 4 is misleading; this is a 16 cylinder engine built from two Tipo 26B straight eights. Only one built, it set the lap record at Monza which stood for 25 years.
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Praise for Alfredo Brener’s 450S Costin Coupé should not overlook the other exotic Maseratis on the lawn at Pebble Beach including Larry Auriana’s beautiful and beautifully presented 1932 V 4 Zagato Grand Sport (the "Sedici Cilindri"), John Bookout’s A6G/54 Frua Berlinetta and Angelo Ferro’s A6G/2000 Zagato Spyder.
All-in-all, Monterey 2003 was an outstanding year for Maserati, both on the block and on the lawn.
The auction results:
1957 Maserati 3500 GT Spyder, Body by Frua; S/N 101268; Estimate $75,000 - $100,000; Hammered Sold at $97,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $106,700 -- Alfredo Brener collection. No Reserve. -- Lot # 444, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1958 Maserati 3500 GT Coupe, Body by Touring; S/N 101002; Estimate $30,000 - $40,000; Hammered Sold at $44,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $48,400 -- Alfredo Brener collection. No Reserve. This car started life as 101.121 and was renumbered by Maserati to replace the original 101.002, an Allemano coupé prototype, which had lemon problems. The current 101.121 is the Allemano coupé. -- Lot # 443, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1966 Maserati 3500 GT Coupe, Body by Moretti; S/N 1011858; Estimate $50,000 - $75,000; Hammered Sold at $27,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $29,700 -- Alfredo Brener collection. No Reserve. -- Lot # 442, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1962 Maserati 5000 GT Coupe, Body by Frua; S/N AM103060; Estimate $350,000 - $450,000; Hammered Sold at $290,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $319,000 -- Alfredo Brener collection. -- Lot # 448, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1962 Maserati 5000 GT Coupe, Body by Allemano; S/N 103054; Estimate $175,000 - $225,000; Hammered Sold at $160,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $176,000 -- Alfredo Brener collection. -- Lot # 450, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1964 Maserati 5000 GT Coupe, Body by Michelotti; S/N AM103016; Estimate $300,000 - $400,000; Hammered Sold at $275,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $302,500 -- Alfredo Brener collection. First owned by Briggs Cunningham. -- Lot # 445, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1956 Maserati A6G/2000 Coupe, Body by Zagato; S/N 2189; Estimate $375,000 - $450,000; Hammered Sold at $425,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $467,500 – Reported sold here last year for $396,000 including commission. -- Lot # 469, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1956 Maserati A6G/2000 Berlinetta, Body by Allemano; S/N 2115; Estimate $160,000 - $200,000; Not sold at Hammer bid of $135,000 -- John Bookout collection. -- Lot # 478, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1957 Maserati A6G/2000 GT Spyder, Body by Frua; S/N 2191; Estimate $200,000 - $300,000; Hammered Sold at $295,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $324,500 -- Alfredo Brener collection. No Reserve. -- Lot # 451, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1974 Maserati Bora Berlinetta; S/N AM11749US686; Estimate $35,000 - $45,000; Hammered Sold at $40,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $44,000 -- John Bookout collection. -- Lot # 476, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1996 Maserati Ghibli Open Cup Race Car; S/N 361301; Estimate $30,000 - $40,000; Hammered Sold at $25,500 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $28,050 -- -- Lot # 136, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/15/2003
1972 Maserati Ghibli SS Coupe; S/N AM115491752; Estimate $30,000 - $40,000; Hammered Sold at $42,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $46,200 -- -- Lot # 135, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/15/2003
1972 Maserati Ghibli SS Spyder; S/N AM115S491265; Estimate $85,000 - $100,000; Withdrawn -- John Bookout collection. -- Lot # 475, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1967 Maserati Mexico Coupe, Body by Frua; S/N AM112F588; Estimate $60,000 - $90,000; Hammered Sold at $73,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $80,300 -- Alfredo Brener collection. No Reserve. -- Lot # 446, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1967 Maserati Mexico Speciale Coupe, Body by Frua; S/N AM112001; Estimate $80,000 - $110,000; Hammered Sold at $70,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $77,000 -- Alfredo Brener collection. No Reserve. Reported sold at RM Monterey in 2000 for $102,300. -- Lot # 449, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1967 Maserati Mistral Coupe; S/N AM109A11420; Estimate $25,000 - $35,000; Hammered Sold at $23,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $25,300 -- -- Lot # 134, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/15/2003
1967 Maserati Mistral Spyder; S/N AM109S1599; Estimate $70,000 - $90,000; Hammered Sold at $62,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $68,200 -- John Bookout collection. -- Lot # 477, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1974 Maserati Quattroporte 4-Dr. Sedan, Body by Frua; S/N 121004; Estimate $60,000 - $90,000; Hammered Sold at $49,000 plus commission of 10.00%; Final Price $53,900 -- Alfredo Brener collection. No Reserve. First owner was the Aga Khan and specially built for him in a transitional configuration with 4.9 liter V8, 5-speed gearbox and Citroen high pressure hydraulics. -- Lot # 447, RM Auctions, Monterey, 8/16/2003
1960 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage Sports Racer; S/N 2461; Estimate $1,500,000 - $2,000,000; Not sold at Hammer bid of $1,250,000 -- -- Lot # 74, Christie's, Pebble Beach, 8/17/2003
