Entered by Jonathan Segal, Maserati A6G Zagato chassis 2186 was completed on the 31st October 1956 and is the last of the 21 Zagato Berlinettas built. Order by Charlies Rezzaghi of Mille Miglia Motors Inc of San Francisco, upon delivery the Maserati was featured in the May 1957 issue of Motor Trend.
Photos by Jonathan Sharp, September 1-3 2022
Captions by Hampton Court Concours of Elegance
Add-on by Pete Vack
By 1959 the car was owned by Frank Faine who entered the Maserati in a sports car race at Pomona after which the car was sold to Frank Jay Hoke from Tucson who competed in it at various race meetings across the USA.
After the car’s racing period had ceased Frank replaced the 6 cylinder motor with a Buick V8. In 1967 the car was purchased by Bob Baker of Scottsdale who at the time also owned A6G/54 chassis 2122. In 1986 chassis 2186 was sold to Joe Alphabet of Los Angeles and fitted with the motor from the Allemano bodied A6G/54 chassis 2175.
Joe kept the car until 2001, during which time the car remained in a constant state of restoration, before selling it to Gary Roberts who intern sold it to Dr Stihl of Stuttgart, Germany who had the car restored and reunited with the original motor.
A6 engine
___________________________________________________________
The Story of the Zagato Maseratis
Now out of print, check Amazon etc.
By Pete Vack
All images courtesy Walter Bäumer and Dalton Watson unless otherwise noted.
The Maserati A6G 2000 Zagato by Walter Bäumer
ISBN 978-1-85443-249-0 Published by Dalton Watson Fine Books
290 mm x 295 mm 288 pages, 227 Black and White and Color photos
Maserati history is just as significant, interesting and eventful as that of Ferrari. But as Michael Lynch noted, it would have been better if Maserati historians had begun their quest at the same time as Ferrari historians – back in the 1960s. By now a lot of history has gone by the wayside, few of the principals are left alive and remembering, and already many facts have been distorted for the prospect of a higher auction price or more prestige.
We applaud Bäumer’s decision to get as many facts down before they too, are muddled. I’d hate to have to wait for another 10 years before getting a chance to see the wonderful photos and findings now available in this book.
Anyone and everyone with even the slightest interest in Maserati, Italian cars, Italian coachbuilders, Italian competition events, and Zagato will buy this book and be thankful. I would suspect they will be tripping over themselves to get a copy, because one quick look through the pages will remind one that almost all of the Maserati Zagatos were as close to beautiful as Zagato ever came.
The book is full of wonderful historical photos.
Zagato, at their worst, dished out some real clunkers in their time. Too long, too low, too chunky, some seemingly a caricature of their own products, others quick attempts to please a customer with cash in hand. This reviewer recalls staring at his Lancia Appia Zagato, in need of total restoration and wondering why bother. The Lancia Flavia was dramatic, edging on ugly, while the Bristol Zagatos were well off the mark and the Alfa 1900 Bullnose Zagato deserved the nickname. But, when they were good… and that was often… they were very good. And they were very good at donning the A6G 2000 Maseratis built for the road between 1955 and 1957. Perhaps it was the chassis dimensions combined with a healthy wheel size that allowed aggression to spring from every corner. Perhaps the car brought out the best in Zagato and their metal workers.
Read the review:
The above book is out of print, but here is another on the Maserati A6 that you can buy now…
Beautiful car! The book is not on Amazon US, but for those with some of the ready I found three copies on the ABE site: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=Zagato%3A%20Maserati%20A6G%202000&sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-topnav-_-Results
charley
we got a 2-sided leaflet for this car and a convertible and a 200s and one with a drawing of the upcoming 3500 at a maserati dealer’s in milan when we took a couple polaroids of the staff in the summer of ’57. i framed ’em and they’re in the attic somewhere!
also, a graduate student/teacher at oklahoma state u had one and raced it in the ponca city scca races in the mid-’60s. it was street driven too, of course
I drove 2186 when it belonged to Jay Hoke, a fellow Architecture student at OSU. It was fitted with a buick V8, the Maserati engine was sitting on the barn floor. It was gray then. Fitting that it is again owned by an Architect. Perhaps this is the same car that Mr Arutunoff recalls, I know Jay raced in SCCA events.
Malcolm