1960 Maserati 3500 GT Coupé Project
Coachwork by Carrozzeria Touring
Registration no. UYA 86
Chassis no. AM101 962
Engine no. AM101 962

'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 Touring-bodied 3500GT, its first road car built in significant numbers. A luxury '2+2', the 3500GT 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 3500GT's designer was none other than Giulio Alfieri, creator of the immortal Tipo 60/61 'Birdcage' sports-racer and the man 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 four-speed transmission, the 3500GT was progressively updated, gaining five speeds, front disc brakes and, finally, all-disc braking before production ceased in 1964.

An alloy-bodied, four-speed, disc braked model, this left-hand drive Maserati 3500 GT was purchased from Ivan Dutton in October 1985 by the current owner. The latter intended to restore the Maserati but has never got around to starting the project, and so the car has remained in a garage in Kensington, West London for the last 30 years. Its original V5 document show that 'UYA 86' was first owned by one Amarjit Singh Sehmi.

The Maserati is offered for restoration (the engine turns freely), which should not prove too difficult given the number of marque specialists worldwide. Indeed, as Edward Eves observed: 'With a GKN back axle, Girling brakes and Borg & Beck clutch in the specification, plus a ZF box on the five-speed cars, one is struck that here is an Aston Martin except for the engine. Even the body is of the same construction.'

The car is offered with the 1985 purchase receipt, an old-style logbook and a V5 registration document. It should be noted that the bumpers are missing.