Maserati A6G/2000 Spider Frua

Nowadays Maserati is positioned as a sporty and luxurious brand just below Ferrari in the Fiat Chrysler Group and well known around the world. The company moved their headquarters to Modena two years after Adolfo Orsi had taken over the brand from the Maserati brothers in 1937. The brothers at first remained in leading positions of the company, but later left and founded OSCA. The development of road sports cars started directly in those new halls. Until that time, Maserati only had a good name for racing vehicles. Orsi wanted to transfer this fame to production cars as quickly as possible in order to earn money. On his behalf, a team working around Ernesto Maserati started developing the new A6 1500, which due to the advent World War 2 only debuted at the Geneva Motor Show in 1947.

The torsion-resistant tubular frame chassis of the Maserati A6 offered the ability to accommodate independent body styles by different coachbuilders. From factory the vehicle came with Coupé bodies by Pinin Farina, but there was one copy with a Coupé body by Zagato. The additional number in its model name refers to the displacement of the newly developed inline six-cylinder engine, which grew to two liters in 1951 for the evolution model A6G (G for Ghisa, Italian for gray cast iron). In 1954 it was followed by the final stage of this model, the A6G/54 with two overhead camshafts. While there were a total of 59 production cars and two prototypes of the A6 as well as 59 copies of the late A6G/54, the A6G remained at just 16 copies – probably also due to many strikes in the Italian steel industry, which also affected the Maserati plant and led to the temporary termination of hundreds of jobs.

After the power output of the Maserati A6 1500 with just 65 hp from its 1.5 liters of displacement could not convince potential buyers and the sales fell short of expectations, they started the development of a more powerful version, which in addition to its official name A6G also got known with its sale name Maserati 2000 GT. Even before this new version was made public, one copy with a Frua Spider bodywork was displayed at the Turin Motor Show in 1950. The fact that this car already carried the new, larger engine under its hood was not made public, so it couldn’t affect the sale of the remaining A6 chassis with the 1500 engine.

This new engine with its two-liter displacement was derived from the racing version A6GCS and brought it to 100 hp through three Weber carburetors. Otherwise it remained with two valves per cylinder and one overhead camshaft, just like its predecessor. It met the almost unchanged chassis of the A6 with independent front suspension with coil springs on wishbones and a rigid rear axle on transverse leaf springs. However, the wheelbase was extended by ten centimeters. According to the factory, the Frua Spider reached a topspeed of 160 kph, while a later Vignale Coupé was tested to 190 kph.

While the A6 was officially only available with a standard body by Pinin Farina (although there were several differences between the individual cars), the A6G came with different styles. Pinin Farina, Vignale and Frua all designed different creations. The Coupé by Pinin Farina is considered to be ‘inelegant’ and the Coupé by Vignale sadly remained an elegant one-off. The remaining six A6G are split between five Spider and a Coupé by Pietro Frua. While the first three Spider wore a central auxiliary headlight in the radiator grille and were still based on the shorter wheelbase chassis of the A6 1500, the two following cars had a slightly different shape and two additional seats in the rear.

Bonhams is offering the second-built Maserati A6G Spider by Frua with chassis number 2017 on January 17 in Scottsdale/Arizona. The production of the bodywork in the premises of Pietro Frua took six months before the car was painted dark blue at Maserati and completed with a red leather interior. On May 17, 1951, the Spider arrived at the official dealer Mimmo Dei in Rome and shortly afterwards at its first owner Luigi Trevisan. Other owners in Rome, Santa Monica/California and Cambria/California followed. In Cambria the car was finally stored after a short period in motor racing. In the late 1990s it was rediscovered in its garage and, after three years of negotiations, finally acquired by the current owner, a Maserati collector. Since the engine had been replaced by a Chevrolet V8 already in the late 1950s or early 60s, a team of experts engaged in a comprehensive restoration process set about looking for an adequate replacement. They found it in the remains of chassis number 2013. In addition, they searched for as many original parts as possible, but also had to replicate some parts by hand. Finally, after four and a half years of work, they put a beautiful car back on its wheels. It was shown at Concours events at Villa d’Este and Pebble Beach. The vehicle includes a comprehensive documentation, many documents of the restoration and the original tool kit. Bonhams expects a hammer price between 2,800,000 and 3,400,000 US$.

Images: Bonhams