Todays photo’s come courtesy of my Rowdy buddy Steve Arnaudin of Brevard NC who recently kindly sent me some extraordinary photo’s his Dad took in the late 1950’s to early 1960’s.
The vehicle above is the first Maserati Grand Turismo model a 3500 GT which was in production from 1957 to 1964. The evidence is that this picture was taken at Thompson CT in 1958 making the car an early model almost certainly one of the 119 made in the first year of production with drum brakes all round.
The 3500 was developed as part of a survival strategy successfully transforming Maserati from a racing car manufacturer to a manufacturer of road cars. Like its 250 F racing stable mate, that had been competitive in Formula One against all but the Mercedes team, from 1954 to 1957 the 3500 had a six cylinder engine all though at 3485 cc / 212 cui considerably larger than the 2490 cc / 151 cui of the racer.
The superleggra aluminium bodywork is by Carrozzeria Touring and it sits on a chassis with independent front suspension and live rear axle. 1973 of these vehicles were manufactured with around 12 others featuring alternative bodywork, excluding the rare Vignale Spider which sat on a shortened 3500 GT chassis.
Thanks again to Steve Arnaudin and his Dad for giving us a fascinating insight into motoring in 1958, I look forward to bringing you more from the Arnaudin collection in the fullness of time.
Thanks for popping by, looking forward to seeing what delights tomorrow’s post will bring already, don’t forget to come back now !
