Maserati 5000 GT

Maserati 5000 GT at a glance

The 5000 GT was the top model above the Maserati 3500 GT, on which it was based. All Maserati models are listed in the Maserati catalogue.

The Scia di Persia

The story of the 5000 GT starts with a test drive. After driving a 3500 GT, the Shah of Persia, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, asked Maserati's chief engineer Giulio Alfieri to build him a road car that combined the comfort and usability of the 3500 GT with the power of the 450S racing car. He offered to pay for the development and construction.

Maserati took the 3500 GT chassis, strengthened it to cope with the V8 and gave it the type number 103. Carrozzeria Touring built the body using its Superleggera method of small tubes covered by aluminium panels. Touring's chief designer Carlo Felice Bianchi Anderloni took inspiration from Persian Baroque architecture for the grille and the interior. The finished car, called "Scia di Persia" (Shah of Persia), was shipped to its owner with little publicity.

A second Touring car with the same name was shown at the Turin Motor Show in 1959 and later sold to Basil Read. The response encouraged Maserati to offer the car to other wealthy customers.

Engine and drivetrain

The V8 was taken from the 450S, Maserati's racing sports car, and modified for road use. The first version had a displacement of 4,937 cc, four overhead camshafts and a compression ratio lowered to 8.5:1. Induction was either by Lucas mechanical fuel injection or by four Weber 45 DCOE carburettors. Ignition was mechanical, by Magneti Marelli, with two spark plugs per cylinder.

In 1960 the engine was revised with a longer stroke and a smaller bore, fuel injection and triple-row timing chains. The four-speed ZF gearbox was replaced by a five-speed ZF unit with an overdrive top gear. The brakes changed too: the first cars had front discs and rear drums, while from 1960 ventilated discs were fitted all round. The dry weight was 1,652 kg - heavy, but typical of a luxury car with a large V8 and a coachbuilt body.

Coachbuilders

Almost every 5000 GT was different, because customers chose their own coachbuilder. Wikipedia lists the following:

The Allemano cars became the most common form of the 5000 GT, while Pininfarina, Ghia and Bertone each built only a single car.

Owners

The 5000 GT was priced at about twice as much as a 3500 GT, and its customers were among the wealthiest people of the time. Wikipedia names Gianni Agnelli of Fiat, who owned the Pininfarina car (chassis 103.008), the American racing driver and team owner Briggs Cunningham, Karim Aga Khan, the actor Stewart Granger, the industrialist Ferdinando Innocenti, the Mexican president Adolfo López Mateos and, later, the musician Joe Walsh.

Prototypes and the Mexico connection

The 5000 GT chassis also played a part in the birth of another Maserati. At the Turin Motor Show in October 1965, Vignale showed a 2+2 prototype designed by Virginio Vairo on a 4.9-litre 5000 GT chassis that had been damaged and rebodied. The car was sold to the Mexican president Adolfo López Mateos - himself a 5000 GT owner - and the production model derived from it became known as the Maserati Mexico. The Bertone one-off on the Tipo 104 chassis, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, used a different engine from the other cars.

Legacy

The 5000 GT showed how Maserati could turn racing technology into a luxury road car for a small circle of clients. Its successor at the top of the range was the V8-powered Ghibli of 1966. The history of the brand is told in our Maserati history.

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