Maserati A6G

Maserati A6G at a glance

The A6G sits between Maserati's first road car and the 3500 GT of 1957. All models are listed in the Maserati catalogue, and the company's background is in our history of Maserati.

Background: the A6 1500

The story starts with the A6 1500, Maserati's first production road car. Work on it began in 1941 and was finished after the war. The prototype, bodied by Pinin Farina, was shown at Geneva, and 61 cars were built from 1947 to 1950. It had a 1,488 cc single-camshaft six-cylinder engine of 48 kW (65 hp) and reached 146–154 km/h. The A6G took the same idea — a small, fast, coachbuilt grand tourer — and gave it a two-litre engine.

The A6G 2000 (1950–1951)

The first A6G used a 1,954 cc straight-six with a single overhead camshaft and three carburettors, producing about 67–75 kW (90–100 hp). Depending on the body, the top speed was 160–180 km/h. The gearbox was a four-speed manual.

Only 16 were built, and almost every one is different:

• Pinin Farina: 9 cars, 2+2 fastback coupés.
• Frua: 5 convertibles and 1 coupé.
• Vignale: 1 coupé, designed by Giovanni Michelotti.

The A6G/54 (1954–1956)

After a pause, Maserati returned in 1954 with a much more powerful version. The A6G/54 has a 1,986 cc straight-six with double overhead camshafts and three twin-choke Weber carburettors. It produced 112 kW (150 hp) at 6,000 rpm, and from 1956 twin ignition raised this to 119 kW (160 hp). The top speed rose to 195–210 km/h — a big step from the first A6G.

Sixty A6G/54s were built, again with a variety of bodies.

Coachbuilders

The A6G/54 was offered by several coachbuilders, each with its own character:

• Allemano: 21 three-box coupés designed by Giovanni Michelotti — the most numerous version.
• Frua: 6 coupés and 12 Gran Sport spyders.
• Zagato: 20 fastback coupés aimed at competition, plus one Zagato spider (chassis 2101), shown at the Geneva motor show in 1955.

The Zagato cars were the ones aimed at competition. Because each car was built by hand by an outside coachbuilder, the A6G never had a single "standard" body.

The name and the racing relatives

The name explains the car. "A" stands for Alfieri Maserati, one of the founding Maserati brothers, and "6" for the six-cylinder engine. The "G" stands for ghisa, Italian for cast iron, referring to the cast-iron cylinder block.

The road-going A6G had close relatives on the race track, built in larger numbers:

The A6GCS made its debut at Modena in 1947 with Luigi Villoresi and Alberto Ascari, and Giovanni Bracco won the 1948 Italian championship in one; its nickname "Monofaro" came from its single central headlamp. The A6GCS/53 was built for the World Sportscar Championship. Most were spiders bodied by Fantuzzi or by Celestino Fiandri, while four berlinettas were designed by Aldo Brovarone at Pinin Farina for the Rome dealer Guglielmo Dei.

Timeline

Legacy

The A6G family shows Maserati's transition from a racing-car maker to a builder of road cars, with bodies from many of the leading Italian coachbuilders of the period. With fewer than 80 cars built, every A6G is rare today. The next Maserati grand tourer was the 3500 GT of 1957.

Photo gallery