The beautiful 1956 Maserati A6G Zagato

Here’s a little information about the beautiful 1956 Maserati A6G Zagato which was on display at the 2022 Concours of Elegance. One of our favourite cars of all time. You can see more Concours of Elegance news, reviews, videos and galleries here.

The A6G/54 was the ultimate evolution of the A6 series, Maserati‘s first post-war sports car.

Based on a lightweight tube-frame chassis, the A6G/54 borrowed several features from the A6GCS, including many of its race-proven braking, steering, and suspension components. The all-aluminum twin-cam six-cylinder engine originally designed by Gioacchino Colombo for racing was adapted by Vittorio Bellentani to create a more civilised, dual-purpose car, implementing wet-sump lubrication, chain-driven camshafts, and a revised valve train.

This particular car is chassis 2186, a late-production A6G/54 and the last Zagato Berlinetta built of 21 in total. Charles Rezzaghi of Mille Miglia Motors Inc of San Francisco, California ordered the car in the final body style type, which featured a larger, more rectangular grille, vertical air vents in the front quarter panel, curvaceous rear wings, two separate bonnet scoops, aluminum bumperettes, and an oval instrument layout with Jaeger gauges.  Around nine Zagato-bodied A6G/54s were produced in this general style, and it was used to illustrate the model in Maserati factory marketing literature.

Chassis 2186 was completed on October 31,1956, and it was shipped to California. Upon its arrival the car was featured in the May 1957 issue of MotorTrend.  By 1959, possession had switched to Frank Faine, who entered the Maserati in a sports car race in Pomona. It was then sold to Frank Jay Hoke from Tucson, Arizona, an amateur racer who competed with it in events across the central US. After he retired the car from racing, Hoke replaced the Maserati’s straight-six engine with a Buick V8. In 1967 it was sold to Bob Baker of Scottsdale, Arizona, who also owned another A6G/54, chassis 2122.

In 1986, chassis 2186 was sold to Maserati enthusiast Joe Alphabet of Los Angeles, and fitted the engine from an Allemano-bodied A6G/54,chassis 2175. During Mr Alphabet’s ownership, the Maserati remained in a perpetual state of restoration, and in 2001 it was sold to Gary Roberts and then Dr Rudiger Stihl of Stuttgart, Germany.  Stihl had the car completely restored and reunited with its original engine; the “borrowed’ unit returned to chassis 2175 in 2008.It was then restored again by Carrozeria Quality Cars of Vigonza, Italy.  The current owner is now a Mr Jonathan Segal.