CarBrandLogos archive · Maserati · 1957

MaseratiMaserati 3500 GT

Built in real numbers for the first time, because racing alone was no longer paying.

Photo: Abehn · Public domain

The story

A defining chapter in Maserati history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Maserati 3500 GT, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

1957 was a hinge year for Maserati. Juan Manuel Fangio took the Formula One title in a 250F, which was the high point of the company's competition history, and by the end of that season a combination of financial trouble and the catastrophe at the Mille Miglia had pushed the firm out of factory racing altogether. Survival now depended on selling road cars, and the 3500 GT was the car built to do it.

1961 Maserati 3500 GT - silver - rvl2-1 · Rex Gray from Southern California · CC BY 2.0

Maserati 3500 GT engine - Flick - Concorso Italiano 2004

Design and engineering

It was conceived as a series product rather than a one-off chassis for coachbuilders. The 3.5-litre twin-cam straight-six drew directly on Maserati's sports-racing engines but was detuned for durability; the running gear used a ZF gearbox, later five-speed, and the whole car was engineered so that the same specification could be built again and again.

Maserati 3500 GT engine - Flick - Concorso Italiano 2004 · Craig Howell from San Carlos, CA, USA · CC BY 2.0

Maserati Sebring 3500 GTI fuel injected inline-six engine

In production

Carrozzeria Touring bodied the 2+2 coupé using its Superleggera method — aluminium panels over a frame of small-diameter tubes — while Giovanni Michelotti at Vignale did the shorter two-seat spyder. Both are handsome in a restrained way that has aged better than much of the period's Italian styling.

Maserati Sebring 3500 GTI fuel injected inline-six engine · Mr.choppers · CC BY-SA 3.0

Legacy

It worked. Some 2,226 cars were built through to 1964, an order of magnitude beyond anything Maserati had managed before, and the money they brought in kept the company alive through its transition to a road-car manufacturer. Later cars gained Lucas mechanical fuel injection as the 3500 GTI, among the first European road cars to use it. The Sebring and the Mistral followed on from the same basic architecture.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Units built

2,226

Engine

3.5 L Tipo 101 I6

Designer

Carrozzeria Touring (coupé)

Body

2+2 coupé

Technical specification

The Maserati 3500 GT, in detail.

Production: 1957–1964; 2,226 produced
Class: Grand tourer
Body style: 2+2 coupé; 2-seat spyder
Layout: Front-engine, rear-wheel-drive
Engine: 3.5 L Tipo 101 I6
Transmission: 4-speed ZF S4-17 manual; 5-speed ZF S5-17 manual
Designer: Carrozzeria Touring (coupé); Giovanni Michelotti at Vignale (spyder)
Assembly: Italy: Modena
Manufacturer: Maserati