Classic Maseratis

This Saturday we went to an open day at Bill McGrath Maserati, in Kimpton, Hertfordshire, organised by BenelliForum member Nick, who works for the company. Andy Heywood gave us a thorough run-down of the marque’s history (including a few parallels with Benelli), starting with the older 1950s cars (3500GT), through the 60s (Sebring, Ghibli), 70s (Bora, Merak and Khamsin) to the hopeless early BiTurbos of the 1980s, and the current Fiat/Ferrari derived 4200GT and Quattroporte.

Highlights included the immaculate 1950s OSCA sportscar, which won the Mille Miglia with Stirling Moss at the wheel, and the rare early 90s Barchetta racer. We got to hear both these cars: the thunderous Barchetta started on the button; the OSCA took a little longer to fire but sounded amazing, despite it’s small 1.4 litre engine.

Several guys from the BenelliForum turned up and all agreed it was a fascinating tour. Many thanks to Andy, Nick and all at Bill McGrath.

More pics here on Flickr