1972 Maserati Indy

Details

The Maserati story is a fascinating one. It is the story of a family with daring, courageous and forward thinking ideas. The story starts with Rodolfo Maserati, a railway engineer who was employed by the Italian monarchy and the father of seven sons who all had a passion for engine design and racing cars. The Maserati brothers all became involved in the automotive industry in some way or another, however, it was on the 1st of December 1914 that Alfieri, Ettore and Ernesto Maserati officially opened Alfieri Maserati Workshop in Bologna, Italy.

Maserati chose the trident logo to adorn its cars. Its design was based on the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna’s Piazza Maggiore. The colours chosen for the logo were also the colours of Bologna, red and blue.

The business was focused on repairing, servicing and preparing cars, however, the world war cut business short and it wasn’t until 1926 that Maserati built its first car, the Tipo 26.

It was all about motorsport back then and in 1937 the Orsi family acquired ownership of Maserati which was in desperate need of financial backing to be able to survive. During the Orsi years Maserati grew from a boutique but very successful race car builder to one of the world’s leading manufacturers of hand built sports and GT cars. Orsi sold to Citroen in 1969 and subsequent owners of Maserati included the Italian State, De Tomaso, Fiat, Ferrari and Fiat Chrysler.

Maserati built its first road car in 1946 even though times were tough in post War northern Italy. The car was the Maserati A6 – where ‘A’ was for Alfieri and ‘6’ for the number of cylinders. The initial reception of the car was positive and a ‘production’ Maserati A6/1500 was then shown at the 1947 Geneva Motor Show.

This was a significant milestone in the Maserati legend and subsequent models included the A6G/2000, 3500 series cars, 5000GT, Mistral. Quattroporte, Mexico, Sebring and Ghibli. Maserati also continued to build very successful race cars that dominated tracks around the world including the 250F, 300S, 150S, 450S and the Birdcage.

The late sixties was arguably one of the greatest times for sports car manufacturers and particularly those based in Italy. Whilst Lamborghini had its sensational mid engine Miura as its flagship, Ferrari had its 275 series cars / then later the 365 GTB/4 Daytona and Maserati had its Ghibli. Whilst these were indeed magnificent cars it was interestingly Lamborghini’s front engined V12 four seat Espada and Ferrari’s 330 GT 2+2 & 365 GT 2+2  that were sold in great numbers offering sports car performance with the capability to seat four adults in relative comfort. Maserati had its understated but very elegant Mexico and its unique four door Quattroporte, however, it wasn’t until the introduction of the Indy that it had a genuine competitor for the Espada and 365 GT 2+2.

The Maserati Indy, which was designed by Vignale and named to commemorate Maserati’s success at the Indianapolis 500, was first shown at the 1968 Turin Motor Show. The car was officially launched at the 1969 Geneva Motor Show and the first cars rolled off the production line shortly thereafter. The Indy was a great success for Maserati with just over 1,100 cars built over seven years of production which ended in 1975. The Indy was offered initially with its 4.2 litre quad cam V8 and later with the 4.7 litre and 4.9 litre engines also. The car was available with either manual or automatic transmission.

Oldtimer Australia is delighted to confirm the sale of a 1972 Maserati Indy.

According to the Maserati Classiche documentation on file this particular UK delivered, factory right hand drive example is one of the few Indys built with the desirable 4.7 litre engine and 5 speed manual gearbox. Whilst this a UK delivered car it is understood to have come into Perth, Western Australia as a new car. This Maserati Indy has a known ownership from new and has been sold from in excess of 30 years of continuous ownership in the same family.

 

---