Maserati Mistral

The Maserati Mistral was a sports car of the top class, the Italian car manufacturer Maserati from 1963 to 1970 produced. The car was initially Maserati 3500 GT 2posti and was available as a coupe and as a convertible available.

Engineering and Construction

The factory internally Tipo AM 109 designated car was developed under the direction of Giulio Alfieri. The aim was to construct an answer to the Jaguar E -Type.

Chassis

The car had a separate chassis that had no relationship to the chassis of the Maserati 3500 GT. It consisted of pipes having a rectangular cross-section; the rear area was designed as a box frame. Its wheelbase was 20 inches shorter than the 3500 GT coupe; the wheelbase of the 3500 Vignale Spyder he was undercutting by 10 cm. The suspension and the suspension corresponded to the 3500 GT.

Motors

The drive was first used the 3.5 -liter inline six- cylinder, which was also used in the previous model. He made 235 hp. In 1964, he was replaced by a 3.7 -liter version, which offered about 10 hp. This engine remained until 1969 in the program. As of 1966, a 4.0 -liter, 255 -hp version of the six-cylinder engine was optionally available. The Mistral was the last Maserati with the classic, of developed six-cylinder in the house; all later models had six or eight-cylinder V- engines.

Body

The Maserati Mistral had a body made of pressed sheet steel. Only the doors and the bonnet were made of aluminum.

The body of the vehicle was designed by Pietro Frua. Frua attacked in subsequent orders repeatedly on the Mistral design back case: Both the British AC 428 and the Swiss Monteverdi High Speed 375S are considered copies of the Maserati Mistral.

Initially, the Mistral was only available as a two -seat coupe with a large tailgate. In this conception, the default reflected to position the car in the niche of the Jaguar E -Type. Later scarce spare seats were installed in the car rear. In 1965, the coupe a two-seat convertible with the name Spyder was put aside for the hardtop was available optionally.

Production

The vehicle was unveiled in November 1963 at the Turin Motor Show. On the occasion of the presentation it appeared with the model name Maserati 3500 GTI 2posti. The term Mistral was officially used until 1966. The excitation of this went back to the French Maserati importer Colonel John Simone. The name refers to the same wind that is remarkable in the lower Rhone Valley. It justified the existing until the 1990s a tradition of naming Maserati vehicles by winds.

Series production of the Mistral began in the spring of 1964. Lasted until 1970. During this period 828 coupes and 123 convertibles.

The production process was complicated. For Maserati, the engine and the chassis emerged, the metal parts of the body, however, were pressed in Turin by Carrozzeria Maggiora. Per the truck chassis of the Maserati were transported to Maggiora, where the body was welded to the chassis. After the vehicles were taken to the Officine Padane to Modena, where the paint work performed and the discs, the electrical and the interior was installed. Finally, the car came back to Maserati. Here the engine, suspension, gearbox and brakes were installed in a last step.

Reception

The Maserati Mistral was praised in the 1960s by testers. The British journalist John Bolster summed up 1967: " Everything in the Mistral is so true that it is a true pleasure to drive this car ." In the U.S., however, the car was met with skepticism. The magazine Road & Track commented in 1964 in allusion to the large rear door of the coupe: " An excellent Einkaufswaghen for the housewife in a hurry ."

The Mistral as a classic

With the introduction of the designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro Maserati Ghibli 1966 demand fell sharply after the Mistral. Also on the classic market was the Mistral long in the shadow of the eight-cylinder Ghibli. It was not until the turn of the millennium got off at the used car prices for the Mistral, so the coupe reached approximately equal price level in 2013. Regardless, the Ghibli Spyder remains significantly more expensive than the Mistral Spyder.

Specifications

Swell

Martin Buckley: Maserati. Italian luxury and flair. Heel Verlag, King Winter, 2012. ISBN 978-3-86852-633-2.
Cancellieri, Gianni et al. (Ed.): Maserati. Catalogue Raisonné 1926-2003. Automobilia, Milan 2003. ISBN 88-7960-151-2
Hans -Karl Lange: Maserati. The other Italian sports car. Zsolnay, Vienna, 1993, ISBN 3-552-05102-3.
Dean Bachelor, Chris Poole, Graham Robson: The Big Book of sports cars. The fastest, most expensive and most beautiful cars in the world. Erlangen ( Karl Muller Verlag), 1990, no ISBN.

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