1954 Maserati A6G

Price Upon Request

• Rich period racing history in events across Europe and the UK
• Featured in Walter B umer and Jean-Franois Blachettes definitive book, Maserati A6GCS
• A five-time Mille Miglia participant with the current owner, listed in the Registro 1000 Miglia

Maserati A6 GCS chassis number 2065 was one of two such cars ordered from Maserati in 1953 by the French Importers Garage Mirabeau in Paris. The sister car, chassis no. 2064 was retained and raced by Jean Simone, who was the co-owner of Garage Mirabeau along with Jean Thepenier. Chassis no. 2065 was delivered to Armand Roboly. Simone and Roboly had raced many times as co-drivers in a Jaguar C-Type, and were close friends and enthusiastic participants in French motor racing of the era.

Chassis number 2065s build sheet indicates that it was completed on 11 April 1954 and given a temporary Italian registration number of BO 36382. The colour was noted in the build sheet as French Blue, however contemporary photographs suggest it was in a lighter hue than usual. Following delivery to France, Armand Roboly gave the new car its first outing in late April 1954 at the Marrakech Grand Prix in Morocco. His friend Jean Simone raced the sister car in the same event. Roboly finished that race in 3rd place, whilst unfortunately Simone was injured in a crash.

The A6 GCS then participated actively in France during the 1954 season, including entries at the Coupes de Paris, 12 Heures of Reims, Grand Prix des Sables dOlonne, Grand Prix de la Baule, and the Coupes de Salon at Montlhry. The cars early racing history is beautifully chronicled in Walter B umer and Jean-Franois Blachettes recently published book, Maserati A6GCS.

Chassis no. 2065 was then sold, most probably again through the business relationship Roboly maintained with Garage Mirabeau, although the car was physically collected in Modena suggesting that it was factory refurbished and prepared prior to sale. Its new owner was Andre Loens, a native of Northern France but at that time resident in Southampton in the UK. Loens was a highly competent driver who was very active in 500 cc racing and the purchase of this A6 GCS must have been a significant investment for him and a serious step up the racing ladder. The car was kept in its blue livery and retained its temporary Bologna registration markings. The car first reappeared in native Northern France at Lille, and its arrival was enthusiastically described in the local press.

Loens first outing with the car however was in the UK where it was entered in the 2.0-litre class at the 1955 Goodwood Easter outing. Loens raced the car with great energy and some notable success during 1955, moving the car between Finland, France, Sweden, participating in the Swedish Grand Prix, then to Jersey, and finally back to the UK where he entered chassis no. 2065 in the 1955 Tourist Trophy at Dundrod in partnership with Jo Bonnier. The two drivers finished first in the 2.0-litre category. Their final race of 1955 was at Castle Combe in October.

Loens intense activity with the car continued in 1956 with a similarly diverse set of entries sequentially in Helsinki, Belgium, France, Denmark, Sweden, and then back at France for the Coupe dAutomne and finally again at the Coupes de Salon where Loens is photographed happily conversing with Stirling Moss, Alfonso De Portago, and Harry Schell as they approached the track.

In 1957, the season resumed in a similar pattern. The A6 GCS was again in Scandinavia in May, at Elaintarhanajo in Helsinki, followed by a return to Forez in France. We can well imagine that by this time, chassis no. 2065 was tired, and its physical condition today shows evidence of several racing incidents, notably some strengthening of the chassis members as they pass above the rear axle. Perhaps for this or some mechanical reasons, Loens appears in the car at the grid of the Deux Heures du Forez in July 1957 but did not start. This may have been a contributing reason for Loens to travel to Modena later that same month to trade his now well-used and surely much-loved A6 GCS for the more recently built 200 S. The Maserati factory archives record this transaction and whilst the car was evidently in an adequately drivable condition, such that it could arrive on the grid at Forez, Loens fatefully decided to exchange his faith in chassis number 2065 for a newer Maserati. Sadly, Loens died in an accident driving the new 200 S, back at the familiar circuit of Montlhry in October 1957 whilst leading the race.

The last recorded location for this A6 GCS has caused debate over the whereabouts of the car in the intervening years. It was not unusual for Maserati to take older model cars back into their stock for refurbishment and resale. In order to assist with sales of newer cars, Maserati themselves often refurbished racing cars for a second life on the circuits. Given Andre Loens prolific activity with the car, we can imagine that it arrived back in Modena in a condition where a great deal of refurbishment work was needed. The car was by then approaching five years of age and whilst the A6 GCS was a highly reliable, much-loved, and still competitive racing car, with a strong following, it was also in 1957 that Maserati itself withdrew from racing and, simultaneously, that road racing was being banned in European countries following the series of fatal accidents. Under these circumstances it seems unlikely that Maserati, a company facing financial pressure at the time, and concentrating on its road cars, would have thought it a productive investment to restore a worn and well-used A6 GCS.

What is well known and shown in numerous period photographs is that a large number of historical racing cars had been accumulated at the factory for the purpose of maintaining a heritage collection, together with a larger number of racing cars, complete and incomplete, in various forms of storage, repair, and restoration. The fact that chassis no. 2065 is documented as being one of such cars present at the factory at the end of its racing life in 1957 is an intriguing component to recent efforts to fill out the gaps in its history.

In 1998, the factory department Maserati Vendite , issued by signed telefax, a copy of the build sheet of chassis no. 2065 to assist in a restoration of the car ongoing at the time in Reggio Emilia. Photographs of this restoration show a rolling chassis with partly disassembled bodywork and provide close detailed evidence that this car is the one offered here today. The accompanying documentation includes a number of attestations from the workshop, stating that the car was delivered to them as a rolling chassis. This carrossire performed the full refurbishment and reassembly of the car, works mainly to the bodywork, however the identity of the owner at the time has not been ascertained.

By 2001, now in a completely new livery of red and dark blue, chassis no. 2065 was introduced at a presentation given in a Maserati concessionaire in Modena. Photographs of the event show a number of recognisable attendees associated with the marque admiring the car at its first presentation in public. Shortly after this the car was sold to a well-known German collector driver of Maseratis in vintage racing. As such, the car then ran frequently in the Shell Historic challenge in the early 2000s.

Following a subsequent sale of the car to an Australian collector, who entered the car twice in the Mille Miglia Historic, the well-known and highly respected race support and engineering firm of Hall & Hall in the UK took responsibility for maintenance and preparation. Both Rick and Rob Hall personally became fascinated by the car and its history. Together with the Historian Richard Crump they decided not to spend time trying to piece together the missing timeline, because for all anyone knew the car may never have left the factory to race in period again after 1957. Documentation of such re-purchased cars was disrupted during the turbulent periods of Maserati ownership by Citroen and De Tomasso.

Instead Hall & Hall went back to basics and examined the car from a purely technical and engineering perspective. They became totally convinced that the car showed all the correct signs of originality together with the sort of repairs and scars which would have been inflicted during such a busy racing life. It was also noted that no attempts had been made to cosmetically improve the chassis, even in the area of the rear-end stiffening, which looks like a trackside repair, not one made with permanent intent. At this time the car was in good running condition following its relatively recent renaissance in Italy, and was being enjoyed by its owner, so Hall & Hall had no reason to fully dismantle the car and continue this forensic endeavor. The owner simply wanted to enjoy the car.

CURRENT OWNERSHIP

The current custodian of chassis no. 2065 had been a collector of twelve-cylinder Ferrari road cars since the mid-1990s. Despite owning cars such as an alloy-bodied 275 GTB with six-carburetors, he began to tire of the relative softness of such models and stepped out into the world of road-race cars when he purchased a 500 Mondial, and then added to that a 200 SI.

Now a complete convert to this new motoring challenge, and all the event potential it offered, he explored these two four-cylinder models enthusiastically, partly in rallies with the Maserati Club of Italy, and came to the conclusion that he wanted to move to a six-cylinder car which would offer a more linear engine response and be better suited to long road events such as the Mille Miglia. Searching specifically for an A6 GCS, he found tha