Maserati is certainly one of the most famous and sophisticated automobile brands in history. The company was founded in Bolognia in 1914 by Alfieri Maserati and was soon celebrating racing successes.
At the end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, Maserati largely withdrew from motor racing and primarily produced production sports cars with six and eight-cylinder engines that were suitable for everyday use. Models such as the 3500 GT, the Sebring, the Mistral, but above all the Ghibli and the Bora made the brand's trademark, the trident, immortal. Today, they are all super classics and are pampered and restored at great expense. Which brings us to the subject of this book.
A lot of expertise and experience required
It takes a great deal of technical knowledge, experience and sensitivity to professionally restore a Maserati from the sixties or seventies, or even just to keep it alive. And because it is not so easy to find the right workshops for this work, Marc Sonnery has written a book about it and presented 12 companies in detail.
The patrons and their experts are interviewed and their views on restoration and maintenance issues are asked.
12 companies from 8 countries
The book focuses on European specialists: two are based in Belgium, two in the Netherlands, two in Germany, two in Italy and one each in the UK, France, Poland and Switzerland.
These companies were all visited and photographed in detail. Not only fully restored cars were photographed, but also restoration objects and "work in progress". Among other things, the work being carried out in-house or by partners and what particular emphasis is placed on was identified.
The results of the interviews are presented in lively language and illustrated in detail. So far so good.
A perspective
If you are expecting a critical appraisal of the restoration industry in this book, you have certainly come to the wrong place. Not only can the book be purchased with various covers by the specialists interviewed, it was probably also financed to a not insignificant extent by them.
The selection of the companies was certainly also made with commercial conditions in mind, so well-known specialists such as Scuderia Azzurra, which has already restored many Maserati in Portugal, are missing, and providers in the USA or Australia could not be included either, which was certainly also for logistical reasons.
Unfortunately, there is also little information in the book about how expensive and time-consuming a Maserati restoration can be in terms of hours and euros. Hourly rates are not mentioned either.
Instead, you learn what the specialists look for when they inspect a car, how they communicate with clients and which jobs can be particularly tricky.
Tastefully designed
Overall, "Classiche Masters" is an elegantly designed book with many interesting statements from the workshop staff and owners, who are certainly experienced. A great deal of emphasis was placed on style and elegance in the photography and there are also many shots of classic Maserati models outside the workshops.
In addition to the 12 specialist portraits, the most important Maserati models from the 3500 GT to the Kyalami are briefly presented in the appendix, including production figures. Once again, you can marvel at the small numbers of the still very well-known Maserati sports cars that were built up until the 1970s. This only changed with the Biturbo, but these models are only mentioned in passing in the book.
Anyone who owns (or would like to buy) a Maserati from the late fifties to the seventies will certainly find interesting information in this book, even if the contact details of the individual companies are incomprehensibly missing. But with a simple Google search, the reader should be able to make up for this without any problems. EUR 95.00 (plus delivery charges) is no small price to pay, but in return you have a compilation of twelve interesting specialists nicely documented in one place.
Bibliographical information
- Title: Classiche Masters, the finest workshops for classic Maseratis
- Author: Marc Sonnery
- Language: English
- Publisher: Fast Forward Publishing bv
- Edition: 1st edition January 2020
- Format: Hardcover, with dust jacket, 30.3 x 23.4 cm
- Scope: 192 pages, around 240 mainly color illustrations
- ISBN: 978946000115
- Price: EUR 95.00 (plus postage)
- Buy/order: Online from the publisher or at the Maserati dealerships portrayed
