Maserati Mistral 3,7 Spyder RH by Frua
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Car producer : |
Maserati |
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Model: |
Mistral 3,7 Spyder RH by Frua |
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Year: |
1963-1970 |
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Type: |
Cabriolet |
The Mistral is the last model from the “Casa del Tridente” or “House of the Trident” to have the famous straight six cylinder, twin-spark, double overhead cam engine, as fitted to the Maserati 250F Grand Prix cars that won 8 Grand Prix between 1954 and 1960 and one F1 World Championship in 1957 driven by Juan Manuel Fangio. Maserati subsequently moved on to V8 engines for their later production cars to keep up with the demand for ever more powerful machines. There were three engine variants fitted to the Mistral; 3500, 3700 and 4000 cc, developing respectively 235hp at 5500 rpm, 245hp at 5500 rpm and 255hp at 5200 rpm. The most sought after derivative is the 4000 cc model. Only the earliest of the Mistrals were equipped with the 3500 cc engine. Unusually, the body was offered in both aluminium and, from 1967, in steel but no one is quite sure as to how many of each were built. Use of the aluminium body panels had no effect on the performance of the Mistral. The automobile was standard with a five speed transmission from ZF and also had four wheel solid disc brakes. As was Maserati’s practice at the time the front suspension was independent while the rear made do with a solid axle. Speed for the 3.7 liter engine and the 4.0 liter engine was around 7 seconds or a little better and the top speed was around 140 mph (225 km/h) to 145 mph (233 km/h). The 3500 engine was mounted only in the Spyder model, with just 12 made, alongside with 76 of Spyder 3.7 and 37 of Spyder 4.0 versions. Of all spyders 20 were right hand drive models.
The body which had been designed by Pietro Frua was first shown in a preview at the Salone Internationale dell’Automobile di Torino in November 1963. The Maserati Mistral is generally considered as one of the most beautiful Maseratis of all time. It is also often confused to the very similar looking but larger and more powerful AC Frua, which was a Frua design as well.
