The six best Maserati concepts

Maserati Simun – 1968 

In the mid to late ‘60s Maserati was looking for a replacement for both the ageing Sebring 2+2 and the first generation Quattroporte. It was to be based on the front-engined Ghibli grand tourer and offer accommodation for four people and their luggage. With the Ghibli’s 4.2-litre V8, this was for families in a hurry to get to their holiday homes on the other side of the continent. Both Vignale and Ghia presented concepts for the car at the 1968 Turin Motor Show and both had form with the marque, responsible for the recent Mexico and Ghibli respectively.

The Maserati Simun was Ghia’s effort, penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro, with a concealed headlight front end, smooth bonnet line and extensive glazing emphasising the kink above the rear axle line. Vignale’s design got the nod but elements of the Simun’s design made it into Giugiaro’s later works for Maserati including the Bora and Merak, as well as his Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT. It was Giugiaro’s last design under the Ghia banner, he left shortly afterwards to found what would become Italdesign. 

Maserati Boomerang – 1971

The new company got off to a good start, picking up work from Volkswagen that would lead firstly to the VW Passat and then to the groundbreaking VW Golf, unveiled in 1974. Obviously as a fledgling design house in Italy’s carrozzeria hotbed, the company needed to exhibit some flair, which it demonstrably achieved with the Boomerang. Unveiled at the 1971 Turin Motor Show as a static model with the world’s biggest trident logo on its bonnet the Boomerang was wedgier than a Toblerone and pretty jaw dropping, coming along in the same year as the Morris Marina launched.

Clearly Maserati saw potential as the car was back the following year as a fully functional prototype with the underpinnings of the new Maserati Bora, meaning a 4.7-litre V8 with 310PS (228kW). The interior was as bolded as the origami outside, as all the instruments and controls were mounted in a circular pod in front of the driver, around which turned the steering wheel. It was very Flash Gordon but in all probability a nightmare to drive. Which makes it even more impressive that the Boomerang was used as a road car by multiple owners (one of whom included a Benidorm nightclub owner). Clearly having had an influence on subsequent Italdesign road cars including the Lotus Esprit, DeLorean DMC-12 and even the VW Scirroco, the concept was sold by Bonhams for £2.9m in 2015. 

Love Maseratis? Have a read of our list of the best Maserati racing cars.

Maserati Medici II – 1976

Remember when luxury saloons, rather than gargantuan SUVs, were symbols of power and success? Well this Giugiaro design study clearly stated its intent by taking the name of one of the most powerful families from Renaissance Italy. The original Medici I, based on the Maserati Indy chassis, was unveiled in 1974 as a 5.0-litre V8-powered limousine with six velour covered seats, four of which faced each other in the back. However, after its unveiling at the 1974 Turin Motor Show, Giugiario decided he was unhappy with the car’s front end styling and returned to the drawing board.

The result two years later was the Medici II, which swapped the original car’s unfeasibly low noise to a higher profile front and therefore better gelled with the rest of the lines. Inside the car was now a four-seater, albeit with each one looking like a business class berth and swathed in leather as was the rest of the interior. Cabin equipment now included a minibar and fridge, desk, TV and radiophone. Externally the car’s styling would go on to strongly influence later Giugiaro designs including the next generation of Quattroporte, Audi Coupe and Lancia Delta.

Maserati Chubasco – 1990

If you’re thinking that the Chubasco looks like it came from Sant’Agata rather than Modena, there’s a good reason for that. We have finally found a Maserati concept designed by someone other than Giugiaro; in this case Marcello Gandini, the man responsible for the Miura, Countach and Diablo. Well who better to go to for an injection of supercar style at the end of a decade in which the Maserati Biturbo products had sold strongly but were starting to look dated? The Chubasco was intended as a flagship, limited to 450 units and powered by a twin-turbo V8 producing 430PS (316kW).

Maserati was then under the ownership of Alejandro De Tomaso who specified a competition-derived backbone chassis built of an aluminium honeycomb. Inboard springs and dampers, unequal length wishbones and a flat underside also underscored the Chubasco’s race-inspired engineering. Gandini’s bodywork included many Lamborghini-esque touches including trapezoidal rear wheel arches, pyramidal cockpit sitting atop the lower bodywork and of course upwards opening doors. There was also a movable roof panel which motored back to sit on top of the engine cover. Fiat took half ownership of Maserati in 1990 and declared the project too expensive to proceed, although the underpinnings of the concept served as the basis for the Maserati Barchetta one-make race series a couple of years later and the subsequent De Tomaso Guara.

Maserati 320S – 2001

Maserati revisited the idea of a one-make racing series just under a decade later with the 320S, a single-seat, Barchetta-type machine produced in association with racing equipment manufacturer Sparco and Italdesign. The design house was responsible for the 3200 GT on which the concept was based, powered by the same twin-turbo 3.2-litre V8.

The 320S took the 3200 GT’s elegant four-seat coupe bodywork and stripped it back to the absolute basics, losing all but the driver’s seat with bodywork enclosing the rest of the car. For protection the driver received  a small aero screen, six-point harness and a roll hoop while 20 centimetres was chopped out of the wheelbase. The car also dropped 300kg of kerb weight meaning a one-make series would certainly have been entertaining.

Maserati Alfieri – 2014

A tantalising glimpse of what Maserati could be building right now, the Alfieri was unveiled at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show as a concept previewing a production car to launch at that very same show six years later. Which as we all know never took place. Named after one of the five founding Maserati brothers and celebrating the company’s centenary the Alfieri concept was powered by a Ferrari-derived 4.7-litre V8. Its design was the work of the Centro Stile Maserati in Turin and inspired by Pininfarina’s 1954 Maserati A6 GCS.

The production version was postponed to 2020 and said to be swapping the V8 for V6s in various states of tune and possibly all-wheel-drive. A cabrio version would join the coupe later, effectively replacing the GranTurismo and GranCabrio. Latest news has the Alfieri appearing as an all-electric model in 2022. Come on Maserati, just build it already.

Boomerang image courtesy of Bonhams.