1957 Maserati 450S Coupe (Zagato)

Zagato’s own website nicknames this car “Il Mostro”, which is Italian for “The Monster.” That alone makes this a cool enough addition to our list. The fact that it is stunningly good looking and has a racing pedigree is just a bonus. This car was designed by Brit Frank Costin, and was assembled by Zagato. It was raced in Le Mans, and was then converted to a road car, because, well it was the 50s, and that was apparently okay. Imagine a road-legal Audi R18, and you might get an idea of what the 450 S was all about.

List: Our Ten Favorite Zagatos - www.windingroad.com

The 1957 Maserati 450S Costin-Zagato Coupé started life in 1956 as a convertible and was raced in Buenos Aires by Juan Manuel Fangio before being redesigned into a coupé in 1957 by Englishman Frank Costin. The car was hand-built to Costin’s specifications by Zagato in Italy (hence the hyphenated name) and was then raced at Le Mans by Stirling Moss, sadly the car failed to finish due to a mechanical breakdown.

Looking at this car, especially from the side, it’s hard not to wonder what happened to all this automotive design talent. Sure there are some great looking made cars made nowadays but nothing close to this. And remember, the 450S Costin-Zagato Coupé was hand drawn in 1957 by a man using nothing but a pencil and paper.

James McBride - silodrome.com

The Maserati 450 S, built for the 1957 World Sportscar Championship, represented the highest point of Maserati’s official dedication to competition. In the midst of the exciting season in which the brand fought to the end for their victory, the 24 Hours of Le Mans represented, along with the Mille Miglia, a kind of moral triumph for the whole Championship.

Maserati commissioned Zagato to build a coupé body for chassis n.4501. This decision was the result of the pressing demands of Stirling Moss. Likely, it was also he who asked Frank Costin, an expert in aerodynamics, to collaborate with Zagato on the model.

Zagato, working while instructed by the English technician, built a lightweight, aluminum body in record time, obtaining an extraordinary result in terms of weight. With respect to the barchetta, the coupé weighed only 65 kg more. That special form was created, through rigorous design decisions based on functionality, and the power of an 8-cylinder, 4.5 liter, 400 hp engine, contributed to the car’s eloquent nickname: the “Monster.”

Moss, who was paired with Harry Schell at Le Mans, became the protagonist of an extraordinary battle against Ferrari and Jaguar. The 450 S Coupé Zagato, despite starting from second position, managed to take the lead within a few laps, thanks to its favorable characteristics: a very low weight and an incredibile capacity for speed of 320 km/h.

The car remained in command until the beginning of the night when only an engine failure interrupted the extraordinary showdown. Though returned to the factory, it was bought by an American named Byron Staver the following year and turned into a road car. He decided to repaint it from rosso corsa, typical of Italian cars, to a more elegant and minimalist black.

Zagato

Maserati 450 S, построенный к Чемпионату мира 1957 года, являлся идеальным воплощением приверженности итальянской компании гонкам.

По настоятельной просьбе Стирлинга Мосса (Stirling Moss), Maserati поручила Zagato создать кузов для шасси с номером 4501. Также Мосс обратился к эксперту в области аэродинамики Фрэнку Костину (Frank Costin), чтобы он также принял участие в работе над моделью.

В соответствии с рекомендациями Костина Zagato сконструировала для 450 S лёгкий алюминиевый кузов, по сравнению с открытой версией, купе весило всего на 65 кг больше. Благодаря мощнейшему 4,5-литровому восьмицилиндровому мотору, выдававшему 400 л.с., автомобиль получил прозвище "Монстр".

На марафоне в Ле Мане Стирлинг Мосс и Гарри Шелл (Harry Schell), несмотря на старт со второй позиции, быстро захватили лидерство. К сожалению, из-за поломки мотора экипажу Maserati не удалось одержать победу.

Автомобиль вернулся на завод и впоследствии был продан американцу Байрону Стэверу (Byron Staver), который переделал "Монстра" для езды по дорогам общего пользования и перекрасил его из "гоночного красного" в чёрный цвет. Можно сравнить это с тем, как если бы в наши дни в город выехал, какой-нибудь скромно окрашенный Audi R18.