Zagato’s collaboration with Maserati stretches all the way back to the 1930s, when the automaker approached the famed carrozzeria to build the Tipo 26M Sport for a wealthy Italian attorney. Since then the collaboration has yielded a number of significant cars, from the gorgeous 1954 A6G to the 2007 GS Zagato based on the Gransport Spyder.
To celebrate the centenary of Maserati this year, Zagato decided to commemorate the historic collaboration with the creation of an all-new vehicle named after the 1957 Maserati 450 S Coupé Zagato ‘Mostro’, which was built for the 1957 World Sportscar Championship and raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Mille Miglia with Sir Stirling Moss behind the wheel.
Called simply the ‘Mostro’, a nickname bestowed upon its forebear due to its exhaust note and 400hp race-tuned powerplant, the new limited-edition sport coupe designed by Norihiko Harada slots into the Iconic phase of Zagato design, initiated by the Alfa Romeo TZ3 Corso revealed at Villa d’Este in 2010 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Alfa Romeo.
As with the TZ3 Stradale – the later, limited-edition version of the Villa d’Este one-off — the Mostro is a street legal supercar built using components derived from racing. A Maserati V8 is mid-mounted beneath its long hood and its chassis is made of a carbon fiber coupled to a mid-structure of steel tubes to create the cockpit. The bodywork is entirely carbon fiber.
The proportions of the Mostro are similar to those of the 450 S Coupé Zagato, with its dramatically long hood and rounded, truncated tail. Its large front fenders run into the small doors — which open with a high, forward movement as dictated by the shape of the carbon fiber cell – with fixed glass windows while the car’s massive rear fenders lead to a large, fixed rear spoiler.
Though paying tribute to the 450 S Coupé Zagato, the Mostro’s design is not nostalgic but has been devised to obtain the best aerodynamic result for a modern racecar. The treatment of the car’s volumes gives the bodywork a sense of purity, further reinforced by the panoramic windshield that appears to wrap into the DLO were it not for its chromed surround.
Only five examples of the Mostro will be built and all have already been sold to Zagato collectors. Deliveries are expected to be completed before December 2015, the end of Maserati’s anniversary year.
