Here's Your Chance To Own One Of The Weirdest Maserati Models

Once upon a time, in the mid-twentieth century, there was a small handful of Italian companies known as carrozzerie - coachbuilders, to you and I - that car manufacturers or well-off individuals would turn to when they wanted a car that stood out from the crowd. Something to make jaws drop at a motor show, or to show your wealthy and important friends that you were even wealthier and… importanter.

These were names like Pininfarina, Bertone, Italdesign, Zagato and Vignale, and as time went on and the industry changed, most either moved into mass-market design or quietly faded away. One of the companies falling into the latter category was Milanese outfit Touring Superleggera, which quietly went out of business in 1966.

In 2006, though, Touring was revived, and once again started to produce incredibly low-volume, re-bodied versions of various cars that were striking, fascinating and occasionally a little challenging to look at. Now, there’s a chance to own one.

What you’re looking at is the Touring Sciadipersia. Say it with us now - “sha-de-per-si-a”. We’ll come on to what makes this car interesting shortly, but first, that name. It’s actually a contraction of Scià di Persia, which is Italian for ‘Shah of Persia’. That’s because this car is supposed to reference the Maserati 5000GT, a Touring-bodied car unveiled in 1959. It had been commissioned by a chap called Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who was the last pre-revolutionary leader of Iran - in other words, the Shah of Persia.

That car was based on the ‘normal’ Maserati 3500GT, and had the V8 from a 450S race car. Just three were built with the Touring body, so it’s something of a rarity in the back catalogue of a firm that would go on to design the Aston Martin DB5 and Jensen Interceptor.

Fast forward to the 2018 Geneva Motor Show, and Touring debuted, the Sciadipersia. Like the car that inspired it, it’s a Maserati underneath, this time the GranTurismo. That means it has the later 4.7-litre version of the Ferrari/Maserati F136 V8, producing 454bhp and one of the finest noises ever to have blessed humanity. It also appears to come with the later GranTurismo’s torque converter auto, rather than the rather clunky Graziano semi-auto.

The body that Touring wrapped it in, though, is a bit more of an acquired taste. There are lots of strange angles and odd details going on, and we’re not too sure about those tiny, torch-like headlights or bits of bare aluminium. We certainly wouldn’t call it ugly, just… a bit weird. The interior, largely unchanged from the Maserati base car, is given a lovely airiness by that glass roof.

The car is being sold by Artcurial at its Rétromobile Paris auction at the beginning of February. Both Artcurial and Bonhams, who auctioned this car in 2022, say this is the only coupé in existence, despite the fact that Touring originally planned to build 10 (a convertible version, of which a handful more were made, followed in 2019).

The best bit? You might be able to own this unique Maserati for less than half its original cost. The Sciadipersia, which has two previous owners, is sold with a new purchase invoice for €720,620. Artcurial’s estimate? Between €330k and €400k. Not cheap, then, but in the context of one-off, coachbuilt GT cars, quite possibly a bargain. Maybe just get some Italian lessons before you commit.