How Maserati Got Its Pininfarina Body (1 photo)
The hardtop Maserati A6GCS/53 owed its creation to a downpour and a quick-thinking dealer. Drivers wanted a roof over their heads, but Maserati couldn't commission coachwork directly from Pininfarina—the legendary design house had already signed an exclusive deal with Ferrari. 
After a rain-drenched 1952 Mille Miglia, customers began clamoring for a coupe version of the race car. Guglielmo Dei, a Maserati dealer in Rome, took matters into his own hands by purchasing six bare chassis and ordering custom bodies himself. Pininfarina ultimately crafted four of them, one of which debuted at the 1954 Turin Motor Show.
Underneath the aluminum body lay pure motorsport engineering: a tubular frame, a 2.0-liter inline-six producing 170 hp, and a dry weight of just 740 kg. According to Maserati, all four berlinettas survive today, with one housed in the Umberto Panini collection.
