This 1957 Maserati Race Car Could Fetch Almost $3 Million at Auction

This stunning 1957 Maserati 200SI racer boasts flowing, handcrafted bodywork by Italian coachbuilder Carrozzeria Fantuzzi, and an impressive motorsport résumé. The latter includes the Mille Miglia Storica, the Monterey Historics, and a multitude of hard-fought Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events in Southern California with the legendary Jim Hall at the wheel. It also competed in major road races early in its life, including the grueling 670-mile Giro di Sicilia.

Next month, this well-known example from the golden age of sports-car racing, is set to cross the block at the Pebble Beach Auctions presented by Gooding Christie’s. The two-day sale will be held August 14 and 15 as part of Northern California’s Monterey Car Week festivities.

“This is one of the great ‘50s sports race cars that has done it all, and is ready for a new owner to continue to race it, show it, and enjoy it, at any of the world’s top events,” David Brynan, senior car specialist at Gooding Christie’s, tells Robb Report.

In 1955, Maserati was looking to challenge Ferrari and its success with the 500 Mondial. Maserati’s answer was the 200S. The open two-seater was given a light-alloy 2.0-liter, twin-cam four-cylinder engine—new at the time—mounted in an in-house-designed tubular chassis and clothed in a low-slung, aluminum Fantuzzi body.

The model was an instant success, taking second place in the 1956 Gran Premio di Bari road race, and overall victory in that year’s Gran Premio di Roma with French ace Jean Behra at the wheel. Stirling Moss took it to second place in the wonderfully named Supercortemaggiore race at Monza. Rule changes the following year required race cars like the 200S to be fitted with a wraparound windshield, two functioning doors, and the provision for a spare wheel. This new version was christened the 200SI, short for Sport Internazionale.

The car on offer came out of Maserati’s Modena race shop in 1957 wearing chassis No. 2425, being one of just 20 examples of the 200SI model built before its production ended that year. Joining the Italian Centro Sud race team, driver Giorgio Scarlatti drove it to a class victory and third overall in that year’s Giro di Sicilia road race. At the Grand Prix de Cadours in Western France, French driver André Loens took it to an overall win, beating Ferrari 500 Testa Rossa and Porsche 550 RS challengers.

At the end of the season, the bright-red Maserati was sent to a Carroll Shelby Sports Cars dealership, owned by Dick Hall, in Dallas, Tex. Within weeks, Hall had signed up his younger brother Jim to pilot the car at the Hourglass Field races in San Diego, the SCCA Nationals at Palm Springs, and track events at Laguna Seca and Riverside.

The following year, Hall sold the car to a Lieutenant-Colonel Bob Kuhn, an avid East Coast SCCA privateer who campaigned chassis No. 2425 throughout the 1958 season, including outings at Lime Rock and Watkins Glen. Come 1962, the car was acquired by another SCCA stalwart, U.S. Navy veteran Otto Klein, who would go on to coauthor the Clean Air Act. Klein spent three years campaigning the car before passing it on, in 1972, to well-known collector Wayne Golomb. The new steward commissioned a full mechanical restoration, increasing the engine’s displacement to 2.5 liters. Golomb kept the car for over 12 years.

During the late 1980s, the car passed though the hands of several respected sports-car dealers, and was twice-entered in the 1000-mile Mille Miglia Storica. By 1995, it was in the hands of British collector Phillip Marcq, who commissioned a full restoration.

Four years on, he’d sold it to German collector Wolfgang Wegner-Bscher, who decided to preserve the original motor and replace it with a perfect-replica of the mill, one he had built by renowned specialist Olaf Kuester. Wegner-Bscher went on to race the car throughout Europe, including historics events at Spa, Vallelunga, and the Nürburgring.

In 2007, the Maserati was snapped up by passionate amateur racer Warren ‘Ned’ Spieker, of Atherton, Calif. Spieker was the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Spieker Properties, one of America’s largest commercial-property companies, and is the car’s current custodian. In his hands, the Maserati has been extensively campaigned, taking part in numerous Monterey Historics events.

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Last year, Spieker attempted to sell the car, commissioning RM Sotheby’s to enter it in its high-profile Monterey auction with an estimated value of between $2.8 million and $3.2 million. Despite a top bid of $2.35 million, it failed to sell. The 200SI was then consigned to exotic-car broker Fantasy Junction, based in Emeryville, Calif., but, after failing to find a buyer, it was entered in a Bring-a-Trailer online auction in April of this year. And though it was bid to $2.075 million, the amount did not meet the reserve. Brynan says that a significant price readjustment, plus recent renovations to the car, will make it more attractive to potential buyers.

“I think these Maserati 200SIs have reached a point where they are seriously good value, especially compared to something like a Ferrari 500 Testarossa, which is almost double the price,” says Brynan. “As a pure collector car, they are really fun to drive, really versatile, and very roadable. And this car would be welcomed at pretty much every great motoring event in the world, from the Mille Miglia, to Goodwood, to the Colorado Grand.”

The car comes with its original Tipo 4CF2 engine wearing a stamp of the chassis number, a spare transmission and differential, plus a Maserati Certificate of Origin and FIA Historic Technical Passport. The new price estimate is between $2.25 million and $2.75 million.

Click here for more photos of this 1957 Maserati 200SI race car.