The Maserati 5000 GT made its debut to great fanfare at the Turin Motor Show in 1959. With its fuel-injected, four-cam V-8 engine derived from the 450S sports racing car, the “Car of Kings” was the fastest road-going automobile of its day. Only 34 cars of this model were built at Maserati’s Viale Ciro Menotti plant in Modena, with bodywork added by Italy’s top coachbuilders of the period.
Reza Pahlavi, the then Shah of Persia, and a great enthusiast of high-performance sports cars, test-drove a 3500 GT towards the end of 1958 and was delighted with it. However, he requested an increase in performance, and Giulio Alfieri, Maserati technical director at the time, realised that the car would have to be completely redesigned to satisfy his demands.
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