From the 1st to the 3rd of September 2023, Hampton Court will host many of the world’s most spectacular and rare cars in its annual Concours of Elegance event. Not many come rarer than the 1955 Maserati A6GCS Frua Spider, which will make its UK debut at the show, having last been seen in 2010 at the equally scenic Lake Como.

Established in 2012, the inaugural Concours of Elegance was held within Windsor Castle to marl the diamond jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen’s reign. The event has since moved to Hampton Court, which is surely the perfect setting to showcase the most interesting and rare vehicles from automotive history. From all over the world, only cars of the highest calibre are invited to the event and painstakingly selected by the Concours Steering Committee, a respected team of historic car experts. The 1955 Maserati is one of the leading selections in 2023.

An exceptionally rare vehicle, the A6GCS Frua Spider was the creation of Gugliemo ‘Mimmo’ Dei, the official Maserati dealer for Rome, who commissioned a small series of exquisitely coachbuilt cars based on the high-performance A6FCS platform. It is just one of three to be originally completed with Frua coachwork, with only two surviving. The A6GCS/53, the ‘CS standing for ‘Cora Sport’, had originally been developed for the 1953 World Sports Car Championship, and featured motorsport-honed mechanicals. It featured a potent 170bhp in-line straight-six engine, and a race-bred, lightweight tubular chassis.

Dei was so pleased with the results of the build, that he requested two further Frua bodied cars to be created, including the car that will be displayed at Hampton Court, Chassis number 2110, which was completed in the autumn of 1956. Carrozzeria Frua of Turin was tasked with building the open-top variant and these two cars were even more special; beneath the Frua coachwork lay a specially ordered ultra-high performance dry-sump A6G/64 motor, delivering exceptional power while also revving to some 7,300rpm, remarkable for a road car in the mid-1950s.

Chassis 2110 remained in Italy for a period after its competition but has spent most of its life in the United States, having been shipped there in the late 1950s. Under the supervision of Maserati aficionado Adolfo Orsi, the vehicle was painstakingly restored to Concours winning condition and won the Coppa d’Oro (Best in Show) at Villa d’Este on the shores of Lake Como in 2010, its last appearance until now.

“We’re absolutely delighted to have secured this exceptional Maserati for our event in September,” said James Brooks-Ward, Concours of Elegance CEO.

“It’s a real tour de force of sports car design and engineering, with supremely elegant 1950s open-top styling that belies true race-bred performance.

“It’s a real privilege to show such a special car – one of just two in existence – on UK soil for the very first time.”

Of all the vehicles from the 1950s, the Maserati is widely thought to be one of the most desirable and will take its place at the Concours of Elegance event alongside over 70 other privately owned cars drawn from leading collections all over the world, all vying for the Best in Show award. Outside the main display of vehicles, the event will assemble around 1,000 further cars in a series of special features and displays, including a showcase to commemorate 100 years of the Le Mans 24-hour race.

Further announcements surrounding the event will be made in the coming months.

Tickets for the event are now on sale at concoursofelegance.co.uk/tickets

Words: Mike Booth
Pictures: Concours of Elegance