Maserati - Maserati 5000 GT
One of the finest road going Maseratis of the 1950's, and certainly the most expensive was the Maserati 5000 GT, the first of which went to the Shah of Iran (Persia). The Shahanshah had requested putting the more powerful sportsracer 450S engine in something like the 3500 GT , and Omer Orsi the factory owner and head engineer Giulio Alfieri agreed with the idea. For this project Maserati increased the capacity of their quad cam 4.5 litre V8 race engine to 4935cc, by reducing the bore and increasing the stroke but keeping the twin plug cylinder heads, and depending on the state of tune there was anything from 310 to 370 bhp available for road use. The Shahs car was bodied by Touring. But the project was too good to leave as a one off Maserati model and the company decided part way through the project that it would be offered as a option in their range, and as such they displayed a second virtually identical car at the 1959 Turin Show. But for the production cars that followed, the engine differed quite substantially from the 450S. The later production 5000 GT engines had chain driven cams rather than gear drive, valves operating by buckets rather than rocker fingers, and a magnesium wet sump. And these 5000GT were fuel injected. All these changes saved a reputed 50kg over the race engine. The Maserati 5000GT's were bodied by many of the Italian coachbuilders, and was available until 1966.
Original Maserati 5000GT tyre size was 650x16 or radial equivalent 215/70VR15 , both of which sizes Blockley produces - see full details of these tyres below:
