Remember last year’s offering from Touring Superleggera, the Sciàdipersia? Well this year it’s all about the open-top version, the Sciàdipersia Cabriolet four-seater grand tourer. Both models were inspired by the Maserati 5000GT (below) commissioned in 1957 by the ruler of what we now know as Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Persia (or Scià di Persia in Italian). It was built on the Maserati 3500GT and powered by a V8 based on the Maserati 450S unit, to be revealed at the Geneva Show in 1958. To mark the car’s 60th anniversary last year, Touring built the Sciàdipersia coupé, and now the cabriolet version is available to order, with no more than 15 of the two models in total to be built.
They’re both based on the 4.7-litre V8 Maserati GranCabrio platform, with the mechanical components, electrical systems and all electronics remaining unaltered from the original. They’re built by hand in the Touring Manifattura in Milan using a mix of traditional hand-beaten aluminium panels with lightweight carbon fiber components; a combination of traditional coachbuilding skills with cutting-edge digital measurement tools, allowing the manufacturing process to be digitally logged to ensure repeatability.
In case you’re wondering, the two models have already received Type Approval for cars in small series production. Touring Superleggera promises to deliver the complete car within six months of receiving the donor car, and each part produced or modified by Touring is covered by a two year, unlimited mileage warranty, with the availability of parts produced or modified by Touring Superleggera guaranteed for life. This is all part of the new generation of fuoriserie—literally, “out of series”—manufacture, which in the past Italian coachbuilders were famous for.
Images courtesy of Touring Superleggera
