A Wedge with Edge: Maserati Indy 4900
Sean Rooks | March 1, 2024
For this installment of Good Find Friday, we’re live from Amelia Island Concours Week in lovely Fernandina Beach, Florida. The festivities are in mid-swing with only the Bonhams and Gooding & Company auctions in the rear view mirror. The Porsche Club of America’s Werks Reunion wraps up today as well.
While the week’s weather started off fine enough, it has turned abysmal and is expected to remain so for the rest of the weekend. The shows must go on and the mood at the Ritz Carlton for the the Broad Arrow Auction remains lively. In fact, today’s find was examined in-person at their auction preview.
While our focus at Wolf and Mare is on Porsche, Volkswagen, and German collector cars in general, we have a soft spot for Italian brands. And in character with our counter-culture fascination, they tend to be the lesser loved marques. Today’s good find is a 1971 Maserati Indy 4900 on offer by Broad Arrow Auctions at no reserve.
The Maserati Indy is a 2+2 grand touring car designed as a replacement for the 6-cylinder Maserati Sebring. The Sebring is a beautiful car, but in the late sixties sporting brands were exploring much more radical designs, and fashion was leaving the Sebring behind. Maserati christened the car “Indy” in celebration of their two victories at the Indianapolis 500.
For many years the Indy was an unloved Maserati, possibly because of its more wedge-shaped design and having been built during Citroen’s ownership of the brand. Many examples we’ve seen over the years have been pretty rough restoration candidates.
This car is different. The body is straight and corrosion-free on areas visible to inspection. The rear hatch area, an area that often shows age, wear and rust on Indys, has clean and crisp edges with even gaps all around. It’s terrific to see a car that wears its Vignale-designed coachwork so well.
It isn’t noted in the catalogue description, but the color appears to be Smoke Quartz and its application was clearly done to a very good standard by Grand Turismo of Los Angeles.
The interior is the true bright spot for this offering, with its red leather hides expertly fitted to the seats, dashboard, center console and interior paneling. Most grand touring cars of this period, in particular Italian makes, are showing their age with warped, torn, or peeling leather surfaces. Fortunately, this Indy’s interior is in a very inviting condition.
The only changes we’d want to make to this car, were we lucky enough to acquire it, would be to replace the “pillow” US steering wheel with a more elegant European style wheel and lower the suspension a bit to reduce the large gap in the wheel arches.
With a market that is most definitely returning to pre-pandemic levels, we’ve seen quite a few no reserve bargains in our two days at Amelia. Guided at $100,000-$150,000 but offered at no reserve, it’s quite possible someone will pick up this beautifully restored Maserati for less than the estimate.
UPDATE: This Maserati Indy hammered sold for $80,000 or $89,600 with buyer’s premium.
Wolf and Mare provides car finding, appraisal and auction services for sellers and buyers of collector European cars. Give us a call or drop us a line!