Maserati Built A Handful Of These Barchettas In The ’90s (Who Knew?)

See this roadster? Doesn’t look much like the Maseratis we know today, does it? That could be because it wasn’t made by the Maserati we know today.

The Barchetta was the brainchild of Alejandro de Tomaso, who in addition to the marque bearing his own name, owned Maserati from 1975 (when he bought it from Citroën) through ’93 (when he sold Fiat the remaining 49% he hadn’t already transferred in ’89).

This, then, was one of his last projects while still at the helm of the Trident marque. It wasn’t designed for the road, but rather for a one-make series: the Grantrofeo Monomarca Barchetta Maserati, precursor to the modern series run with modified GranTurismos. The championship ran for only two seasons – with six races in ’92 and ten in ’93 – before it closed and De Tomaso left the company.

The vehicle that formed its backbone placed a 2.0-liter twin-turbo V6 in the middle of it flyweight chassis, producing just 315 horsepower (235 kW) but weighing less than 2,000 pounds (905 kg). Only 17 examples were made (including one road-going Stradale show car).

This one was delivered to Dr. Thomas Bscher, a noted Maserati collector and experienced historic racing competitor who would later go on to race at Le Mans six times (in a Porsche 968 Turbo RS, McLaren F1 GTR, and BMW V12 LM). This was his first foray into racing modern machinery, and now it’s coming up for auction.

RM Sotheby’s will sell it off as part of its London auction next month. Alongside it, incidentally, the same auction will also feature a Guará Spyder – one of only four examples that De Tomaso made in ’98 based on the leftover Maserati Barchettas he held onto after selling the company to Fiat.