Spider versions of the 3500GT have made the top 20 Price Guide Movers On The Up this month, one of just two six-figure classic models to do so.
That means entry level for the brave restorer is now £265k, while anyone happy to settle for a driver, even if it’s a long way from mechanical or cosmetic perfection, will have to find £375k. Something with no immediate needs is typically £475k and the leap to concours perfection adds a further £120k.
Those figures represent an 8.1% move, which looks even more significant when you realise that current figures are still 11% behind those of five years ago. So, the Spider has turned smartly from faller to grower with a long way to go before it challenges values accepted at the last peak.
Maseratis have long lived in the shadow of more fancied and volatile equivalent Ferraris but none of those is in our list of growers this month. The only one that is showing growth lives in a completely different seven-figure price orbit from the 3500GT. Which makes the short wheelbase Vignale-bodied Maserati seem like some sort of a bargain, especially when you consider that just 245 were built – only 25% more than the multimillion dollar/euro/pound California Spider from Maranello, even if it does have to make do with six instead of twelve cylinders.
Of course, rarity alone isn’t sufficient to make a classic car precious. Looks, associations with motor sport success or the right kind of celebrity owners, and the image projected by the maker all have a strong influence. When the Touring-bodied coupé version was launched in 1957, the halo of Maserati’s motor sport supremacy was fading – the 250F grand prix car was in its last year of competitiveness. By the time the Spider emerged two years later, it was long gone.
Price Guide Movers On The Up is part of 16 pages of market analysis and buying advice in the latest issue of Classic Cars.