Tag Archives: Shah of iran

The Man In Green – Maserati 5000GT Allemano #103.036

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In 1958 the Shah of Iran was impressed with a test drive in a Maserati 3500GT Coupé and upon learning of some 450S race cars, made obsolete by the change in sports car regulations to a maximum engine 3 litre / 183 cui engine capacity, loitering in the Maserati factory asked for one of the new Coupé’s to be fitted with an obsolete 4.5 litre race car engine.

Maserati 5000GT, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Maserati were happy to oblige this royal request which got the limited production of the 5000GT Tipo 103 under way. After the Shah’s car was completed in 1959 with Carrozeria Touring bodywork a second car was built with similar bodywork and a motor sourced out of a race car and taken to the 1959 Turin Show where it was sold to South African millionaire Basil Read, owner of the Kyalami race track.

Maserati 5000GT, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Before being sold journalist Hans Tanner was taken for a test drive with Maserati’s test driver Gurrino Bertocchi in the second car and reported that after easily taking a sweeping bend on an autostrada at 158mph the car hit 172mph, not bad for a road car in 2014, absolutely sensational for a road car in 1959 !

Maserati 5000GT, Goodwood Festival of Speed

The 5000GT available only with 4 or 5 speed manual gearbox sold for twice as much as a regular 3500GT.

Maserati 5000GT, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Today’s featured car chassis #103.036, was built in 1962 with one of the 22, most common for the type, Allemano bodies styled by Giovanni Michelotti.

Maserati 5000GT, Goodwood Festival of Speed

#103.036 was originally painted green and supplied to Stuttgart based Maserati dealers Merz & Pabst in 1962, not 1959 as indicated by the display board at Goodwood Festival of Speed where these photo’s were taken.

Maserati 5000GT, Goodwood Festival of Speed

Merz and Pabst sold the car to an interesting chap born James Lablache Stewart who took his mothers maiden name when he took up acting to become Stewart Granger.

Maserati 5000GT, Goodwood Festival of Speed

After making films including A Southern Maid (1933) and The Man in Grey (1943) in the UK Stewart moved to the States to make films including The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) and North to Alaska (1960) before returning to Europe to make numerous of continental productions that included films a trilogy of westerns based on stories by the German author Karl May.

During this time in Europe spanning the 1960’s Granger, who famously declared himself not to be an an actor’s actor, once said he earned and lost US$ 1.5 million.

My thanks to 3500GT and alfieri107 of tipo107.com who kindly responded to my request for details about today’s featured car on the Ferrari Chat forum.

Thanks for joining me on this “The Man In Green” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Amilcar racer. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Luxury Elegant Loss Leader – Continental Mark II

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Continental was designed to be a stand alone luxury and elegance brand from Lincoln to compete with GM’s Cadillac and Chrysler’s Imperial Brands that would build on the success of the 1940’s Lincoln Continental.

Continental Mark II, Desert Classic C d'E, Palm Springs

Having considered and rejected the idea of employing an outside team to design such an important vehicle Ford designated a team from it’s own special products division comprising chief stylist John Reinhart, chief body engineer Gordon Buehrig assisted by Robert McGuffery Thomas and chief engineer Harley Copp to design the Continental Mark II in late 1952.

Continental Mark II, Desert Classic C d'E, Palm Springs

Ford had hoped to build the car using unibody / monocoque construction but Copp is credited with rejecting the idea on grounds of tooling costs for what was always intended to be a low volume hand built vehicle, and so the car was built with separate chassis and body.

Continental Mark II, Desert Classic C d'E, Palm Springs

For a car that was launched in 1956 there is a remarkable absence of chrome work giving it, size not withstanding, a refined European look. Power came from a factory blueprinted (hand made from closest to specification hand picked parts), 6 litre / 368 cui Lincoln V8 that was tuned to give 300 hp.

Continental Mark II, Desert Classic C d'E, Palm Springs

The likes of Continental owners Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and the Shah of Iran had only one option choice to make, wether or not to have the US$595 factory fitted air conditioning or not. Elizabeth Taylor was given a Continental Mark II by Warner Brothers that was specially painted to match the colour of her eyes.

Continental Mark II, Desert Classic C d'E, Palm Springs

Priced at US$ 10,000 in 1956 the Continental cost the same as a contemporary Rolls Royce or two Cadillacs, until the arrival of the US$ 13,074 Cadillac Eldordo Brougham in 1957. Surprisingly Ford reckoned they were loosing US$ 1,000 on each Continental Mark II built.

Continental Mark II, Desert Classic C d'E, Palm Springs

Between late 1955 and 1957 around 3000 Continental Mark IIs were built at the end of the production run the Continental brand was reabsorbed into the Lincoln brand and the name hence forth continued as a Lincoln model name.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for the photographs of today’s featured 1956 model seen earlier this years at the Desert Classic Concours d’Elegance at Palm Springs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Luxury Elegant Loss Leader” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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