Zagato Unveils First of Five Maserati-Powered Mostro Barchettas

Seven years ago, Zagato unveiled the Mostro — a Maserati-powered supercar that was inspired by the race cars of the 1950s. Now, it is ready to not just unveil, but deliver the first customer car from its highly-limited run of the Mostro Barchetta, or simply, a roadster version of the aforementioned coupé.

The Mostro takes its name from a car Sir Stirling Moss called a “monster,” that being the Maserati 450S Coupe Zagato from 1957. Speaking on the project, Zagato’s President Andrea Zagato said, “We decided the name of the project inspired by Sir Stirling Moss’s first reaction, who said: ‘Beautiful like a monster’ when he first saw the Maserati Coupé. It is the oxymoron itself which well expresses the union between the brutal powering and the philosophy of beauty.”

Throughout the car’s design, you’ll find nods to racing heritage. Two seats and a sloping, small, wraparound windscreen are reminiscent of a speedboat, while a Maserati-manufactured carbon fiber MonoCell chassis, no electronic traction control, and a frontal block-mounted gearbox all reference race cars.

You can choose from a 414 BHP 4.2-liter Maserati V8 or a three-liter 621 BHP Maserati V6 that’s found in the current Maserati flagship, the MC20. This works alongside perfect 50-50 weight distribution, rear-wheel-drive, six-piston AP Racing calipers at the front and four pistons at the rear, a six-speed sequential gearbox, double-wishbone front and rear suspensions, adjustable shock absorbers and a combined weight of just 1,200 kg.

In short, the Mostro Barchetta is likely to be a very capable car on the road and track. Only five are due to be built, and almost all are already assigned to Zagato’s collector clients list. Take a closer look at the car above, and see it in the flesh at Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.

Elsewhere in the automotive world, HYPEBEAST recently got behind the wheel of the legendary Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing.