The unique Maserati 450S Costin Zagato was raced at Le Mans by Stirling Moss in 1957 – yet its maker then cast it aside. Marc Sonnery uncovers its infamy
Photography Nick Lish
T he Maserati 450S is a legend among 1950s racing cars. As readers might recall from Octane 238, it was notoriously a handful to drive, and part of its appeal is undoubtedly its rarity – only 11 were built (including a prototype) before regulations made it obsolete. While several examples were raced successfully, one 450S is memorable for its uniqueness, and that’s the car you see here, the only Berlinetta: the infamous 450S Costin Zagato.
It was Stirling Moss himself who suggested to Maserati at some point in early 1957 that a coupé with refined aerodynamics would be the ultimate weapon at Le Mans, ensuring a blistering top speed. Needless to say, he had the ear of the Orsi family (which owned the marque) and of chief engineer Giulio Alfieri, so his idea was quickly implemented. The British racer also recommended a designer at the sharp end of aerodynamic competence, the young Brit Frank Costin. Aged 36 at the time, he was hired to design the body. Patriarch Adolfo Orsi and his son Omar, who managed the company, were not overly keen on the 24 Hours, but Alfieri pushed for it and they relented.
Costin got busy. A de Havilland employee with a flair for aerodynamics, he had garnered much esteem for his Vanwall F1 design, which had enabled Moss to shine on numerous occasions. He had also worked for Colin Chapman, developing sleek versions of the Lotus 11. According to the historian Karl Ludvigsen, he had only five weeks to deliver. Costin set about applying all he had learnt to create an aerodynamic wonder that ought to have permitted a very high top speed on the Mulsanne straight – though things did not quite pan out that way.
Maserati’s go-to shop for racing car bodies was Carrozzeria Medardo Fantuzzi, but it was too busy with other projects to build it within the tight time-scale, so the task was entrusted instead to Zagato. The body would be built on a new chassis, number 4506. Period interviews reveal that Costin, having spent days theorising and drawing in his dining room, had to rush to the airport to give the drawings to Moss’s manager, Ken Gregory, in return for a wad of cash. Gregory then flew straight to Zagato and the staff got busy.
All did not go according to plan, however. Ermanno Cozza, then a factory technician, later became Maserati’s in-house historian. As he says: ‘A series of circumstances turned the whole project into a travesty, starting with Costin delivering his work
