On Sunday August 17 at the 64th Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance held in Pebble Beach, California in the United States, Gran Turismo series producer Kazunori Yamauchi awarded the “Gran Turismo Trophy” to the 1954 Maserati A6GCS Spider.

Maserati began in 1913 in a workshop started in Bologna by the Alfieri Maserati brothers. They introduced their first racing car crowned with the Maserati name in 1926, and fought in fierce competition against Alfa Romeo and Ferrari in Grand Prix racing thereafter. The early A6GCS is a racing sportscar introduced by Maserati in 1947, a sort of a transitional model that was just a converted a cigar shaped grand prix car made into a two seater. In 1953, use of these types of sportscars in competition was banned, and Maserati improved the body of the A6GCS to give it an elegant sports car appearance. The result was the winner of this year’s award, the later model A6GCS. The highlight of this car is of course its beautiful flowing body. The shape of the car created by Carrozzeria Fantuzzi began just by covering its mechanical components and wheels with a minimalistic exterior cover, but many racing cars after the A6GCS copied its styling, making the advanced nature of the car even better known throughout the world.
Under the long engine hood is a 2 liter 6 cylinder engine designed by Gioacchino Colombo, the famous engineer who transferred to Maserati from Ferrari. Its power output is said to have been dropped to 170ps in consideration for the commercially sold gasoline, but this still propelled its light weight body to well over 230km/h. Meanwhile the racing version of the A6GCS entered and achieved many victories in races like the Mille Miglia, Targa Florio, and Watkins Glen.

Meanwhile, the highest award of this year’s Concours d’Elegance, the “Best of Show” was received by the 1954 Ferrari 375MM Scaglietti Coupe.