Meet the Fleet – Sportscars: Maserati 3500GT

• BODY: Aurora
• WHEELS & TIRES: Vincent

I can’t say this beautiful turquoise copy of the Mazz 3500 is in mint condition…at least, not anymore. I would certainly still call it “near mint,” but when I bought it as a body only it was an unmounted virgin. I paid a lot of money for it-far more than I wanted to pay-because I had lost 2 or 3 more distressed copies via auctions over the previous few months and I was tired of waiting: I got it into my head that I wanted it in this color, and when that mint unmounted body came up for sale I bit the bullet and paid the price. What’s funny about that is that, today, it might be worth twice what it cost me in late 2020.

If I had it to do over again, I probably wouldn’t mount this body on an Ultra-G chassis and put it into my racing fleet, but at the time I bought it I had no interest in the original Aurora platform; I was focused exclusively on building my Ultra-G racing fleet, and so I added a “dual” racing number to it like the rest of the Mazers in the fleet and got it fitted on a new Auto World chassis and went racing…which is why it can no longer be considered mint. Sure, I’ve been careful with it-I try to be with all my cars-but its done battle on the track and now bears some wear marks on the delicate chrome bumpers. Even so, well…its hard to argue with the results: dressed up with a set of gold-tone “Dotz” wheels and uber-low profile tires from Vincent, this car looks so good sitting still that it could win a trophy on beauty alone! That’s probably a good thing because it’s not one of my better performers, and I actually want it that way: I take it easy when I race this one, and although I have an eye toward winning I don’t want any severe high speed crashes when driving this car, so I’m content to slow it down a little in those turns!

Of course The Lore has to match those limitations, so it makes sense that this 1959 model is named “Duchess” reflecting her pedigree. Sold new in California, she was a road car all the way up until 1980, when the growing popularity of vintage racing led to its purchase by Ronan “Rumble” Reynolds, the car’s 3^rd owner, who set about prepping her for the track. He replaced the original solid wheels with Borrani wire wheels to save weight and had the ZF 4-speed transmission and rear axle strengthened via a rebuild with new, more robust hard parts; under the hood she got new Weber DCOE carbs and electronic modules for the dual ignition. With only a few other exceptions the car remains remarkably stock and still wears its original yellow on black California license plates, as it is frequently driven on the road.

Knowing that this is a complete and solid original car with a documented history to day 1, Reynolds is more of a showman than a true competitor, and is content to run the car on the track without too much intent, but he has been known to really open her up at times and Duchess definitely has the “go” to match the “show.” What future she may have in the winner’s circle at Drag City is anyone’s guess, but she’s always sure to draw an admiring crowd whenever she makes an appearance at the track!