Highlights Fewer than 5,000 made Extensive service history Timing belt changed Sumptuous blue leather interior 3.2-litre turbocharged V8 Overview According to the dusty leather-bound tomes we keep in the archives at Piston

Heads, the Maserati 3200 GT was a rare beast even when new.

Fewer than 5,000 had been produced by the time production ceased in 2002, so now nearly a quarter of a century later it’s nearly as rare as poultry dentists.

In fact, according to the internet, there are only 87 examples still taxed in Great Britain.

But this small number of cars was enough to revive the fortunes of the Maserati corporation, who had been somewhat stuck in the past until this point, stylistically at least.

The rounded body work of the 3200 GT brought the company across the millennium threshold and into what we no longer call ‘the future’.

Perhaps the most important design decision made by Maserati was that their flagship model needed to have a V8 engine.

In fact this point probably was...