"A swansong for the venerable straight six engine, the Mistral (named after a wind blowing across the Camargue) was introduced in 1963 and showed the way to the future for Maserati. A much more sporting car than the preceeding 3500 and Sebring, the Mistral featured an up to the minute aluminium body by Frua. In coupe form the Mistral used the 3.7 and later 4.0 litre versions of the engine and although the running gear was pure 3500, the 'added lightness' kept performance in the Supercar league. A popular car of it's time (828 built between 1963 and 1970) with some celebrity owners such as Dudley Moore, the Mistral is sadly now one of the rarest and most underrated Maserati's being overshadowed by it's V8 engined siblings. Frua's decapitation of the model to form the Mistral Spyder has proved with hindsight to be one of Maserati's more sensible decisions. Mechanically similar to the coupe, the story goes that all the Spyders started life as coupes and were plucked from the production line to be converted. Curiously, and probably in support of the above, the front half of a Spyder is aluminium and the rear steel. Only 120 spyders were made and during the late eighties, one example sold for £208.000. Although in these more realistic times, prices have dropped, these cars are atill highly prized. " http://www.maserati.demon.co.uk/classic_models.html