By Steve Temple

Photos courtesy of Veloce Cars

The name Paul Martin might be familiar to our readers, as he spent countless hours replicating the legendary CSX2300 Cobra Daytona Coupe in exacting detail. We featured his faithful reproduction early in 2019 ("Profiling the Coupe," Winter 2019), and Paul has now moved onto a new venture.

He’s formed a company called Veloce Cars that commissions and oversees the construction classic sports car replicas, including the Jaguar C-Type, D-Type and XKSS, in addition to a Mercedes 300 SLR and a Maserati 450S. The latter car has been several years in the making as a tribute to his father Peter Martin’s competition career with Maserati. He used to both own and race a Maserati 250F, 450S and 300S.

Only nine 450S models were originally built from 1956 to ’58, and this particular reproduction is patterned after chassis #4501, which was raced in the 1957 World Sports Car Championship against Ferrari, Jaguar and Aston Martin.

While #4501 ran a 4.2-liter V8 with a transaxle, Martin’s replica has 4.9-liter quad-cam Maserati V8 under the hood. This engine is from a ‘84 Quattroporte, and is backed by a five-speed TREMEC gearbox with a custom side linkage with the shifter located near driver’s left knee. Overall, however, the car has a very period-correct treatment, using a De Dion rear suspension with leaf springs. Houdaille lever-arm hydraulic shocks are mounted at all-four corners, and the front’s wishbone control arms have coil springs.

A complete 450s replica is being offered in the $300K range, plus shipping from South America. Look for a full feature in an upcoming issue.

Veloce Cars | 323/578-1946 | https://www.velocecars.com