Master coachbuilder Alfredo Vignale of Turin won the contract to produce the open-top version of the first series-production Maserati GT. The car’s styling, penned by Giovanni Michelotti, expressed a more angular and muscular design than that of the Touring coupe. Touring had also proposed an open-top version of its coupe, of which just three were produced, and Vignale built several pre-production prototypes showing differences in various details before the final production design was established. In six years, 250 examples of the Vignale Spyder were sold. Mechanically, the car shared its components with the coupe, although its wheelbase was shortened by 10 cm. Lucas direct fuel injection and a five-speed gearbox were available for both the Spyder and the coupe in 1961, with four-wheel disc brakes available in 1962. The Spyder’s body was made of steel, with aluminum doors, hood and trunk lid, as was the optional hardtop. Electric windows came as standard. Performance was perfectly suited to open-air motoring, with a top speed of 137 mph for the 3500GTI version.