See craftsmen build the Maserati Alfieri

At Geneva earlier this month, Maserati debuted the Alfieri concept, a love letter to Maserati's first 100 years and a preview of the next few years, if not the next 100. Here, design chief Lorenzo Ramaciotti shows how the Alfieri -- named after one of the five Maserati brothers -- was inspired by the 1954 Maserati A6GCS/53, as previously threatened, especially in the proportions.

But like any car, the key is always in the proportions. A team of about 15 people sweated the details before the show, collaborating on sketches before hitting the sanding blocks. More of the modeling was done by hand and by clay -- old-school -- than by CAD, according to chief exterior designer Giovanni Ribotta.

Says another designer, "I think this car can be manufactured while preserving a fairly high percentage of similarity to what we're seeing here." Let's hope so.

By Blake Z. Rong