The name of his future car was also found: it would therefore be the ‘Mexico’. When he saw the Vignale prototype, Barroso offered to buy it flat-out, while restamping it with the serial number of his own 5000 GT in order to avoid customs duties.
At the same time, a wealthy Mexican by the name of Diaz Barroso had brought his 5000 GT (bought second hand in 1961 from the then Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos) to the Maserati factory following a serious accident: it was almost in need of a complete reconstruction. This prototype was to be presented at the 1965 Turin Motor Show, but in the mean time it was parked in the Modena workshop. Based on a 5000 GT chassis, it carried a 4.7-litre V8 and presented particularly stylish bodywork, quite in the trend of large coupés intended for the US (we will find in particular some similarities, especially in the interior, with the Jensen Interceptor, produced by Vignale in the same period). In the beginning we find a large four-seat coupé prototype designed by Vignale and the designer Virginio Vairo. The prototype produced by Vignale in 1965
