It’s not hard to find the famous Panini Motor Museum outside Modena, in northern Italy. You can smell it. The aroma of cow dung will direct you – that and the scent of scandal.

The museum sits on the grounds of the Hombre organic cheese farm, which is in the hands of the Panini family. Founder Umberto Panini preferred a low-key life making some of the world’s best Parmigiano Reggiano (the official branding for genuine Parmesan cheese). But he also played an important role in saving Italian culture before he died in 2013.

Amongst the cows and the grass and the cheese resides one of Italy’s great car collections. It’s not the largest, but its big drawcard is it incorporates the world’s best gathering of rare Maseratis.

Kicking off the collection is a contender for the most gorgeous car ever built, the Maserati A6GCS Berlinetta. The last design penned by Pininfarina before the company tied itself exclusively to Ferrari, this magnificent GT car has a value of $5 million.

Count Paolo Gravina di Catania bought the A6GCS, chassis 2056, and entered it in the 1954 Giro di Sicilia, but he crashed and his co-driver died in the accident. The count returned the car to the factory, but when he eyeballed the repair quote, donated it to Maserati.

Maserati management neglected the A6GCS for 30 years until, in 1991, company owner Alejandro De Tomaso ordered a restoration. Carrozzeria Campana carried out the body rectification, while Maserati factory technicians performed the mechanical work in Modena.

Some of the world’s greatest GT cars sit alongside the A6GCS, including the gloriously styled 3500GT. GT or Gran Turismo (Grand Touring) is now a hackneyed phrase, but before almost every company stuck the badge on their cars, Maserati invented the designation back in 1957 with this model.

The Shah of Persia took a liking to the 3500GT, but he thought it lacked performance, so commissioned Maserati to produce a unique 5.0-litre (up from 3.5 litres) version in 1958. Named 5000GT, Maserati based it on a modified version of the 3500GT's tubular chassis, clothed in bodywork by Touring, and topped off with a V8 engine. A second car, almost identical to the Shah’s model, appeared at the 1959 Turin Motor Show and Maserati built 34 cars between 1959 and 1964. Panini’s example is one of 22 5000GTs designed by Allemano.

A 1960s contender for the sexiest car of the decade is the Maserati Ghibli, styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the Designer of the Century. Panini has two: one of 1200 coupes produced, and a beautiful example of the rare Spyder version of which Maserati only made 90. Built on odd-numbered chassis, making it easy to spot coupe adaptations, decent convertible Ghiblis sell for seven figures.

Next up are two priceless prototypes. Maserati only produced one of each and they both reside in Panini’s collection: the 1964 Simun and the Giugiaro-designed four-seat Medici of 1972. Named after a wind, like many Maserati models, Giugiaro designed the Simun on a 4.2-litre V8 chassis, when he worked at Carrozzeria Ghia. 

Further oddball cars in the Panini Collection include the unique turbo-powered Marek made especially for Alejandro De Tomaso and the composite-bodied, rear-engine Prototype 96 Barchetta Stradale, which became the De Tomaso Barchetta. 

Launched in Paris in 1973, the Tipo 120, or Khamsin, named after an Egyptian desert wind, replaced the Ghibli. Designed by Bertone, and produced when Citroen controlled Maserati, a 280-horsepower 5.0-litre V8 engine powers the sleek coupe.

The Giugiaro-designed Bora caused a sensation when launched by Maserati at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show. Produced until 1979, the factory intended to run the Bora in Group 4 races. A 4.7-litre 310 horsepower V8 powers the 1973 example in Panini’s collection. Maserati increased the engine capacity in 1977 to 5.0 litres.

A further rarity on-show is the Quattroporte Royale Series III, built from 1985 to 1987. Maserati built just 52 four-door Royales, and the featured example has air conditioning, telephone, fridge, and electric seats, and boasts Campagnolo steel billet wheels.

Among the most famous racing Maseratis is the Tipo 61 ‘Birdcage’ model, so-called because of the Italian maker’s use of 200 welded steel tubes to construct the 36-kilogram chassis. The first cars from 1961 featured a front-engine layout before Maserati moved the power plant to the rear. In the latter configuration, the fuel tank almost lays across the driver’s belly.

Maserati delivered chassis 2472 in early 1961. The Camoradi Team entered the car in that year’s Nürburgring 1000-kilometre race, for drivers Lloyd Casner and Masten Gregory, who won the event. Lucky Casner drove it in the August 1961 Pescara Four Hours race but crashed while in the lead and damaged the car. Drogo repaired and re-bodied the single-seat racer. The Birdcage returned to the factory in 1963 where it remained until Panini purchased the car.

No Maserati collection is complete without a 250F Grand Prix racer. But Panini’s 1957 version is different – Umberto’s son Matteo has given it a V12 engine transplant. Unthinkable, perhaps, but when one has so many cars, one can afford to experiment. The world’s first female Formula One driver, Maria Teresa de Filippis, raced the Panini 250F when in original specification.

Another competition car, and this time not in the familiar Italian red livery, is the 1958 420/M58 with Eldorado ice-cream paint scheme. Stirling Moss drove the car in the Race of the Two Worlds (500 Miglia di Monza and Indianapolis 500) held in Italy and the USA in 1958 and 1959.

Powered by a 410-horsepower 4.2-litre V8 (derived from the 450S racing car but smaller to meet Indy Car regulations) the 420/M58 had a Medardo Fantuzzi-designed aerodynamic body. Moss’s team shifted the car’s weight distribution to one side for optimum performance on the banked circuits.

Bringing things more up-to-date is the enormous engine from the world-beating Maserati MC12 racing car that sits alongside a Ferrari Formula One power plant.

More notable Maserati cars in the collection include a Vignale-bodied Mistral, the famous Boomerang concept car, and a Tipo 6CM Grand Prix racer.

Other Maserati masterpieces on show are of the two-wheel variety. The Modena-based company produced motorcycles between 1953 and 1960. Maserati engaged Umberto Panini between 1952 and 1957 as a road test rider, so he had a close affinity with the bikes. He owned one of the first motorcycles he ever tested, a black 250cc model.

It’s not all about Maserati, though. Panini has collected an array of other vehicles, sourced predominantly from Europe.

Amongst them is a Stanguellini Formula Junior of 1958, a BMW 507 roadster, a Mercedes-Benz 300SL, and an ancient De Dion Bouton.

But, with all this exotic machinery on display, it might surprise some that Umberto Panini considered a veteran Rolland-Pilain Model C from France his favourite.  

Found buried under a house – a common practice during WWII to fend off looting Nazis – it took 15 days to recover the Rolland-Pilain and a further two years to restore. Built in 1909, the 1150-kilogram ‘express’ features a 2.1-litre four-cylinder engine and is capable of 70km/h. That’s unremarkable, but the Model C carried Umberto’s daughter to her wedding, so remained his best-loved car until his passing.   

But, things could have turned out very differently for Panini and his vehicle collection.

When Alejandro De Tomaso purchased Maserati in 1975, a historic car collection came with the manufacturing operations. De Tomaso created a subsidiary company to ‘handle’ the machines so, when the Argentinian went broke and sold Maserati to Fiat in 1993, the car collection remained in his possession.

De Tomaso engaged auction house, Brookes, in London, to sell the lot. The priceless collection sat on the docks ready to be shipped to the UK when, because of a public outcry, the Italian Government placed a stop order on the auction.  

Umberto Panini stepped in and bought the complete collection.  

The multi-millionaire made his fortune back in the 1950s when, along with his brother, he popularised the sticker craze. In later life, he adopted organic farming and produced world-class cheese outside Modena. 

Northern Italy produces the world’s best balsamic vinegar, Parma ham, and Parmesan cheese, but it’s not only for foodies. The closely linked towns of Modena, Bologna, and Maranello create a motoring Mecca.

The Pagani, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Ferrari factories lay within an easy drive of each other, and for two-wheel fans, Ducati is just up the road.

Not only can you find the factories of these legendary companies but, close by, you can visit Enzo Ferrari’s birthplace and the site of his first ‘Scuderia’ in Modena. The famous Neptune statue with his trident, used by the Maserati brothers as their emblem, stands in Bologna’s town square and, if you are lucky, you might glimpse Scuderia Ferrari testing their Formula One machines at the Fiorano track in Maranello.

But don’t count on a Ferrari factory visit.

In most cases, you need to be an existing Ferrari owner or have ordered a new car to score a works visit, so don’t bother lobbing at their door. If you don’t have an Italian exotic parked in the garage, the best way to see inside is to take a guided tour with a local operator.

Visit Panini Museum