The 250F provided Amon a victory in an all-New Zealand race at Levin and a fighting 11th place in the NZGP at Ardmore. More importantly still, it put him on the path to an illustrious international career.
"It was that car that got me to Europe. Reg Parnell (the British team owner who took Amon overseas) saw me drifting it at Wigram and told me later he'd never seen a 250F driven like that since Fangio retired."
Amon's car has been on static display for many years and, like the collection's Ferrari Monza that ran at Manfeild at the 2009 NZGP, has been brought back to full health only through an exhaustive and expensive rebuild.
The painstaking restoration has included the first comprehensive rebuild of the engine since its racing days.
The story of how Amon got to drive one of the archetypal racers of the 1950s is interesting. Amazingly, it was on a used car yard run by Wellington motoring identity Tony Shelley, also a keen racer of the period.
The machine had been bought new from the factory by British team BRM as a test bed, and altered to suit. It remains the only 250F in which the oil tank was located beside the driver, and just one of two with disc brakes.
It placed third in the Argentine Grand Prix of 1955 with Mike Hawthorne, and also provided another Englishman, Peter Collins, with a victory that year, then subsequently came to New Zealand.
"Tony had inherited it in some deal he had done – it had been traded for a road car, as I recall – and so it was sitting in the lot."
Amon's parents and the Shelleys knew each other socially, through both having properties in Paraparaumu. Somehow the car came up in conversation, and the canny salesman saw an opportunity.
"Tony said he'd bring the car up to Levin and let me take it for a lap – I think, in hindsight, he already had an eye for a sale, though probably he wanted to have a few laps in it as well."
When Amon's turn came, he was under strict parental instruction to go easy. With an engine capable of producing up to 270 horsepower in full tune, and a top speed of around 240kmh, it was not to be taken lightly. Even so, he immediately got a feel, and a liking, for the car.
"It did exactly what I imagined – I gave it a bit of throttle and it spun the tyres, and the engine sound was just amazing."
The deal was done, and soon they were racing. It was just the Scott's Ferry-born farm boy's second "proper" racing car, following a 1500cc Cooper. The differences were huge.
"The Cooper was quick, too, but somehow more sanitary, much tamer, probably calmer; the Maserati did everything. It sounded right, it leaked oil. It had character. And I have to say that, in the first few races I did, I was very much a passenger!"
The Maserati provided a taste for oversteer and Amon immediately revelled in the challenge it laid down.
He became a consummate "drifter" half a century before the skill became a sport in its own right.
"I loved that car. You could steer it on the throttle. In fact, the quickest way around a corner was to throw it into a big slide and hold it there on the power."
Everything was special, even the fuel – petrol heavily laced with methanol, with 10 percent acetone, a dollop of benzol and a touch of castor oil. "I remember the fuel made excellent paint-stripper," Amon chuckled. "It was a hugely powerful brew."
He and the car parted company in 1963. Amon headed to Europe to enjoy a long and illustrious international career, notably leading the Ferrari team for three seasons in the late 1960s, achieving New Zealand Grand Prix wins for the Italian thoroughbred marque in 1968 and 1969. He retired from Formula One in 1976, having taken part in 102 Grands Prix, scoring 83 championship points and reaching the podium 11 times.
Today he is remembered as Ferrari's favourite test driver and also a central figure in Ford's famous win in the 1966 Le Mans 24-hour sportscar race. His contemporary, Jackie Stewart, rated him as one of the world's foremost drivers and Jochen Rindt considered him a true rival.
Amon remains a key figure in New Zealand motorsport, no more so than with the Toyota Racing Series, the high-powered wings and slicks single-seater category now contesting the NZGP.
The Chris Amon Trophy is awarded each year to the overall Toyota Racing Series champion.
The Maserati remained with the Amon family, sitting in a shed in Hunterville, until Sir Len Southward bought it in 1967, thinking it might look good in the museum he was thinking about. He paid several hundred pounds for it in a deal sealed outside a pub.
About 10 years later, Amon sought to buy it back, but by then the value had risen tremendously.
"We talked about it, and got to the point where he was happy for me to have it if I could get him a four-cylinder BRM from a collection in England, which didn't quite work out," Amon recalls wistfully.
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