Tag Archives: 250 F

1st Pau & Bordeaux – Maserati 250 F #2516

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Today’s featured Maserati 250 F chassis #2516 made 11 appearances in 1955. Jean Behra was the cars primary driver which included two non championship wins at Pau and then Bordeaux in April 1955.

Maserati 250 F, Richmond & Gordon Trophy, Goodwood Revival,

Jean shared the #2516 with Cesare Perdisa to finish third in the 1955 Monaco Grand Prix. At the end of the season Roberto Mieres drove #2516 to a 7th place finish at the Italian Grand Prix and Luigi Villoresi drove the car on it’s final in period European appearance at Syracuse in Sicily where he finished 3rd.

Maserati 250 F Michael Hinderer, Richmond & Gordon Trophy, Goodwood Revival,

The chassis number #2516 was temporarily transferred to the 250 F #2522 at the beginning of the 1956 season, but today’s featured car was eventually sold to Reg Hunt in Australia who continued to race it for many years.

#2516 is seen in the above photograph with Michael Hinderer at the wheel during the 2012 Goodwood Revival meeting.

Thanks for joining me on this “1st Pau & Bordeaux” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a special Delage. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Private Investigations – Maserati 300S #3053

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Thanks to Ed Arnaudin’s superb photography we can have a look at the Maserati 300S at Lime Rock on May 9th 1959 that was raced by Joe Guibardo in Northeastern America during the 1959 season.

Just 28 Maserati 300S models were built from 1955 to 1958 to compete in the World Sportscar Championship. Thanks to contributions from Sir Stirling Moss the 300S is credited with three World Sports Car Championship victories two of them on the 14 mile Nurburgring in ’56 and ’57 along with many other wins in national races in Europe and the United States. In fact as with the the Ferrari 860 Monza we looked at yesterday Juan Manuel Fangio also drove a Maserati 300S to victory this time on two occasions in Brazil in 1957.

The 300S was powered by a 3 litre / 183 cui variation, with a lengthened stroke, of the 6 cylinder motor that was used simultaneously in the Maserati 250 F with a lower compression ratio to cope with the most commonly available fuel as stipulated in Sports Car regulations of the time. The drum brakes and stiffened suspension also show strong signs of 250 F heritage.

A trellis structured chassis was covered in an aluminium body penned by Madardo Fantuzzi who was also responsible for the second version of the Maserati 150S.

Perhaps the most incredible of Maserati 300S stories is that a 300S was raced against both a Porsche 908 and 910 in Brazil as late as 1971 ! Unfortunately we do not know the end result for the Maserati in that race but even so I hope you’ll agree a quite remarkable achievement just to enter a 15 year old design into a contemporary sports car race.

Slightly of topic regular GALPOT readers who really pay attention may recognise the name of the 5th place driver at Interlagos Antônio Carlos Avallone.

Allegedly Mark Knopfler is a long term Maserati 300S Owner.

Joseph Giubardo appears to have raced in Austin Healeys and MGs from 1954 to 1962 and used this 300S chassis #3053 from at least 1957 to 1959 scoring at least one class win at Thompson CT in 1957.

My thanks as ever to the Arnaudins for taking and sending the photograph and to Walter Baemer of International Maserati Research for identifying who this vehicle belonged to.

I hope you have enjoyed today’s Dire Straights edition of “Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres” and that you will join me again tomorrow for a look at a gargantuan Edwardian from the USA that recorded the first international race victory for an American driver. Don’t for get to come back now !

PS Slightly off topic but continuing the private investigation in to this photo graph wonderng if anybody recognises either the kid in front of, or the owner and hound in the, 1950 Cadillac Series 61 Sedan ? Thanking you in anticipation of your responses.

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Maserati 250 F

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I apologise to all my Rowdy friends who will have seen this car before on rowdy.com but I have expanded on that original post in this blog in honour of Canadian artist Paul Chenard who very kindly helped me out with another project I am working on. If you like drawings and paintings of old racing cars you’ll love his gallery linked here.

The 250 F was first raced in 1954 by 1951 world drivers champion Juan Manuel Fangio who took a maiden outing win in Argentina and then won again, having missed the 1954 Indy 500, at the following race in Belgium.

Juan then went on to become Champion in 1954 driving for Mercedes Benz for the rest of the season. With Mercedes at the height of their power in 1955, Maserati were locked out of the top spot in Formula One but in 1956 the 250 F was again driven to two victories by Fangio’s former Mercedes team mate Stirling Moss.

Having been crowned world champion from 1955 – 56 the now four time world champion Fangio returned to Maserati for 1957 and promptly won four of the eight championship races to set a four peat world championship record that stood until 2003.

In that 1957 season Fangio drove one of the races of all time during the German GP, having failed to out fox the Ferrari team after a disastrous pit stop, Juan Manuel set 7 consecutive lap records on the 14 mile Nurburgring Nordschleife making up over 48 seconds before taking the lead from the Mike Hawthorn’s Ferrari with a lap to spare and record the 250 F’s 8th and final Formula One Championship victory.

Fittingly JMF drove his last ever race in a 250F at the 1958 French GP coming 4th, winner Mike Hawthorn sportingly refraining from lapping him on the final lap.

The 250 F continued to appear ever more uncompetitively until 1960.

This 1957 250F is the last of the 26 built. Complete with a six cylinder 240 hp engine.
This car is differentiated from most by a short wheelbase Piccolo chassis.
The 250 F is recorded as being the most forgiving of the 2.5 litre (152.5 CUI) F1 cars by Willy Green who has driven every type of 2.5 litre F1 car competitively in historic races.

Hope you enjoyed today’s post and will join me again tomorrow.

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