Tag Archives: Behra

1st Pau & Bordeaux – Maserati 250 F #2516

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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’55 Gold Cup Winner – Maserati 250F #2515

Today’s featured Maserati 250F chassis #2515 made it’s debut for the works team in the 1955 Argentinian GP where it retired with engine failure after Sergio Mantovani, Jean Behra and Luigi Musso had completed 54 of the scheduled 96 laps.

Roberto Mieres, Peter Collins, Stirling Moss and Carroll Shelby all drove #2515 in 1955 with Stirling Moss recording the best result with a win in the non Championship Gold Cup at Oulton Park.

Maserati 250F, Donington Grand Prix Collection

Francisco Landi and Gerino Gerini shared the car in the 1956 Argentine Grand Prix to score a season high 4th. After Francisco finished 7th in the Brazilian Grand Prix ownership of #2515 appears to have been passed over to Scuderia Guastalla in Italy.

Gerino and Umberto Maglioli drove the car on two occasions each over the remainder of the 1956 season with Gerino’s 5th place finish in Syracusse being the best result.

Ottorino Volonterio acquired the car after it had been rebodied for the 1957 season and it was entered in three events with the best, only, finish being 11th in the Italian Grand Prix where Ottorino shared the driving with André Simon.

André Testut failed to qualify the car for the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix, as he would his own 250F #2521 in the same event the following season.

From June to September 1958 #2515 was entered in four events by Scuderia Centro Sud with Maurice Trintignant finishing seventh in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa.

Gerino drove in the remaining three recording a best 6th place finish at Caen. Hans Hermann drove #2515, now entered by Joakim Bonnier, in the 1958 Italian Grand Prix from which he retired with a valve issue.

In 1959 Fritz d’Orey retired #2515, now entered by Scuderia Centro Sud again, from the British Grand Prix. The final known appearance of #2515 was in the 1959 Italian Grand Prix where Giulio Cabianca driving for Ottorino Volonterio finished 15th.

Tom Wheatcroft bought #2515 in 1965 and it is seen in this picture in the Donington Grand Prix Collection which he founded.

Thanks for joining me on this “Gold Cup Winner” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Delahaye. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Side Saddle With Romy – Maserati 250F #2521

Today’s featured Maserati 250F was a new factory racer for the start of the 1956 season when Jean Behra drove it to a second place finish on it’s debut in the 1956 Argetinian Grand Prix behind the Ferrari shared by Luigi Musso and Juan Manuel Fangio.

Maserati 250F, Silverstone Classic,

Jean drove the car, identified by the #2518 chassis tag on it’s forst two appearances, at least in six further races which included 3rd place finishes in the Grand Prix run at Monaco, Reims in France, Silverstone in Britain and the Nurburgring in Germany.

Maserati 250F, Silverstone Classic,

In 1957 Scuderia Centro Sud entered the car in possibly as many as three events in September 1957 for Bruce Halford who finished 7th in the non Championship International Trophy at Silverstone and Modena Grand Prix races.

Maserati 250F, Silverstone Classic,

In October ’57 Jean Lucas drove #2521 for American entrant John du Puy to an eight place finish in the Moroccan Grand Prix.

Maserati 250F, Silverstone Classic,

In 1958 Monegasque André Testut bought #2521 he failed to finish the 1958 Syracusse Grand Prix after which he had the car rebodied before appearing at the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix where André failed to qualify for the second consecutive year.

Maserati 250F, Romy Schneider, Monaco

However cinematic feté appears to have smiled kindly on #2521 as at the time of the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix Hungarian film director Géza von Radványi was making a German Romantic Commedy called Ein Engel auf Erden, An Angel on Earth, staring Frenchman Henri Vidal as a suicidal racing driver and Romy Schneider as an air hostess and angel sent to save him.

Maserati 250F, Romy Schneider, Henri Vidal, Nice Airport

In the film Henri is depicted driving #2521, with André Testut acting as his double in the racing scenes, to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix with a little devine intervention from above, at the end of the race he stops to pick up Romy and is seen driving to Nice Airport with Romy riding sidesaddle on the back of #2521.

If you speak German you can see the film on this link, or there is a version of the film called Mademoiselle Ange in French on this link.

Tragically soon after the making of this film Henri Vidal was to die of heart attack in December 1959. Coincidentally Romy Schneider also died of a heart attack in May 1982.

My thanks to Alan Cox at The Nostalgia Forum for confirming the identity of today’s featured car.

Thanks for joining me on this “Side Saddle With Romy” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I shall be looking at the last in the current series of Bugatti’s. Don’t forget to come back now !

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First, Second Or Retired – Maserati 300S #3059.

This weeks featured Maserati 300S chassis #3059, seen below driven by Carlo Vögele at the Goodwood Revival a couple of years ago, has an astonishing known record of finishing first or second if it made it to the finish line at all in every competition into which it was entered between 1956 and 1962.

Maserati 300S, Carlo Vögele, Sussex Trophy, Goodwood Revival

#3059 was retained as a factory racer in the 1956 season. Pierro Taruffi drove #3059 in each of it’s first three races recording a second place finishes on the Giro di Scilia and Targa Florio which were interrupted by a trip to the Nurburgring 1000kms where Pierro was joined by Harry Schell, Stirling Moss and Jean Behra to record the chassis first win.

Cesare Perdisa recorded the chassis first retirement in the Rouen GP in France, but two weeks later Stirling Moss jumped into the car win the Bari GP. Moss and Behra driving #3059 failed to finish the Swedish GP in August 1956 but by December 1956 their mojo returned and they shared another victory at the wheel of #3059 in the Australian Tourist Trophy in Melbourne.

#3059 changed ownership twice in Australia before Bob Jane recorded the chassis next known finish, second overall, in the 1958 Fisherman’s Bend Victorian Sports Car Championship.

After an accident in a race at Albert Park in 1958 Bob Jane had #3059 fitted with a roof so he could compete in GT events during the 1961 season.

In GT form Bob drove #3059 to two class wins in the Australian and New South Wales GT championships and recorded a final in period second place finish in the Australian TT in December 1962.

A decade later Bob had his 300S returned to spider configuration and after a change of ownership in 1982 the car returned to European ownership in 1992.

Thanks for joining me on this “First, Second Or Retired” edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the ’90’s Bugatti Revival. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Unwelcome Early Night – Maserati 300S #3054

Carrying the #15 on the 1955 Le Mans entry list, one spot below Mike Sparken’s #14 Ferrari 750 Monza chassis 0504M which I looked at some time ago, was today’s featured Maserati 300S chassis #3054 which was to be driven by Roberto Mieres and Cesare Perdisa two weeks after the car had been driven to victory at Monza by Luigi Musso and Jean Behra.

24 laps into the race #3054 was running in second place overall when it retired with a gearbox problem giving the drivers an unwelcome early night. Ironically this occurred 1 lap after the #14 Ferrari had retired with a broken motor.

Maserati 300S, Rettenmaier, Silverstone Classic

A second Maserati 300S #3055, driven by Luigi Musso and Luigi Valenzano lasted 239 laps before it’s gearbox also failed making it the last car to retire from the 24 hour classic.

From it’s first four starts, by a 2 litre A 6GS in ’54 another in ’55 along side the two 3 litre cars, in the Le Mans 24 Hours Maserati had yet to record a single finish.

Maserati 300S, Rettenmaier, Silverstone Classic

With it’s gearbox repaired Jean Behra drove #3054 two weeks later to victory in the 1955 Portuguese Grand Prix and at the end of 1955 Juan Manuel Fangio drove #3054 to victory in the first Venezuelan Grand Prix.

For 1956 the #3054 was fitted with a long nose body and the car was taken to Buenos Aires where Stirling Moss and Carlos Menditeguy drove her to victory in the 1000km race. Piero Taruffi and Jean Behra then drove #3054 to 5th overall and 1st in class in Sebring 12 Hours.

Carlos Menditeguy teamed up with Jean Behra to drive #3054 in the 1957 1000kms race at Buenos Aires finishing second but 1st in class.

The #3054 was subsequently sold to Venezuelan Escuderia Sorocaima and the known results during his ownership include a 22 overall and 3rd in class finish in the 1962 3 hour Daytona race with Guido Lollobrigida at the wheel.

After Daytona Charlie Kolb bought the car and recorded 2nd place finishes with it at Fernandina Beach and Marlboro before going one better to record a win at Savanah which appears to be the last recorded in period outing for #3054.

The car is seen in these photo’s at the Silverstone Classic with Stephan Rettenmaier at the wheel.

Thanks for joining me on this “Unwelcome Early Night” edition of “Gettin’ A L’il Psycho On Tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow for a look at the first Le Mans winning Bugatti. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Identity Crisis What Identity Crisis ? – Maserati 250F #2522/16/23/26

Welcome to the second edition of Maserati Monday, today’s featured Maserati 250F chassis #2522 was built as a works car for the 1956 season. So far so good, it was raced twice in Argentina at the beginning of the season by Stirling Moss carrying the older #2516 identity finishing a best 2nd in the second non championship race.

Back in Europe the #2522 appears to have been raced with it’s correct #2522 identity until August 1956. During this period Stirling won the Glover Trophy at Goodwood and followed that up with a win in the 1956 Monaco Grand Prix.

Cesare Perdisa was given #2522 to drive in Belgian Grand Prix, while Stirling Moss driving another 250F took an early lead in the race only to lose it to a slow starting Fangio driving a Ferrari on lap 5. On lap ten Moss lost a rear wheel and ended up running back to the pits where he took over #2522 from Cesare and went on to finish 3rd behind the two Ferrari of Collins and Paul Frère.

In the French Grand Prix Cesare and Stirling ended up sharing #2522 again finishing 5th. In the British Grand Prix Stirling drove #2522 to a solo 8th place finish and in Germany #2522 now driven by Umberto Maglioli retired with steering problems which reoccurred in the Italian Grand Prix after Maglioli had handed over #2522, now running with the #2523 identity, to Jean Behra.

Maserati 250F, HGPCA Test Day, Silverstone

Over the winter #2522 with the #2523 identity was fitted with a V12 motor in place of the original straight six, the car was run in practice in the non championship race at Siracusa and again by non other than El Maestro Fangio in the practice for the 1957 Monaco Grand Prix, but the V12 was never raced.

Argentinian all round sportsman Carlos Menditeguy drove #2522/16/23 refitted with a six cylinder motor in the non championship 1957 Grand Prix de Reims where he qualified 9th and retired with a gearbox issue. For the non championship GP di Pescara and championship 1957 Italian GP Fangio was assigned #2522/16/23 but he only drove it in practice.

On the 13th April 1958 Maria-Teresa de Filippis made her Formula one debut driving #2522/16/23 in the non championship GP di Siracusa and finished 5th, a month later she was not so lucky failing to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix driving the same car. Carrol Shelby was the last person recorded as having driven #2522/16/23 in period he qualified 17th and retired after just 1 lap with handling issues and ended up taking over Masten Gregory’s 250F and recording a shared 4th place finish one lap down, a performance for which he was not awarded any world championship points. #2522/16/23 then passed into the hands of Scuderia Centro Sud.

Towards the end of 1958 chassis #2522/16/23 was given the identity it carries to this day namely #2526 and passed through the hands of Keith Campbell, Richard Bergel, Lord Angus Clydesdale, Earl of Strathmore, Bobby Bell and it’s current owner Peter Heuberger for whom the car is seen prepared in the pits at last years HGPCA Test day at Silverstone last year.

To keep you on your toes David McKinney records that the identity #2522 was also used for the original chassis #2507 now owned by Jose Albuquerque which as you know I looked at last week !

With thanks to David McKinney and his book Maserati 250F which was kindly lent to me by Tim Murray.

Thanks for joining me on this “Identity Crisis What Identity Crisis ?” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you’ll join me tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a vintage Bugatti. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS It is with great sadness that I have learned that David McKinney passed away a couple of weeks ago. It was my privilege to meet David on a couple of occasions and for GALPOT to have benefited from his knowledge which he never hesitated to share on many more going back to the blogs earliest days.

I am sure you will join me in sending sincerest condolences to Davids family and many friends. RIP David the man who knew “lots of things“.

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Pressure and Success – BRM Type 25 #258

By 1954 Alfred Owen of the Rubery Owen Group had taken over the running of BRM from the British Motor Racing Research Trust which had been set up nine years earlier to build a British World Beater. The 1.5 litre / 91.5 cui supercharged V16 cars were updated to a short wheel base spec since there were few races for them to compete in that required large capacity fuel tanks necessitated by Championship Grand Prix race distances.

The World Championship started running to 2.5 litre regulations in 1954 and the first two races of the season were won by Juan Manuel Fangio who was entering what turned to be his prime driving a six cylinder Maserati 250F. Fangio then moved as agreed pre season to the Mercedes Benz team who were embarking on their third blitzkrieg on the top echelon of the sport in 60 years. Fangio won the ’54 and ’55 World drivers championships with the German team who successfully applied desmodromic valve and fuel injection technology to their straight eight W196 cars.

Fangio joined Ferrari, who were running V8 powered D50’s gifted from Lancia, in 1956 to win a third straight title and then rejoined Maserati in 1957 to win a forth straight and record fifth title with the Maserati 250F. Fangio retired midway through ’58 and his championship records stood for nearly 50 years until a German called Micheal Schumacher came along and broke them early in the 21st century.

BRM Type 25, BRM Day, Bourne, Lincs

Meanwhile Chez BRM things were progressing at a more leisurely pace a new Type 25 car was being designed with a simple 4 cylinder engine with large valves and an interesting three disc braking system with the rear disc being mounted on the back of the transaxle. Despite being much simpler than the V16 the car did not make it’s first public appearance until September 1955 by which time the Owen Racing Organisation had bought a Maserati 250F and entered it into a couple of World Championship events for Ken Wharton who finished a best 6th in the 1954 Swiss Grand Prix. Peter Collins drove the car in two World Championship events in 1955 but retired from both.

The Type 25’s, chassis type P25 and engine type P27, were supposed make their World Championship debut at the 1956 Monaco Grand Prix but were with drawn after the valves were damaged. Three cars were entered for the 1956 British Grand Prix but none finished however Mike Hawthorn led a BRM 1-2 followed by Tony Brooks for a while before retiring with a suspension problem. Brooks crashed out with a sticking throttle, his car ended up a completely burnt out right off, while Ron Flockhart retired with valve trouble after completing just 2 laps.

BRM Type 25, BRM Day, Bourne, Lincs

The Type 25’s did not appear in the championship again until Monaco in 1957. Nothing substantial was achieved by way of championship results but the Type 25’s did start winning non championship races, Jean Behra scoring the first at Caen.

1958 saw Jean Behra and Harry Schell compete in most of the races with the Type 25. Behra finished a seasons best third in Holland one place behind team mate Schell.

BRM Type 25, BRM Day, Bourne, Lincs

Jo Bonnier replaced Jean Behra who had moved to Ferrari in 1959 and with team owner Alfred Owen having agreed to hand over two cars to the BRP team to run for the remainder of the season prior to the ’59 Dutch Grand Prix the pressure was really on BRM to deliver going into the race. Bonnier arrived at Zandvoort with the disappointment of having almost won the Targa Florio in a Porsche having led most of the way.

The Type 25’s were quick in practice much easier to handle on their 15″ wheels than on the original 16″ with the benefit of much less tyre wear. After a great race with the works rear engined Cooper Climax’s driven by Marsten Gregory, champion elect Jack Brabham and the Rob Walker entered car of Stirling Moss all of whom experienced gearbox issues the smoothly driven BRM Type 25 #258 of Jo Bonnier crossed the line first to win the BRM team’s first Grand Prix 14 years after the team’s announcement in 1945. BRP headed by Stirling Moss’s father offered to reverse the agreement with Alfred Owen and settled for just one car #2510 which they ran in distinctive light green with white wheels livery.

Despite the BRM finishing 3rd in the World Constructors Championship the writing was on the wall that front engined cars were obsolete as the Coopers of Moss and McLaren convincingly won the last three races of the season and Jack Brabham won the first of two consecutive world championships.

Chassis #258 was purchased by Spencer Flack from The Hon. Amschel Rothschild in 2001 for an alleged £1.5 million. The following year while racing the car at Philip Island Spencer sustained fatal head injuries when he was thrown out of it. The car which had split in two and caught fire was rebuilt at the insistence of his widow and now belongs to John Pearson who is seen at the wheel in these photo’s taken at last years BRM Day.

Thanks for joining me on this “Pressure and Success” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

09 07 13 Errata I originally posted Roy Salvadori won the 1957 Caen GP in fact, as Tim has kindly pointed, out Jean Behra drove BRM Type 25 #253 to victory beating Roy Salvadori.

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