Tag Archives: maserati

California Dreaming – Ferrari California 2+2 Convertible

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A couple of years ago I was at an airport and I noticed in the duty free area there was a Ferrari on a turntable that was a raffle prize.

I’d never seen one like it before turns out that it was a California, at £25 / $40 a pop for a ticket I passed on what may well have been my only opportunity to own a Ferrari without regret.

Allegedly the California was originally conceived as Maserati, however the economics of the project dictated that only a Ferrari badge offered any hope of a financial return on the vehicle.

Researching this blog I was surprised to find the California introduced in 2008, shares it’s engine design with both ALFA Romeo and Maserati models.

Over 1,000 hours are said to have been spent in a wind tunnel perfecting the aerodynamics of the California so that it’s drag coefficient is 0.32 the lowest ever achieved for any Ferrari.

I have to confess it was not until I had run a registration check on these vehicles that I had any idea of exactly which models they were and indeed they were both the same type, I thought the red one was a 612 Scaglietti !

Allegedly there is room on the back seats for two adults in a Ferrari 612 Scaglietti something at 6′ 2″ I’d love to put to the test.

Even if I had known it comes with a front mounted 450 hp 4.3 litre 260 cui V8 engine I doubt I would have been tempted to buy a raffle ticket….

because for all the attention to detail …

beautiful craftsmanship ….

seven speed dual clutch transmission …

and promise of the joys of open air motoring …

alone price of the road tax on the Ferrari California is enough to keep me on the road for a whole year in my 20 year old jalopy … but that does not stop me from dreaming 🙂

With thanks to the PistonHeads responsible for bringing these dream machines to the Sunday Service at the BMW Plant in Cowley a couple of weeks ago.

Hope you have enjoyed to days California dreaming edition of ‘Gettin a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow for a look at another vehicle bearing the California name. Don’t forget to come back now !

PS Should I have failed to quench your thirst for Ferrari’s take a look at the new Ferrari FF with Michele Rahal over on The Drive Channel.

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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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Sweet and predictable – #43 Maserati 150 S #1643

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Thanks to again to Ed Arnaudin for today’s photograph of a Maserati 150 S owned by EF Spicer seen here at Thompson CT 20th July 1958.

7 43 27s

By the time the smallest ever Maserati, the 150S, was built in 1955 the Maserati brothers were long gone from the company bearing their name working on their new OSCA vehicles.

The popularity of the 1500 cc / 91.5 CUI sports car class racing led Maserati to fill the gap in the lower end of their range with this vehicle.

Following Ferrari who in turn was inspired by the fuel efficient advantages of an HWM four cylinder Alta engine, Vittorio Bellanti also ditched the prevalent smooth 6 cylinder engine architecture in favour of a new 4 cylinder alloy block, dry sump lubricated engine featuring hemispherical combustion chambers, double overhead cams and twin plug ignition which produced 140 hp at 7,500 rpm.

Valerio Colotti designed the chassis with independent front and de Dion rear suspension originally covered in a 300S derived body by Celestino Fiandri in 1955.

For 1956 the slightly less derivative body seen here was designed by Medardo Fantuzzi. Stirling Moss drove one of the factory entered 150 S’s in a sports car race to second place on the Nurburgring in 1956 beaten by margin of ‘just’ 3 seconds over 100 miles by Hans Hermann in a Porsche 550 A.

Stirling is alleged to have said of the 150 S that it was ” sweet-handling and predictable but overbodied and gutless.”

EF (Edward Farnham) Spicer drove the #43 in the photo to 9th place in the final all comers race on July 20th, 8 spots behind the winning Porsche 550 of Newton Davis.

My thanks and best wishes to Ed Arnaudin and his son Steve for todays photograph, Jerry Entin for vehicle identification and Terry O’Neil for the results.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s sweet & predictable edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me again tomorrow, don’t forget to come back now !

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Sister doing it for her self – OSCA Tipo S-187

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Today we return to Lime Rock in 1959 courtesy of Ed Arnaudin for a look at this OSCA Tipo S-187 belonging to Briggs Cunningham.

Officine Specializzate Costruzioni Automobili – Fratelli Maserati SpA was set up by the three racing mad Maserati brothers Ernesto, Ettore and Bindo after their involvement with the company bearing their own name had concluded with it’s sale to Adolfo Orsi in 1937 and the expiry of their subsequent 10 year consulting contracts in 1947.

The brothers focused on building extremely successful sports cars primarily with engines of 750 cc / 45 cui to 1500 cc / 91.5 cui. Cunningham’s car seen here appears to be one of 17 Tipo S-187’s built from 1956 – 1960 with a 70 hp 749 cc / 45 cui twin cam engine with a, for the time, high 9:1 compression ratio.

The real story behind the #23 OSCA on this day in 1959 however is the driver who took the car to victory lane, one D McCluggage from Kansas, who is well known for breaking down discriminating and prejudicial barriers in journalism and at the race track, simply D stands for Denise.

As well as regularly whooping all the boys on the race track she is a seasoned motor sports journalist who was famously sent to Indianapolis by The Herald Tribune only to find she was barred from the press box, pit lane AND garage area, unperturbed she got her story from elsewhere round the track and published anyway.

Phil Hill later described the prevailing attitude at the time “It’s a bit embarrassing to me, given today’s enlightened attitudes, to admit that in the late 50s I was a bit disturbed by the idea of this woman driver. It wasn’t a matter of feeling threatened, but like many men in that period, I had trouble understanding what kind of statement Denise might be making with her driving efforts. The fact is, gender stereotypes aside, she was holding her own on the track.”

All Denise wanted to do was win and she did often, after her career as a professional driver was over she became a founding light at AutoWeek where her accomplishments are still scene as an example for others to follow.

Denise recently became the only Journalist to ever be inducted into the Automotive Hall of fame and at over 70 she still writes her ‘Drive, She Said’ column syndicated in over 90 newspapers across the US and Canada.

Hat’s off to Denise gentleman, for waking us up to our equals !

Thanks to Steve and Ed Arnaudin for the photograph, and to Terry O’Neil for the race day information.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s prejudice free edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me tomorrow for a look at a splendid vintage Triumph Dolomite. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Carroll’s Cat faster than a 250 F – Lister Jaguar BHL 128

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Moving on 20 years from yesterdays blog but staying with the Lister Jaguar cars of the late 50’s, this one has a proud boast thanks Bobby Bell who is seen here standing in the fire suit, behind the car, at the British Grand Prix meeting where he was competing in the Lloyds & Scottish championship.

Bobby Bell, who kindly shared the details about today’s story is one half of Bell & Covill purveyors of fine, approximately 25,000 at last count, motor cars which have been sold to customers from Twickenham to Tobago.

One might imagine from the BRG and yellow paint job that this vehicle had been raced by Archie Scott Brown to some of the many Lister Jaguar victories, however it transpires that nothing could be further from the truth.

According to Doug Nye’s 2nd edition, reasonably priced, ‘Powered by Jaguar‘ the 1959 Lister Jaguar BHL 128 was originally supplied to Carroll Shelby Sports Cars Inc, Dallas Texas as a rolling chassis built to accept an American made body and Chevrolet V8 engine.

BHL 128 also known as ‘the Boeing Car’ is said to have been part of a Land Speed Record project with input from Boeing and master minded by John Fitch, Doug’s research categorically states John Fitch the former Mercedes Driver and Safety Engineer had absolutely no involvement in such a project.

What ever the outcome of the Boeing project the vehicle has no identifiable ‘in period’ racing history and was recovered to England around 1969 and acquired by Peter Sargent around 1970. Between 1970 and the mid 70’s BHL 128 was fitted with both a 3.8 / 231 cui XK Jaguar motor and a, retrospective, 1958 low frontal area ‘Knobbly’ body in preference to the historically more accurate, but less successful, 1959 Costin body.

Bobby tells me that he acquired BHL 128 in the mid 70’s and raced it to many historic race victories and a Lloyds & Scottish Championship.

However one of his favourite memories was the day he put BHL 128 on pole for the 1978 historic race at Le Mans, with a time that would easily have qualified for the 24 hours race proper, ahead of Stirling Moss and Willie Green one of the best if not the best historic racer of all time.

Bobby tells me that on that day BHL 128 was fitted with a 2.9 high ratio back axle which allowed him to hit approximately 175 mph on the 4 mile Mulsanne straight at 6000 rpm.

Both Willie Green in his D-type Jaguar and Moss driving a far superior handling open wheel Grand Prix Maserati 250 F made up ground on the Lister in the corners but could not keep pace with the Lister on La Sarthe’s long straights.

Unfortunately on the third lap of the race, the crankshaft broke and as Bobby says, ‘that was that’. Stirling might have added “Better to lose honorably in a British car than win in a foreign one”, though if he did, it was not recorded on this particular occasion.

Bobby sold the car in the mid ’80’s and it has since undergone restoration and now belongs to a lucky Steven Gibbs.

My thanks to Bobby Bell for sharing today’s story and to Doug Nye, David Mckinney, Belmondo, Dutchy, Julian Bronson, and Robert Barker at The Nostalgia Forum for additional comments going back to May last year.

Thanks for joining me for a week of Big Cat history, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for everyone’s favourite ‘Ferrari Friday’ when I’ll be looking at one of a series of 387 Ferrari’s none of which were sold as new in the United States. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Knobbly Cat – #61 Lister Jaguar

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Thanks again to Steve and Ed Arnaudin for today’s photos from Lime Rock in April / May 1959.

The story of the Jaguar powered Lister is that it only came about despite the initial reticence of builder Brian Lister and that it was only after a) the failure of the difficult to maintain Maserati engines which powered Listers in 1956 to improve on the the Lister Bristol of 1955, b) a diamond merchant Norman Hillwood had dropped a 300 hp Jaguar D type engine into his own second hand chassis after Brian had refused to do it for him and c) Jaguar supremo Sir William Lyons had shown his enthusiasm for supplying Lister with the D-type power train in order to back up the private D-types of Ecurie Ecosse to double the odds against the increasingly competitive Aston Martins that Brian Lister eventually saw sense and built 17 series 1 ‘Knobbly’ Jaguar powered Listers and between six and eight more with small block Chevrolet motors from 1957 – 1958.

The #61 Lister Jaguar seen here is one of the Cunningham team cars, Ed Arnaudin’s photo throws up a mystery since neither the Cunningham Website or Terry O’Neils Northeast American Sports car races 1950 – 1959 list the car as being present at Lime Rock for the April 24th meeting that got held over to May 9th after rain stopped play and the cops shut the show down on the original date.

The best fit theory thrown up on The Nostalgia Forum is the possibility that this car had different gearing to the #62 Lister Jaguar that was raced by Briggs Cunningham that day and may have been used for comparison by Briggs Cunningham.

With thanks to all those on The Nostalgia Forum Lister Register thread who contributed including David McKinney , raceanouncer 2003 Vince H, RA Historian Tom and Terry O’Neil.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s Knobby Cat edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ and that you’ll join me for the concluding edition of this Jaguar week featuring a vehicle that out qualified Stirling Moss driving a Maserati 250 F in a historic race. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Air bag exempt – Ferrari F 430

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Last week on Ferrari Friday we looked at seven magnificent Ferrari F430 GT2 racing cars this week were looking at the road car that the racer was based on. The F430 was launched at the Paris Motor Show in 2004.

This USD $225,000 vehicle came loaded with electronics including limited slip active differential which varies the distribution of torque from the engine to the rear wheels based on information on steering angle and lateral acceleration, Electronic Stability Control which detects and minimises skids, Skyhook electronic suspension and is fitted with little knobs on the steering wheel to adjust all of the above to ones personal preference. Unusually US authorities granted the F430 exemption from US airbag requirements.

These brake discs / rotors are cast from an iron molybdenum alloy developed in collaboration with Brembo and are claimed to be good for over 300 laps of the Ferrari Fiorano test track with out fading.

196 mph capability is afforded courtesy of a 483hp 4300 cc / 262 cui V8 a shared Ferrari / Maserati design that is a complete departure of all previous Ferrari V8’s that trace their ancestry and architecture back to the 1950’s Dino V6 racing programme.

Hope you have enjoyed today’s air bag exempt edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ and that you will join me tomorrow for a look at a fast cat from Coventry. Don’t forget to come back now !

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