Maserati scored its first World Championship sports car victories in 1956.
Armed with the strapping 450S, 1957 was supposed to be their year. Here's
the story of what happened by Michael T. Lynch, La Jolla, California USA.
The Sports Car World Championship series was first held in 1953.
For the first three years of the championship, Maserati did not impress,
failing to win a race. In 1956, the firm finally got to grips with its
rivals, using its 300S model to post victories at the Buenos Aires 1000
Kilometers (Moss/Menditeguy) and an event of similar length at the
Nurburgring (Taruffi/Schell/Behra/Moss). Retirements in the other
championship rounds allowed Maserati's cross-town rival, Ferrari, to take
the title.
As early as 1954, Ing. Bellantini was working on a
large-displacement Maserati sports racer to take the team to the
championship. The basic layout called for a 4.5 liter V-8. Design work
continued throughout early 1955, but there was no money to progress beyond
the drawing stage. By the end of the summer, American team owner, Tony
Parravano, agreed to buy two motors if Maserati would build them and if
they could be reduced in displacement to 4.2 liters to meet the
then-current Indianapolis regulations. Although Parravano was a sports car
entrant, he wanted to run the Maserati engines in Kurtis chassis at the
classic 500 mile event. These orders allowed Maserati to proceed with the
450S program.
By now, Guilio Alfieri had become chief engineer and he had Valerio
Colotti design a frame and gearbox for the new motor. It was May, 1956,
before the motor was fitted in a car. The prototype used the 350S chassis
Moss had used in that year's Mille Miglia. It did not race in 1956,
although the team did practice with the car at the final championship round
in Sweden.
The stage was set for an epic championship battle in 1957.
Maserati's new 450S, nicknamed the "Bazooka" by some of the European press,
would face off against Ferrari's 315 S and 335 S dohc V-12s of 3.8 and 4.0
liters. The series opened at Buenos Aires on January 20, 1957. With the
dream team of Fangio and Moss at the wheel, a lone 450S made the most of
its debut, leaving the competition for dead despite a clutch failure early
on. Shortly past half distance, Fangio made a rare error, going off and
damaging the steering. Then, the transaxle failed, causing the car to
retire. A Ferrari 290 MM won
(Gregory/Castellotti/Musso/Perdisa) but Maserati salvaged a second, and
valuable points, with Behra/Mendetiguy/Moss in a 300S.
At Sebring in March, there was still only one 450S, but this time
there were no mistakes. Taking the lead in the second hour, Fangio and
Behra coasted home easy winners ahead of teammates Moss and Schell in a
300S. It was Maserati's first and last 1-2 in World Championship
competition.
The elation of Sebring was followed by a trying day at the Mille
Miglia. Maserati's main contenders were out shortly after the start - Moss
in the 450S only made seven miles before his brake pedal shattered.
Portago's Ferrari crashed into the crowd, causing a public outcry that
would end the last great city-to-city race that was first run in 1927.
Maserati's best was Scarlatti's 300S in fourth, behind three Ferraris.
At the Nurburgring on 26 May, Maserati raced two 450Ss for the
first time. The program had been hampered by the time it took to repair
the 450S that Behra had crashed heavily in practice for the Mille Miglia.
Pairings were Fangio/Moss and Schell/Herman. Backup was provided by
Bonnier and Scarlatti in a 300S. The one hundred seventy-four turns of the
Nurburgring made the 450S a handful and it took Moss eight laps to take the
lead from Brooks' Aston DBR. Two laps later, Moss's car broke a wheel and
he was out, having set fastest lap of the day. Fangio took over Schell's
450S, but could not make any progress and came in with a split oil tank.
Moss took over the car but lasted only one more lap. Desperate for points,
Moss and Fangio took over the private 300S of Godia-Sales, and finally
finished fifth, behind the Aston and three Ferraris. Points were now
twenty-five for Ferrari and 19 for Maserati. What seemed like such a sure
thing after Sebring began to look a little iffy.
Maserati's performance at Le Mans did not help the situation. The
much-heralded 450S Costin-designed coupe turned out to be a disaster.
Fantuzzi could not finish the project and it was given to Zagato, who
delivered a product that had little to do with Mike Costin's design. The
coupe, driven by Moss, retired after thirty-two laps. It had been beaten
to the dead car park four laps earlier by the Behra/Simon open 450S. The
only positive was that Ferrari's best was a 5th behind four Jaguar D-Types.
Maserati's only chance now lay in winning both of the remaining
races at Sweden and Venezuela. For the Six-Hour race in Sweden on 11
August, they brought two 450S roadsters, backed up by a 300S. For the
first two hours, the big Maseratis led as they pleased, with Behra
following Moss. After the driver changes, Schell retired the Moss car with
the now-familiar transaxle trouble. Moss then transferred to the Behra
450S and the two of them led easily to the finish. This must-win result
was backed up by a 300S in third (Bonnier/Scarlatti/Schell/Moss) bringing
Maserati to within three points of Ferrari. The championship would now be
decided at Caracas, leaving almost three months for the tension to build.
The two contenders arrived in Venezuela with four cars each. The
Maserati line-up was the usual two 450Ss backed by a 300S, but there was an
additional 450S for the Temple Buell team. Ferrari had two 335Ss and two
250 Testa Rossas. The tension was palpable, the course was fast and
dangerous and the brother of Maserati team manager, Ugolini, died the day
before the race. The course, which ran the length of a freeway, with
hairpin overpass turns at either end, was modified after the teams
threatened to withdraw. Still, there were few barriers between lanes of
opposing traffic. The 450Ss were fastest in practice, but the Le Mans
start almost brought laughter, as many of the contestants had trouble
starting their cars. Masten Gregory in Buell's 450S was the early leader.
Gregory glanced back to survey the competition and his 450S tripped over a
curb and overturned. Luckily, a roll bar had been installed the night
before and Gregory's injuries were minor. One Maserati contender was gone
in two laps.
Moss's 450S was one of the slow starters and he passed twenty-two
cars on the first lap to move into 10th. By the 12th lap, Behra (450S),
Moss, Collins (Ferrari 335S) and Hawthorne (335S) were swapping the lead.
Moss began to pull away, only to have a high-speed collision with an AC
Bristol. The AC got the worst of it, being pushed into a lamppost that cut
it in half, but the driver survived. Another Maserati was out of the
contest.
Behra then took over the lead. When he made his pit stop, gasoline
was spilled and the car caught fire. The pit marshals got it extinguished,
and Moss took over the 450S and set out after the Ferraris. The fire had
not been completely put out and Moss returned to the pit with the seat of
his pants burned through. Schell now jumped into the 450S. The two
Ferraris were leading with Bonnier's 300S in third.
Schell was flying and soon came up to overtake his teammate. Just at that
moment, Bonnier had a tire blow out at 140 mph. The 300S careened into the
450S. Bonnier jumped from his car at 80 mph and watched it topple one of
the dreaded lampposts. Schell continued on, out of control, into a wall.
When the 450S stopped, it was on fire again. This time there were no
marshals, and the car burned to the ground. With the race just half over,
Maserati's title hopes lay around the course, in the form of mangled and
molten metal.
Four Ferraris started, four finished in the first four positions and the
championship was theirs. Caracas never hosted another round of the Sports
Car World Championship. Although Maseratis would go on to win World
Championship events, they never entered again as a pukka works team and, to
this day, have never won the championship. Their dreams died, far from
home, on that humid, mosquito-bitten afternoon in South America.
Michael T. Lynch, with William Edgar and Ron Parravano, is the author of
the award-winning book, American Sports Car Racing in the 1950s. The
book's home page is:
http://home.san.rr.com/ascr50s/indexlynch.htm
