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Bill McGrath - still going strong!!
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The Tipo 4CLT/48 'San Remo' Maserati
by Simon Moore
Although there had been races and class prizes for up to 1,500 cc cars before 1934, the advent of the ERA from the UK to compete with the existing cars (mainly Maseratis and Bugattis) really made the class into an equivalent of what later became Formula 2.
Maserati quickly realised that its existing 4CM model (4 for number of cylinders, C for Corsa (racing) and M for Monoposto (single-seater) with its cart springs was not going to be a match for the more modern ERAs.
Maserati embarked on a crash programme to develop a more modern specification car, this time with six cylinders. The supercharged engine (65mm X 75mm) produced 155 bhp at 6,600 rpm (the 4CM had had a longer stroke at 69mm X 100mm and only revved at 5,600 (130-140 bhp). The chassis was also improved with independent front suspension by torsion bars, although a rigid rear axle was retained.
The 'San Remo' at rest
These 6CMs were quite successful, being a match for the ERAs after their first appearance at Monaco in 1936. Several cars competed in South Africa in the 1937/8 season (Hartmann, Siena, Taruffi, Villoresi and Everitt) earning second (Siena), fourth and fifth in the 1938 SA GP and second (Taruffi), third, fourth and fifth in the subsequent Grosvenor GP (both these races on handicap).
For the 1938/9 season, races were run from scratch and eight 6CMs appeared (Meyer, Pietsch, Villoresi, Cortese, Taruffi, Chiappini, Louis Gerard and "Mario". Villoresi won the GP from Cortese and "Mario", while Cortese triumphed in the Grosvenor GR (More details can be found in "Sun on the Grid" by Ken Stewart and Norman Reich).
In 1938 Alfa Romeo announced that it was entring this Formula 2 series with a new straight eight car. This was the classic 158, which eventually won the first two world championships in 1950 and 1951. Maserati decided to develop a new engine in a similar chassis to the 6CM to combat this new threat.
Bodywork resembled the later-series 6CM and it's sometimes difficult to tell them apart. This engine (called a 4CL - L for Lineare (in-line) as against the V8 they had been running in Formula 1) was four cylinder of square dimensions (78mm X 78mm) with four valves per cylinder and developed 220 bhp at 6,600 rpm. They were quicker than the 6CMs, but still no match for the Alfas when they appeared in August 1938.
However, the Alfas were only raced in works colours and so private entrants turned to the Maserati factory for cars. Twelve were built before the war and fifteen or so post-war. After the war, the 4CL continued to be campaigned by the works and by private owners, although they only beat the Alfas once (at St. Cloud in 1946) of those occasions when the 158s appeared.
The San Remo Appears
The factory experimented with a tubular chassis (but still with torsion bar independent front suspension) and two-stage supercharing during 1947 before introducing a new model in 1948 called the 4CLT/48 (T for Tubolare). This featured a tubular chassis with independent front suspension, using coils springs but still a rigid back axle on reverse quarter elliptics.
The Tipo 4CLT/48 'San Remo' |
The primary blower was driven off the nose of the crank, feeding into a second stage blower above it. Each of the eight exhaust ports (16-valve head remember) had an individual pipe. Power was initially 260 bhp at 7,000 rpm. The bodywork was lower and squatter than the 4CLs.
Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi appeared for the first time on June 27th, 1948 at San Remo and finished 1-2 first time out (Ascari leading Villoresi), hence the common name 'San Remo' rather than 4CLT/48. Various versions were produced with minor modifications (e.g. the oil tank was moved from under the seat to the inlet side of the engine compartment) and the factory called them 4CLT/49 and 4CLY/50. However, 'San Remo' is how they are known in whatever version.
The first two cars were chassis numbers 1593 and 1594. For some reason best known to the factory the engine number was always three digits earlier than the chassis number.
The 4CLT had a reasonably successful year against the single-stage supercharged single-cam-per-bank V12 Ferraris (first race Turin 1948) and the older six cylinder 4½-litre supercharged Lago-Talbots, but the 158 Alfas won every time they appeared.
Maserati (driven by Villoresi) won at Comminges and Albi in July/August and at Silverstone in the British GP in October. Already two cars had been sold to English private entrants (Reg Parnell and Leslie Brooke) as well as two Italian teams. The final race of the season in Spain also fell to the Maserati team.
The 1949 season was much more satisfactory for the San Remo as Alfa Romeo had retired its immensely successful Tipo 158. Maserati's main opposition came from the Ferraris driven by Ascari and Villoresi, (still the single-stage supercharged cars until the Italian GP in September when the twin cam per bank two-stage supercharged cars appeared).
The San Remos won their fair share of races, including three out of four Argentinian races at the beginning of the season (one by Fangio), San Remo again (Fangio having his first full European season at the age of 38), Pau and Perpignan (Fangio again), British GP (de Graffenreid), Albi (Fangio again) and Lausanne (Farina). However, they lost some key races to Lago-Talbot (Rheims and Spa) and to Ferrari (Berne for the Swiss GP, the Czechoslovakian GP and the Italian GP).
By 1950 the engine design, although dating from 1938/9 - the same as the Alfas - was really getting a little long in the tooth, leaving the San Remo an also-ran. The Alfas (now uprated to Tipo 159) dominated this first world championship year with Guiseppe Farina gaining the title. 1951 saw the San Remo even more outclassed in major Grand Prix events with Alfas having serious competition from the new 4½-litre V12 (unsupercharged) Ferraris. Fangio (Alfa Romeo) won his first world championship in 1951 and Alfa promptly retired from racing.
In 1952 and 1953 the world championship was run for Formula 2 cars (2-litres unsupercharged) and the faithful San Remo Maseratis were relegated to minor events.
The Tipo 4CLT/48 with two-stage supercharger
Enter Franco Rol
Let us now introduce Franco Rol, a wealthy gentleman from Turin, who liked to drive closed sports cars wearing silk shirts rather than coveralls. In early middle age, he appeared from nowhere to drive a works Alfa Romeo 6C 500 Competizione coupe on a rent-a-drive basis (nothing's new!). He made a magnificent debut at the 1949 Giro di Sicilia - a real road race - finishing second to Biondetti's Ferrari, after being delayed for five minutes at a closed level crossing!
Rol followed that up with third place in the classic Mille Miglia, despite hitting a house, behind Biondetti and Bonetto in Barchetta Ferraris (see SA Motorscene October 1984).
After a number of placings in more minor Italian events during the rest of 1949 including a win at Pescara, he again appeared in the works Alfa coupe for the Giro di Sicilia (retired after leading) and the 1950 Mille Miglia alongside Fangio in a similar car and Sanesi in a 3-litre. Fangio finished third, but Rol, ran off the road after his brakes failed.
Rol's only other major sports car races were the Mille Miglia in 1951 (failed to finish in a 2.5 litre Alfa) and 1952 (Siata 2-litre eleventh overall, third in class behind two Ferrari 166 barchettas). After that he disappeared - I don't know if he is still alive.
Driver's eye view!
To revert to 1949. Rol decided to try his hand at Grand Prix racing (wearing coveralls!) and ordered a new San Remo from the factory. Completion of the car (chassis No. 1604, engine No. 1601) was obviously rushed as it was handed over on September 8, 1949, three days before the Italian GP at Monza. Probably due to this lack of preparation, the car did not finish.
Meanwhile, Rol had clubbed together with Guiseppe Farina to mount a challenge for the 1950 Indianapolis race. Late in 1949 they commissioned Maserati to build a pair of updated straight-eight cars complying to the Indianapolis regulations (3-litres supercharged, 4½-litre unsupercharged i.e. like the 1938-40 European formula as against the 1946-51 Formula 1 of 1½ litres supercharged and 4½ litres unsupercharged).
An earlier Maserati (an 8CTF) had won Indy in 1939 and 1940 drive by Wilbur Shaw and three 8CTFs were still doing well at The Brickyard. The new cars - called 8CLTs - featured a tubular chassis like the 4CLT with two-stage supercharged four-valve-per-eylinder engines.
Due to problems at the factory (this was the time that the Maserati brothers finally walked out and formed OSCA), the cars were not ready in time and languished at the works as there was no suitable formula in Europe. In 1951 they were sold to New Zealand to compete in free formula events and one can still be seen there in Len Southward's super museum just north of Wellington.
To get back to 1604. Rol entered it for Monaco on May 21st, 1950, presumably a late entry after his Indy plans were cancelled. Unfortunately he was one of the people involved in the first lap multiple crash at Tabac. The car was repaired and he entered one or two Italian events during the summer, including Pescara in August, before again retiring from the Italian GP at Monza. The car had one more appearance in Rol's hands - the Penya Rhin GP in Spain in October when he crashed.
The chassis plate of Tipo 4CLT/48 #1604
Subsequent History of 1604
The car then disappeared and turned up on the East Coast of the USA. Exactly who initially owned it there is unclear (George Weaver and Joel Finn are possibilities and certainly Shelly Spindel). However, it turned up at Indianapolis in 1957 entered by Marguerite Morgan of Morgan Engineering, driven by Danny Kladis - who drove all sorts of strange cars at Indy in the 1950s. He was too slow to qualify as he needed to have averaged almost 140 mph for the four laps to make the field. However, his four-lap average of 124.412 mph was the fastest ever by a 1½-litre car.
The previous best had been set by that great character, Leon Duray, in his front-wheel-drive Miller in 1928 at 122.391 mph, although he had lapped at just over 124 mph during an incomplete qualifying attempt. (This Miller and its twin ended up at Molsheim inspiring the twin-overhead-camshaft arrangement on 1930s Bugattis, and one can still be seen fully restored in the Indianapolis Speedway Museum.) The power and speed of 1½-litre cars does not seem to have improved much between 1928 and 1948'
1604 turned up, again on the US East Coast, being sold by a Mr. Fuller of Marblehead, Massachusetts to Detroit jeweller Carl Boss in July 1966. I am pretty sure it was one of the many Maseratis I saw stored at George Weaver's place when I first went there in August 1968.
When Boss died in 1972, his fabulous collection of historic cars was sold and many of them, including 1604 went to Anthony Bamford of JCB Excavators in the UK. At that time it was featured in Motor Sport and on the cover of Maserati - Sports, Racing & GT Cars 1926-1975 by Crump and Box.
1604 was soon on its travels again, however. This time it went to Tim Hewison in Australia and then back again to the UK in about 1978 to Alain de Cadanet who loaned it to the London Science Museum, where it was on view for some years. Earlier this year the car passed into the hands of a Johannesburg collector and arrives in South Africa in August. This is the first time a San Remo has been in South Africa, so be sure to watch out for this super car at future historic meetings.
Original article November issue S.A. Motorscene. Photos supplied by Simon Moore.
This article first appeared in the Spring 1985 issue of Trident
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Maserati enthusiasts and collectors who may be interested in acquiring back issues of this highly collectable magazine may do so by contacting Adam Painter of the Maserati Club at
adamkpainter@uk2.net
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