Trident

Case History of the Maserati - Part II

by Norman Smith - Reprinted from Autosport

In many ways the year 1931 had been a let-down for the Maserati firm after its surge to the forefront late in 1930. However, 1931's competition had been keener, and in the very nature of progress the promise for 1932 was great, bearing in mind the 2.8's wonderful showing at Monza. Thus Luigi Fagioli and Rend Dreyfus again cheerfully shouldered the responsibility of spearheading the Maserati attack. But 1932 eventually proved a poor year for the 2.8 litre GP model, the real highspots in Maserati fortunes being reached and plumbed by that perennially amazing brute, the 16 cylinder twin-eight.

Whether the 1932 edition of this fearsome freak was a new car or a rebuild of the original 1929 4 litres is a question that has no known answer at this writing but the fact remains that as raced in 1932 the 16 cylinder had two 2.5 litre 8 cylinder GP engines mounted side by side, as on the first 4 litre three years earlier. As in the case of the 4 litre, the new 5 litre 16 cylinder was fast - too fast for its roadholding, too fast for the circuits of the time and, on one terrible day, too fast for its driver. Nevertheless this was the car that should have registered for Maserati his first really major Grand Prix victory, that old, old story of bad pit work throwing away the winner's laurels in the 1932 Italian Grand Prix. The 16 cylinder, driven by Luigi Fagioli and Ernesto Maserati, had the legs of Alfa Romeo's new GP monoposto, and it was simply and solely due to their bad pit work, particularly when wheel changing, that Nuvolari's single-seater Alfa got enough to counteract the Maserati's superior speed, which Fagioli used to, the utmost, but could not recover the "start" he gave to the Alfa Romeo. So Maserati, instead of winning, was second, an honourable second but a tragic disappointment nonetheless for the car was never nearer winning. Fagioli incidentally showed just how fast the monstrous 16 cylinder was with an 112 plus mph record lap, an achievement which in these modern times never seems to merit the praise that once fell to the car and driver that did the best lap.

However, the old "Old Abruzzi Robber" got the taste of victory in the Rome GP shortly afterwards, for in this race the Sedici Cilindri romped home first at a fraction under the 100 mph mark, the third consecutive Maserati victory in this event. Fresh hands piloted the big car in its next outing (the Avusrennen at Berlin) and René Dreyfus laid fresh emnhasis on its speed with a new lap record of 130.87 mph, though he failed to finish I think! After this Fagioli returned to retake command, and he scored another second in the Monza GP in September. Then, later the same month, drove the brute at Miramas in the Marseille GP, but was only a very bad sixth. Quite by accident, Fagioli's fastest lap in the Monza Grand Prix was reputably 112.22 mph, exactly the same lap speed he'd done in the Italian Grand Prix in May, when driving the same car, a coincidental timing that perhaps adds weight to the belief that it was the faulty pit work and not the car that lost the Italian classic.

When the actual racing season ended the 16 cylinder was taken to Montlhéry in December for some serious record breaking, the World's One Hour record being supposedly the primary target. The oddest part of the whole attempt was the choice of driver, for instead of the reliable and experienced Fagioli, it was one Ruggeri, who certainly had driven Maseratis before but small ones. Unfortunately he "lost" the Maserati when travelling at high speed and in the inevitable crash he killed himself and wrecked the car completely. Ruggeri's death, coming as it did close on the heels of the natural death of Alfieri Maserati, was a bitter end to the year, but the remaining brothers, in the truest traditions of the theatre and the motoring world, continued the factory and its racing programmes with scarcely less zeal, and in time 1933 became an even more intense season than any that had gone before, even the 16 cylinder being rebuilt.

But to return to 1932 and the gap in the Maserati story, for the 2.8 GP car, the 2.5 litre, the 1,500 cc voiturette and the 1.100 cc sports and racing models did have their moments. The 2.8 claimed third at Monte Carlo (Fagioli), third at Avellino (Fagioli), second at Nimes (Dreyfus), whilst the 1931 2½ litre was second at La Turbie, and twice set a new Brooklands Mountain Lap record in the hands of Whitney Straight. Small car successes fell to Cerami (1,100 cc in the Coppa ,Ciano), Joly (1,500 cc in the Tunis G.P.), Veyron (1,500 cc class at St. Gaudens) and for the second year in succession the 1,100 cc class in the Mille Miglia, Tuffanelli and Bertocchi beating two Fiats at a speed a little below the average in 1931 (82.23 kph to 83.55 kph). Lastly the ill-fated Ruggeri's two third places must be listed to round off 1932's tale one at Leghorn in the 1,100 cc Coppa Ciano and the other in the 1,500 cc event of the German Grand Prix on the N¨rburgring.

Despite Alfieri Maserati's untimely death, the works plans for 1933 were much grander than ever before, and following the line of thought revealed by Alfa's all-conquering monoposto, the Bolognese factory early announced their own version of this new and enticing vogue. With, once again, a bigger engine (of 2.9 litres) the promised Maserati single-seater, on sale to anyone who cared to buy it, was apparently a suitable answer to Milan and to Molsheim, and with Campari and Fagioli to drive them for the factory their chances were excellent - better, indeed, than they had been almost since the works commenced racing. But again, as in 1929, it was the private owner, actually the Sommer Zehender team, that first received the new single-seater, and the poor old works drivers made "do" for the early part of 1932 with hybrid machines of varying types and sizes, principally two-seaters.

The new 1933 single-seat Maserati, said in contemporary reports to be so light that its 210 bhp made it extremely skittish, had a good start to its career, for Zehender was third on his very first outing with the car, in the Tunis Grand Prix. Nevertheless the car then failed at Monte Carlo, and it was not for many weeks - mid-July in fact - that the single-seater emerged as a serious winner of Grands Prix. Prior to this stage being reached, however, the "works" Maseratis were "hodge-podge" efforts, Camparis's car in the French Grand Prix, for example, being a mixture of old and new, the old two-seater chassis with the new 2.9 litre engine. But, be that as it may, the squat red No 32 and its herculean driver won Maserati's first French Grand Prix victory! An element of luck pervaded his win, it is true, for he overtook Etancelin's crippled Alfa on the final lap, but the Maserati had been a forward runner from the start, had led for many laps and in all fairness must finally be accepted as a worthy winner, particularly as Campari had set up a new lap record in the course of the race. Not content with his Montlhéry laurels, Campari three weeks later repeated his fastest lap efforts in the Grand Prix de la Marne at Rheims, although his speed was some 3 mph lower than Nuvolari's 1932 record with the monoposto Alfa.

This 1933 French Grand Prix was a vital turning point for the Maserati fortunes that year, for it saw, besides the Maserati victory, the climax of a dispute between the Scuderia Ferrari and its chief drivers, Nuvolari, Borzacchini and Taruffi, and in turn all three became Maseratisti before the season's end, Nuvolari joining their ranks in time to win the Belgian Grand Prix in July. The car Nuvolari drove was a special single-seater with a 2.9 litre engine, and after pre-race bracing of a "whippy" chassis, the "Flying Mantuan" literally ran off with the race, not only beating the Bugatti and Ferrari Alfas, but setting new race and lap records into the bargain. Thenceforth the Nuvolari/Maserati combination ran amok with first in the Coppa Ciano (and fastest lap as well), first at Nice, second at Pescara (again plus fastest lap), second in the Italian Grand Prix, and a new lap record in the Spanish GP, in which race he was an easy leader until he had the misfortune to crash.

Besides Tazio, drivers Campari, Borzacchini, Taruffi and Zehender fought the good fight on the Trident's behalf, and the Maserati team of single-seaters in both the Pescara (Nuvolari-Campari-Tarufrl-Zehender) and the Italian Grands Prix (Nuvolari-Taruffi-Zehender) was as powerful a line up as any that had till then represented the marque. Unfortunately the Sunday of the 1933 Italian and Monza Grands Prix was a black day for motor racing, three top-class drivers meeting their end on the shallow bankings of the Milanese speedway.

Of the three fatalities that marred the meeting, two were the Maserati drivers Campari and Borzacchini, the last named actually being in the cockpit of Campari's winning car from the French Grand Prix. This disastrous day for Maserati must have had a great influence on the actions of the works team in the following 1934 season, for shorn of the experience of these two aces, even Nuvolari's legendary skill, when it was available, could not hold at bay the superior German and Alfa cars of the new 70 Kg formula.

This last final year (1933) of virtual Formule Libre, first ushered in by the abandonment of the 1½ litre rating in 1928, had one very interesting development which must not be overlooked. That was the gradual revival of 1.500 cc and 1,100 cc scratch voiturette Grands Prix as curtain raisers to the larger cars, and in these classes Maseratis were a leading light, generally getting a car in the first three places in the majority of races. Outstanding exponents of these small Maseratis were Vagniez, Barbieri, Furmanik, Landi and Count "Johnny" Lurani, although only Barbieri, in the Coppa Ciano, and Lurani, in the Roma-Rocca di Pappa hill-climb, actually succeeded in winning.

Maseratis received their severest (and most amazing, from their point of view) setback in the small car class of the Coppa Acerbo, when Whitney Straight's blown K3 MG Magnette ran away from, and thoroughly beat, both Barbieri's and Furmanik's "baby" Grand Prix cars, a defeat neither driver could quite believe! Whitney Straight, ironically, was responsible for several Maserati successes in the course of the 1933 season for, piloting the ex-Birkin 2.5 litre machine, he won the Mountain Championship at Brooklands, set a nek Shelsley Walsh record of 41.2 secs, won the Brighton Speed trials, finished second at Albi (with the lap record too) and, best of all, made BTD in France's Mont Ventoux hill-climb, beating in the process what was said, by no less an authority than Phillippe Etancelin, to be an "unbreakable" record.

Another sometime-considered "unbreakable" record was the world's acceleration test - that is, the Standing Start Kilo and Mile - but in 1933 a Maserati car, a 3 litre single-seater privately owned at that, running on the Montlhéry track in October, proved good enough to lift the S/S Kilo to 88.33 mph. The driver was Hans Ruesch from Switzerland, a young man who till then had been known mainly as a competitor in the 1,500 cc class with Alfa Romeos. Ruesch later lost his record but his dramatic eleventh hour success had given Maseratis a grand boost, and as it was known that a 2.9 litre single-seater, built to comply with the 1934 regulations, would be available for the new year, many drivers, amongst them Moll and Etancelin, placed orders with the Bologna factory, Whitney Straight even going so far as to order a complete team of cars which intended to run in all the big races in England and Europe in 1934.

Many orders were received for the 1934 2.9 Maserati, because Alfas were ordered not to sell their fabulous monoposto, and as a result men like Earl Howe switched their allegiance to Bologna, rather than be disappointed with non-delivery of the eagerly desired Alfa. The flood of orders received at Bologna inevitably caused delay, but the factory did at least effect delivery to Straight, Howe and Etancelin in time for Monte Carlo at Easter. These 1934 cars had 8 cylinder supercharged 2,992 cc engines (69mm x 100mm) that gave a rough 270 bhp and a road speed of, under suitable conditions, 145 mph and even with the concentration of building these cars, the works still found time to provide Taruffi with a 4 cylinder 2.3 litre two-seater for the Monaco Grand Prix, an example of Maserati versatility that was further driven home when the same driver was given the 5 litre 16 cylinder in the Tripoli Grand Prix only a few weeks later. Taruffi had the most colossal smash when leading the North African race, being very lucky to emerge alive, but though he recovered to race again, the 16 cylinder died - never to be seen any more. The great Tazio Nuvolari, still driving the car he used during his brilliant ending to 1933, had had the misfortune to overturn it at Alessandria between the Monaco and Tripoli races, but with the determination so typical of the "Great Little Man" he was back in action in a couple of months, and in due course the Flying Mantuan and his Maserati pushed even the new Mercs and Auto Unions.

But by far the most popular and most successful Maserati driver in 1934 was Phillippe Etancelin, of the famous reversed cap and gritted teeth, whose duels with the Ferrari Alfas were a great feature of the day. He certainly had to bow to the might of Modena in race after race, but in the end he beat them at Dieppe in what was probably the year's most popular victory. His places were legion and at Vichy, Montreux, Nice and Casablanca he got into the first three in the face of the crack Italian organization, and no race was won until the blue Maserati (painted that colour for France) was conquered.

Running Etancelin closely for individual Maserati honours were the Straight team cars, and in particular Straight's own blue and white 2.9 litre single-seater, which was equally active, equally successful and equally well known in England as in Europe, and which actually won more events that year than any other Maserati. Straight began with a not very encouraging failure in the Monte Carlo GP, but once on the victory trail, in the JCC International Trophy at Brooklands, the AngloAmerican Italian combination collected the Shelsley Walsh record, the Brooklands Mountain Championship, the second Heat of the Vichy GP, and the Donington Park Trophy, a 50 mile race that was the forerunner of Donington's great Grands Prix.

Straight even broke International class records and at Mont Ventoux, Vichy and in the British Empire Trophy his superb driving, good enough to win nine times out of 10, earned him second place in all three events. His team, composed of himself, Hugh Hamilton and Buddy Featherstonhaugh, was an excellent example of the amateur "Scuderia" element in motor racing, and the Straight stable's performances during 1934 will forever remain historic - for two reasons, one joyous, one sad! Buddy Featherstonhaugh, using the beloved Tim Birkin's old 2.5 litre Maserati, gave Britain a joy day when he won the second Albi Grand Prix, the first British driver to win a genuine Grand Prix for many years. The joy of this victory was too soon soured, however, for disaster came in the first Swiss Grand Prix at Berne on 23rd August, when Hugh Hamilton, Featherstonhaugh's colleague and a very fine driver indeed, met his death on the very last lap of the race, when his single-seater 2.9 litre Maserati went off the road into some trees.

The new German cars had by mid-1934 toppled the Italians (Alfas and Maseratis alike) from their proud position of masters of Grand Prix racing, so that Nuvolari's return after his early season upset was greeted with delight by the Italian nation, his single-seater Maserati promptly doing its best to stem the tide with a second place behind Fagioli's Mercedes in the Coppa Accerbo. This was a morale booster to everyone, and as he was expected to have a new car at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix, Italy's hopes began to rise. The promised car actually materialised but was to all intents and purposes merely a re-engined version of the car he'd been driving for 12 months, the 8 cylinder 3 litre engine giving place to a 6 cylinder 3.3 litre supercharged unit that was a good 20 bhp more powerful than the 2.9 litre then in common Maserati use.

It certainly seemed, from the Monza race, that Tazio's new 6 cylinder car did have a finer performance than its predecessor for, although Nuvolari was only fifth, and three full laps behind the winning Mercedes, he was a full lap ahead of the first of the 2.9s, all the Maserati entries - four in number - being privately owned, which, of course, makes quite a difference! After the Italian classic Tazio Nuvolari continued to pilot the 6 cylinder, and at Masaryk (the Czech GP) he was third, then won in consecutive weekends at Naples and Modena, outdriving the Ferrari "invincibles" in true Nuvolari manner. Funnily enough, Hans Ruesch, hero of the s/s Kilometre record attempt, took the Nuvolari car to North Africa for the Algerian Grand Prix, where the men and machines that Tazio had just beaten soundly thrashed the Swiss - need more be said!

Parallel with 1934's Grand Prix revival came the first real glimmering of the resurgence of voiturette racing, in which class, of course, the small Maserati had been a power for some years. Both 1,500 cc and 1,100 cc Maseratis - 4 cylinder models, first introduced in this form as a 1,100 cc in 1931 - raced throughout the year and whether the upper or lower voiturette limit was applied or not, the "Trident" could, and did, remain in the forefront. Some idea of the popularity of the little Maseratis could be seen in the variety of events in which they ran, from Berlin's Avusrennen in North Europe to Naples in Central Italy. Precisely how many wins fell to the Maserati light car this year may not be accurately assessed, but Count Castelbarco scored an important success in the 1,500 cc class of the Eifelrennen on the Nürburgring. One Malaguti won the 1,100 cc class of the Coppa Ciano, with Matrullo second, and Hans Kessler added another nice success with the fastest lap (and what was really the first official lap record! ) in the first Prix de Berne over that city's fine Brenigarten circuit. The star Maserati 1½ litre driver of the year, however, was a member of the Scuderia Subalpina, a young man by the name of Giuseppe Farina, and his startling driving from July onwards culminated in his winning the 1,500 cc class in the Czechoslovakian Grand Prix at Brno. Everywhere he drove he stood cut to such an extent that even the British motor racing magazines of the times were moved to forecast "we shall hear more of this young man! " - and indeed we did!

Sports car racing at International level was not in 1934 a Maserati habit, and it was only around that year that a serious programme had been launched, but whilst it is true that success was recorded in minor national Italian sports car races and hill-climbs, the one exception was the Mille Miglia. For 1934 Maserati just had to avenge the MG victory of 1933! Thus Taruffi and Bertocchi had a special 1,100 cc car to drive in defence of their colours, and in vile weather conditions they drove so well that on returning to Brescia they'd averaged 64.16 mph to set a new class record, and to finish fifth in the General Classification behind the big Alfas.

It will be recalled that in 1933 the Swiss driver Hans Ruesch surprised the motoring world with his s/s Kilometre record of 88.33 mph, and in the autumn of 1934 Ruesch once again broke this record, retaking it off John Cobb's Napier-Kailton with a speed of 88.73 mph, Ruesch actually using the same Maserati that broke the record 12 months earlier. Ruesch's record brought the total of Maserati-held records at December 1934 to nine, one to Borzacchini (his fabulous 1929 Cremona speed of 152 mph), two to Whitney Straight's 2.9, one to Ruesch, four to Zehender and one to Furmanik's 1,100 cc 4 cylinder, a record taken on the Pistoia-Florence autostrada with little publicity. Borzacchini's record, once the "fastest ever done on the road", will, however, remain for all time one of motor racing's historic feats.

Racing and record activities, unusually for pre-war days, continued at the end of 1934 into early 1935, with a record attempt by Zehender (3 litre single-seater) at Montlhéry, and with a final race win by Whitney Straight's 2.9 in the first South African Grand Prix, staged at East London.

Traditionally the early months of a new year are months of work for the factories, and speculation for the fans, and the Maserati plans for 1935 were the subject of much conjecture. It was believed that a new 4½ litre Grand Prix car was being laid down to offer a real challenge to the then all-conquering Germans. The Fratelli Maserati early announced that nine separate types of Maserati would be available for 1935, but it was also made known that actual factory operation would not be tackled, the new cars, when completed, being run - à la Scuderia Ferrari - by the Scuderia Subalpina. This organization was headed by wealthy and enthusiastic Count Gino Rovere, and his team drivers were to be Etancelin, Zehender and the exuberant Farina of 1,500 cc fame from the preceding year.

Their machines were to include, as soon as possible, the new 1935 GP Maserati, but whilst this car was being readied they had to use the 1934 3.3 litre 6 cylinder, followed by a 3.7 litre "six" which was merely an enlarged 3.2 in most respects. Indeed, the car Rovere himself sometimes drove was the actual machine Nuvolari had used in the last races of 1934, and which Hans Ruesch so lamentably misused in Algeria. Sad to relate, neither of the two different-sized cars used was remotely capable of winning a Grand Prix, for both Alfas and Bugattis were still running excellent cars, and of course the Germans were nearly 100 per cent dominant that year. Thus the Maserati trident, although it appeared in all the major Grands Prix, was relegated to the back of the class, the highest Maserati placing in a classic race in 1935 being Goffredo Zeliender's third in the French Grand Prix - and that was most unexpected! In the minor Grand Prix races, Hartmann the Hungarian managed a win at Chimay (Frontières GP) but otherwise third place was again their best effort, Soffietti (at Pau), Etancelin (Tunis), Sommer (Picardy), Farina (Biella) and Hartmann (at St. Gaudens) achieving this distinction.

The 1935 GP Maserati, a V8 of 4.4 litres (a new departure in the engine department for Bologna), took longer to make its racing debut than was hoped, the first of the line (of which, incidentally, only three were ever built) racing at Rheims in the Grand Prix de la Marne, c/o Phillippe Etancelin, No 1 pilot of the Subalpina organization. As so often happens with a new car, the V8 Maserati failed in its first race, and sad to relate, the failures carried on throughout the rest of the 1935 season, the only occasion on which the car ran at all decently being when Giuseppe Farina led the Donington Grand Prix for 100 miles before the transmission failed. The V8 was a unique Maserati for, as far as I recall, it was the only model they ever made with both IFS and IRS, the rear end possessing swing axles, semi-elliptic leaf springs and a torque rod.

In the voiturette field, too, the Maserati "star" fell just as rapidly from grace, for it was in 1935 that the ERA began its European successes, scoring wins that would otherwise have gone to Bologna. Nevertheless, Maserati's 1,500 and 1,100 cc cars had enough power and speed to capture Heat 1 of the Albi GP (Barbieri), and to win the Junior Coppa Ciano (Tuffanelli), both classes at Modena (Tuffanelli and Berrone) and to run second at the Eifel (Ruesch) and Pescara (Bianco). Possibly, however, the most consistent 1,500 cc Maserati of 1935 was the 1½ litre "four" run either in sports or racing trim by Count "Johnny" Lurani, for it won so many class victories that repetition becomes monotonous - La Turbie, Kesselberg, Biella, Varese, SteIvio, etc., etc., etc.! ! ad nauseam, ad infinitum!

Sports car participation this year was limited to the Mille Miglia, where the great Achille Varzi had a 135 mph 3.7 litre 6 cylinder Grand Prix machine fitted with lights and mudguards, the joyous Italian way of those days of converting a racer into a sports car! Varzi was supported by Strazza and the Bianco/Bertocchi team with 1,100s, but the great Grand Prix driver had his red machine literally fall to pieces under him by the time he reached Florence, where he retired when in third position. Strazza, too, disappeared, leaving only Biainco/Bertocchi to go on to cover the full 1,000 miles. This they did with such zeal that they were seventh in the race, winning the 1,100 cc class at record speed, being actually the first car to reach Brescia - a feat that in pre-war days was in itself an achievement of some note.

International and Class records in that year ol 1935 were a secondary item, the only one worthy of note being Furmanik's smashing of Humphrey Cook's ERA's s/s Mile and Kilo records in Class G. The Maserati was a 1,100 cc 4 cylinder, and its speeds of 90.98 and 82.30 mph for the distances just mentioned, done, by the way, at Pescara late in the last three months of the year (on the Montesilvano straight?) were excellent performances to round off a none-too-successful season for the Maserati marque.

Maserati's ambitious multi model programme of 1935 went overboard for 1936 in the usual general post during the winter racing recess, and for the new year it was planned to race the V8 in the Grands Prix and a new 1½ litre in the Voiturette events. One very important factor in the proposed 1936 plans was the Count Trossi, ex-president of the Scuderia Ferrari, had allied himself with them and it was commonly believed that he was, as Gino Rovere had been, the financial sponsor.

However, it needed more than money alone to convert the V8 into a Grand Prix winner, despite Etancelin's heralding 1936's racing by making one win-luckily he said! - in the Pau Grand Prix. During the 1936 season valiant attempts were made to get the V8 to live with the Alfas and the German "Silver Arrows", but not even the best efforts of both Trossi or Dick Seaman could achieve the impossible, so that when 1936 ended the V8s quietly slipped into oblivion - and out of Grand Prix racing. The cars finished up, as so many other ex-Grand Prix cars have done, in either the Colonies or the States, the V8s in this case being sold in America after running in the 1936 Vanderbilt Cup race. George Weaver, purchaser of one of the V8s, has had over the years many local wins with his car, and only as recently as 1951 he won the Seneca Cup at Watkins Glen with it.

The really important part of Maserati's racing activity in 1936, and one of the turning points in their fortunes as racing car manufacturers, was the introduction of the 1½ litre Tipo 6C, a lovely little single-seater which was fitted with independent front suspension, then an innovation on smaller racing cars. The Tipo 6C first appeared in the 1,500 cc race at Monte Carlo, when Rovere drove it and retired, so when a pair of them went to the Nürburgring for the 1,500 cc Eifelrennen, few people anticipated the final result, a runaway 1-2 triumph for Maserati, Trossi and Tenni leaving all the opposition - and it included the ERAs! That Trossi should have won was perhaps not too surprising; after all, he was a crack GP driver; but Tenni was straight from the Guzzi motorcycle team, and his second place backing to his team-mate left such an impression that today, almost 21 years later, the brilliance of the performance has barely been dimmed by the passage of time.

The Eifel success, of course, gave the new Maserati a tremendous reputation and one which, with Count Trossi's aid, it sustained with a series of wins that restored a great deal of Maserati's vanished prestige, and as the car came into general circulation later in 1936 other Italian drivers afforded the popular Count much valuable support. In the year's final count, first places in the Coppa Ciano, and at Modena, Milan and Lucca had fallen to Trossi, who also won his heat in the Picardie GP and finished second to Seaman's amazing Delage in the Coppa Acerbo, 1,500 cc class. As Pescara the officially timed speeds gave Trossi's 6C Maserati a deficiency of 16 mph on Seaman's car, and 13 mph on Bira's B-type ERA, so it was pretty obvious that the Italian earned his wins the hard way when up against the French and English cars. Trossi, frankly, was the only Maserati driver that year at all capable of earning them a European victory, but in England the old Whitney Straight car came back with a bang. With the capacity reduced from 2.9 to 2.6 litres, Dick Seaman drove it in Donington's British Empire Trophy in April and won - easily, after which it passed, towards the end of 1936, into the hands of the Siamese Prince "B. Bira". In his hands, as previously recounted in "Autosport" in January 1954, the 2.9 Maserati ended 1936 with some very high speed motoring, especially in Dublin's Phoenix Park where it upped the lap record to 102 mph.

As in 1935, record-breaking by Maserati cars was not a prominent feature of the year, although once again a couple of rather outstanding performances were recorded, the remarkable Furmanik obliging, as he seemed to do at least once a year in pre-war days. This time, at Lucca in March, he set five new marks - four in a 3 litre and one in a 1,100 c.c. car. His 3 litre (Class D) records produced a maximum one-way timing of 162.56 mph (the kilo and mile average was 155 mph) which was then, I believe, the highest official speed ever recorded by a Maserati car, and which, perhaps, partially explains Maserati's gradual decline in Grands Prix - for the Mercedes did 180 in 1934!! Furmanik's little Maserati '4' was pushed to 131.9 mph for the flying mile in these attempts, relieving Abingdon of one of their honours in the process.

(To be continued)

This article first appeared in the Winter 1976 issue of Trident

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

BACK TO ARTICLES