10 replies to this topic

[Porsche718]

This query may have been covered before, but a forum search has been no help.

 

Maserati 6CM 1532. 

 

Originally a Works car for Trossi, then on to Edward Teagno in 1938, then to South America.

 

There was also a 4CL campaigned by Prince Bira during the 1948 season that is quoted as being "1532".

 

My query is -  did 1532 come back to Europe, was it fitted with a 4CL engine, and then raced as a 4CL, or is Bira's 1948 car another number? I image it should have been a car connected with the Plate team.

 

To confuse things more - chassis 1551 seems to have gone from Hamilton/Fortheringham-Parker's ownership, to Brian Finglass, and then went to New Zealand for Zambucka, Neill and Crowther. BUT - the Sergent NZ Motor Racing site quotes this car as being 1532.

 

I have a fairly good record for all 4CM/6CM/4CL/4CLT cars but 1532 still requires clarification.

 

Cheers and thanks in advance, Steve W

Edited by Porsche718, 04 May 2020 - 05:39.

[opplock]

I'm not sure if this will be any help but in Historic Racing Cars of New Zealand (1991) Vercoe described the Zambucka car as "It was owned by Duncan Hamilton and was an ex-works car (probably C1532)." Zambucka bought it along with two 8CLT-50s from the OSCA works in 1955. Zambucka wanted to buy one car but seems to have been talked into that we'd now describe as a warehouse clearance sale. Vercoe also wrote "the car was reputedly driven by Tazio Nuvolari but I have been unable to confirm that the great Italian was driving voiturettes as late as 1936". Sergent presumably used the same sources as Vercoe so the ex-Nuvolari status and identity may have been what Zambucka was told during the sales pitch.  

Edited by opplock, 04 May 2020 - 08:19.

[Porsche718]

opplock, thanks for the info.

 

The NZ history of the 6CM makes sense as Zambucka doesn't seem to have raced it, he sold it off as soon as he could.

 

Part of the problem seems to be that a lot of these "errant" chassis numbers may have come from a particular website where numbers are assigned to cars for purpose of the writers internal records. Eg - 1532, 1533 and 1534 are assigned to three particular 4CLs, and 1501, 1502, 1503 and 1504 are assigned to four 4CLTs.

 

All the other cars I have a reasonable handle on, but the cars quoted as 1532 are proving stubborn to identify confidently. Except, of course, that it is the correct number for a 6CM.

 

 

SW

Edited by Porsche718, 04 May 2020 - 08:39.

[JoBo]

opplock, thanks for the info.

 

The NZ history of the 6CM makes sense as Zambucka doesn't seem to have raced it, he sold it off as soon as he could.

 

Part of the problem seems to be that a lot of these "errant" chassis numbers may have come from a particular website where numbers are assigned to cars for purpose of the writers internal records. Eg - 1532, 1533 and 1534 are assigned to three particular 4CLs, and 1501, 1502, 1503 and 1504 are assigned to four 4CLTs.

 

All the other cars I have a reasonable handle on, but the cars quoted as 1532 are proving stubborn to identify confidently. Except, of course, that it is the correct number for a 6CM.

 

 

SW

Steve,

 

not sure if it helps you with later dates but I have #1532 in 1984 offered by The Chelsea Workshop, Chelsea/UK in T&CC 6/84 on p.89

 

and

 

in 1988

by Gurney-Rutting Automobiles Limited, Milton, Abingdon, Oxon, UK  in C&SC 10/88 p.75

 

JoBo

Edited by JoBo, 04 May 2020 - 15:38.

[Myhinpaa]

At Barchetta.cc those two specialists are mentioned offering it for sale http://www.barchetta...l/1532.6.CM.htm

Before that it claims it went to Zambucka, Hamilton NZ.

 

But in the two articles below it says it went to South America (in '39?) before being returned to the UK in the '60s.

 

http://www.maserati-.../alfieri06l.htm

 

https://goodshoutmed...ey-worth-today/

 

Maybe some information in all those three articles is correct, but how to find out what is might take quite some effort, and luck.

[opplock]

The car offered by Chelsea Workshop in 1984 would appear to be the car purchased by Zambucka. Per Vercoe "the car was sold to M. Greer in England, where it is now owned by the Chelsea Workshop and driven by Richard Bond". Mind you his book was published in 1991.

 

There is a recurring phrase in Appendix 1 to David McKinney's 250F book "number also used on.....".

 

If proof exists that 1532 went to South America the NZ car must be something else, presumably 1551. I'd guess that Zambucka needed a chassis number for the mountain of paperwork required to import cars into NZ and was given the first 6CM chassis number that was found in archives. 

[Ardmore]

David McKinney's records show the 6CM imported to New Zealand by Fred Zambucka was chassis number 1551.

[DCapps]

Not to gum up the works, but the nice folks at OAM assigned an identity to a machine based upon its engine and not the chassis that it happened to be resting in at the moment.

 

I am fully aware that this is a bit of heresy in how the Anglo-centric sense of how things should work, but so it was.

 

While the engine and chassis that held it often shared the same numbers, this was not necessarily always the case, of course.

 

Ferrari, interesting enough, seemed to lean in the direction of the chassis being the means to assign identity, but I have often wondered if that was to appease his non-Italian customers, who might not be able to comprehend such a thing.

[uechtel]

I think it was the normal way to look at cars from the beginning of motorsport until "engines from stock" (Bristol, Coventry-Climax etc.) became available.

[Roger Clark]

I would suggest that you look at the Facebook group Maseratis Racing - Past and Present where Adam Ferrington has been posting the history of individual pre-war Maseratis. I think his records are the most definitive available. 

[cooper997]

The March issue of C&SC turned up in Oz newsagents today and I see that 1532 is for sale on the back cover.

 

https://www.fiskens....o-6CM/13682.htm

 

 

Stephen