27 replies to this topic

[tam999]

I received an email this morning from Alessandro Bruni, of Florence, Italy, asking for help identifying a Maserati 300S. He sent photos and I posted them on my website. Can anyone help identify this car?

http://www.tamsoldra...MysteryCar.html

Tam McPartland

[tam999]

Here's more information from Alessandro Bruni on the 300S. Interesting engine swap, one I've never heard of before. I asked Mr. Bruni if he could find the serial number on the car for us.

"The car has an early 4.2 liters Maserati (Quattroporte) bored to 4.5.
I assume that the car was the Fangio's 300S Maserati (1957 GP of Cuba and 1957 Sebring with Moss) because this particular body still has the 1957 Sebring badge as showed in a picture on your web (Stockton 1962).
The car was sold in 1957 to John Edgar and then to Barbieri and raced with Ron Dykes at Stockton in 1962. (No, that was 3071 TM)

That body has a little open in the front of the body and it's showed in a picture of 1957 Cuba GP. Only one hole in the rear bonnet (gas) instead of two (gas and oil): the body of the car I sent you the picture has only one as the Fangio's car. All the others 300S cars are with two holes.

Who raced with the car as it is now? This is the mystery!!!! Hope to find a solution !!!!!

All the best.
Alessandro"

[tam999]

I received another email from Alessandro Bruni regarding his friend's unknown Maserati 300S. The car may very well be #3067, which is listed as "missing" on Barchetta. Scroll down the page to read the email:

http://www.tamsoldra...MysteryCar.html

Tam McPartland

[Doug Nye]

I understand that this intriguing 300S came to light in Brazil recently - perhaps some of our Brazilian friends can add more info...?

DCN

[Ted Walker]

Lets hope it does not receive a "chocolate box" restoration.

[humphries]

I'm not a chassis-beaver but looking through Brazilian newspaper reports there is a mention of a Maserati "450S" (sic) winning the Independence Day 500 on 7 September, 1961. It was driven by Celso Lara Barberis and Ruggero Peruzzo. A Maserati 300S was also driven into 3rd place by the same two drivers with a third driver, Emilio Zambello, apparently making this possible with a short stint in one or both cars.

There was no mention of a "Chevrolet" or "Corvette" engine conversion unlike most of the other Maseratis that were there. The car appears to have belonged to an Escuderia Tubularte.

On 30 June 1963 Ciro Cayres, another member of the said Escuderia, drove this car beating the "mecanica" Maserati 250Fs-Chevrolets in the first heat of the GP IV Aniversario do Automovel Clube Estradual de Sao Paulo at Interlagos. It retired in the second heat but much praise was heaped on the car for its prodigious speed.

On the 10 March, 1964 Cayres defeated the 250Fs to win the GP Roge' Ferreira then entered the GP Constantino Cury on 28 April but appears to have non-started. On both occasions it was entered in the sports car class and there was no mention of a Chevrolet engine, just 4500cc. This is the last appearance I can find, but my records are incomplete and/or races were often cancelled.

Sadly no photos. During this period there appears to have been two Maserati 300S cars active, one raced by Ubaldo Cesar Lolli 1963/1965 and one by Edoardo Calidoneo 1963/64. One of these was probably the ex-Tubularte car. The other was possibly the 300S that Mario Cabral drove to win the I Circuito do Estado da Guanabara on 7 November 1960.

Sorry, if I'm teaching grannies to suck tridents.

John

[dmj]

Wasn't there a rumour that there is another 300S in Brasil, in collection of Flavio Marx? Although I seem to recall that it was eventually confirmed that it's just an 150S chassis.

[tam999]

German Maserati expert Walter Baeumer sent me an email recently in which he said the "Mystery 300S" was "definitely 3067".

Tam McPartland

[WINO]

With first-hand access to Brazilian newspaper reports of the early sixties, John Humphries makes some interesting comments on little known races in that country. Valuable details, as these events were just not reported by the European and U.S. racing magazines at the time.

But there WAS a 450S Maserati in Brazil in the early Sixties. It started life as chassis 4503, the 1957 Sebring winner in the hands of Behra and Fangio. At Caracas Moss used the same car to T-bone Hap Dressel's AC Bristol. The damaged car was rebuilt in Modena and sold in 1959 as chassis 20 [4520 would have been a more logical number] to one Emilio Zambello in Brazil, where it was raced until 1964.

The upcoming Maserati 450S book has a photo of Ciro Cayres in the 450S at the Formula Libre grid for the Interlagos 500 KM, supposedly in 1960, although John's account makes me wonder if it wasn't really 1963. The driver's door has the name Tubularte, which John refers to as the Escuderia Tubularte. However, the front fender has the letter Equipe Ganzia and I wonder what the connection is between these names. Aperitif sponsorship?

Chassis 4503/20 is currently owned by Bruce McCaw and comparing recent photos of his 450S with the image showing Ciro Cayres, the cars look identical, although very different from the original Sebring features.

WINO

[Bill Harding]

Am amazed that this died so quickly!
I am completely unconvinced by all posts on this subject...
I am sure it is only coincidence but.......was offered a remarkably similar looking car for sale in Bristol. It had the same stripes but obviously cannot possibly be the same car as it did not have the California signwriting underneath and no one would add it.
It was based on a much modified Maserati 3500 chassis with a 4.2 Indy engine, To add to the coincidence, when I enquired as to where it had gone, was told Italy...........

[Bill Harding]

Just dug out more information on the "Bristol" Maserati "Special". Originally it had a Maserati 3500 engine (6 cylinder) later replaced with V8. The car had reproduction 300S radiator and fuel tank made by Steve Hart and I understand it has now been sold to Italy (Florence)

[Bill Harding]

Whilst at Retromobile I heard that the maserati (note small m) had surfaced again in Italy. There is a thought that some of its bodywork might originate from the Knopfler car (3035) having been discarded during accident repairs. Two coincidences...a "freshly discovered" 300S is being offered for sale apparently with a letter of authenticity from Walter Bauemer and a genuine 300S engine has been bought from the U.S. and has ended up in Italy.........if you add that lot up I wonder what you get

[sandy]

Maserati 250F - Chevrolets! I guess everyone else knows of these, but this new to me; would it be possible for someone to put up a photo of one?

How did they perfom?

If only Formula Libre had hung on in South America and Australia.

Vanwall Novi V8, 450F Maserati, 375+ Dino - all absurd I suppose, but ample scope for imagination to run riot here.

[O Volante]

Due to business commitments I'm currently not able to TNF as I should, but I can not restist to add a little on my pet subject Maseratis in Brazil.
There can't be any doubt about a 450S living for a period in the country. In the Portuguese magazine "Mundo Motorizado"'s report on the "Circuito da Guanabara" - the 'nova denominacao do Grande Premio Automovel do Rio de Janeiro' in late 1960 there is a picture (sorry, still no scanner!) showing Henrique Casini crashing into the barriers with his Maserati '4500', race #6, and damaging the rear parts. As it is further related, he nevertheless finished the race in 4th place. Other pictures of the car are found in Adelino Dinis' biography of Mario Cabral, who won the race in a Suderia Sud 300S.

Another later reference plus picture of apparently the same car is found at

http://www.speedonli...&sql_query=9640

a report on the 500k de Interlagos in 1961 - the well known picture (that also appears elsewhere on the net) is said to show the 1st and 3rd placed Maseratis 450S and 300S, duroing the race driven by Celso Lara Barberis, Ruggero Peruzzo and Emilio Zambello, taking the chequered flag.

And yes, in addition to the 450S, there must have been at least two 300S in Brazil during the
early 1960s. Surely Camilo Christofaro had one, only sold after his death in the late 1990s, while a second was owned by Celso Barberis, also sold from Brazil during the 1990s.

The car mentioned and shown in the pictures here

http://www.parachoqu...m.br/Aguiar.htm

is most likely the Christofaro car - please compare the appearance with one of the pictures here at

http://www.obvio.ind.....o Caninde.htm

said to show Camillo in his single-seat (probably 250F) Maserati-Corvette.

Unfortunately, all this is not solving the question of the engines installed in the cars at the time - the history of the Masers in Brazil - well, the whole history of racing in Brazil up to the 1980s - still requires a lot of work!

Somebody seriously interested to start research? Please send pm!

[Leif Snellman]

I'm forwarding these comments from Walter Bäumer:

Originally posted by dmj
Wasn't there a rumour that there is another 300S in Brasil, in collection of Flavio Marx? Although I seem to recall that it was eventually confirmed that it's just an 150S chassis.

This is not correct. In fact Marx owned the 200S #2408 which was purchased by an US-collector in 2004.

Originally posted by tam999
German Maserati expert Walter Baeumer sent me an email recently in which he said the "Mystery 300S" was "definitely 3067".

This is correctly reported but in the meantime I corrected my statement to Tam that I am very convinced now that this car is a fake as I found some evidences for this. Also serious questions to this Alessandro about this strange car stayed unanswered. Tam took my former comment away from his site!

Originally posted by Bill Harding
Whilst at Retromobile I heard that the maserati (note small m) had surfaced again in Italy. There is a thought that some of its bodywork might originate from the Knopfler car (3035) having been discarded during accident repairs. Two coincidences...a
"freshly discovered" 300S is being offered for sale apparently with a letter of authenticity from Walter Bauemer and a genuine 300S engine has been bought from the U.S. and has ended up in Italy.........if you add that lot up I wonder what you get

I never offered a "freshly discovered" 300S for sale nor did I ever offered a letter of authenticity with such kind of car! The genuine engine Bill Harding mentioned is #3073, coming from collector Dr. Fred Simeone from Philadelphia/USA who sold it for very stiff money to Italy. Another and genuine engine with this number is fitted in the Peter Kaus car (Chassis #3073) in Aschaffenburg/Germany, confirming, that Maserati made quite often more than only one cyl.-head (the engine blocks were never stamped!!) with the same number!

[550spyder]

Some informations:

Tubularte was a sponsor and not scuderia, the Maserati 450S was raced by Equipe Gancia.
Tubularte was a kitchen furniture factory and his owner was José Gimenez Lopez, a close friend to Chico Landi and Christian Heins. Tubularte made six Landi-Bianco Formula Jr. Before 1960 they made a kind of Formula Vee using parts of a Porsche 1500cc.
Ciro Cayres was the driver, the 450S belonged to Emilio Zambello and Rugero Peruzzo.
Four 300S raced in Brazil but only two were sold and remained here. Both were sold by Fangio to local drivers, they were bought by Colin Crabbe and belong now to Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits.
The Flavio Marx Maserati was a 200S and was acquired by Jay Felter and sold in US to Scot Rosen.

I believe the 450S is the one that is in Italy because the owners and their friend and sponsor Gancia have strong links with Italy. Later they became partners in a dealership of Alfa Romeo and Ferrari. Nobody knows nothing about the destiny os the 450S here in Brazil, the car discretly desapeared in the sixties. Actually it was a real junk, nobody wanted it, the only driver that tamed it was Ciro Cayres.

[JoBo]

Some informations:

Tubularte was a sponsor and not scuderia, the Maserati 450S was raced by Equipe Gancia.
Tubularte was a kitchen furniture factory and his owner was José Gimenez Lopez, a close friend to Chico Landi and Christian Heins. Tubularte made six Landi-Bianco Formula Jr. Before 1960 they made a kind of Formula Vee using parts of a Porsche 1500cc.
Ciro Cayres was the driver, the 450S belonged to Emilio Zambello and Rugero Peruzzo.
Four 300S raced in Brazil but only two were sold and remained here. Both were sold by Fangio to local drivers, they were bought by Colin Crabbe and belong now to Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits.
The Flavio Marx Maserati was a 200S and was acquired by Jay Felter and sold in US to Scot Rosen.

I believe the 450S is the one that is in Italy because the owners and their friend and sponsor Gancia have strong links with Italy. Later they became partners in a dealership of Alfa Romeo and Ferrari. Nobody knows nothing about the destiny os the 450S here in Brazil, the car discretly desapeared in the sixties. Actually it was a real junk, nobody wanted it, the only driver that tamed it was Ciro Cayres.

 

Sorry to correct you -

according to my humble knowledge Nick Mason never owned a 300S.

Camillo Christofaro owned a 300S (#3062). This car was auctioned by his family via Christie`s in 1999 and is since owned by L.A. in CT, USA (Colin Crabbe had nothing to do with this car).

The 200S, chassis #2408, sold by Jay Felter to Scott Rosen was sold upon its restoration and is  now since almost 10 years in the UK.

The 450S (#4503) in Italy (ex-Casini in Brazil) left this country many moons ago and is now owned by collector B.M. in the USA. Only 2 450S are in Europe: #4502 and #4506.

 

Jobo

Edited by JoBo, 30 March 2015 - 16:10.

[550spyder]

Sorry to correct you -

according to my humble knowledge Nick Mason never owned a 300S.

Camillo Christofaro owned a 300S (#3062). This car was auctioned by his family via Christie`s in 1999 and is since owned by L.A. in CT, USA (Colin Crabbe had nothing to do with this car).

The 200S, chassis #2408, sold by Jay Felter to Scott Rosen was sold upon its restoration and is  now since almost 10 years in the UK.

The 450S (#4503) in Italy (ex-Casini in Brazil) left this country many moons ago and is now owned by collector B.M. in the USA. Only 2 450S are in Europe: #4502 and #4506.

 

Jobo

Well, I´m not in pop music, belongs to a famous, Nick Mason or whoever doesn´t matter to me. May be Christófaro family auctioned the car to Christie, but I have a photo of the 3062 advertised by Exclusive before restoration, it was white, poor white. Camilo knew Crabbe very well and the have a discussion may be about the 250F.
About the 450S, as I said, nobody here knows nothing about the car destiny, including me, I only deducted that ir was in Italy because of Gancia. As I said, the car was a real lemon. If it is in USA I have to believe.
Amazing that it passed ten years after the 200S have been sold.

Edited by 550spyder, 30 March 2015 - 21:43.

[RA Historian]

 As I said, the car was a real lemon. If it is in USA I have to believe.
Amazing that it passed ten years after the 200S have been sold.

That lemon, 4503, won Sebring in 1957 driven by Fangio and Behra.

[JoBo]

That lemon, 4503, won Sebring in 1957 driven by Fangio and Behra.

 

 

....and is worth today probably US$ 15m ....or more!

Not bad for an ol` lemon....

 

JoBo

Edited by JoBo, 31 March 2015 - 08:46.

[550spyder]

That lemon, 4503, won Sebring in 1957 driven by Fangio and Behra.

Do not kill the messenger, people don´t like the car at that time. As far as I know Peruzzo drove the car only one time and hated it. They lent the car to Ciro Cayres that was a real driver.

The 300S have different fame, all drivers that drove it adored.

I´m only telling what I heard and saw. If you don´t like, it is easy, don´t be a child and don´t read.

[550spyder]

....and is worth today probably US$ 15m ....or more!

Not bad for an ol` lemon....

 

JoBo

Same response:

 

Do not kill the messenger, people don´t like the car at that time. As far as I know Peruzzo drove the car only one time and hated it. They lent the car to Ciro Cayres that was a real driver. 

The 300S have different fame, all drivers that drove it adored. 

I´m only telling what I heard and saw. If you don´t like, it is easy, don´t be a child and don´t read.

If it worths 15 million doesn´t matter, the proportion of birth is 10 idiots for one smart. Sometimes one idiot got money to buy a lemon.
 

Edited by 550spyder, 31 March 2015 - 11:21.

[JoBo]

I'm forwarding these comments from Walter Bäumer:

This is not correct. In fact Marx owned the 200S #2408 which was purchased by an US-collector in 2004.

This is correctly reported but in the meantime I corrected my statement to Tam that I am very convinced now that this car is a fake as I found some evidences for this. Also serious questions to this Alessandro about this strange car stayed unanswered. Tam took my former comment away from his site!

I never offered a "freshly discovered" 300S for sale nor did I ever offered a letter of authenticity with such kind of car! The genuine engine Bill Harding mentioned is #3073, coming from collector Dr. Fred Simeone from Philadelphia/USA who sold it for very stiff money to Italy. Another and genuine engine with this number is fitted in the Peter Kaus car (Chassis #3073) in Aschaffenburg/Germany, confirming, that Maserati made quite often more than only one cyl.-head (the engine blocks were never stamped!!) with the same number!

 

Yes, I found this engine #3073 with Peter Kaus 300S (#3073) when I did research for my 300S-book. I was surprised as Fred Simeone had just offered me his genuine engine with the same no.!

I contacted Joel Finn and he confirmed by lookingin his old files that #3073 had been sold new to the USA including a spare motor.

 

JoBo

[JoBo]

Same response:

 

Do not kill the messenger, people don´t like the car at that time. As far as I know Peruzzo drove the car only one time and hated it. They lent the car to Ciro Cayres that was a real driver. 

The 300S have different fame, all drivers that drove it adored. 

I´m only telling what I heard and saw. If you don´t like, it is easy, don´t be a child and don´t read.

If it worths 15 million doesn´t matter, the proportion of birth is 10 idiots for one smart. Sometimes one idiot got money to buy a lemon.
 

 

I think you clearly misunderstood something here....!

Nobody wants to blame you for anything. I just corrected some infos you had - nothing more.

 

Driving a 450S is nothing for the fainted heart. The car is a gun with bad brakes, sheer endless power and ....heavy! I once drove #4502 and was shocked how bad those brakes were....

But those "idiots" like Moss, Fangio and Behra etc. could handle it.....

 

JoBo

[RA Historian]

Do not kill the messenger, people don´t like the car at that time. As far as I know Peruzzo drove the car only one time and hated it. They lent the car to Ciro Cayres that was a real driver.

The 300S have different fame, all drivers that drove it adored.

I´m only telling what I heard and saw. If you don´t like, it is easy, don´t be a child and don´t read.

For heaven's sake, take it easy! My, we read an awful lot into a rather innocuous statement, don't we? I was merely stating that the car could not have been that bad since it did score a major win. I wonder who is the one with the childish reaction in this exchange.

[Ced944s]

Hello,

 

I'm french and I speak a little English.

In early August, I think I saw this car at the Nurburgring.

What do you think ?

 

 

 

 

Cédric

[raceannouncer2003]

According to the program:

 

Sator, Alexander, Maserati 300 S, 2994 cc, 1956 

 

Apparently his first time in the car.

 

Does one of our Maserati experts know which one this would be?

 

Vince H.

[Ced944s]

Hello,

 

I'm french and I speak a little English.

In early August, I think I saw this car at the Nurburgring.

What do you think ?

 

 

 

 

Cédric

no information about this car?