29 replies to this topic

[WINO]

Chassis 006 is the last survivor of the three Le Mans Coupes built by Maserati in 1962 for Briggs Cunningham and John Simone. After Cunningham's ownership, the car changed hands a number of times. Chuck Jones [Team Meridian of Santa Ana, California] became the third owner. Its nose was damaged at Bridgehampton in September 1963 and a new nose was designed and installed by Jones. The new aluminum version was hinged upfront just like on the E-type Jaguar, providing much better access to the engine compartment. The car was repainted red. As such Jones sold it in 1965.

I have seen photos of the red "new nose" Tipo 151 on display at various car shows which I have been unable to identify by location or year. By the late eighties the car became part of the Rosso-Bianco Museum. Peter Kaus had the Chuck Jones-built nose section replaced again, trying to create something resembling the car's original nose.

Does anybody have any details about the owner[s] of 006 between the Jones and Kaus ownerships? They are likely to have been of U.S. or British nationality.


WINO

[T54]

I was told years ago by Chuck Jones himself that he never could find a buyer for either his 151 or his Chaparral 1 and after removing the mechanicals from both cars, dumped the hulks in the Irvine landfied, now covered with condos...
He also told me that he sold the "rights" to both cars to another fellow here of which I cannot recall the name, and who built replicas of the cars in the late 1980's when such things were hot.
So what are we to think?

[WINO]

T54,

It is true that Chuck Jones buried one of the former Cunningham T151 Coupes at a landfill which is now probably a UofC football field. But that was 004, the car wrecked by Marvin Panch at Daytona in 1962. Jones had both cars. In 1965 Jones sold 006 to a young Frenchman, who claimed to be related to whoever was the French PM when the Germans overran the country in 1940. A year later Chuck received a request for information from the police as the young Frenchman appeared to be a shady character, living of other people's money. The new owner went to jail, but Jones never found out what happened to 006.

As for the Team Meridian Chaparral, I hear from Chuck that Vintage Motorsport is doing an article about the newly restored/recreated/whatever car.

WINO

[WINO]

Correction: Panch wrecked 004 early in 1963 of course.

WINO

[Paul Medici]

Is this beautiful brute 006? 400KM race - Bridgehampton 1962

The fellow on the left is Leslie Bottrill (sp) who tested customer D-types for Jag before moving to the US. The man wearing the hat is Sir Alfred Momo. I don't recognize the other guys.


Sorry the slide is a bit dusty.




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[T54]

Wino,
thanks for the precision on the Meridian 151's. The French prime minister at the outbreak of WWII was Edouard Daladier, another hero of the "Munich Peace". A political crook member of the Radical Socialist Party, it would not surprise me that anyone related to this naive but dishonest idiot who in a large part caused the fold-out of the French army and air force in 1939 by his stupidity would be another small crook...
I will consolate myself with this MMK slot car:




T54

[WINO]

T54,

It was not the name Daladier that came up, but the one of Paul Reynaud. Very nice model by the way.

WINO

[WINO]

From what I am reading on the internet Paul Reynaud was Premier from March till June 1940, when Petain took over. Unlike Daladier, Reynaud was definitely not a dove and --with Churchill-- he warned against Hitler's rise and its consequences for most of the thirties.

Whatever traits his young family member [if related at all] displayed in California in the mid-sixties, it was vastly different from the role model that Paul Reynaud was himself.

WINO

[T54]

The French prime minister at the outbreak of WWII was Edouard Daladier,

And this is correct. Paul Reynaud came in 6 months after the beginning of the war.
And he certainly did a better job than Daladier... until knocked out. I learned a lot about the potent French air force and navy in 1939, that was basically clobbered on the ground by the Germans because the officers never got the order to fly... "we are at peace, they are not really attacking". Most of the ships were sunk in their harbor instead of going at sea...
After that it gets really ugly, all the way up to today...
The 1/32 scale Maserati 151 slot car is made by MMK of Marseille, France. Nice job indeed...
I am still a bit curious about that second 151.
Regards,

T54

[HistoricMustang]

Correction: Panch wrecked 004 early in 1963 of course.

Believe Panch is still with us and his name is one of the drivers being placed in granite:

http://www.marvinpanch.com/bio.htm

Henry

[Paul Medici]

Can anyone else help with my question in post #5?
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[dbw]

so please help my failing memory..just what was the big 4-cam v8 maserati competition coupe that i drooled over in the back of a body shop in san jose calif circa 1968-9???....it had been semi converted to a street car...anybody??? current wherebouts??

[WINO]

Paul,

The car in your photo -- the beautiful brute-- is in fact the car in question, chassis 151.006, raced by Augie Pabst that weekend.

dbw,

Yours is the second sighting of the above car in the San Jose area around that time. Talking to Chuck Jones again this week, he slightly changed his story and said he turned 006 into a street machine in its original white. Subsequent owners must have changed it into red. The car is in the Rosso-Bianco museum today.

Jones also mentioned that the original 4-liter V8 engine blew at Bridgehamption in 1963 and that he installed a 4.2 liter V8, which is probably still in the car [knowing Peter Kaus' flair for originality!]


WINO

[sneakercats]

Sorry for the late post. I was doing my yearly Maserati 151 006 net search and found this thread. I owned the 006 car from 1970 to 1976. I purchased it from the young Frenchman. He purchased the Maserati and the Chaparral from Chuck Jones in 1966, I believe.
Post #12
The body shop mentioned was probably my shop. I was storing the Maserati during 1968-1969 at a shop that was a former Chevrolet dealer’s body shop on North 3rd Street in San Jose, Ca.
Post #13
The Car was white with blue stripes when the young Frenchman purchased it from Chuck Jones. It was repainted red by noted San Jose car customizer Joe Wilhelm, in late 1966. The color was a 1964 Chevrolet red. It was entered in the 1967 Oakland Grand National Roadster Show in January 1967. The Maserati won the "Peoples Choice Award" at that show. I saw the car at the show and later saw the trophy. It was about seven feet tall. I never saw the car when it was white. The car was not entered in any other car shows during that era.
If I can be of any help with "Maserati 151, The Lost Years" let me know.

[ZOOOM]

What was the Maser coupe that Mossie drove at LeMans?
IIRC he said the car was extreemly hot inside. It didn't last long in the race but it sure was a good looking car!
ZOOOM

[David McKinney]

That was much earlier, a 450S with body designed by Frank Costin but built in Italy (which I think is where the problem lay)

[onelung]

That was much earlier, a 450S with body designed by Frank Costin but built in Italy (which I think is where the problem lay)

Comme ça?

[Bloggsworth]

That was much earlier, a 450S with body designed by Frank Costin but built in Italy (which I think is where the problem lay)

IIRC they didn't understand that the air was supposed to flow round the outside of the car and had holes where there shouldn't be and no ducts where there should be.

[Jerry Entin]

The following comes from Willem Oosthoek:
"Many thanks for this update, Sneakercats.
After residing in the Rosso Bianco Collection in Germany for many years, chassis 151.006 is back in the U.S. again. The Virginia shop doing the engine work recently sent me a video clip of the V8 engine on the dyno and it sounded fantastic."

[ZOOOM]

Comme ça?

Yeah... Dats da one!
It was pretty neet back in the day.
Now, not so much....

ZOOOM

[D-Type]

Comme ça?

I'm not sure this is the Le Mans 450S coupé. The lines are very similar, but the car illustrated in My cars my career differs significantly:

It has a windscreen made up of 4 flat pieces of glass, not a wrap around screen
It has two wipers while this appears to have a single centrally pivoted one
The side window is a two piece sliding one, not one piece
In addition to the bonnet scoop the Le Mans car has what appear to be two NACA ducts
The Le Mans car has no trident badge in the radiator opening.

Is this photo perhaps taken later than Le Mans after Zagato had finished the car?

Whatever it may be, it is certainly not a Tipo 151!

[RA Historian]

Duncan, The photo is one that was taken a number of years after its conversion from the ill fated Le Mans excursion of 1957. According to the definitive book on the subject, Maserati 450-S, by Willem Oosthoek and Michel Bollee, that indeed is the Le Mans 450-S coupe, s/n 4501. To make a very long story short, Byron Staver of Minneapolis, Minn., bought the car from Maserati in April, 1958. The car was completely made over into a road going, albeit brutal, GT by Staver and subsequent owner Harry Heinl. It was completely rebuilt and the result is as pictured above. It was so much of a makeover, that the car was renumbered 4512. But it is the '57 Le Mans car.

Before someone jumps in here, yes, the conversion included a change from right hand drive to left.

It passed through several hands since Heinl, and spent years in the Peter Kaus collection. It was featured in the March, 1963, Salon section of Road & Track. Moss was reunited with the car at Watkins Glen in Oct., 1976. Current owner is believed to be Alfredo Brener of Houston, Texas.
Tom

Edited by RA Historian, 27 June 2011 - 21:12.

[Tim Murray]

According to Dennis Ortenburger in Flying On Four Wheels, his biography of Frank Costin, Mr Staver had the car reworked by Fantuzzi to a configuration more like that originally envisaged by Costin, although I feel sure that Frank would never have countenanced that enormous radiator intake with the Maserati badge in it.

[bradbury west]

Didn't the radical reworking include lengthening it? Must check the source books.
Roger Lund

[Tim Murray]

Yes - by 25 cm, in the cockpit area.

[onelung]

Via the magic of cyberspace ...

[sneakercats]

The following comes from Willem Oosthoek:
"Many thanks for this update, Sneakercats.
After residing in the Rosso Bianco Collection in Germany for many years, chassis 151.006 is back in the U.S. again. The Virginia shop doing the engine work recently sent me a video clip of the V8 engine on the dyno and it sounded fantastic."

Jerry,

Good to hear 006 is back in the US where it spent the bulk of it's racing career. Ask Willem or your friends in Virginia if the throttle linkage is pieced together with parts that have both American and metric threads. If so, this is my handiwork. Also one of the carburetor banjos should be a little different. There was one missing and I had to have a new one made. Back then, (the early '70s) parts availability was non-existent. Hearing the engine run was pure enjoyment. It sounded like it had way more displacement than its 4 liters.

[lanciaman]

Jerry,

Good to hear 006 is back in the US where it spent the bulk of it's racing career. Ask Willem or your friends in Virginia if the throttle linkage is pieced together with parts that have both American and metric threads. If so, this is my handiwork. Also one of the carburetor banjos should be a little different. There was one missing and I had to have a new one made. Back then, (the early '70s) parts availability was non-existent. Hearing the engine run was pure enjoyment. It sounded like it had way more displacement than its 4 liters.

I saw this car and photographed it at Lime Rock in 1977. It was distinctly red.

[Jerry Entin]

Here is the 151 engine being dynoed.

[Jerry Entin]

Sneakercats:
The following comes from Robert Bartlett:

The throttle linkage of engine 1511-008 from chassis #006 does indeed have a mix of metric and American threads, so Sneakercats' handiwork survives. Regardless of how she sounds, the old girl is very close to 4 liters. Other than a clean-up bore, the original dimensions remain.

A significant challenge in the build was reproducing the mouse trap valve springs, some of which were rusted. Each valve uses three springs, two for the valve and one for the roller follower. Our springs are hand-wound.

We will accompany the car to Goodwood this September [God willing and the creek don't rise].

Robert G. Bartlett MEng
Virkler & Bartlett LLC
1975 Slatesville Road
Chatham, VA 24531
Tel 434-432-4409
rgbartlett@vbengines.com