Maserati spotters’ guide for the 2026 Goodwood Revival

Brooklands Trophy

Among the pre-war Bentleys, Aston Martins, Alfa Romeos and Frazer Nash examples lining up for the Brooklands Trophy on Saturday morning is a very special lone Maserati.

Before his death in March 1932, Alfieri Maserati developed an advanced supercharged eight-cylinder engine to advance the marque’s credentials as a Grand Prix rival to Bugatti and Alfa Romeo. It would power the Trident’s next major racing car, the 8C 3000, of which only two examples were made for the 1932 and ’33 seasons.

Chassis 3001, set to be raced by Josef Rettenmaier this weekend, has some history. The great Giuseppe Campari won the 1933 French Grand Prix on the banked Montlhéry track in this car. Then later that year it was involved in one of pre-war motor racing’s blackest days, at the Monza Grand Prix which was held solely on the banked version of the circuit. Both Campari in an Alfa Romeo and Count Baconin Borzacchini, following in the 8C 3000, lost control at the South Curve, possibly on spilt oil.

The cars both crashed over the outer retaining wall and both drivers lost their lives, on a day when another top-line racer, Count Stanislas Czaykowski, was also killed in a separate accident. Once repaired, the Maserati was sold on to an Italian privateer, Eugenio Siena, who continued to race it, including at the 1934 Monaco Grand Prix.  

Lavant Cup

Dubbed this year as the ‘Battle of Modena’, the Lavant Cup runs solely for Ferrari and Maserati 1950s sportscars on Saturday afternoon, so there are Tridents aplenty lined up for this one.

A trio of curvy A6GCSs are on the entry — A for Alfieri Maserarti, 6 for the number of inline cylinders, G for Ghisa, meaning cast iron engine block, and CS for Corsa Sport, or sportscar. Also keep an eye out for the lone 450S, again set to be driven by Josef Rettenmaier, which for some is the ultimate expression of 1950s ‘big banger’ sportscars before the 3.0-litre engine capacity limit kicked in for 1958.

Chassis 4506 is said to have been an ex-works car sold as new to American John Edgar in the second half of 1957 and was raced by Carroll Shelby. It was subsequently powered by a Pontiac V8, and later a 6.2-litre Maserati racing boat engine! In Rettenmaier’s hands, the 450S has become a familiar and popular contender on today’s historic racing scene.

Goodwood Trophy

There’s another rich spread of Maseratis, this time pre- and early post-war Grand Prix cars, ready to contend for the Goodwood Trophy later on Saturday afternoon.

Four, six and eight-cylinder examples abound. Keep an eye out for the Tipo 26M (for Monoposto), which is always driven with gusto by Julian Mazjub. This was the model in which Achille Varzi scored a number of big wins during the 1930 Grand Prix season.

Also, there’s an example on the entry list of a 1949 4CLT, the pace-setting model in Grand Prix racing just before the World Championship era began in 1950. It was in a 4CLT that Derbyshire garage and haulage business owner Reg Parnell claimed the first Goodwood Trophy — and the inaugural Formula 1 win at the West Sussex circuit — at the opening meeting on 18^th September 1948.

How fitting it would be to see James Blakeney-Edwards roll out on to the Motor Circuit among the ERAs, Bugattis, Rob Hall’s wailing BRM V16 and Maserati’s greatest rival of the era, the Alfa Romeo 158 ‘Alfetta’, as set to be driven this weekend by Peter Greenfield…

Richmond & Gordon Trophies

A quartet of what most would agree is the greatest Maserati racing model of them all is preparing to grace the Richmond & Gordon Trophies contest, also running on Saturday afternoon.

The 250F isn’t just the most celebrated Maserati, it is considered among the greatest of Grand Prix cars, via the stirring achievements of Stirling Moss, Jean Behra and Juan Manuel Fangio, who scored his greatest win in one at the Nürburgring, along with his fifth and final world title in 1957.

Michael Peet, Andy Wills, John Spiers and Brad Baker are looking to take on the horde of rear-engined Coopers and Lotuses this weekend. If it rains, expect the front-engined 250Fs to come into their own against the slightly younger rear-engined cars.

Sussex Trophy

Closing the action on Saturday will be the Sussex Trophy for sportscars that raced in the World Championship between 1955 and ’60. Among the assortment of Listers, Lotuses and Coopers in what this year runs as a two-driver race is a 1959 Maserati Tipo 61 ‘Birdcage’ driven by Marino Franchitti and rapid TV presenter Chris Harris.

Built on an intricate spaceframe made from around 200 small tubes (hence the unofficial ‘Birdcage’ moniker), the original Tipo 60 created by chief engineer Giulio Alfieri offered torsional rigidity mated to lightness. Powered by a 2.0-litre in-line four-cylinder engine, it proved nimble and well-matched to the evolving breed of sportscars emerging from the British ‘garagistes’ in the late 1950s. So much so that factory driver Stirling Moss encouraged a 3.0-litre version — the Tipo 61.

The model delivered what turned out to be among Maserati’s final successes on motorsport’s international stage — at least until the Maserati MC12 GT1 revived the marque as a competitive proposition many decades later. Moss and Dan Gurney claimed a famous win at the 1960 Nürburgring 1000Kms in a ‘Birdcage’ run by Lloyd ‘Lucky’ Casner’s Camoradi racing team, a feat repeated a year later by Casner himself sharing with ‘The Kansas City Flash’, Masten Gregory.

Finally, one more Maserati to spot. Among the many attributes of Lister’s sports racers was for their chassis to accept a range of engines. Jaguar power was most common, but Chevrolet engines provided an effective alternative source. So, what about Maserati? Well, there was one — built specially for works driver Archie Scott Brown in 1956.

Brian Lister took a 2.0-litre twin-overhead-cam six-cylinder engine from a Maserati A6GCS to match to his lightweight tubular steel chassis, and the extrovert Scott Brown made the most of it with a string of noteworthy performances. Robin Donni and Fred Martin-Dye are set to share the car this weekend, adding further to the depth of Maserati magic as Goodwood is seduced by the style and charm of ‘La Dolce Vita’.

Main image photography by Jayson Fong. 

Saturday tickets and 3-Day passes for the Goodwood Revival have now sold out, and Friday and Sunday tickets are limited. 

If you’re not already part of the GRRC, you can sign up to the Fellowship today and save ten per cent on your 2026 tickets and grandstand passes, as well as enjoying a whole host of other on-event perks.