Maserati is a name for many that is inseparable from motorsport. Perhaps fairly characterised as an ill-organised and under-funded outfit, the trident-bearing Italian racing squads often managed to punch above their weight in competition.
Unpretentious in design though notorious for their reliability problems, Maserati forged themselves an iron-clad reputation for beauty and speed on track over the years. For all the choice of gorgeous Maseratis, these are the top six in my book.
The first Maserati on our list, the 8CTF has an impressive – if slightly chequered – record.
Racing in 1930s Europe, the Maserati race team faced the dominant Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams. Between 1935 and 1939 the two crack German race squads secured all but three victories in official championship races. By 1937 the Silver Arrows drivers were pedalling missiles with up to 650bhp capable of rocketing to 190mph in Grand Prix spec and upwards of 270mph on record attempt runs. Only Alfa Romeo were able to keep up with the German pace during this period, bar a smattering of non-championship race victories from Bugatti, ERA and Delahaye with Maserati among the lucky few.
That said, by 1937 the Bologna squad had new owners – the Orsi Group – that brought with them new money and organisational improvements to the Maserati brothers’ operation. The reinvigorated Maserati team was intent on taking the fight to the Germans and the new partnership resulted in the 8CTF (or 8 cylinders “Testa Fissa" - fixed head). While it lacked the sophistication of the Silver Arrows masterpieces, the 3.0-litre supercharged Maserati was quick. Throughout the ’38 season, the 8CTF had pace in qualifying that often resulted in pole positions and high grid positions. In races, it had periods leading the unbeatable Mercedes-Benz and even achieved fastest lap times. As fast as the 8CTF was, wins remained elusive, often due to piston trouble, brake or carburettor failure forcing early retirements. While it didn’t set the world alight during this period, Maserati’s 8CTF was enough to make the invincible German teams nervous, if only briefly.
Interestingly, it was in America that the 8CTF made its name. In the hands of Wilbur Shaw, the Maserati “Boyle Special” won the Indy 500 in 1939 and again in 1940. Such was the renown Maserati had earned through the 8CTF’s Indy successes, it was raced way into the post-war years, last appearing on American ovals competitively in 1950. Maserati remains the only Italian manufacturer to win the Indy 500 and the 8CTF has one of the longest and most successful careers of any single-seater in American motorsport history. Impressed yet? Hold up, there’s more. Louis Unser – hill climb legend and patriarch of the Unser racing dynasty – took the 8CTF to the merciless dirt tracks of Pikes Peak, winning the event with fastest times in both 1946 and 1947.
In failing to hold a candle to the competition in Europe, Maserati forged their own legend in America with 8CTF. Definitely one of the best racing Maseratis of all time.
Conjure an image of 1950s F1 and you might well picture the Maserati 250F. Elegant yet functional, the 220bhp, straight-six 250F was built to the new naturally-aspirated 2.5-litre Grand Prix regulation of 1954. It proved fast straight out of the box in the hands of Argentine icon Juan Manuel Fangio. His two wins in Argentina and Belgium – before moving on to Mercedes – helped secure his second Championship. Whilst the 250F lived in the shadow of Mercedes and Ferrari over the next three years, it was not unusual for championship grids to be filled with Maseratis and privateers even managed wins in non-championship races. Among the successful 250F drivers of this period was Stirling Moss, who described the car as the best of any front-engined F1 cars of the period and even preferred to use a 250F when not driving for Mercedes. Stirling once recalled the 250F: “inclined towards stable oversteer which one could exploit by balancing it against power and steering in long sustained drifts through corners”.
By 1956 with Mercedes out of F1, the Moss/Maserati partnership yielded a revered win at Monaco: they led the whole race, finally – but only momentarily – halting the charge of Fangio and Ferrari. The season was taken ultimately by the Prancing Horse and their Argentine star, but not before Maserati and Moss gave them another run for their money at their home Grand Prix at Monza.
Behind the scenes, Maserati was struggling. 1957 was the last time they fielded a works racing team: but what a glorious exit from F1. Following Moss’ move to Vanwall, Fangio returned to Maserati, whose 250F had been overhauled with a new V12 engine and a stiffer chassis. While new, the 12-cylinder gave no advantage over the previous year’s lightweight 6-cylinder models. Not one to lie down, Fangio won his final World Championship in a hard-fought three-way battle between Maserati, Ferrari and Vanwall.
This final hurrah came after a legendary win at the Nürburgring. Fangio overcame a 48-second gap in twenty-two laps, somehow passing race leader and Brit Mike Hawthorn on the last lap, breaking the lap record ten times in the process. A glorious end to the Maserati factory team and as a result privateers continued running the 250F until 1960 when the rise of rear-engined racers finally rendered it obsolete.
The 1955 World Sportscar Champions Mercedes-Benz had pulled their motorsport operations permanently leaving Maserati as Ferrari’s only real challengers in 1956. The opportunity was too good to miss. While the bored and stroked 6-cylinder 250F-engined 300S was good for 260 bhp in full race trim and had competed in 1955, Maserati was once again overwhelmed with retirements. With only one win in ’55 with Fangio at the wheel, it was clear modifications were necessary to keep up with the more powerful competition.
A longer and more streamlined nose designed to reduce drag proved to contribute to a better season for the 300S in 1956. Stirling Moss and local Argentine hero Carlos Menditeguy won the season opener and Moss repeated the feat with Jean Behra at the Nürburgring. Unable to keep up with Ferrari for the final three rounds they ultimately settled for second in the Championship.
Nevertheless, the 300S was a commercial success for Maserati, which managed to sell over two dozen to customers. Today, the 300S is remembered as one of the finest handling front-engined sports cars ever made and remains one of the most desirable cars from the period.
Some might evidence the success of race cars through legendary wins, forward-thinking engineering or for the drivers who piloted them to glory. The Maserati 420/58 however, became a veritable icon due to its unique conception and its influence on the world of motorsport sponsorship.
Officially without a factory team after 1957, Maserati were commissioned by ice cream company Eldorado to run in the second and final edition of Race of Two Worlds at Monza 1958. Also known colloquially as Monzanapolis, the race pitched the best of American roadsters against top European manufacturers around the newly refurbished banks of Monza. Eldorado and Maserati’s partnership yielded what became the first example of a modern sponsorship deal in motorsport where the car was painted in the colours of the partner company rather than traditional national racing colours.
It also happened to be the first single-seater car in Europe to be sponsored by a brand not linked to the world of motorsport. Stirling Moss’ extensive experience in the 250F – from which the one-off, Eldorado-liveried 420M/58’s chassis was derived – made him an obvious driver choice for the race. The modified 4.2-litre 450S motor kicked out so much power and torque that a two-speed gearbox was all that was needed: one gear to leave the pits, the second to take it all the way up to 200+mph.
The event was split into three heats, with Stirling managing fourth in the first race, finishing ahead of all European cars and the only European entry to come close to touching the American teams. Heat two was also encouraging, with Moss battling for second amongst the American cars for most of the race.
Typical Maserati reliability dropped him back to fifth by the chequered flag but he again finished laps ahead of the other European cars. Unfortunately, Moss suffered steering failure 41 laps into heat three after pushing his Maserati up to fourth place. He crashed into the guard rails at the top of the banking in a 250km/h smash he called the scariest of his career. Whilst only managing a seventh overall Moss and Maserati had bettered the Jaguar D-Types that had taken Le Mans by storm and even the bespoke Ferrari entries.
However, it was the Eldorado sponsorship deal and livery that was the real revolution here, which inspired a stream of external investment into motorsport efforts and hundreds of iconic sponsor liveries. Perhaps you idolise the immortal Gulf-liveried 917? Maybe the JPS Lotus 72? Even the 555 Impreza? You have the Maserati 420M/58 to thank for these gorgeous designs.
Not good-looking in the traditional sense, though strangely evocative with its voluptuous curves, Maserati’s Tipo 61 was hugely sophisticated for the time. Nicknamed ‘Birdcage’ due to the elaborate triangulated lattice of tubes that enveloped the driver, its complex spaceframe was revolutionary for the time. The design was extremely lightweight and proved to be strong and stiff too. The 250bhp, four-cylinder, 2.8-litre motor was mounted well behind the front axle to improve weight distribution and tilted at a 45° angle to reduce the centre of gravity. This all translated to the dream-like handling, for which it is revered.
It proved effective even on the most technical of courses evidenced by back-to-back victories for the Tipo 61 at the merciless Nürburgring 1000 km in 1960 and 1961. The list of drivers only inflates the Birdcage’s mystique: Jim Hall, Carroll Shelby, Walt Hansgen, Dan Gurney, Masten Gregory and Stirling Moss all found success in the Tipo 61. Though, as is the pattern with fast Maseratis, they were plagued with technical issues that ultimately prevented them from winning some of the more glorified races like Le Mans. The old adage ‘to finish first, one must first finish’ was as true as ever and once again Maserati’s cars proved too fragile to push for the highest racing accolades. That said, the Birdcage deserves its place on the best racing Maserati list.
After almost four decades out of motorsport and multiple troubled ownerships, Maserati decided to return to racing once more. Now owned by old rival Ferrari they were offered an Enzo chassis and 6.0-litre V12 for the basis of their new GT1 racer. It was required that Maserati build at least 25 cars in order to homologate the MC12 for racing. It was believed that Maserati would meet this requirement but a few design and publicity hiccups put them in the hot seat. The beautiful elongated body had a much lower drag-coefficient than the Enzo and the Maserati had less reliance on underbody aerodynamics. However, it was deemed too wide by racing authorities. To make things worse Maserati’s PR departments had released images showing off the racing car months before the road version, further convincing the FIA – and ACO in particular – that the MC12 was a pure racer, not built in the spirit of the regulations.
A compromise was eventually made to allow it to run – with a smaller rear wing and a weight penalty – in the 2004 FIA GT Championship. Despite this agreement, the MC12 was refused any points for the AF Corse squad’s second and third places at its debut in Imola and again for the win earned at Oschersleben. The MC12 was obviously quick, and after it took victory again at the last race of the season, the FIA finally allowed the Maserati to be homologated officially and their teams to earn points. That said, the MC12’s legality problems persisted throughout its career: certainly the road to victory was not easy.
From 2005 onwards the Vitaphone Racing Team took the Maserati MC12 to five consecutive FIA GT team championship victories giving Thomas Biagi one drivers title with Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini sharing three. By 2011, no teams were set to campaign the Maserati MC12, ending its glorious seven-year reign in GT1. Maserati even built a one-off MC12 for their 100 year anniversary named the “Goodwood Cent 100” which was displayed for the first time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2014.
No doubt one of the greatest GT racers of its era and a great place to end this list of best racing Maserati.
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