Maserati
June 14th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
The Mecum Monterey Auction is due to be held for the third time in California this August and some exclusive metal has already been added to the consignment list. Leading the charge of high-end classic machines is a immaculate 1960 Maserati Tipo 61/60 “birdcage” race car.
The Maserati was first built for motorsport personality Briggs Cunningham, the car (chassis number 2459) is powered by a 2.0-litre DOHC four-cylinder with twin Weber carburetors, a five-speed manual transmission, rack and pinion steering, and four-wheel disc brakes.
The Maserati has been extensively restored with plenty of photographic evidence of the restoration plus FIA papers are included. The Maserati has some motorsport pedigree as well, having competed at Sebring during the 1960 racing season. Read the rest of this entry »
March 30th, 2011 by NZ Classic Car
McRae was still a teenager when he started work on an open sports-racing car that would have not looked out of place on the Mille Miglia or Targa Florio. Around half a century ago the self-built and designed sports car was taking shape, and while it included proprietary components there were numerous innovations. Just as the engineering quality beneath the skin put the car into a 
different level than just another ‘backyard special’, the body was simply a work of art. McRae provided a plaster cast to his friend Jack Paterson, who beat out the bodywork in aluminium with the result being a blend that the name perfectly describes – part Maserati 300S, part Ferrari TR250.
The car was ultimately powered by a much modified Humber 80, but this was engine number three in the Masarrari journey, and although it was the least powerful, it was also the most successful by some margin. An article from The Dominion of March 28, 1961, states: “Twenty-one-year-old Graham McRae of Mirimar [sic], a turner by trade, wanted a racing – sports car. So he built it himself and here it is. For 15 months he lived, slept, dreamed and worked for the car, and last Saturday he finished it.”
At that point the engine was an Austin A70 that had been fitted with a hot cam (a McRae design) and supercharged. When the A70 threw a rod it was replaced by a Lycoming, but that lasted for only one event and in March 2008 was described by its creator as “just an engineering exercise,” and “the sort of thing an enthusiastic kid with no money would do.” Read the rest of this entry »
September 24th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
The Revival is the world’s most popular historic motor race meeting and the only event of its kind to be staged entirely in time era of the 1940s – 1960s that relives the glory days of Goodwood Motor Circuit.
With Maserati a major force in motorsport, the legendary Italian company was out in force at Goodwood with a host of the most exotic classic Maseratis racing on the circuit.
Away from the exciting on-track action, Maserati exhibited in the Earls Court Motorshow, recreating the glamour of an authentic 1960s motor show. A stunning Maserati Mistral Spyder alongside a Quattroporte Mk I wowed the spectators, whilst they were offered a glimpse of Maserati’s “cars of the future” in the form of the new Maserati GranCabrio and the stunning Quattroporte Sport GTS, beautiful evolutions of the 1960s models.
July 20th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
The Pebble Beach classic car event in the States is all on for next month and is shaping up to have an amazing range of cars on display. Already lined up for the concours are the debuts of Morgan’s new EvaGT and Ferrari’s 599 roadster. Notable auction lots include the 1959 Le Mans-winning Ferrari 250 TdF and a famous 1927 Benz once owned by the Marx Brothers. But wait… there’s more.
An ex-Stirling Moss 1956 Maserati 200 SI and a Ferrari 340 America that featured at the 1952 New York Auto Show have also been announced, but they’ll be joined by some formidable classic Italian machinery. Among them will be a rare Zagato-bodied 1954 Fiat 8V, a stunning 1971 Lamborghini Miura S and a pristine alloy-bodied 1959 Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider Competizione, along with the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta SEFAC Hot Rod and stunning 1955 Maserati A6G/54 Zagato pictured above.
The Zagato Maserati is a coachbuilt special which was chosen to represent the marque at the 1955 Turin Motor Show.
Check out the gallery below for more images of the Zagato Maserati and the the Ferrari 250 GT SWB.
May 4th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
A rare 1960 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage has set a new world record for the classic Italian car maker’s unique racing sports car, selling for Euro 2,464,000 (NZ$4,500,520) at the Sporting Classics Auction held by RM Auctions in Monaco last weekend.
The Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage was as technically innovative as it was successful, with its Birdcage nickname coming from its then unique spaceframe or trellis construction that was as light — just 
36 kgs — as it was strong and Maserati provided the car with a beautiful body. In the same way as the Maserati 250F is often acclaimed as the ultimate Formula One car, the Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage is described as the ultimate car built for sports car racing.
Maserati’s racing cars have steadily appreciated in value over the last 20 years as the marque’s rich and successful history gets more and more of the recognition it deserves. The Birdcage is one of the most iconic racers ever to come out of the hallowed Modenese factory. It is a tremendously competitive and enjoyable car to drive and a jewel of engineering.
RM Auctions’ inaugural Sporting Classics of Monaco event held at the Grimaldi Forum was a resounding success, achieving €33,235,917 (US$45,101,139) in total sales and matching the highest dollar single-day collector car auction in history. The 86 per cent sell through rate saw 88 of the 105 pre- and post-war motor cars changing hands, with five automobiles fetching prices in excess of €2,000,000, along with setting two new world records.
To read more about the history of the Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage click through to the press release below. Read the rest of this entry »
February 22nd, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
Kiwi motorsport legend, Chris Amon, has been reunited with the Maserati 250F that kick started his career after a painstaking restoration of the classic Formula One car enabled Amon to get behind the wheel again for the first time in nearly five decades and, despite their respectable ages; Amon still clocked more than 160 kmh.
“It felt very special — the more I drove it, the better it got and the more the memories came flooding back,” said Amon after the drive at Manfield Park, reflecting on being reunited with a great love of his life, a 57-year-old Maserati Grand Prix car.
Read the rest of this entry »February 11th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
Chris Amon’s Maserati 250F, the car that launched the Kiwi driver’s legendary career, is ready for this weekend’s (13-14 February 2010) reunion with its most famous driver since its total rebuild by the Southward Collection.
For the first time in more than 40 years Amon’s Maserati 250F, one of just a few in the world of what has been described as the best Formula One car of all time, was driven at the Fielding Circuit.
The run by the Southward Collection’s highly-prized Maserati 250F was a shakedown ahead of its star outing at the February 13-14 New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild.
The cigar-bodied 2.5-litre front-engined single seater driven by a teenage Amon, worth millions today, is fresh from a comprehensive from-the-wheels-up refurbishment.
The intent today was simply to blow out any cobwebs, Southward restoration manager John Bellamore explained.
“We just needed a couple of laps to make sure everything is working as it should,” said Mr Bellamore, noting that the car was a blast in every sense. “The car hasn’t been run for some years and it hasn’t run in anything like full racing condition since the late 1960s.”
Manfeild chief executive Heather Verry says the session was a reminder of why motorsport fans of all ages need to get to the GP and see the car demonstrated on the circuit during next Sunday’s lunch break.
“The Maserati 250F is a landmark machine — it was the best F1 car of the 1950s – and seeing it in the metal and on the move is just amazing. That glorious sound is so special.
“I am deeply impressed that Chris Amon raced it when he was just 17, and that it was just his second racing car.
“That he was immediately impressive in such potent machinery says so much about the level of natural talent he had — and still has.
“Chris will at the GP, of course, and we think he will be delighted to be reunited with a car that has always been very special to him.”
The display opportunity arises from a commitment from the Southward Museum trust to bring stars of their world-class collection back to active condition.
This went a step further last year when the museum demonstrated an equally precious Ferrari Monza 750 sports car. The national and international response to that breakthrough event astounded Southwards.
Ms Verry said it was great Manfeild could play a role in the museum’s new direction, and she deeply admired the restorers’ determination and innovation. “With the Maserati, as with the Ferrari, this is history in the remaking.”
Bringing the 250F back to full health has been exhaustive and expensive, though the cost is easily dwarfed by the probable value of the last of the great world championship front-engined racers.
Just 26 were built and surviving examples have changed hands in recent years for upwards of $10 million – many times its value when it was retired from racing.
Museum founder Len Southward paid several hundred pounds for the Amon car in the late 1960s in a deal sealed outside a pub.
Amon raced the car in the summer of 1962. The 240 kmh monster was just the Scott’s Ferry-born farm boy’s second ‘proper’ racing car, following a 1500cc Cooper.
A year later he headed to Europe to enjoy a long and illustrious international career, notably leading the Ferrari team for three seasons in the late 1960s.
Amon remains a key figure in New Zealand motorsport, no more so than with the Toyota Racing Series, the high-powered wings and slicks single-seater category contesting next Sunday’s GP.
The Chris Amon Trophy is awarded each year to the overall Toyota Racing Series champion.
The 250F was introduced for the 1954 F1 season and remained on the world scene for the next six years. Between 1954 and 1958 it competed in 46 F1 championship events and won numerous races. It achieved immediate success with period great and five-time world champion Juan Manual Fangio of Argentina.
Amon’s car was bought new from the factory by British team BRM as a test bed. It was the only 250F in which the oil tank was located beside the driver, and just one of two with disc brakes.
Amon had it for the 1962 summer season, highlights being a victory in an all-New Zealand race at Levin and a fighting 11th place in the NZGP at Ardmore.
“I loved that car. You could steer it on the throttle. I’d grown up reading about guys like Fangio and it was from their era.
“It was that car that got me to Europe. Reg Parnell (the British team owner who took Amon overseas) saw me drifting it at Wigram and told me later he’d never seen a 250F driven like that since Fangio retired.”
Everything about the car was special, even the fuel – petrol heavily laced with methanol, with 10 percent acetone, a dollop of benzol and a touch of castor oil. It produced between 220-270 bhp, depending on tune.
“I remember the fuel made excellent paint-stripper,” Amon chuckled in memory. “It was a hugely powerful brew.”
Another with sweet memories of the car is British motorsport figure Stirling Moss.
“It steered beautifully, and inclined towards stable oversteer which one could exploit by balancing it against power and steering in long sustained drifts through corners,” he recalled.
Armchair enthusiasts also think highly of it. Not too long ago readers of a respected British motorsport magazine, Octane, named it the greatest racing car ever. It beat other world-class luminaries as the Auto Union Type C, Lotus 49, Porsche 917, Cobra, Mercedes-Benz W196 and Toyota TS010 Group C.
The name 250F refers to the specifications for F1 in 1954 – a maximum engine capacity of 2.5 litres (hence the 250 number) and F refers, naturally, to F1.
February 8th, 2010 by NZ Classic Car
The sound of high-octane opera reverberated around the Feilding circuit yesterday as a machine heralded the greatest Grand Prix car of all time was given its first outing in more than 40 years.
The run by the Southward Collection’s highly-prized Maserati 250F, a car former Formula One competitor and New Zealand motorsport legend Chris Amon raced as a teenager, was a shakedown ahead of its star outing at the February 13-14 New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild.
The cigar-bodied 2.5-litre front-engined single seater, today worth millions, is fresh from a comprehensive from-the-wheels-up refurbishment.
The intent today was simply to blow out any cobwebs, Southward restoration manager John Bellamore explained.
“We just needed a couple of laps to make sure everything is working as it should,” said Mr Bellamore, noting that the car was a blast in every sense.
“The car hasn’t been run for some years and it hasn’t run in anything like full racing condition since the late 1960s.”
Manfeild chief executive Heather Verry says the session was a reminder of why motorsport fans of all ages need to get to the GP and see the car demonstrated on the circuit during next Sunday’s lunch break.
“The Maserati 250F is a landmark machine — it was the best F1 car of the 1950s - and seeing it in the metal and on the move is just amazing. That glorious sound is so special.
“I am deeply impressed that Chris Amon raced it when he was just 17, and that it was just his second racing car.
“That he was immediately impressive in such potent machinery says so much about the level of natural talent he had — and still has.
“Chris will at the GP, of course, and we think he will be delighted to be reunited with a car that has always been very special to him.”
The display opportunity arises from a commitment from the Southward Museum trust to bring stars of their world-class collection back to active condition.
This went a step further last year when the museum demonstrated an equally precious Ferrari Monza 750 sports car. The national and international response to that breakthrough event astounded Southwards.
Ms Verry said it was great Manfeild could play a role in the museum’s new direction, and she deeply admired the restorers’ determination and innovation.
“With the Maserati, as with the Ferrari, this is history in the remaking.”
Bringing the 250F back to full health has been exhaustive and expensive, though the cost is easily dwarfed by the probable value of the last of the great world championship front-engined racers.
Just 26 were built and surviving examples have changed hands in recent years for upwards of $10 million – many times its value when it was retired from racing.
Museum founder Len Southward paid several hundred pounds for the Amon car in the late 1960s in a deal sealed outside a pub.
Amon raced the car in the summer of 1962. The 240kmh monster was just the Scott’s Ferry-born farm boy’s second ‘proper’ racing car, following a 1500cc Cooper. A year later he headed to Europe to enjoy a long and illustrious international career, notably leading the Ferrari team for three seasons in the late 1960s. Amon remains a key figure in New Zealand motorsport, no more so than with the Toyota Racing Series, the high-powered wings and slicks single-seater category contesting next Sunday’s GP.
The Chris Amon Trophy is awarded each year to the overall Toyota Racing Series champion.
The 250F was introduced for the 1954 F1 season and remained on the world scene for the net six years. Between 1954 and 1958 it competed in 46 F1 championship events and won numerous races. It achieved immediate success with period great and five-time world champion Juan Manual Fangio of Argentina. Amon’s car was bought new from the factory by British team BRM as a test bed. It was the only 250F in which the oil tank was located beside the driver, and just one of two with disc brakes. Amon had it for the 1962 summer season, highlights being a victory in an all-New Zealand race at Levin and a fighting 11th place in the NZGP at Ardmore.
“I loved that car. You could steer it on the throttle. I’d grown up reading about guys like Fangio and it was from their era. It was that car that got me to Europe. Reg Parnell (the British team owner who took Amon overseas) saw me drifting it at Wigram and told me later he’d never seen a 250F driven like that since Fangio retired. Everything about the car was special, even the fuel – petrol heavily laced with methanol, with 10 percent acetone, a dollop of benzol and a touch of castor oil. It produced between 220-270bhp, depending on tune. I remember the fuel made excellent paint-stripper,” Amon chuckled in memory. “It was a hugely powerful brew.”
Another with sweet memories of the car is British motorsport figure Stirling Moss.
“It steered beautifully, and inclined towards stable oversteer which one could exploit by balancing it against power and steering in long sustained drifts through corners,” he recalled.
Armchair enthusiasts also think highly of it. Not too long ago readers of a respected British motorsport magazine, Octane, named it the greatest racing car ever. It beat other world-class luminaries as the Auto Union Type C, Lotus 49, Porsche 917, Cobra, Mercedes-Benz W196 and Toyota TS010 Group C.
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