Maserati
June 7th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
Tim visits Classic Car Rentals in Hokitika to check out two simply stunning classic replicars
Alfa Romeo’s 8C 2900B has the wow factor. See one in the street, anywhere in the world, and you’ll drop your jaw wide open and be unable to communicate anything much more than a few expletives.
So, seeing this long and low silver bullet on New Zealand’s West Coast is more than little unusual. And it’s a race car for goodness sake — why did they need to make a race car so beautiful? Did it need to be this gorgeous to go fast? It was designed to race — and race it did, winning honours at many a Le Mans and Mille Miglia 24-hour race between 1931 and 1934.
The Alfa’s designer, Vittorio Jano, was a famous bloke, and with this one he designed a good one with an engine that would become arguably the 1930s’ best. Initially a 2.3-litre, it was made up from two twin-overhead cam four-cylinder engines, and first saw the race track in the Tipo B ‘P3’ Grand prix racers and the 8C 2300 sports cars. By 1935 it was up to just over 2.9 litres and in its finest hour it could chug out 190kW (255bhp), although for reliability a smaller 164kW (220bhp) version was used.
Read the rest of this entry »May 24th, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
I have been fascinated by this car since its inception, so it was with great anticipation that I dived into the book. I wasn’t disappointed. Citroën enthusiasts will already know a great deal of the scene-setting that makes up a fair proportion of this volume, but many of the illustrations in that part of the book are new to me, so it maintained a high level of interest.
For someone who knows little about the Citroën marque, its models and history, the book is perfect, constructing a great picture of the build-up to the SM, what went on around it and the reasons behind its relatively short production run. It then goes on to note the cars that came afterwards that benefited from the SM experience, and concept cars Citroën has produced since which have a taste of the SM about them.
The mix of text and pictures is well balanced, and the complete press pack (in French) is, I feel, a worthwhile inclusion. While the book covers old ground I believe it is a must for a Citroën enthusiasts, and even better for the merely curious.
SM: Citroën’s Maserati ¨Engined Supercar by Brian Long and Philip Claverol
Review books supplied by ¨Techbooks
Review by Tim Nevinson
January 21st, 2009 by NZ Classic Car
Traffic in London’s Pall Mall came to a halt last week when the legendary Maserati 250F Formula One car driven by rock legend Nick Mason from Pink Floyd called into the Royal Automobile Club to be awarded the title of ‘The World’s Greatest Racing Car’.
The oldest car club in the world welcomed the car after thousands of readers from a British motoring magazine, had voted for the car which had been nominated by Sir Stirling Moss.
“This accolade is more than well deserved,” said Nick Mason. “The Maserati 250F is the archetypal Grand Prix car and, apart from being one of the most beautiful, it is one of the most progressive and forgiving of racing cars to drive. Who can forget what must be the most iconic of motor racing images — Fangio in a full power-slide at the French Grand Prix in 1957, with battle scars evident on the nose? The car that is, not the driver!” Nick Mason is one of the UK’s leading classic and sports car collectors.
The magazine received thousands of votes for the car from readers around the world who had seen a series of articles putting a total of nine famous cars up for the accolade including an Auto Union Type C, Lotus 49, Porsche 917, Cobra, Mercedes-Benz W196 and Toyota TS010 Group C, but it was the 1950s F1 car that won.
The 250F competed between 1954 and 1958, during which time it won 55 races. It first raced in the 1954 Argentine Grand Prix in the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio, who won the first of his two victories before he left for Mercedes Benz. Sir Stirling Moss raced his privately owned 250F for the full 1954 season. In 1956 he won the Italian Grand Prix and the Monaco Grand Prix in his private car, not to mention his win at Albert Park in Melbourne.
In 1957, Fangio drove to four more championship victories, including his legendary win at the Nürburgring where he overcame a 50-second deficit in just 20 laps, passing the race leader on the final lap to take the win.
The cars were nominated by famous motor racing drivers and personalities, including Brian Redman, Damon Hill, Derek Bell, Carroll Shelby, Andy Wallace and Bobby Rahal.
The Maserati 250F was put forward by Sir Stirling Moss, who said: “I have great affection for the 250F because it was the car that gave me my first proper break in Formula One.”
December 11th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
The racing rivalry between these two neighbouring marques began in the ’30s when the Maserati brothers squared off again the Scuderia Ferrari’s Alfa Romeo racers, with the rivalry peaking in the ’50s when both Maserati and Ferrari kept Italy at the forefront of motorsport are they battled for Grand Prix and sports car honours.
Ludvigsen — who has met with many of the key players involved with both marques — details the history of these famous racing rivals, looks at the drivers and the championship victories, and also takes the reader behind the scenes and investigates boardroom planning and workshop secrets.
Today, Ferrari and Maserati are as one, but Red Hot Rivals takes us back to a time when these iconic marques battled for supremacy on the race tracks of the world.
Red Hot Rivals:¨Ferrari vs Maserati by Karl Luvigsen
Review book provided by Techbooks
Review by James Black
December 7th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
The periodsurveyed by this book was a pivotal one for Maserati. It had sloughed off the conservative Biturbo image of the ’80s and, under Ferrari ownership, got back to producing a good-looking GT car — the 3200GT. And that model — whether in the original, 4200GT, Spyder or Cambiocorsa version — forms the main part of this book. The only other Maserati models of the period, the Quattroporte and MC12, make up the remainder, along with a quick look at the current GranTurismo.
This offering from Brooklands Books follows its normal format; a series of road-tests reprinted from a variety of well established motoring magazines. As with other Ultimate Portfolios, all the 40-plus reprints are reproduced in full colour.
Maserati Cars 1999-2007:¨Ultimate Portfolio
Review book provided by the publisher
Review by James Black
October 10th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
Maserati and COYS created a new showcase earlier this week at the fancy Bluebird Cafe in Chelsea, London, displaying three classic Maserati single seat grand prix cars alongside the GranTurismo S, on its official debut on UK roads.
On display were the works 1936 Maserati 6CM, raced to victory by Aldo Marazza at the Naples Grand Prix in 1938, accompanied by the ground-breaking 1948 4 CLT, an ex-works grand prix car, raced by Reg Parnell and later by Juan Manuel Fangio. Finally the iconic 1954 250 F, originally delivered to Tony Vandervell and ultimately driven by Mike Hawthorn completed the line up. The 250 F entered into Maserati history as the car in which Juan Manuel Fangio won the 1957 Formula One World Championship. These three cars have been recently sold by COYS for in excess of five million dollars.
Alongside its illustrious predecessors, the Maserati GranTurismo S received today its official debut on UK roads. The GranTurismo S is the latest expression of Maserati’s sportiness. It has a 440 HP V8 4.7 litre engine, electro-actuated gearbox with fast MC Shift, transaxle layout, sporty exhaust and dual-cast brakes and accelerates from 0 to 100Kph in 4.9 seconds reaching a maximum speed of 294Kph, the highest ever reached by a standard production Maserati.
September 26th, 2008 by NZ Classic Car
Maserati GB were again present at the tenth anniversary running of the Goodwood Revival meeting, this year celebrating 60 years of the Goodwood Motor Circuit in front of a record-breaking crowd of 124,000 spectators over the course of the weekend.
Flawless examples of the Trident Marque were out in force throughout the weekend with a total of 13 classic Maseratis thundering around the circuit. Some of the rarest Maseratis were involved in the on-track action including two Maserati 4CMs and two iconic Tipo 61 Birdcages to name but a few.
Away from the thrilling on-track action, Maserati exhibited in the Earls Court Motorshow, recreating the glamour of an authentic 1960s show. A stunning Maserati Mistral, on loan from celebrity chef and Maserati aficionado James Martin, alongside a Quattroporte (Mk I) wowed the spectators, whilst they were offered a tantalising glimpse of Maserati’s “cars of the future” in the form of the GranTurismo S and Quattroporte S that flanked their 1960s counterparts.
During the course of the Goodwood Revival weekend, Maserati GB hosted a series of exclusive events for its clients: on Friday a cocktail party at Goodwood House for all the drivers and their guests, followed by a private dinner, and on Sunday 140 guests were treated to sumptuous hospitality and could admire a selection of both modern and classic Maseratis. The spectacular display on the lawn in front of Goodwood House offered guests the opportunity to see the Quattroporte’s evolution in the flesh, with every model in the history of the Trident Marque on display. The Quattroporte I of the 1960s, the exceptionally rare Quattroporte II of the 1970s, of which only 12 were ever produced, the more modern Quattroporte III and IV were accompanied by the Quattroporte V and Maserati’s very latest Quattroporte S. The stunning GranTurismo S completed the Maserati line-up.
August 6th, 2008 by NZCC Editor
Like the dinosaur, European supercars are in danger of becoming extinct. Currently, Europe’s auto manufacturers are locked in a deadly battle with environmentalists who point out that, with their massively powerful engines, supercars are pumping out as much as 2-3 times as much carbon dioxide as more standard cars.
These spoil sports — sorry, environmentalists — reckon that there is no place for the supercar in a world battling untoward emissions and climate change.
Manufacturers such as Ferrari, Porsche and Lamborghini are experiencing an uphill fight as they argue that the cars they produce are iconic vehicles that combine classic design with state-of-the-art technology — technology that could even help to save the environment in the long term. Either way, very few so-called supercars are pressed into service as daily drivers, so their overall contribution to CO2 emissions is very small.
However, the EU proposes to legislate for a decrease in CO2 emissions from cars to an average of 120g @ km by 2012 — currently the average is 160 grams.
This is potentially going to harm many supercars, most of which can squirt out as much as 200-500 grams a kilometre.
For smaller manufacturers there is some relief — those that produce less than 10,000 vehicles a year will be allowed to negotiate their own targets with the EU big-wigs. That lets smaller niche manufacturers — such as Lotus and Morgan — off the hook and would also throw a life-line to newly independent Aston Martin.
However, that won’t be much help to Porsche, Maserati, Ferrari and Lamborghini as they are all part of larger auto groups — so, for instance, Ferrari wouldn’t have the opportunity to set their own emission standards as they’d be lumped in with the much larger volume of vehicles produced by their parent company, Fiat.
What does the future hold for the supercar? Electric power? An electrically powered Ferrari would be a bit hard to swallow — the whirr of electric motors isn’t going to stir the blood quite as efficiently as the howl of a petrol-powered V12 at full noise!
In the meantime, the German and Italian auto makers are arguing strongly against these new proposals — let’s just hope that common sense prevails. It would be a less interesting world without Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini and Maserati sports cars — we can’t all afford to own one, but we can at least admire them from a distance.
Of course, there is another solution if the worse comes to the worse — ship all the world’s supercars to New Zealand. We’ll look after them for all those well-heeled, supercar-owning Euros — then they can nip down here for a few days every year and thrash them around one of our race-tracks before heading off home. It’s not such a daft idea, ‘supercar resorts’ already exist in the US and Spain for just such activities — so why not here?
The world would be a poorer place without cars like the Ferrari Enzo
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