Tag Archives: Maserati

Maserati, The Other Italian, Long Beach

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Not too many people know Maserati was a great challenger in the late 30s and the challenger of the early 50s.

While Ferrari was blossoming from an Alfa Romeo driver to a race team director and finally launching it’s own competition car, Maserati was innovative and pushing the envelope.

Go over to the great Veloce Today site for a good recap of that fantastic car manufacturer. Starting with 30s racers, the new manufacturer did very good in Grand Prix races. They even did very well with Wilbur Shaw’s two victories (1939 and 1940) at Indianapolis behind the wheel of an 8CTF Maserati.

From their humble beginning as Isotta Fraschinis tuners to full fledge race cars, to some of the most beautiful and in my opinion THE most beautiful 50s GT, the A6G – 2000, Maserati has been around and thankfully coming back.

I still believe everyone should have an Alfa Romeo for everyday, and a Maserati for every other day.

What You Don’t Know Who Fangio Was? Long Beach

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It occurred to me many younger people have no idea who Fangio is, what old races were like and that Maserati was the car to beat when Ferrari was just a fledging racer.

Maserati was THE F1 car of the early fifties. The Germans went against it, Ferrari went against, Alfa Romeo was destroyed by the WWII and pretty much nothing could touch the beautiful Maserati 250F.

Fangio is considered the best, if not most well know F1 driver in history. This Argentinian gentleman had a knack for racing, understanding his cars but was also a brilliant strategist. His greatest race happened about 50 years ago in August on the Nurburgring track where he set an amazing record. Reading about it makes you excited. Its the kind of excitement we just don’t get in today’s high powered, big money races where drivers are seperated by fractions of second and millions of dollars.

This was another era. This was the era of gentlemen drivers and racing heroes.

Fangio won the most beautiful race in history 50 years ago this month, on 4th August 1957. He was 46! Gives me hope at 42 :) So what was the big deal? He had lost time during a pit stop when a wheel nut ended up under his car – made up more than 40 seconds in seven laps on Hawthorn’s and Collins’ Ferraris. Where do you see this anymore?

Well, you can see it again, at least in a very beautiful and elegant flash presentation on Maserati’s site.

If you have time, I recommend seeing all races but if time is of the essence, please about Monaco and of course, the Nurburgring. These two races have marked history.