Pit Bull

Pit Bull

1957 Maserati 450S

By Sean Smith

It can be interesting to trace the genesis of a machine, taking note of the influences that led to its creation. In the case of the 450S Maserati, it was catalyzed by an enthusiastic Southern California building contractor/entrepreneur by the name of Tony Parravano.

Parravano got hooked on automobile racing after meeting Jack McAfee, an accomplished racer and mechanic, in the late 1940s. With McAfee wrenching, Parravano started his racing career with Cadillacs, running in California events and also contesting the Carrera Panamerica in Mexico. Parravano loved Italian machinery, especially Ferraris and Maseratis, and with the mid-’50s housing boom in full swing in Southern California, he had money to burn. So, what better way to burn it than to buy fast cars and go racing? Jack McAfee, Ken Miles, Carroll Shelby and Masten Gregory all sat behind the wheels of his red cars with the central dark blue and white racing stripes.

Parravano, however, soon tired of the amateur racing world. He wanted to race for cash, not trophies, so he set his sights on the Indianapolis 500. At the time he was not on speaking terms with Enzo Ferrari, so he barged through the front doors of Maserati with a pile of cash and an idea. He wanted to build a Kurtis racecar powered by a Maserati 4.2-liter engine to take to the 500.

At the time, Maserati did not build engines of such size. They specialized in those with 2- and 3-liter displacements. During the mid-’50s, Maserati’s flagships—the 250F in Formula One and the 300S in sports car racing—had wonderful handling and great brakes, but were quickly growing down on horsepower when compared to the quickly evolving offerings from Ferrari and Jaguar. In fact, by 1956 Maserati was holding on to the front edge of the field by virtue of the talents of the drivers behind the wheel.

Interestingly, as early as 1953, Maserati had plans for a larger engine. Gioachino Colombo was responsible for getting the project started, but with races being cancelled after the horrific crash at Le Mans in 1955, and not knowing what the expected new displacement limit would be—not to mention critical employee changes and the factory’s need to prepare for both the 1956 F1 and World Sports Car Championship seasons—the big engine was not the Modenese company’s top priority.

But with Parravano now dangling a significant amount of cash in the air, Chief designer Giulio Alfieri revived the V8 design, knowing it could be destroked to satisfy the rules for Indy. Thus did Tony Parravano indirectly set in motion the creation of a beast of a machine.

With the resurrection of this larger engine program, it only made sense that Maserati would want to adapt the big powerplant into its horsepower-challenged sports car program. Engineer Guido Taddeucci was tasked with further developing the potent 450 engine, while Valerio Colotti was in charge of the frame and suspension to harness the powerful engine’s massive output.

As the 1956 sports car season came around, the V8 was not ready, but a modified 300S chassis was, so this was mated with a new 6-cylinder, 3.5-liter engine. This new combination was put to the test in the 1956 Mille Miglia, with Stirling Moss driving and journalist Denis Jenkinson navigating. With not enough development time in the car, however, it handled poorly and, under the additional cloud of bad weather, crashed halfway through the race.

By late summer of 1956, the chassis from the failed Mille Miglia car finally got the new V8 engine. Unfortunately, neither it nor the brakes were up to the task of controlling the big engine’s power and its accompanying serious vibration. The factory solved the vibration problem with a different firing order, but the chassis had seen better days. A new stronger space frame was built to take the engine, and a Fantuzzi-designed body to cover it all. This was the first true 450S, and its engine was the most powerful of its time. With 400 horsepower and high torque, it had no equal and was basically bulletproof.

During a 1956 trip to Modena, Parravano saw the newly created 450S and simply had to have it! So, along with a Grand Prix-winning 250F and an upgraded 300S, the new 450S made its way to California. The Indy engines would come along later. Given the machines from the small factory in Modena already owned by Parravano, this made him their top customer. The next two chassis constructed stayed with the factory to do battle in the 1957 World Sports Car Championship.

As production was ramped up, Paravanno’s car was sent off to Buenos Aires for the first round of the WSCC to do battle against Ferrari. The Maserati was so dominant that Ferrari’s team manager asked to have a chicane installed on the two main straights (supposedly for safety) in an effort to try and keep the 450S from taking too much of a lead! The beastly big car seemed a shoe-in for the win with Fangio at the wheel, but clutch failure ruined those chances. The engine may have been world class, but ancillary weaknesses kept the car from the top step of the podium.

For the 1957 12 Hours of Sebring, four cars from Maserati were on the grid—the 450S, two 300S and a 250S. Maserati had all the ammunition they needed to take on Ferrari, Corvette and the Cunningham team’s larger displacement D-Type Jaguars. In the end, Fangio and Behra (450S) emerged victorious, with Stirling Moss and Harry Schell (300S) coming in 2^nd. It would have been 1-2-3 for Maserati except Carroll Shelby and Roy Salvadori’s 300S was disqualified for a refueling infraction.

Going into the Mille Miglia, the big Maser with Moss at the wheel and journalist Jenkinson serving as navigator again, were clear favorites to win the Brescia-Rome-Brescia dash. According to Moss, “I drove it gently down the starting ramp, and we were hardly our of Brescia itself before we were up into high-ration fifth and the rev counter needle was hovering on 6,700 rpm, which was near as dammit 180 mph, and we couldn’t help grinning at each other. It was a fantastic experience.” However, a few minutes after leaving the start in Brescia, while coming into a high-speed turn, Moss applied the brakes only to have the brake pedal snap off under his foot. Only his driving ability kept him and “Jenks” from coming to grief. With no possibility of a repair, their race had ended barely out of sight of the start. Given the problems that would arise again at both the Nürburgring and the 24 Hours of Le Mans, more work was done to try and solve all the little things that were keeping the 450S from victory.

The Swedish Grand Prix worked out better for the very hard-working Moss. He started the race co-driving with Schell in a 450S, then later jumped into Behra’s 300S. Schell later brought in the Maserati he was originally driving with Moss with a bad transmission. By the end of the race, the 450S (#4507) with Behra driving was the winner, while Moss had been behind the wheel of three different cars! This put him on top of the podium as well as on the third tier.

During this same period in time, another American, Temple Buell Jr. of Denver, Colorado, had also caught the racing bug. With no need to work because of a large trust fund, he was able to try his hand as a racecar driver. One thing stood in his way though, his excessive size, so he decided he would be better suited to the role of team owner than driver. In that capacity, Buell soon placed an order with Maserati for a 450S. 

That car, our Profile car, chassis 4508, was finished in October, the first Tipo 54 to leave the factory with an even larger 4.7-liter V8. The car was immediately shipped to Caracas, Venezuela, for the final round of the WSCC in an effort to help the factory win the championship by having as many cars running as possible. With Maserati’s wins at Sebring and the Swedish Grand Prix it came down to this final race for all the glory. Masten Gregory, piloting Buell’s 450S, immediately jumped into the lead—only to flip the car on the second lap. Luckily, Gregory wasn’t hurt, and the 450S—despite landing upside-down—sustained only minor damage. Thus was the quest left to the Maseratis of Moss/Brooks and Behra/Schell. Having worked himself into a comfortable lead, Moss went to pass a slower AC Bristol, but its driver, unaware of the faster car coming up behind, moved directly into Moss’ path.

The ensuing crash left the AC in two pieces after it hit a light pole, and the front of the Maserati badly damaged. Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt. The crash handed Behra the lead, with Moss running back to the pits. Behra then brought the leading car in for a pit stop, but fuel was accidentally spilled and when he restarted the car it burst into flames. Having burned his arms and face, Behra was no longer able to drive, and with the fire thought to be extinguished, Moss was put in the still smoking car. Unfortunately, the fire was not completely out. The seat was still aflame and Moss was burned where no man wants to be burned! As a result, Schell was then put into the big Maserati and sent back out, but as he was preparing to pass Jo Bonnier’s 300S the smaller car’s tire blew, sending it sideways into the path of Schell and the 450S. Schell bailed out just before the car hit a stone wall, rupturing the gas tank and setting it once again on fire! Schell escaped with minor burns, but Maserati’s season was over, and the championship embarrassingly lost to Ferrari. Moss would look back on his time with the 450S and comment, “…on the right day, on the right circuit, it could simply steamroller all opposition. Sadly, that day seldom dawned and there were very few circuits which suited it. I have to say, however, that I wasn’t particularly sorry to say good-bye to the big, brutal 4.5.”

The Beast Goes Stateside

After repairs were made in Miami, Buell’s car headed to Riverside, California. During two days of racing with the SCCA, Gregory took a 1^st and a 3^rd before the well-traveled Maserati was then sent to sunny Nassau. Again with Gregory at the wheel, the 450S won the Tourist Trophy race, following up with a 3^rd in the Sprint race, a 2^nd in the Governor’s Trophy race and a DNF in the International Trophy race when the driveshaft broke.

For 1958, a limit of 3-liters was put on engines for the WSCC, so the big Maserati could no longer compete on that stage. Again back in Miami, now with Carroll Shelby doing the driving, the Maserati won the preliminary SCCA sprint race on January 11, 1958, but failed to finish the next day’s full National when the oil pump quit.

February of that year found the globetrotting Maserati 450S in Havana, Cuba, with Fangio scheduled to drive it. Again, as in Venezuela, the car was given the attentions of the Maserati factory mechanics, though flown to the event on Temple Buell’s dime.

While going over the car, it was found that the 4.7-liter engine had a damaged crankshaft. A spare 4.5-liter team engine was immediately shipped from Modena, but did not arrive in Havana until after the first day of practice on Saturday. General Fernandez Miranda (President of the sporting commission) tasked the Cuban Air Force with picking up the engine in Miami so Fangio would have a proper racecar with which to contest the race.

While all this was going on Fangio practiced in a smaller displacement Maserati, posting a lap time of 2.03.2, with others following close behind. Then, during his first drive in the 450S, Fangio broke the two-minute mark, putting the car firmly on the pole. Prospects for a dominating race looked good, until fate again intervened. In an effort to embarrass the Batista government, Castro’s rebels kidnapped Fangio from his hotel’s lobby the night before the race! The race went on with Maurice Trintignant filling in for the missing World Champion; but this put the 450S further down in the field due to the replacement driver. Who knows what the outcome might have been with “El Maestro” at the wheel. Ironically, the day after the race, Fangio was released, none the worse for wear.

During the remainder of the 1958 season the Maserati contested events on the West Coast and in the Bahamas with Shelby doing the driving. During this time, Temple Buell entered into a racing partnership with John Edgar. Buell had a rag-tag group of people taking care of his racecars in the States and didn’t own his own transporter, so the connection with the established Edgar organization was a perfect solution for Buell. The 450S also had some changes made, the most notable of which was the engine being bored-out to 5.7-liters, resulting in 500-hp. In 1959, the car returned again to Nassau with Shelby and Lloyd Ruby sharing it during Speed Week.

The 1960 season started with a new owner, Texan Jim Hall. Hall completely rebuilt the 450S with the help of his head mechanic Red Byron. Hall then competed throughout 1960 and into 1961 in 13 races, winning four SCCA events outright. By this time though the 450S was beginning to show it’s age and was no longer the “Alpha” racer it once was. Hall subsequently sold the car on to Frank Harrison of Tennessee in April of that year, where it continued to race for some time in the Southeastern United States.

When introduced, the 450S was considered to be ahead of its time. It was the fastest sports racer of its day, but a lack of development and a rush to put it into production for the fight against Ferrari and Jaguar meant a number of minor mechanical failures kept it from dominating the 1957 season. Even though the little Modenese factory only had one year to do battle with their powerful creation, this didn’t stop the car from leaving its mark on the racing world. As Moss would recall, “In terms of sheer power and speed, it marked the high tide of front-engined sports car development.”

Driving the Beast

Looking at the Maserati 450S and thinking about getting behind the wheel is like looking at a lion and thinking about how you are going to put your head in its mouth. There is a very intimidating aura around this racer. This is a no-nonsense, purpose-built, no-holds-barred, win-at-all-costs racing machine. It was built by its Modenese designers and craftsmen with one thought in mind: “Beat Ferrari.” Constructed without the aid of wind tunnels or computers, the aluminum body was skillfully shaped by eye and hand to cheat the wind and win races.

When you finally get up the nerve to climb behind the wheel and turn the key, the first thing you hear is the sound of its twin fuel pumps clicking away by your right leg. Press the starter and all hell breaks loose! The V8 bellows out its song directly into your head and sends vibrations up your spine. The chronometric tach keeps time just behind your foot blipping the throttle. Water temperature and oil pressure gauges are your only other connections to what is going on under that bulging hood.

This machine requires total focus and commitment, meaning you cannot take being behind the wheel lightly. Everything you do must be done in a precise and decisive manor. Even though you want to experience what Fangio, Moss, Hall, Gregory and Shelby experienced, you also have an intense desire to survive that experience. With only a second thought of a roll bar tucked under the headrest fairing, you really don’t want to experience what Masten Gregory experienced!

Give your left leg a heavy workout depressing the clutch, snick the gear lever in the gated shifter into first, bring up the rpm and let out the clutch. The next thing you know, the back end has hunkered down, the nose has risen, and you feel like you have been shot from a gun. This is just pure, raw, elemental power. If you’re not careful, the back end will slide out on you in every gear; there is just no taking it easy. You have to be thinking way ahead down the road, as to how you are going to be taking the next turn—and the one after that. No matter how well the brakes were developed at the time, they are still 50-plus-year-old technology. So a lot of anticipating needs to be done when reeling in all that power.

You can make friends with the Maser, but you have to get to know it first. It’s a bit of a Pit Bull. You have to understand its character before you can really put your foot in it. At the same time, it is very predictable, and lets you know exactly how it wants to be driven. The car can be easily controlled with the gas and the steering wheel in concert together. If you listen well, you can establish a detente between driver and machine. To quote Alain de Cadenet, “You definitely need what all men need to drive one of these.” When all these things align, only then do you have a chance to drive the 450S truly fast! And that is an experience matched by few things in life.

Considering the iconic drivers who were able to dance successfully with this machine, Fangio, Moss, Gregory, Shelby, and Hall—and the other machines and the factories that produced its competitors—one realizes how truly awesome the 450S was.

Resources:

Michel Bollee and Willem Oosthoek

Maserati 450S (The fastest sports racing car of the 50s) 

A complete racing history from 1956 to 1962

Dalton Watson

ISBN: 978-2951364257

Joel Finn

Caribbean Capers: The Cuban Grand Prix Races of 1957, 1958 & 1960

Racemaker Press

ISBN: 978-0- 9647769-5-1

Stirling Moss with Doug Nye

Stirling Moss: My Cars, My Career

Patrick Stephens Limited

ISBN: 0-85059-925-3

Anthony Pritchard

Maserati: A Racing History

Haynes Publishing

ISBN: 1-85960-871-X

Maserati Sports Racers

Unique Motor Books

ISBN: 1-901-977-42-0