1957 Maserati 250F V12

The featured marque at the VSCC SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 was the Maserati and the photograph below shows one of the cars that took part in demonstration runs during the meeting.

It's Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, chassis 2531, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems. When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. The car was later given a 2½ litre V12 engine but I can't find anything that says it was the car's original V12 engine.

1957 Maserati 450S

I took this photograph at Luffield corner during the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's Thomas Bscher in his 1957 Maserati 450S, and as with many Maseratis it's a bit of a conundrum. It seems to be either chassis 4505 or 4506 and originally had a 4½ litre V8 engine. The barchetta.cc history of 4505 says that it was renumbered to 4506 in 1957 and sold to John Edgar in June of that year. In July 1958 John Edgar had a 6.3 litre Pontiac engine installed in the car, but about 12 months later this was replaced with a 5.7 litre Maserati V8 unit. In 1980 when in the ownership of Peter Kaus a 6.2 litre Maserati marine engine was fitted and the car was acquired by Thomas Bscher around 1990. The programme of this Silverstone meeting showed the engine capacity to be 5,600cc.

Pit Lane Activity

The cars here are moving out of the pit lane at the start of the qualifying session for the Chopard HGPCA 100-Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading the exodus are the Maserati 250F's of Jeremy Agace and Thomas Bscher. Jeremy Agace's car (number 2) is a 1954 car with a 6-cylinder inline 2,490cc engine and is chassis #2507/1. Thomas Bscher's car (number 4) is a 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531, one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems.

 

Maseratis and ERA

I took this photograph at Luffield corner during the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

Leading is Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine. The car at the rear is Jeffrey Pattinson's 1954 Maserati 250F, chassis #2508, originally owned and raced by Stirling Moss. The blue car appears to have a number 33 which was an ERA  driven by Duncan Ricketts, and although the programme of the event doesn't identify the four ERAs that appeared in this race, it appears to be R12B. The green car in the background is David Baldock's 1938/39 Alta which was driven by Paul Jaye.

1957 Jaguar D-Type

This car was listed in the programme as a reserve for the HGPCA Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's the 1957 Jaguar D-Type of Thomas Bscher with the driver listed in the programme as Robert Pferdmenges. Thomas Bscher took part in the race in his Maserati 450S. The Jaguar appears to be chassis XKD551 which wasn't raced in period.

1953 Cooper Bristol T23

This car took part in the Chopard HGPCA 100 Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's the 1953 Cooper Bristol T23 - originally known as the Cooper Bristol MkII - of John Beasley. The car has a 1971cc 6-cylinder inline Bristol engine that was derived from the pre-war BMW 328 unit. Father and son Charles & John Cooper had started the Cooper Car Company in 1946, and at first specialised in building cars for the new 500cc class of racing that British enthusiasts had started as a simple and economical way to go motor racing after the war. This developed into the International Formula 3 class in 1950, and Cooper then ventured into the Formula 2 class by putting a 1,100cc JAP engine into one of these cars, way below the 2 litre limit allowed, but even with the lack of power the car was still reasonably competitive because of its light weight. When the World Championship was run under Formula 2 regulations in 1952 because of a dearth of the larger-engined Formula 1 cars Cooper decided to design a car to compete at that level. The 1,971 Bristol engine was chosen, but the Cooper Bristol MkI (later designated the T20) could not really compete with the Ferraris and Maseratis in World Championship races and was much more successful in minor British events. In 1953 the MkII (later T23) car was introduced, having a tubular frame chassis instead of the box section frame of the earlier car and the drive train was altered to lower the driver's seat. Although a better car it wasn't much more successful than the MkI, and the following season when the new 2½ litre Formula 1 regulations came into force the car was rendered obsolete. They still soldiered on for a few years, mainly in minor British events, and then became regulars in the historic racing scene, where they're still to be seen to this day.

Behind the Cooper Bristol is Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems. When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. The programme of this Silverstone meeting shows the engine capacity of the car to be 2,500cc, but I can't find anything that says it's been reunited with the correct V12 engine.

Celebration Maserati Invitation Race

The SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 featured the Maserati marque, and in particular the Maserati 250F. One of the races was a Celebration Maserati Invitation Race, and I took this photograph at McLean's Corner during that race.

Leading is the Tec-Mec F415 of Barrie Baxter, a car that Valerio Colotti was working on as a development of the Maserati 250F when Maserati pulled out of racing at the end of the 1957 season. Colotti set up the Studio Tecnica Meccanica to build the car for the 1959 season, but only one car was built, and it only started in one race, the 1959 US Grand Prix, where it only lasted for six laps. There were 12 Maserati 250Fs listed in the programme of the event for this race and two of them are behind the Tec-Mec here but I can't identify which ones they are - although the one to the right of the Tec-Mec may be the Cameron Miller replica CM7 of Allan Miles. The car with the blue band round the nose behind that trio is the V12-engined Maserati 250F (2531) of Thomas Bscher and the car bringing up the rear is the Cameron Miller 250F replica (CM2) of Ian Duncan, being driven by Rick Hall.

1957 Maserati 250F V12

I photographed his car at Luffield Corner competing in the Chopard HGPCA Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems. When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. The programme of this Silverstone meeting shows the engine capacity of the car to be 2,500cc, but I can't find anything that says it's been reunited with the correct V12 engine.

1957 Maserati 250F V12

This car took part in the Chopard HGPCA 100-Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.

It's Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems.

When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. 

The programme of this Silverstone meeting shows the engine capacity of the car to be 2,500cc, but I can't find anything that says it's been reunited with the correct V12 engine.

Here the car's in the pit lane waiting to go out on the track at the start of a practice session. The car next to it is Jeffrey Pattinson's 1954 Maserati 250F, chassis #2508 that was originally owned and campaigned by Stirling Moss.

Maserati & Lotus

I took this photograph at Luffield Corner during the Chopard Grand Prix Cars Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

Leading the race is the 1957 Maserati 250F, chassis 2531, of Thomas Bscher, a car that was built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the usual 2,490cc straight-6 unit. When Maserati disbanded the racing team at the end of the 1957 season the car was sold minus the engine and at one point acquired a Chevrolet V8 engine which was later replaced with a 3 litre V12 unit from a Maserati Tipo 63. The programme of the Silverstone event shows the engine capacity as 2,500cc. The car challenging the Maserati for the lead is the 2,200cc 1958 Lotus 16 of Chris Drake followed by the Maserati 250F of Jeffrey Pattinson, Tony Smith's Aston Martin DBR4 and what looks to be the ERA R9B of Peter Mann.

On 5 September 2015 I showed photographs of the Maserati 250F V12 that I had taken at Donington Park in  2005.

Maserati 300S

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994 included a race for 1950s sports cars - the Classic Car Sports Car Race - and three examples of the Maserati 300S are listed for that race in the programme of the event. The 300S was produced by Maserati from 1955 to 1959 to contend the World Sportcar Championship and had a straight-6 engine based on the 250F Grand Prix car's 2½ litre unit, but with a longer stroke to bring the capacity up to 3 litres.

Car number 20 was entered by Richard Crump to be driven by Willie Green, and may be chassis #3054, a 1955 model.

Number 21 was Hartmut Ibing's car, probably chassis #3066, a 1956 car.

Number 22 was Burkhard von Schenk's entry, a 300SI model from 1959 and chassis #3082.

In addition to these three cars there was another 300S in the race, number 23, which according to the programme was supposed to be Thomas Bscher's Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage.

He had evidently decided to drive his 300S instead, and this is a 1955 car, chassis #3053.

On 22 September 2016 and 31 October 2016 I featured other examples of the Maserati 300S.

Maserati 450S

This car was entered in the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association Sports Car Race at the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992.

It's Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 450S, and as with many Maseratis it's a bit of a conundrum. It's either chassis 4505 or 4506 and originally had a 4½ litre V8 engine. The barchetta.cc history of 4505 says that it was renumbered to 4506 in 1957 and sold to John Edgar in June of that year. In July 1958 John Edgar had a 6.3 litre Pontiac engine installed in the car, but about 12 months later this was replaced with a 5.7 litre Maserati V8 unit. In 1980 when in the ownership of Peter Kaus a 6.2 litre Maserati marine engine was fitted and the car was acquired by Thomas Bscher around 1990. The programme of this Silverstone meeting showed the engine capacity to be 5,600cc. On 28 July 2015 I showed 2 photographs of the car at the Coys meeting at Silverstone in 1993 where the engine capacity was again said to be 5,600cc.

Maserati 250F V12

The featured marque at the VSCC SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 was the Maserati and the photograph below shows one of the cars which took part.

The car isn't shown in the programme of the event, but it's Thomas Bscher's Maserati 250F V12.

The 250F was introduced in 1954 to compete in the new 2½ litre Formula, but by 1956 it was finding it difficult with the 6-cylinder car to compete with the Lancia-derived Ferraris and the British Vanwalls and it was decided to explore the possibility of fitting a V12 engine into the chassis of the 250F.

This car was purpose-built to use the V12 engine (in other words they didn't take an existing car and replace the 6-cylinder engine with the V12) and is serial number 2531.

The car only had one outing in a World Championship Grand Prix and that was at the 1957 Italian Grand Prix at Monza in the hands of Jean Behra where it retired due to overheating.

Before any further development was able to be carried out financial problems caused Maserati to pull out of racing at the end of the 1957 season.

Here's the car during the race at Donington Park at McLean's Corner leading the 1956 Maserati 250F driven by Rick Hall. Maserati retained the V12 engine when they sold the car and it was by this time fitted with a 3-litre V12 engine from a Maserati Tipo 63 sports car.

Maserati 450S

This car took part in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

It's a 1957 Maserati 450S and was raced at this meeting by the owner, Thomas Bscher of Germany. The 450S had a 4½ litre V8 engine and was produced by Maserati to challenge for the 1957 World Sportscar Championship as the 3 litre 300S was considered to be too underpowered to have a chance of winning that series. Maserati finished in second place in the Championship winning 2 of the 7 races, the Sebring 12 Hour race and the 1000km Swedish Grand Prix at Kristianstad. Thomas Bscher's car was is variously described as being serial number 4505 and 4506 and was originally built for John Edgar of the USA, being fitted with a Pontiac engine at one point when the original engine was blown and returned to the works for repair.

Sir Jack Brabham OBE

It was sad to hear the news of Jack Brabham's death yesterday at his home in Australia's Gold Coast in Queensland at the age of 88. I saw him race on several occasions in the 1950s and 60s at Oulton Park and Aintree, most notably his winning drive in the 1959 British Grand Prix at Aintree in a Cooper Climax T51 on his way to winning his first World Championship. Here are a couple of photographs I took of him preparing to take part in a demonstration run in a Cooper T51 at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1993.

My copy of the programme of the meeting was autographed by Jack Brabham at one of the signing sessions, together with Lofty England, Tony Rolt and Roy Salvadori, all of whom are no longer with us.

Also competing at the 1993 Silverstone meeting was the Cooper Bristol T40 which Jack Brabham drove in the British Grand Prix of 1955 and which in 1993 was owned by Thomas Bscher and driven in the Champagne Charles Heidsieck Sports Car race at the meeting by Katharina Schmidt.

After winning the 1959 and 1960 World Championships with the Cooper Climax T51 and T53 cars Jack Brabham went on to form his own Brabham team and in 1966 became the first (and so far only) driver to win the Formula One World Championship in one of his own cars. For the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996 the organisers paid a special tribute in the programme to Jack Brabham in his 70th year and the front of the programme featured a montage of drawings of him.

Although it did not take part in the racing the Brabham Repco BT19 with which Jack Brabham won the 1966 World Championship was on display in the paddock during this meeting.

Maseratis at Silverstone

These photographs were taken during a practice session during the Christie's International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1992. I don't remember taking the photographs, but looking at the circuit layout as it was then they're obviously taken from inside the paddock at some point between Priory and Brooklands corners.

This is a 1957 Maserati 250S driven by Robin Lodge

A 1957 Maserati 450S driven by German Thomas Bscher, one time head of the Bugatti Automobiles division of Volkswagen AG. Thomas Bscher won the 1995 BPR Global Endurance GT Series driving a McLaren F1 GTR and finished fifth in the 1999 Le Mans 24 hour race driving a BMW V12 LM.

A 1959 Maserati T60 'Birdcage' driven by Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason