Der Gutmütige
Stirling Moss sagte: «Der 300S war einer der schönsten, am einfachsten zu fahrenden, am besten ausbalancierten Sportwagen, die je gebaut wurden». Moss muss es wissen, er fuhr ja so einiges (ungern, aber manchmal sogar Ferrari), er schaffte für Maserati mit dem 300S ihren ersten Sieg in einem Lauf zur Sportwagen-Weltmeisterschaft (1956, 1000 Kilometer von Buenos Aires), er war sauer, dass er bei der Mille Miglia im gleichen Jahr keinen 300S bewegen durfte (sondern in den unerprobten 350S einsteigen musste).
Die Geschichte des Maserati 300S begann etwas aussergewöhnlich, als Auftragsarbeit für Talbot. Die grossen Zeiten von Talbot-Lago waren da schon vorbei, das Unternehmen gehörte unterdessen Simca, da verlor man aber schnell Lust und Geld am Talbot 2500 Sport, den man eigentlich bei Rennen hatte einsetzen wollen: später, 1957, trat dann doch noch so ein Rennwagen mit Maserati-Motor bei den 24 Stunden von Le Mans an, doch das ist eine andere Geschichte. Man hatte nun aber schon gut vorgearbeitet in Modena, man konnte sich an die Verfeinerung des von Gilco aus runden und ovalen Rohren konstruierten Fahrgestells machen. In das Maserati zuerst einen 2,8-Liter-Reihensechszylinder einsetzte, den Vittorio Bellentani konstruiert hatte. Doch Chefkonstrukteur Giulio Alfieri war nicht zufrieden, das neue Modell erhielt schliesslich einen 3-Liter-Sechszylinder, der mit Doppelzündung und drei Weber-Vergasern auf zuverlässige 260 PS kam.
Ansonsten war der Maserati ziemlich konservativ konstruiert, einmal abgesehen von Transaxle-Bauweise. Vorne gab es Schrauben-, hinten Querblatt-Federn (und selbstverständlich noch eine Starrachse). Die klassischen Trommelbremsen verfügten immerhin über sternförmig angebrachte, perforierte Kühlrippen, die bei Hitze besser kühlten und bei Regen das Wasser schneller abfliessen liessen. Die Aufbauten der 27 zwischen 1955 und 1957 gebauten 300S stammten alle von Fantuzzi, es sind aber keine zwei Fahrzeuge gleich, weil immer die neusten Aerodynamik-Erkenntnisse einfliessen durften; spätere Fahrzeuge sind deutlich eleganter als die ersten aus dem Jahr 1955.
Weil das Geld etwas knapp war – wie eigentlich immer in Modena -, holten im ersten Rennjahr des 300S (1955) vor allem die amerikanischen Privatteams die Kohlen aus dem Feuer, bei den 12 Stunden von Sebring fuhren Spear/Johnston auf den dritten Rang (#3053, siehe auch unten). Am 1. Mai 1955 schaffte Bill Lloyd in Thompson den ersten Sieg. 1956 lief es dann deutlich besser, Moss/Menditéguy gewannen den ersten Lauf zur Sportwagen-Weltmeisterschaft bei den 1000 Kilometern von Buenos Aires, Moss doppelte bei den 1000 Kilometern auf den Nürburgring zusammen mit Schell, Taruffi und Behra nach; die Weltmeisterschaft ging trotzdem unglücklich und knapp an Ferrari verloren. Ab 1957 setzte Maserati dann voll auf den 450S, doch der 300S blieb bis 1971 (!) gut für Klassensiege; insgesamt gewann der gutmütige Maserati 44 Rennen und stand 96 Mal auf dem Podest.
Ja, wir machen hier selbstverständlich auch eine Sammlung. Wobei das etwas schwierig ist, die 300S wechseln nur selten den Besitzer, weil sie auch beim Historic Racing sehr beliebt sind. Aber wir bleiben wachsam.
Chassis-Nummer: 3053
Auktion: Bonhams, Goodwood 2013, verkauft für 4’033’500 Pfund. Die ausführlichen Informationen zu diesem Fahrzeug gibt es unten in den Kommentaren.
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Chassis-Nummer: 3069
Verkauft über Fiskens, mit diesen Informationen: «Quite simply “Fangio’s 300S” – piloted by one of the most deeply revered heroes of Formula One to four victories in the year of his fifth and final World Championship, 1957. 3069’s outstanding period history gives her special meaning prized by successive owners. One of just 26 produced, this 300S was first marked sold to Italian Armando Zampiero, but the fates intervened after delivery was not taken. Instead 3069 was entered by Maserati for Fangio in the Grand Prix of Portugal, under the Scuderia Madunina banner. 3069 was then delivered to Fangio’s racing manager Marcello Giambertone and was one of a pair exported to South America for his competition group Organprix. There, in the December of his greatest year, Argentina’s hero conjured three more victories in this 300S, in two races at the Grand Prix Interlagos at São Paolo, then in the Grand Prix of Rio de Janeiro. The 300S was Maserati’s front-line big-capacity sports-racing car for two seasons of the World Sports Car Championship, and the sports counterpart of the immortal 250F single-seater. Its three-litre twin-cam straight six was substantially the same but longer stroke. It shared 250F running gear, with front wishbones and coil springs, forward-facing de Dion back axle, and rear-mounted transverse gearbox. With coachwork by Fantuzzi, it was utterly beautiful. Period drivers loved the 300S, the outstanding characteristic being its balance and beautiful handling. In the hands of the right drivers, these qualities could get the 300S around the circuit quicker than many larger-displacement competitors. The 300S was a personal favourite of the late Sir Stirling Moss, who took one to a famous victory in the 1956 1000 km of Nürburgring, with Piero Taruffi, Harry Schell, and Jean Behra. Described by 300S authority Walter Bäumer as the longest working 300S of all, 3069 competed in South America until 1972, in the hands of a variety of South American businessmen, playboys and adventurers. Rediscovered by car-hunter Colin Crabbe at fortune’s ebb, she was repatriated to the United Kingdom and first restored in the early 1980s, with additional works in later years. A chain of distinguished owner-drivers followed, including Count Vittorio Zanon de Valgiurata, noted Parisian collector Michel Seydoux, Lord Laidlaw, and the current accomplished racer, who has kept her for over twenty years».
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Mehr spannende Fahrzeuge haben wir in unserem Archiv.
Maserati 300S chassis serial ‚3053‘ was the third sports-racing car of its type to be ordered by the great American entrant Briggs Swift Cunningham for the use of his old friend and team driver Bill Spear. Upon delivery in the USA, Maserati ‚3053‘ now offered here was co-driven by Bill Spear and Sherwood Johnston in the 1955 Sebring 12-Hours race, American road racing’s round of the FIA Sports Car World Championship. Spear and Johnson enjoyed a fine debut race with their brand-new Maserati, finishing third overall at the end of the 12-Hours race around Hendrick Field AFB, Florida, having completed no fewer than 180 laps of the 5.2-mile circuit. This total was only two fewer than the total completed by the second-placed Phil Hill/Carroll Shelby-driven Ferrari 750 Monza and the winning Mike Hawthorn/Phil Walters Jaguar D-Type (also entered by Briggs Cunningham) ahead of them. The American duo sharing ‚3053‘ also beat into fourth place the works-supported Maserati 300S – chassis ‚3061‘ – co-driven in this grueling event by budding works driver Cesare Perdisa and Gino Valenzano. Following this very successful racing debut in ‚3053‘, big, burly Bill Spear then campaigned this car in a selective programme of Sports Car Club of America events. On May 15, 1955, he finished second in the car in Round 4 of that year’s Sports Car Club of America National Sports Car Championship event at Cumberland, Maryland, headed only by his Sebring co-driver Sherwood Johnson in a 4½-litre V12-engined Ferrari 375. On July 4 he spun out of the SCCA preliminary at Beverly Airfield, Massachusetts, before sharing ‚3053‘ with John Gordon Bennett to finish fifth in the feature event that day. He also set fastest lap in this car, but did not reappear at this level until September 11 in the SCCA Nationals on the Road America circuit at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. There he again finished fifth, this time behind John Gordon Bennett’s sister Maserati 300S – chassis ‚3051‘ – the Jaguar D-Types of Sherwood Johnston and Ernie Erickson and overall winner Phil Hill’s Ferrari 750 Monza. The following weekend at Watkins Glen in upstate New York saw Bill Spear and ‚3053‘ back on top form as the combination again took a strong second place in the Watkins Glen Grand Prix, this time bettered only by his old sparring partner Sherwood Johnston in the Cunningham-entered D-Type Jaguar. The top-quality sports-racing cars trailing in ‚3053’s wake included a sister Maserati 300S, Ferrari 375, 340 and 250 Mille Miglia, and the works-team 5.4-litre V8-engined Cunningham C4Rs. Bill Spear also set fastest lap of the Glen’s contemporary 4.6-mile country road circuit with a time of 3 minutes 17.4 seconds. October 16 then saw Spear and ‚3053‘ in fierce competition once again, this time at Fairchild Air Force Base outside Hagerstown, Maryland. The combination finished third in the 100-mile feature race there against winner Sherwood Johnstone, out again in Cunningham’s D-Type Jaguar, and Phil Hill’s Ferrari 750 Monza. This well raced and highly competitive Maserati was also featured in the August 1955 issue of the popular specialist periodical Sports Cars Illustrated, illustrations showing that the car had been fitted with a headrest topping its rear deck.
After racing ‚3053‘ most enjoyably that season, Bill Spear eventually sold the car in the summer of 1956 to fellow amateur SCCA enthusiast Joe Giubardo of Valley Stream, Long Island. He appeared in the car only very occasionally, making his apparent debut in it during an SCCA Regional Meeting at Thompson Raceway, New England on May 26, 1957. On June 9 that year he emerged at higher level in the SCCA National Championship round at Lime Rock, Connecticut, but failed to finish. On August 18, 1957, Joe Giubardo then came home seventh in ‚3053‘ at Montgomery AFB, but while retaining this exotic Maserati, it appears that he concentrated upon more humble motor racing from mid-1957 forward with an Austin-Healey Special and an MGA Twin-Cam. He then reappeared in ‚3053‘ at Montgomery on August 9, 1959, placing tenth in the ‚big-banger‘ sports car race won by George Constantine’s Aston Martin DBR2 from Phil Forno’s Lister-Jaguar and Bob Holbert’s Porsche RSK. It is believed that his last race in the car was at Bridgehampton, Long Island in September 1958. Nevertheless he kept the great Italian classic until 1964. Tragically, Joe Giubardo was murdered by two young assailants at his home in 1964. We understand that – as recorded in Maserati authority Walter Baumer’s massive book ‚The Maserati 300S‘ (published by Dalton Watson, Deerfield, IL, USA – 2008) – „…the next owners on record were Bill Wonder, an enthusiast from Glen Cove, and Joel Finn, author of the first book about the cars from Modena, ‚Maserati; The Postwar Sports-racing Cars‘.
Bill Wonder entered ‚3053‘ in assorted Historic events during the 1970s, and around 1986 the well-preserved Maserati was acquired by leading German Maseratisto Dr Thomas Bscher. After some twenty years in his care – during which it was maintained in highly original order while being campaigned most successfully in European Historic racing – the car passed from Dr Bscher to the current owner. As offered the car has a fully race-prepared Cyril Embrey-built Maserati 300S engine installed while its original power unit ex-USA – is included as a spare with this Lot. This spare factory-built engine’s cylinder head is stamped ’44‘ while the cylinder block bears the stamping ’24‘. Both components are also stamped with a number ‚7‘ and Walter Baumer suggests that the block was damaged at some time in its American career, a later cylinder head being supplied and both components being re-stamped with the common number ‚7‘ during reassembly. Most importantly the engine has the original factory number ‚3053‘ – with rosette flanking punch marks – stamped into the crankcase’s integrally-cast bearer. A Jack Knight-modified five-speed transaxle is presently installed while the period-correct four-speed transaxle – together with its associated four-speed and reverse cockpit gearchange gate – is offered within the spares that accompany this Lot. Since the original Briggs Cunningham order to which ‚3053‘ was supplied had actually included no fewer than three sister 300S cars, each one was widely stamped in period at Cunningham’s request to differentiate the individual sister vehicles. Spare Borrani wire wheels included with this Lot bear witness to this process – ‚SPEAR‘ being stamped clearly into the rim ledges. As Baumer declares in his 300S book, „This 300S is wonderfully preserved in its original state. All three of the early 300Ss (and probably also No. ‚3057‘) were delivered with panels that covered the chassis tubes in the cockpit. These panels are still present in ‚3053‘“. A minor bodywork modification at the rear of the cockpit provided its tall and robustly-built owner with extra space by removing the standard spare-wheel clearance bulge panel from the bulkhead there. This original panel is preserved with this Lot’s spares and accompanies it in this Sale. The gearbox cowl was also replaced within the cockpit but is also preserved and available within ‚3053’s spares. A very neat roll-over hoop is incorporated within the car’s headrest paneling. The instruments on the car’s dash panel are Maserati and Jaeger originals, apart from a later modification fuel pressure gauge on the passenger side facia section.