Museo Stradale

Dominic's Auto Museum
One man's passionate quest to survey finest motorcars in the world

Photographed: Saint Michael's Concours d'Elegance, 2008. Owner: Willem Van Huystee

Chassis #3004: While the car has been presented at shows as a Maserati 8C 3000-M, I've removed the 'M' from the designation because the car has been converted from its former monoposto configuration to this two-seater, which is keeping with the model's pedigree. The first two chassis, #3001 and #3002, were both Maserati works racing cars that competed in anger during the very end of 1932, and the bulk of the 1933 Grand Prix season. The first was run by Luigi Fagioli, Giuseppi Campari, and Baconin Borzacchini, the trio taking three turns each during the year with Campari coming good in the French Grand Prix at Monthlery, while the second was run by Bentley Boy Tim Birkin. That car became, by way of subsequent misfortune, the last car Birkin ever raced.

Designations #3003 and #3004 were originally for motors only, with complete cars eventually built up around them. But, in the spirit of classic era motoring, the circumstances of the third and fourth cars are somewhat peculiar. Now, any classic Maserati is a rare thing—Maserati were ever the two-shed operation. But the other side of this story involves the death of Alfieri Maserati. Sustained injuries from a heavy accident in the 1927 Messina Cup resulted in surgery five years later; this proved either fatal or futile, the judgment of which is certainly moot.

The 8C 3000, speaking purely of the motor, was Alfieri's design—his last animated design—and was in part intended for a front-drive single seater very much in the spirit of the American Miller race cars, (and Maserati kept a keen eye on Indianapolis more so than any other Italian sports car manufacturer). With Alfieri's death, this experimental project came to a halt. As we established, four new 3-litre motors were completed. Two of these were fitted to relatively straight-forward Grand Prix cars—the 8C 3000 models referred to above—while the two remaining motors were sold. The motor Alfieri was using for his experimental front-drive project, and perhaps some other bits, were brought together in a rough single seater, thereby forming a transitional car between the first two proper 8C 3000 chassis and the 8CM 3000, which was a proper monoposto.

If all this is true, (and I presently have no source to confirm as much), then our car may have been the 1933 Belgian Grand Prix winner, with Tazio Nuvolari at the helm. As a further note, Michel Zumbrunn's pictorial Italian Auto Legends references Maserati 8CM 3000 #3005, noting that it was sold to Raymond Sommer, returned to the factory, and then subsequently re-sold to Nuvolari along with a "wider-bodied car." The brief restates that Nuvolari had success with the wider car (perhaps this chassis), and sold off the proper 8CM to Piero Taruffi. Note the chassis number in this text does not match other sources, as it gives us a range of at least five chassis. To be continued...

Context: Much like the Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza, the 8C 3000 was Maserati's last bi-place racing car. Power was comparable to the Alfa, with 220 brake horsepower on tap from the drop. As was likely for the small outfit, reports of more power coming from this motor have been raised. However, the big thing on the horizon was the monoposto design, and once the idea took hold, a new era of serious racing would begin. Top speeds of 140 miles per hour, which either the Alfa or Maserati could command, would soon approach the 200 mark, all of which was largely due to German investment in the sport.

In any case, classed out of the top level of racing for the balance of the decade, Maserati Grand Prix cars remained popular and rewarding drives for the privateer. Today, they are all the more coveted by historic racers. As the German equipment is a bit esoteric—best run by a team of mechanical engineers and chemists (to get the rocket fuel mixtures correct)—Maserati cars have always been wonderful performers with exquisite soundtracks. The only problem is their rarity, which is certainly a large part of their charm, and unfortunately a much larger part of their inaccessibilty.

At the Heart: And like Alfa Romeo, and Ferrari thereafter, the heart of a classic Maserati is really its motor. And what motors they are. The 8C 3000 is conventional in many respects—a long block of 8 cylinders displacing 2,991cc, with twin overhead cams driven by a gear-train at the front, twin Weber 55AS carburetors, and a roots-type supercharger, again, mounted on the front—but then, Maserati always had a delicate and artistic way of putting things together. The 8C 3000 is not quite the belle dame that is the 8CTF, but naturally bears many of the same proportions and qualities.

Sources: The Maserati aficionadi are fierce, and so there are numerous guides dedicated to detail in history and number.

Maserati: The factory itself has a nice history.

Maserati Registry: providing histories by the chassis number for the 8C 3000.

Maserati-Alfieri: with a nice story on chassis #3002.

Ultimatecarpage.com: as per usual, covering both chassis #3001 and #3002.

 

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