Maserati The Postwar Sportsracing Cars

During the early 1960’s, Joel Finn started acquiring Maseratis and restoring them back to original racing condition. Over the years, he managed to gather together a representative Maserati collection containing both sports racers and Grand Prix types. While accumulating these cars, other material started to amass, such as parts brochures, engineering drawings, technical sheets, photographs and general information grew steadily more complete. Other Maserati collectors were continually requesting information from the Finn files, all the while bemoaning the lack of a reference book covering the sports racing models. These entreaties led to his decision to assemble all the material into a book in an attempt to fill the information vacuum. The task was approached from an enthusiast's standpoint, and he endeavoured to provide maximum information regarding these fine machines in an orderly and logical fashion. The scenario on each model, such as the A6GCS, Tipo 150S, 300s, and Tipo 60/61, includes the development process, technical description and racing history, accompanied by reproductions of the original Maserati factory sales brochures and specification data sheets, where pertinent. Chassis number and Engine number identification as well as production number data are quoted. There may be areas where certain biases are bound to show through the verbiage after years of association with the various Maserati models. Some are obviously superior to others considering the period built and their intended usage. In every case, the sports racing Maseratis have been quality machines, well designed, solidly built, technically interesting and superbly finished. Above all, they are pleasant to drive, inspiring great confidence with their excellent handling characteristics. One model clearly stands alone in the eyes of Joel Finn, as not only the best sports-racing Maserati ever built, but the finest handling front-engined competition machine ever put on the track. This is the Tipo 60/61 Birdcage, and it's a shame that more international success was not achieved, as it had all the right ingredients to win on any course. In a way, its problems were symptomatic of Maserati's inability to ever completely get its act together. Nonetheless, the Birdcage is a true racing classic. Assistance in the preparation of this book also came from Emmano Cozza, Pete Coltrin and Karl Ludvigsen . Illustrated with images from the collections of Francois Sicard, Jesse Alexander, Kurt Miska, Geoffrey Goddard, and Enrique Sanchez-Ortega, this now rare publication offers a wealth of information in one volume.