In 1929 the Maserati brothers conceived the idea of mating two 2-litre Maserati 26B straight-8 engines side-by-side in a common crankcase coupled to a central driveshaft to create the 3,961cc sixteen cylinder Maserati V4. In September 1929 the car was driven by Baconin Borzacchini in Cremona to set a new 10 mile International Class C World Speed record of 246.07 km/h (152.93 mph). The following year Baconin Borzacchni gave the car its first win in the Tripoli Grand Prix, and it was then taken to the USA for the Indianapolis 500 race but retired with a broken magneto early in the race. For the remainder of the 1930 European Grand Prix season its best result was third place in the Monza Grand Prix driven by Ernesto Maserati. The car never lived up to its promise because the of problems with tyre and brake wear caused by the power developed by the twin engines and it is believed that only two cars were built. The car below, photographed at the SeeRed meeting at Donington Park featuring the Maserati marque in September 2005 is a replica of the Maserati V4 built by Anthony Hartley requiring some 20,000 hours of work over several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
No comments:
Post a Comment