1939 Maserati 4CL

Maserati was the featured marque at the VSCC's SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005, and this is one of the Maseratis that took part in the Celebration Maserati Invitation Race.

It's the 1939 Maserati 4CL of Georg Kaufmann and is chassis #1569. The Maserati 4CL was designed for Voiturette racing, and had a supercharged 1,491cc straight-4 engine. The car had some success in its first season until racing was curtailed by the Second World War, and dominated racing in the years immediately following the war in the hands of drivers such as Raymond Sommer, Tazio Nuvolari and Luigi Villoresi, until the arrival of the Alfa Romeo 158. Nine of the cars were built in 1939, and a further sixteen after the war between 1946 and 1947. 1569 was delivered on 29 May 1939 to Johnny Wakefield who campaigned it successfully up to the outbreak of war. After Wakefield's death in 1942 it was purchased by Reg Parnell and raced by him extensively between 1946 and 1948, then was raced by David Murray in 1948/49. It was an Ambrosiana Team spare during 1950 before passing via John Green to Bobby Baird in 1951. It later went to George Weaver in the USA, then via British, Swiss and German owners to Swiss driver Georg Kaufmann.