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Saturday 14 March 2020

1957 Maserati 250F V12

This car took part in the Chopard HGPCA 100-Mile Grand Prix Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1994.
It's Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, a car built with a 2,491cc V12 engine instead of the 250F's usual 6-cylinder inline 2,490 unit. It's chassis #2531 and is one of only 2 cars specifically built to take the V12 engine, and the only one to take part in a World Championship race. It was entered for the 1957 Italian Grand Prix and driven by Jean Behra, but retired towards the end of the race with overheating problems.
When Maserati disbanded the team at the end of the 1957 season the engine was removed from the car, which was sold to Brazilian Antonio de Barros who installed a V8 Chevrolet engine and raced it till the mid-1960s. It was eventually rescued by Colin Crabbe and restored by Stephen Griswold with the 3 litre V12 engine from a Maserati T63 sports car. 
The programme of this Silverstone meeting shows the engine capacity of the car to be 2,500cc, but I can't find anything that says it's been reunited with the correct V12 engine.
Here the car's in the pit lane waiting to go out on the track at the start of a practice session. The car next to it is Jeffrey Pattinson's 1954 Maserati 250F, chassis #2508 that was originally owned and campaigned by Stirling Moss.

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