1957 Maserati 250F V12

The featured marque at the VSCC SeeRed meeting at Donington Park in September 2005 was the Maserati and the photograph below shows one of the cars that took part in demonstration runs during the meeting.

It's Thomas Bscher's 1957 Maserati 250F V12, chassis 2531, 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 car was later given a 2½ litre V12 engine but I can't find anything that says it was the car's original V12 engine.