1939 Maserati 4CL

This is a photograph I took in the paddock at the Vintage Sports Car Club's Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies race meeting at Oulton Park in June 1984.

It's Rodney Felton’s 1939 Maserati 4CL, chassis 1567, and has a supercharged 4-cylinder inline 1,492cc engine. The 1939 racing season was curtailed by the outbreak of the Second World War but when racing recommenced in 1946 it proved to be the most successful of the cars taking part, and even more so in the 1947 season.

Two Maseratis

The Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 1998 celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the circuit, the first race there being the first ever British Grand Prix. To mark the occasion the grid for that first race was reassembled, the majority of the cars being those that actually took part in the 1948 race.

This is a photograph that I took in the paddock of two of the cars. On the left the Maserati 6CM that Duncan Hamilton drove in 1948 and was owned by M Greer in 1998. On the right is the Maserati 4CL that was a reserve car for the 1948 race and would have been driven by Fred Ashmore. In 1998 it was owned by Karl Bloechle.

1939 Maserati 4CL

This car competed in the Richard Seaman Memorial Historic Trophy Race at the Vintage Sports Car Club's meeting at Oulton Park in June 1970.

It's the 1939 Maserati 4CL of Bob Wood and has a supercharged 4-cylinder inline 1,492cc engine. The 1939 racing season was curtailed by the outbreak of the Second World War but when racing recommenced in 1946 it proved to be the most successful of the cars taking part, and even more so in the 1947 season.

1939 Maserati 4CL

This car competed in the Maserati UK Race for Pre 1952 Grand Prix Cars at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in July 2000.

It's Norbert Schmitz-Koep's 1939 Maserati 4CL, chassis #1566, which was designed for Voiturette racing and had a supercharged 1,491cc straight-4 engine. The 4CL 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. The green car next to the Maserati is Dick Skipworth's ERA R3A, which was driven that day by Barrie Williams.

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.

1939 Maserati 4CL

I took these photographs at the Aston Martin Owners Club's meeting at Oulton Park in September 1986.

The programme of the event shows car number 44 to be the blue 1952 Ferrari 500/625 of Kerry Wilson which the car pictured above quite obviously isn't. Below is a photograph of the car I took at Lodge Corner during the Historic Car Championship race.

It certainly seems to be Kerry Wilson behind the wheel, but it's a Maserati and as far as I can tell a 1939 4CL. The Maserati 4CL has a 4-cylinder inline 1,491cc engine with twin-stage supercharger and was introduced in 1939 to compete in the voiturette class of racing. The 1939 season was curtailed by the Second World War but when racing restarted after the war it gave a good account of itself alongside the Alfa Romeo 158.

Maserati 4CL

This car competed in the Richard Seaman Historic Trophy race at the VSCC's race meeting at Donington Park in June 2003.

It's the 1939 Maserati 4CL of Rodney Smith that was driven in the race by Mark Gillies. The 4CL has a 1,491cc 4-cylinder inline engine with a two-stage supercharger and was designed for the pre-war voiturette class of racing. This car is chassis #1566 and on 7 September 2017 I showed a photograph I'd taken of it at Silverstone in 1996.

Maserati 4CL

This car competed in the HGPCA Pre '52 GP Car Race at the Coys International Historic Festival meeting at Silverstone in August 1996.

It's Norbert Schmitz-Koep's 1939 Maserati 4CL, chassis #1566, and sitting in the cockpit is Martin Morris. Norbert Schmitz-Koep is sitting alongside in another of his cars, a 1934 Maserati 4CS. The Maserati 4CL was designed for Voiturette racing, and had a supercharged 1,491cc straight-4 engine. The car had some success in it's 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.

Two Maseratis

I took these photographs at the Richard Seaman Memorial Trophies meeting at Oulton Park in June 1982.

Number 31 is the 1939 Maserati 4CL of Dan Margulies and 25 is the 1954 Maserati 250F of David Sankey.

The Maserati 4CL is chassis number 1582, and I have come across this brief history of the car:

Maserati 4CL [1582] (Toni Branca): Delivered 31 July 1946 to Guido Barbieri from Reggio Emilia, and raced in the 1946 Turin and Milan GPs. It is possible that the chassis was then used by Barbieri in his 1.5 litre Maserati 6C Sports Special, which first appeared in October 1946. The car reappeared in normal 4CL form in 1949 in the hands of Swiss Anton Branca, who raced it throughout 1949 and 1950. The car then passed through a variety of Swiss owners’ hands, at one stage fitted with a Ford V8 engine, before being campaigned in historic racing by Dan Margulies for more than 20 years, and being owned most recently by Klaus Edel and then Oliver Maierhofer. The car was for sale in early 2007.

Here's David Sankey at Knicker Brook in the Maserati 250F which is chassis number 2513, and you can read some of its history here.