The alloy 150S engine was an all-new design using dual overhead camshafts driven by a gear train at the front of the engine that also provided takeoffs for the dual ignition’s magnetos, dry sump lubrication and water pump. Two valves per cylinder were actuated by roller cam followers and hairpin springs. The 4CL had been a "square" design with equal bore and stroke but Maserati’s new sports car engine was designed "oversquare" with dimensions of 81 x 72mm, allowing it to rev higher and making room for larger valves that the forced induction 4CL hadn’t needed. The frame was a typically robust Maserati construction of large oval main tubes supplemented by smaller tubes to support the body and mechanicals. Front suspension was by A-arms, lever shocks and coil springs. A live rear axle was tried, found wanting and rejected in favor of a sliding pivot deDion axle with transverse leaf spring and lever shocks. It was nothing radical, just sound and well executed Maserati practice capable of being competitively maintained by customers’ mechanics. The 150S’s full envelope 2-seat bodies were scale models of Maserati’s premier 300S sports cars, no doubt adding to the small cars’ appeal since the 300S is regarded as one of the most functionally beautiful sports-racers ever built.

Racers know, "if it looks right, it is right," and nothing demonstrates the truth of that aphorism better than the mid-Fifties Maserati sports-racers.

The 150S was successful in its first outing, the 1955 Nürburgring 500km race where Porsche stalwart Jean Behra recognized its potential and realized it with a qualifying time 2.3 seconds clear of the nearest competitor. Behra went on to win the race itself by some two minutes over von Frankenberg’s Porsche 550 Spyder. The 150S continued to acquit itself well against increasingly tough competition from Porsche, Lotus and Cooper but Maserati recognized a variant would add a new market in the 2-litre class where the A6GCS was now increasingly uncompetitive. The 200S, perhaps Maserati’s most successful small displacement race car, was born from that commercial opportunity.

While the engine was basically the same as the 150S, now with 60mm main bearings and 92 x 75mm bore and stroke, the 200S took advantage of its larger bore size to add bigger valves breathing through larger 45mm Weber carburettors which allowed it to generate some 186bhp. The chassis was indistinguishable from the 150S. Bodywork evolved with Maserati’s experience with the 300S and 450S but remained lithe and elemental.

Maserati 200S, chassis number 2401, was used as the Maserati factory’s test and development car for over a year and one of the most important Maseratis built. 2401 made the 200S’s first competitive outing at the 1955 Imola Sports Car GP where it was crashed by Bracco. Along with another 200S entered by Tony Parravano it appeared in the 1955 Targa Florio driven by Bracco and Bordoni but Bracco again crashed the car, this time both in practice and in the race. 2401 continued to be used as the factory’s development car by test drivers Luigi Bellucci and Giuseppe Musso (younger brother of GP driver Luigi Musso) which produced the ultimate specification 200SI (Sport Internazionale) in 1956 with uprated engine, 5-speed gearbox, longer nose, larger brakes, FIA-spec full windscreen and folding top. With its sleek shape the 200SI is perhaps the most charismatic, effective and beautiful Maserati sports-racer ever built.

2401 was, in fact, configured as a 200SI, probably the first of the series, when its certificate of origin was issued April 26, 1956. These were superb customer race cars, strongly built, quick, powerful and inherently good handling. Their capability is demonstrated by the caliber of their drivers and team owners, recognized names such as Lance Reventlow, Carroll Shelby, Jim Hall, John Fitch, Jim Kimberley, Jo Bonnier, Giorgio Scarlatti. Important victories include Scarlatti’s class win in the 1956 Mille Miglia and Willy Daetwyler’s 1957 European Mountain Championship. The 200S engine was further enlarged to 2½ litres in 1958 to create the 250S, of which only four were built by Maserati although many 200S engines were increased to 2½ litres by their owners. The 2½ litre engine itself went on to power many Grand Prix chassis with some success.

The Maserati factory entered 2401 in the 1956 Naples GP and later in the Mille Miglia, probably driven by Bellucci who was running well until forced to retire with thoroughly soaked and ineffective brakes, an experience not uncommon in 1956’s rain-soaked event. 2401 probably competed in further Continental events, where the Maserati factory entered 200S cars at various times when drivers and time to prepare the small displacement racers could be found in the factory race shop’s busy schedule. Top rank drivers like Jean Behra, Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel Fangio, Piero Taruffi and Harry Schell competed regularly in both factory and private Maserati 200S and 200SI entries. There is every chance that some of these luminaries shared 2401’s driver’s seat during its factory racing history. At the end of 1956 it is believed 2401 was shipped to Venezuela for Jean Behra to drive in the 1000km race, then sold to a local driver, appearing in a variety of races, possibly including the Cuban GP and at Nassau, over the next few years.

Joel E Finn, Maserati fancier and historian, bought #2401 in Venezuela and it eventually found its way to Chris Drake in the UK in the early '70s. It was then sold to Japan in 1979 where it was displayed in the Kawaguchiko Motor Museum for twenty-two years. 2401 is one of only four 200S chassis built by Maserati itself, the production chassis fabrication being sublet to Gilberto Colombo (GILCO). After over a year of extensive development as a works race car, 2401 was finally configured and sold in the ultimate, powerful and most beautiful 200SI configuration. Despite its works racing history 2401 is still with its original engine.

Text courtesy of Rick Carey

©2001 Rick Carey, AxioMedia, www.rickcarey.com