1956 Maserati 450S Sport Competizione Coachwork by Carrozzeria

The ex-Tony Parravano/ Jack Brumby/ Billy Krause
1956 Maserati 450S Sport Competizione
Coachwork by Carrozzeria Fantuzzi
Private Portfolio No. 014
Chassis no. 4502
B rief h i s t or y
Engine no. 4502
Price on request
• October 1956
Completed at factory and sold
to Tony Parravano. First
‘production’ 450S. Painted red
with white and blue stripe
• December 1956
Arrived in California
• 6th January 1957
Tested by the Parravano team
at Willow Springs by Jack
MacAfee, Richie Ginther and
Bob Drake
• 1957
Hidden near Mexican border
by Parravano
• 10th September 1957
Demonstrated at Riverside
Press Day, driven by Skip
Hudson
• Late 1957
Intercepted near San Diego by
IRS on board one of Tony
Pavarrano’s trucks bound for
Mexico
• January 1959
Auctionned by the IRS in the
parking lot of a Savings and
Loan in San Fernando Valley.
Bought for $3,000 by Jack
Brumby (Italia Motors) backed
by Dr Rey Martinez. Repainted
silver-blue
• 31st January 1959
Tested at Pomona,
Brumby
Jack
• 31st January 1959
Pomona Sprint, Krause, race
no. 53, 5th
• 1st February 1959
Pomona Main Event, Billy
Krause, race no. 53, 2nd
“The woodland creatures scurry, bolt and scramble, for the ‘Bazooka’, though still some way distant, is most
definitely within earshot. This is not a car for the shy or sensitive, timid or tremulous. Genghis Khan or Vlad the
Impaler would have loved it, though. Maserati’s Tipo 54, that’s Mister 450S to you and me, sounds like thunder
and goes like the clappers…It’s big, beautiful and brutal.” MotorSport magazine, January 2005.
Few sports-racing cars carry a fearsome
reputation to equal Maserati’s thunderous Tipo
54, better known as the 450S. Originally
conceived in 1954 to challenge Ferrari’s ‘big
banger’ sports racers, the Tipo 54 project was
bankrolled by South Californian cement and
construction baron, team boss and partygoer
Tony Parravano. Eager to win the Indianapolis
500, Parravano had ordered two 4.2 V8 engines
and intended to put them into Kurtis chassis.
Nothing came of this project, so instead Maserati
developed a sports racing car around the engine
which was intended to challenge Ferrari in the
World Sports Car Championship. The new V8, by
now enlarged to 4488cc, “almost shook the
factory walls down as it registered 400bhp on the
dyno. The years of Ferrari outmuscling Maserati
• 7th March 1959
Pomona Sprint, Krause, race
no. 53, 1st
• 8th March 1959
LA Examiner Grand Prix,
Krause, race no. 53, spun
whilst leading, 4th
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Above: Turn your 450S in, aim for the apex, floor the throttle
- and that purebred race pedigree 4-cam V8 engine tucks
down the tail, and punches you like an artillery shell towards
infinity…
Private Portfolio No. 014
• 19th July 1959
Kiwanis Grand Prix, Krause/
Woods, race no. 53, DNF
(exhaust fumes)
• 5th September 1959
Santa Barbara Sprint, Krause,
race no. 127, 1st
• 6th September 1959
Santa Barbara, Krause, race
no. 127, DNF after leading
• 16th October 1960
Times Grand Prix Consolation
Race,
Riverside,
Chuck
Kessinger, race no. 41, 4th
• 12th March 1961
Cal Club, Pomona, Chuck
Kessinger, spun, 7th
• 15th October 1961
Times Grand Prix Consolation
Race, Kessinger, 9th
• 4th March 1962
Riverside Car Club, Kessinger,
4th
• Later
Owned by Bill Grimiscin,
Pennsylvania
• 1967
Owned by
Pennsylvania
Tiny
Gould,
• 1968
Owned by Joel Finn, New York
• 1969
Owned by Cameron Millar,
UK
• Late 1970s
Owned by Count Hubertus
von Donhoff, Germany
• 1980s
Restored by Tony Merrick
• 1996
Sold to present owner, further
work by Steve Hart
• April 2007
Offered for sale by private
treaty sale by Kidston SA,
Geneva
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1956 Maserati 450S Sport Competizione
were definitely
MotorSport.
over.”
recalled
But its birth was overdrawn and over
budget- the R&D cost of $500,000
was colossal by the standards of the
era- and Maserati’s win-or-bust
attempt to secure the 1957
championship failed dramatically after
all three 450S entries (and the Works
300S) in the final round in Venezuela
were wrecked by accidents or fire.
Perhaps unnerved by the big Maser’s
gargantuan performance (and that of
Ferrari’s 4 litre V12s) the powers- t h a tbe implemented a 3 litre sports car
formula from 1958, and the car’s
European career was over.
As the backer behind its development,
though, Parravano was destined to
receive the first ‘production’ example,
chassis ‘4502’, which had been
shipped to him at the end of 1956.
Thankfully ’4502’ avoided the
Venezuelan carnage, stashed away
near the Mexican border, supposedly
out of reach of the Inland Revenue
Service.
“Tony ran a construction empire in
Southern California and had trouble
maintaining proper books pertaining to his businesses. As a result virtually no corporate taxes were paid until the
Internal Revenue Service caught up with him. Tony fled to Mexico in June, 1957, and the IRS people settled
Parravano’s tax liabilities in January, 1959, by
auctioning off his extensive collection of Italian
exotics, at least that part not siphoned off to Mexico
previously! One of the auctioned cars was the 450S,
chassis 4502.” Willem Oosthoek, The Maserati Club
magazine.
“The IRS eventually found the car and sold it at
auction; it’still looking for Tony. How ironic that
Parravano, the man whose cash kick-started
Maserati’s V8 project, never got to see his 450S run
in anger.” MotorSport magazine.
He must have been Maserati’s best customer at the
time as apart from Ferraris his stable included the
Italian GP winning 250F raced by Stirling Moss, a
refurbished 300S, now with a 350S engine, and the
first 450S, all painted in Tony’s racing colours of red
and dark blue with white stripes. For some reason the
prototype 450S never saw any action under
Parravano and by the time ‘4502’ went through the
IRS auction it was virtually brand new. It was sold for
Left: Beefy beauty – ‘4502’ in period wearing its
Scuderia Parravano centreline stripes of American white
and dark blue on its Italian racing red standard livery.
Private Portfolio No. 014
1956 Maserati 450S Sport Competizione
Our thanks to Willem Oosthoek for
making his historic research available.
Above: Billy Krause has the car steadied under braking, left hand on the slender wood-rimmed steering wheel aims
right, and ‘4502’ blasts through another race lap…this could be you.
$3,000 and the buyers
were partners Dr Rey
Martinez, associated with
the Burbank Hospital,
and Jack Brumby of the
Italia Motors agency in
East Hollywood.
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Brumby was an amateur
racing
driver
with
experience of Porsches,
Alfas and Abarths so it is
doubtful if he knew quite
what he had bitten off
with the 450S. He wasted
no time in entering the
Maserati in California
Regional races, still in
Parravano’s colours, but
a few test laps of the
Pomona track scared him
enough to start looking
for a replacement driver.
Based on his 1958 Times
Grand Prix performance,
Billy
Krause
was
suggested. “I finished
2nd in my first 4.5l race
there.
Brumby
was
supposed to drive it
himself but the car scared
h i m” recalls Krause.
Private Portfolio No. 014
1956 Maserati 450S Sport Competizione
Above: Billy Krause in command – the crossed-arms style will work too!.
Below: Motorsport’s January 2005 article.
Krause led again at the
Examiner Grand Prix on the
same track a month later until
he spun near the end, finishing
fourth on three wheels after the
right rear tyre burst. July’s
Kiwanis GP at Riverside looked
more promising because the
track was faster, but Krause and
co-driver Pete Woods were
overcome by exhaust fumes
when a scoop the team had cut
into the bodywork to improve
ventilation instead funneled
exhaust gases into the cockpit!
The mighty 450S had one final
outing with Krause and Brumbya DNF at Santa Barbarabefore the team switched to a
more modern, nimble Maserati
Birdcage.
The car re-appeared in Chuck
Kessinger’s hands in 1960 and
1961 but proved uncompetitive
against the latest machinery
and the now outdated 450S
was finally put into retirement.
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It is known to have been owned
by Bill Grimiscin in Pennsylvania
who restored it, followed by Tiny
Gould, also in Pennsylvania, in
Private Portfolio No. 014
1956 Maserati 450S Sport Competizione
1967, Maserati collector Joel Finn in New York in 1968, Maserati restorer Cameron Millar in England in 1970,
and then Count Hubertus von Donhoff in Germany who had it restored by Tony Merrick in England in the 1980s.
During restoration it was decided to add brake cooling ducts in the nose, which saw the first 30cm of the
aluminum skin replaced, accounting for a slightly altered nose aperture vis-à-vis the car’s 1959 season
appearance. Of course, the windscreen is today in full width (ie to WSCC regulation) configuration rather than
single screen, and the owner chose an elegant dark blue hue for the overall finish rather than Parravano’s
red/blue/ white colour scheme. However, the bodywork is otherwise confirmed as original, as is the engine, which
has been rebuilt to a very high, ‘race ready’ standard.
During the past decade of its present European ownership, chassis ‘4502’ has participated in historic events such
as the Mille Miglia and the Nürburgring Oldtimer Grand Prix, proving rapid and reliable. It is accompanied by
its FIVA identity card and FIA papers and is in immaculate condition, ready for the track or the concours lawn.
Of the ten 450S Maseratis built (opinions vary as to whether more or less than those ten survive…) chassis ‘4502’
is universally regarded by experts and collectors as one of the very best examples extant.
Kidston SA
7 Avenue Pictet-de-Richemont,
1207 Genève, Switzerland
Tel +41 22 740 1939
Fax +41 22 740 1945
[email protected]
www.kidston.com
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