With extensive period racing history 1957-1960 including the 1958 Le Mans 24 Hours
1957 Maserati 200SI
Chassis no. 2428 Engine no. 2428

• Raced in France 1957-1960 including the 1958 Le Mans 24 Hours
• Displayed in the Musée de l'Automobiliste, Mougins, for 23 years
• Seven owners from new, including the current for 30 years
• Never fully restored and displaying superb patina yet ‘on the button’
• European registered

“The 2.0-litre Maserati was as quick on a twisty circuit as the 3.0-litre and really could handle very nicely…” Works Maserati long-distance driver Stirling Moss’s verdict on the 200S sports cars he raced twice, in 1956 and 1957.

‘Mr Motor Racing’ had briefly driven a 200S at the 1956 Monza Supercortemaggiore event – Europe’s richest race, the famous ‘Monza Lottery’ – setting fastest time in practice but the car’s propshaft broke on the opening lap. At the February 1957 Cuban Grand Prix in Havana, Moss and Fangio’s big 450S failed to turn up, so the Argentine switched to a 300S and Moss drove a 200S, both cars on loan from Scuderia Madunina, a Milan-based team with connections to South America. Naturally, Fangio was fastest overall in practice but Moss’s 200S was 15 seconds quicker than anything else in its class, the 2.0-litre category that included Ferrari 500 Testa Rossas driven by Peter Collins, Olivier Gendebien and Masten Gregory.

In the race, Moss ran second for 12 laps before Fangio overtook him, later taking over Harry Schell’s private 300S when the 200S motor cried enough. For comparison, driving the 200S Moss lapped in 2min 4.7sec; at the wheel of the 3.0-litre car he recorded a best of 2min 2.3sec.

The Maserati 200S and 200SI (‘I’ for International, meeting the latest World Championship regulations) was a highly competitive car in the white-hot cauldron of 2.0-litre racing in the mid-1950s. It was often a works entry piloted by Maserati’s star drivers, and a popular mount for privateers.

Marque experts consider that around 28 cars were built. This 200SI, chassis 2428, is late in the series, delivered new to André Loens of Lille, France, in July 1957. It has had only seven owners from new, our client purchasing it in 1996 from Adrien Maeght – who founded the Musée de l'Automobiliste in Mougins, Provence – in whose ownership it had been since 1973.

The Maserati 200SI

Mid-capacity sports-cars were the bedrock of racing throughout the 1950s. From Le Mans, the Targa Florio, Mexican Carrera Panamericana and the Mille Miglia, to airfield racing in the US, a strong performance by that year’s ‘must-have’ meant lucrative business for makers of bespoke racing cars. The demand for the latest Porsche, OSCA, Gordini, Ferrari, Lotus or Maserati eligible for 1,500c or 2,000cc honours was constant, allowing Ferrari and Maserati to race Grand Prix single-seaters and big-capacity sports cars on the back of customer teams fighting over class victories.

Some races, indeed, whole championships in Italy in particular, were devoted to sub-2,000cc cars.

The Trident had done well with the six-cylinder A6GCS/2000. Throughout 1955 the aging car had battled competitively with Ferrari 500 Mondials but on 16 October that year a new Maserati made a low-key appearance on the Targa Florio. Italian veteran Giovanni Bracco and Franco Bordini debuted the final, 2.0-litre version of the four-cylinder 150S. The car only completed one lap before Bracco’s extravagant driving led to a race-ending accident.

The 200S motor was designed by Maserati engineer Vittorio Bellantani. It was an all-alloy creation, featuring two valves per cylinder, a dry sump, twin camshafts, five main bearings, twin-plug ignition and twin Weber 45 DCO3 carburettors. It displaced 1,994cc and developed 186bhp at 7,000rpm; the final A6GCS/2000s produced 170bhp. Two different gearboxes were offered for the 200S: a four-speed or a five-speed, both bolted directly to the engine.

Valerio Colotti (formerly of Ferrari, where Bellantani would move at the end of 1955) designed the tubular chassis. It featured coil springs at the front and a de Dion rear axle – like that of the 1954 250F Formula 1 car – suspended by a transverse leaf spring. Braking was by large ventilated drums behind 16in Borrani wire wheels.

The 200S’s bodywork was by Medardo Fantuzzi in conjunction with the Milan Polytechnic whose wind-tunnel was used to develop its streamlined shape.

Competition for the 200S came principally from Ferrari, in the form of its all-new 500 Testa Rossa (‘red head’, ironically designed by ex-Maserati man Bellantani), which steadily made its way onto the tracks from mid-1956 onwards. The Ferrari’s four-cylinder turned out 180bhp at 7,000rpm; the two Italian challengers were evenly matched. A 200SI version of the Maserati was introduced from late-1956 onwards to meet the latest international racing rules, so had a full-width screen, fully opening doors and a crude fabric soft-top. These later cars also had improved suspension and engines (up to 190bhp), and smoother and more rounded bodywork. They were the direct rivals of Ferrari’s 500 TRC.

Maserati 200Ss and SIs were raced often by the factory. Top privateers such as Jo Bonnier and Mennato Boffa in Europe, and Charlie Kolb, Lance Reventlow, Carroll Shelby and Jim Hall in the US scored many victories. The highly popular Italian hillclimb championship was a 200SI benefit until 1960. At the end of 1957, Giorgio Scarlatti was loaned a 200SI to compete in the Pontedecimo-Giovi round of the European Mountain Championship. It was the final entry of a works Maserati in the Orsi era. He finished third overall and first in class. Many of the features of the 1959-1961 Tipo 60/61 ‘Birdcage’ originated in the 200SI.

This Motor Car

André Loens was a typical competitor in 1950s motor racing. He was a garagiste who had moved to England from France and had worked as a zingueur, someone who forms and fabricates roofing zinc, before World War Two, where he served with distinction in the Free French Air Force. In the early post-war years, after setting up a garage in Christchurch near Bournemouth on the south coast of England, he drove 500cc single-seaters with great success, winning the 500cc Formula 3 event at the 1955 Swedish Grand Prix at Kristianstad. Loens often raced against Stirling Moss, and a young Ken Tyrrell was one of his vanquished rivals in Sweden.

By 1955, Loens had sold his English garage and returned to France, racing his own ‘Loweno’ Formula 3 car and a Maserati A6GCS chassis no. 2065 under the Ecurie de Flandre banner He shared the latter with Jo Bonnier at the 1955 Dundrod Tourist Trophy where they won the 1,501cc to 2,000cc Index of Performance. The blue car had been campaigned almost non-stop all over Europe for two years and by summer 1957 was due for replacement.

So in July 1957 André Loens took delivery of this car, Maserati 200SI chassis no. 2428, directly from the factory, trading in the tired A6GCS. As an ‘SI’ the new car would be suitable for international events such as the Le Mans 24 Hours. A month earlier, Loens was down to drive one of Ecurie Dubonnet’s Maserati-engined Talbot-Lago Sports at the great 24-hour event but did not start the race.

The new Maserati was delivered to Loens’ address at 21 rue Gutenberg, Lille in northern France. A copy of the Maserati Build Sheet that accompanies the car notes a completion date of 21 July 1957. Other details include:
• Four-speed, all-synchromesh 150S gearbox.
• Triple-plate aluminium clutch of the type used in a 300S.
• Final drive ratio ‘8/38’, which translates as a low 4.75:1 for optimum acceleration.
• Weber 45 DCO carburettors.
• Chassis frame by Gilco.
• Aluminium ‘sport’, ‘2-porte’ (‘two-door’) body by Fantuzzi painted red with a white-and-blue band around the nose.
• ‘Capote’, a basic soft-top to meet the regulations.

The car was pressed into action almost immediately. Its first race was the Royal Automobile Club of Belgium Grand Prix for Sports Cars at Spa-Francorchamps on 25 August 1957. Throughout his career, Loens was often described as 'hot-headed' and 'impetuous'. He was, however, highly regarded by Maserati following his exploits with the A6GCS and, as a favoured private entrant, received considerable factory support. So when he over-revved the engine during practice at the fast Belgian circuit, Thépenier – Maserati's official French importer – repaired the car in time for the Grand Prix de Cadours on 8 September, a 70-lap race in south-west France.

Loens repaid Maserati’s generosity in full, winning the race outright, beating Porsche 550 Spyders driven by Carel Godin de Beaufort and Claude Storez.

The car’s next scheduled outing was the 6 October 1957 Coupe du Salon for sports and GT cars at Montlhéry just outside Paris, where ‘2428’ is pictured on the grid bearing the Bologna works registration ‘BO 85343’. It ended in tragedy for André Loens, who was killed during the race. He had set fastest time in practice, beating works ace Jean Behra in another 200SI. Loens and ‘2428’ were in the lead, fiercely contesting first place with occasional works driver Francisco Godia-Sala in his own 200SI, when on the fifth lap Loens and the Spaniard locked wheels at the Bretelle de Couard section. The Frenchman was thrown out of the car, hitting an advertising hording that should never have been there (setting up a legal case that was eventually awarded in the Loens family’s favour).

British magazine The Autocar noted the event in its 11 October issue, offering Loens’ English wife its deepest sympathy. It also remembered the pair’s generosity during the recent Tour de France Automobile, handing out cups of tea and cold chicken to competitors in the middle of the night at the control in Roubaix.

The car was not too badly damaged and was subsequently recovered by Thépenier, who took it into its ownership for a season of racing in 1958. The car was entered but did not start several races at Montlhéry, so the main focus of attention was the Le Mans 24 Hours to be held over the weekend of 21-22 June 1958.

Jean Thépenier entered the car personally for 43-year-old former Grand Prix driver Eugène Martin (by then the actual owner) and Michel Dagorne. Bearing race no. 23, ‘2428’ was in a fiercely contested 2,000cc class that included several works Porsche 718 RSKs and a Lotus 15 for Graham Hill, who set fastest time in practice. Unfortunately, the Thépenier entry only lasted 20 laps before transmission failure led to retirement. A Porsche 918 RSK finished third overall.

The car’s competition exploits in 1959 are believed to have been limited to one entry at Montlhéry in the May Coupe de Vitesse. At the end of that year Martin sold ‘2428’ to René Hugonnet, who drove it at the April 1960 Montlhéry Coupe de Vitesse (5th overall). Hugonnet also entered Lefebvre/Gerbout in the July 1960 Trophée d’Auvergne at the Circuit de la Charade (16th overall). Jacques Lefebvre drove it once more that year, finishing 5th overall at the September Coupe de Paris at Montlhéry.

Thépenier installed front disc brakes in spring 1961, before the car was sold in 1963 to Raymond Nely of Roanne in the Loire. Nely was a former racing driver who ran a driving school. The exotic Maserati became a feature on display at the school before long-term storage and eventual sale to noted collector/dealer Antoine Raffaelli in 1972.

Raffaelli, the famous ‘Bugatti hunter’ of post-war years, was well connected with the wealthy Maeght family, whose fortune was based on fine art publishing and dealing. The Fondation Maeght today is a collection of 9,000 works of art displayed at a striking gallery in the hills above Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the Côte d’Azur. Adrien Maeght bought ‘2428’ from Raffaelli – who lived in Castellet – in 1973, subsequently showing the car in his own Musée de l'Automobiliste de Mougins in the South of France from 1984 onwards. Our Italian client bought the 200SI from the collection in June 1996.

The first priority was to recommission and prepare it for historic events. Gianni Torelli of Campagnola Emilia, who has maintained the 200SI ever since, overhauled the engine, fitting a new radiator with electric fans for modern driving convenience. The non-original disc brakes were removed and authentic drum brakes overhauled and installed. A correct full-width windscreen was made up to replace the aero-screens. Accompanying the car is a folder of invoices from Torelli going back 10 years.

Between 2006 and 2010, our client enjoyed racing the car in the Shell Ferrari-Maserati Challenge, the Le Mans Classic (twice) and various speed events organised by Peter Auto. It has also run in the Cesana-Sestriere hillclimb for several years. In more recent times the road-registered Maserati has participated only in touring rallies (Castell’Arquato, Vernasca, etc) rather than races or timed speed events.

The Maserati 200SI has one of the best lines of any 1950s sports-racing car. It’s also eligible for all the great events: racing, showing or simply touring with a friend. This example, unlike so many, has clear provenance and oozes period patina. Offered for the first time in 30 years, we highly commend it.