Maserati: Ex-Stirling Moss Maserati up for auction

16 June, 2014

 


At RM Auctions’ Monaco sale on May 10, punters will get the chance to bid for the 1956 Maserati 450S Prototype, as driven by Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson on the 1956 Mille Miglia.

Originally built as a six-cylinder car, before the Mille Miglia that year, Maserati installed a 5657cc V8 producing around 520bhp. Moss crashed the car following brake failure.

This car has since gained the chassis number 4501, once used on an entirely different Maserati 450S but now verified for this car. At one time the Maserati was also fitted with a Corvette V8!

Today, fully restored, the car is expected to bring in big bucks at auction.

Another interesting Italian at the same sale is the re-creation of Lancia’s justly famous D50 Grand Prix car (although we’re not that keen on its modern roll bar). Built from original plans by Tom Wheatcroft of Donington fame, the car is expected to attract bids of over one million pounds — rather less than the cost of the real thing!


NZ Classic Car magazine, March/April 2025 issue 398, on sale now

An HQ to die for
Mention the acronym HQ and most people in the northern hemisphere will assume this is an abbreviation for Head Quarters. However, for those born before the mid-’80s in Australia and New Zealand, the same two letters only mean one thing – HQ Holden!
Christchurch enthusiast Ed Beattie has a beautiful collection of Holden and Chevrolet cars. He loves the bowtie and its Aussie cousin and has a stable of beautiful, powerful cars. His collection includes everything from a modern GTSR W507 HSV through the decades to a 1960s Camaro muscle car and much in between.
In the last two Holden Nationals (run biennially in 2021 and 2023), Ed won trophies for the Best Monaro and Best Decade with his amazing 1972 Holden Monaro GTS 350 with manual transmission.
Ed is a perfectionist and loves his cars to reflect precisely how they were on ‘Day 1,’ meaning when the dealer released them to the first customer, including any extras the dealer may have added or changed.

You’re the one that I want – 1973 Datsun 240K GT

In the early 1970s, Clark Caldow was a young sales rep travelling the North Island and doing big miles annually. He loved driving. In 1975 the firm he worked for asked Clark what he wanted for his new car, and Clark chose a brand-new Datsun 240K GT. The two-door car arrived, and Clark was smitten, or in his own words, he was “pole vaulting.”
Clark drove it all over the country, racking up thousands of miles. “It had quite a bit of pep with its SOHC 128 hp (96kW) of power mated to a four-speed manual gearbox,” he says. Weighing in at 1240kg meant the power to weight ratio was good for the time and its length at almost 4.5 metres meant it had good street presence.
Clark has been a car enthusiast all his life, and decided around nine years ago to look for one of these coupes. By sheer luck he very quickly found a mint example refurbished by an aircraft engineer, but it was in Perth.