|
Maserati
Tipo 8CL |
||||
|
Tipo 8CL Gallery |
|
|
Specifications |
||
|
Previous |
|
|
Next |
||
| Notes | |||||
| The performance improvement achieved in the 4CL relative to the long stroke engines encouraged Ernesto Maserati to transfer the philosophy to 3 litre cars. Whilst the 8CTF was performing well it was regarded as mechanically fragile and the four valve per cylinder and equal bore and stroke of the 4CL was judged more reliable. Work had begun on the 8CL in 1939 coinciding with the company's move from Bologna to Modena. As on the 8CTF two independent carburettors were used, one for each block of four cylinders. The resulting power was 415 bhp well in excess of the 8CTF from which the 8CL had taken its external lines, albeit the 8CL had a slightly longer wheelbase. The potential of the 8CL was never realised due to the outbreak of war and then a change in the regulations in 1946 outlawing the supercharged 3 litre. The Milan team however ran the car in several races in Europe which it won and in the 1946 Indianapolis 500 where it performed brilliantly. This success inevitably lead on to the 8CLT | |||||
|
|
|||||
| Maserati Tipo 8CL | |||||
 |
Tipo 8CL (# 3034) used by Paul Riganti for the 1940 Indianapolis 500 but failed to qualify, finished 3rd in a heat of the 1948 Buenos Aires GP driven by Puoplo, then crashed & subsequently restored. | ||||
 |
Tipo 8CL (#3034) cockpit - courtesy MRC | ||||
 |
Tipo 8CL (#3035) built in 1946 for the Milan team and driven by Villoresi at Indianapolis in that year. Subsequently by Sommer at Lila, by Villoresi at Barcelona and then Farina who won the Mar del Plata GP during the 1948 Temporada in Argentina in 1948. | ||||
 |
Tipo 8CL (#3035) Sold in the US to Fred Agabashian following the Temporada in Argentina was driven by him in the 1949 Indianapolis 500. Both photographs taken at the Laguna Seca Historic Races, Monterey 2000. | ||||
 |
|||||
