The Maserati 200S (Tipo 52) is a racing car made by Italian automobile manufacturer

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

as a successor to the

Maserati A6GCS Maserati A6 were a series of grand tourers, racing sports cars and single seaters made by Maserati of Italy between 1947 and 1956. They were named for Alfieri Maserati (one of the Maserati brothers, founders of Maserati) and for their straight-six ...

. 28 cars were made in total. The development of the 200S, codenamed Tipo 52 started in 1952, led by

Vittorio Bellentani Vittorio Bellentani (March 11, 1906 – March 26, 1968) was an Italian automobile engineer and racing driver. Biography Born in Modena, he studied in Germany at University of Freiburg before joining Enzo Ferrari in 1940, where he first worked o ...

. In response to Ferrari's 500 Mondial racing car which featured a four-cylinder engine and was quite successful in sports car racing. The car had a

inline-four A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft. The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the ...

light-

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

engine, featuring dual

overhead valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

s per cylinder and twin camshafts, double

Weber Weber (, or ; German: ) is a surname of German origin, derived from the noun meaning " weaver". In some cases, following migration to English-speaking countries, it has been anglicised to the English surname 'Webber' or even 'Weaver'. Notable pe ...

50DCO3 (first few cars only) or 45DCO3

carburetors A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meterin ...

. The engine was rated at at 7,500 rpm. Many chassis components were identical to the

Maserati 150S Maserati 150S is a racing car made by Maserati of Italy alongside the Maserati 200S, to take over for the aging Maserati A6GCS racing variants. Twenty-seven examples were built, and one additional street-going car, called the Maserati 150 GT. Th ...

in order to speed up development, except the rigid rear axle inherited from the

Maserati A6 Maserati A6 were a series of grand tourers, racing sports cars and single seaters made by Maserati of Italy between 1947 and 1956. They were named for Alfieri Maserati (one of the Maserati brothers, founders of Maserati) and for their straight-six ...

Maserati made the first three chassis internally, but outsourced a

tubular Tubular may refer to: *having the form of a hollow cylinder, or tube *having the form of a cylinder *''Tubular'', a television-related entertainment blog on the ''Houston Chronicle'' website *''Tubular'', a level in the video game ''Super Mario Wor ...

chassis to Gilco which was modified by Maserati. The first five

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

bodies were made by Celestino Fiandri, and the 23 final bodies were made by

Medardo Fantuzzi Medardo Fantuzzi (1906–1986) was an Italian automotive engineer, known for his Carrozzeria Fantuzzi body workshop. Life Fantuzzi was born in Bologna in 1906 and died in Modena in 1986. Automotive engineer He and his brother, Gino Fantuzzi we ...

. The 200S debuted at the 1955 Imola Grand Prix, driven

Franco Bordoni Franco Bordoni-Bisleri (10 January 1913 – 15 September 1975) was an Italian aviator and racing car driver. He is one of the top-scoring flying ace, aces of the Regia Aeronautica, with 19 air victories. His nickname was "Robur" ("strength" ...

, but yielded disappointing results. The 200S was then entered at the

1955 Targa Florio The 39a Targa Florio took place on 16 October, around the Madonie, Circuito delle Madonie Piccolo, (Sicily, Italy). It was also the sixth and final round of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship season, F.I.A. World Sports Car Championship. The tit ...

driven by

Giovanni Bracco Giovanni Bracco (6 June 1908 at Biella – 7 August 1968 at Biella) was an Italian racing car driver. He lived in Biella, home town of other racing aces such as Mario Porrino and Lamberto Grolla. Before and after World War II he had been racing ...

and Bordoni along with a 150S. Both cars were forced to retire, with Maserati winning the race with a A6GCS driven by Francesco Giardini. In 1956, Maserati entered three new 200S' at the Supercortemaggiore GP. Problems with the suspension would be resolved by fitting two cars with a De dion bridge attached to the differential with a sliding pin at the rear. The third car had a conventional rear axle. The first car suffered damage in practicing round while the second one would retire during the race after only one lap. The third car would finish 27 seconds behind the winning

Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa The Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, or 250 TR, is a racing sports car built by Ferrari from 1957 to 1961. It was introduced at the end of the 1957 racing season in response to rule changes that enforced a maximum engine displacement of 3 litres for t ...

. At the Bara GP, the car would show more promising results by winning the race outright. In 1957 a new variant called the Maserati 200SI, ''Sport Internazionale'', was introduced to conform to international sports car racing rules. The SI featured a wider windscreen, wipers, doors and a neat hood design to keep the rain out when the car was parked rather than protecting the driver from these elements during a race. One of the 200SI (chassis 2407) was a converted 150S. The 200S was then replaced by the 250S which featured an enlarged engine. Most of the 250S cars were 200S converted to 250S specifications: Four of the 200SI built were thus converted, while only two were built from the ground up. The 250S also proved uncompetitive.

References

External links

maserati-alfieri.co.uk
on the 200S

Literature

Karl Ludvigsen Karl E. Ludvigsen (born April 24, 1934) is a journalist, author, and historian of the automotive industry and motor sports. Personal life Karl E. Ludvigsen was born on April 24, 1934 in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was the son of Elliot "Lud" Ludv ...

, ''Maserati 200S/200SI'' {{Maserati 200S Sports racing cars sv:Maserati 150S