The Maserati V8RI was a model of racing car produced by Italian manufacturer Maserati of Modena in 1936, for total of four units. Designed by

Ernesto Maserati Ernesto Maserati (4 August 1898 – 1 December 1975) was an Italian automotive engineer and racer, with Maserati of Modena since its inception in Bologna on 14 December 1914, together with his brothers Alfieri Maserati (leader), Ettore Masera ...

, they had a front-mounted 4.788-liter

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

, 90 degrees. A

Roots type supercharger The Roots-type blower is a positive displacement lobe pump which operates by pumping a fluid with a pair of meshing lobes resembling a set of stretched gears. Fluid is trapped in pockets surrounding the lobes and carried from the intake si ...

and dual choke

Weber carburetor Weber Carburetors is an automotive manufacturing company founded in 1923, known for their carburetors. History Eduardo Weber began his automotive career working for Fiat, first at their Turin plant (in 1914) and later at a dealership in Bologna ...

, single camshaft resulted in and a maximum speed of . The "RI" denoted ''Ruote indipendenti'', the then innovative independent four-wheel suspension. The cars measurements were wheelbase , length , width , and height . Chassis #4501 debuted at

Grand Prix de la Marne The Grand Prix de la Marne (commonly known as the Marne Grand Prix) was a motor race organized by the Automobile Club de Champagne and staged at the circuit Reims-Gueux on public roads located west of the city of Reims in the Marne département ...

1935, driven by

Philippe Étancelin Philippe Étancelin (28 December 1896 – 13 October 1981) was a French Grand Prix motor racing driver who joined the new Formula One circuit at its inception. Biography Born in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, in Normandy, he worked as a merchant in the w ...

. Its only victory was the

Pau Grand Prix The Pau Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Pau) is a motor race held in Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of southwestern France. The French Grand Prix was held at Pau in 1930, leading to the annual Pau Grand Prix being inaugurat ...

in 1936. All four V8RIs built competed in the 1937

Vanderbilt Cup The Vanderbilt Cup was the first major trophy in American auto racing. History An international event, it was founded by William Kissam Vanderbilt II in 1904 and first held on October 8 on a course set out in Nassau County on Long Island, ...

at New York's

Roosevelt Field Roosevelt Field is a former airport, located east-southeast of Mineola, Long Island, New York. Originally called the Hempstead Plains Aerodrome, or sometimes Hempstead Plains field or the Garden City Aerodrome, it was a training field (Hazel ...

, and all four remained in the United States for many years afterwards.

External links

maserati.org.au
has a gallery and description

on chassis #4501

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maserati V8ri V8RI Grand Prix cars