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In the late 30s of Indianapolis history, Wilbur Shaw was known as one of the unbeatable racing drivers, especially when racing his own designed race cars. Shaw won the 1937 Indy 500 in a car of his own design but fell awestruck when he saw his first European Grand Prix car at the Vanderbilt Cup race at Long Island, New York that very same year. Shaw commented to his close friend Mike Boyle, "If I had a car like that, I'd win the next 500 mile race in it," all the while pointing at a Maserati in the Roosevelt Raceway paddock. Boyle and his legendary crew chief Cotton Henning were very impressed by the performance of the Maseratis and struck up a tenuous deal with the Italian brothers to buy a GP car. Unfortunately, Maserati sent over a 91 cid 6CM Voiturette, a car much to delicate for the hazards of Indy.
In 1939, Boyle purchased a Maserati 8CTF, but the car suffered cylinder damage when it was shipped to America with water in its cooling system and it froze during the voyage. Henning repaired the engine and set about prepping the car for Indy. The Maserati was never very competitive in the Grands Prix it was intended to run in but found a home at the Brickyard like few others.
The Maserati was equipped with a 350 hp twin-cam straight eight engine with a pair of Roots superchargers. At that time it fell short over 100 hp from its main rivals, the Sparks-Thorne six and the Winfield eight. But, the use of the Roots blowers was the one of the advantages. The American cars of the time used the centrifugal blower that produced power after the impeller was gotten up to speed. The Roots blowers made their power almost immediately giving the Maserati better acceleration than it's opponents. Also, most American built specials for Indy, utilized production car brakes and were very weak in this aspect. Cornering at Indy was accomplished by coasting through and not using the brakes because it would only caused them to fail prematurely. The Maserati had huge 16 inch magnesium drum brakes and Shaw used these to great advantage in carving up the slower Indy specials in the corners. Shaw easily decimated the field after qualifying third in 1939. He returned with the Boyle Maserati and won again in 1940 making it his third win overall. In 1941, Shaw was going for his record fourth Indy win when a Rudge wire wheel failed on the rear of the car and he crashed hard into the wall. The impact broke Shaw's back in three places ending his stellar career.
The Indy 500 was suspended during the war until 1946 and Ted Horn brought the Boyle Special Maserati in third. He finished third in '47 and fourth in '48 as well. Finally by 1949, the other teams had learned their lessons and were producing Indy cars that effectively obsoleted the Maserati.
The final moment of glory for the Maserati came in 1950 when a young upstart midget racer Bill Vulkovich used it to pass his rookie test. The Maserati now resides at the Speedway Museum and has been restored back its original blood red color and 1939-41 Boyle Special livery.
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9 Jun 2000, 19:41 (Ref:16484)
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