The Etceterini Files Part 30: OSCA——When a Maserati Is Not a Maserati

The above badge appeared on nearly all OSCA cars produced from 1949 through 1965. An earlier badge, which appeared after Ernesto, Ettore and Bindo Maserati founded OSCA in 1947, left out the part about "Fratelli Maserati", the Maserati brothers.  This might have been because when they sold their namesake car company to the Orsi family in 1937, their 10-year consulting contract stipulated they could not go off and make cars with Maserati nameplates. Their name for their new firm, Officine Specializzate Costruzione Automobile, translating roughly to "workshop specializing in car construction", may have demonstrated a deadpan sense of humor as much as respect for the legal technicalities.  One thing the brothers' new business plan didn't recognize, however, was how easy it was (and is) to make all your money go away by building racing cars.  Their original operation had beaten the odds for 23 years.  With the brothers still advising the new ownership, a Maserati had won the Indy 500 two years running, in 1939 & 40...

Unlike the Orsi family, which wanted to sell some road cars reflecting Maserati's racing glory, the Maserati brothers again went after racing glory itself.  Their first cycle-fendered cars, like the one above, featured their own single-overhead cam head on a Fiat 1100 cast iron block, fitting the first OSCAs into the growing category of etceterini.  Soon enough, though, these MT4 (Maserati Tipo, 4 cylinder) racers featured a 2AD specification, with twin overhead cams, as well as a new engine block.  By 1950, the brothers were providing parts for Amedée Gordini*, also native to Italy's Emilia Romagna region but working in Paris on his own racers, at first based on Simca (i.e., French Fiat) engine blocks.  Gordini suggested that the Maserati brothers create a new engine for Formula 1, with some funding provided by Simca...

The new engine, designated 4500G (for Gordini) was a 4.5 liter, 60 degree V12 with gear-driven overhead cams, and the brothers proceeded with it after Simca (and Gordini) dropped out.  One engine was fitted into an obsolete Maserati racer for Prince Bira, and another into a more modern OSCA chassis (above).  Another of the 3 engines built was fitted into what may have been the first Zagato-bodied OSCA road car. When the 4.5 liter Formula 1 was dropped after 1951, Grand Prix races were run on Formula 2 rules, so OSCA made a couple of Formula 2 cars with a twin-cam, inline six that was essentially half of the V12.  The Gordini inline 6 was built to a similar design. As a reminder of the OSCA-Gordini connection, a Gordini chases an early OSCA MT4 barchetta in the undated photo below...

OSCA built a handful (3 to 5) of 2000S sports cars with the Formula 2 engine design, but concentrated on improving the four-cylinder cars, offering the MT4 in a variety of engine sizes, from 1,100 to 1,500 cc, and by the end of the Fifties, to a 2 liter inline four.  One of those rare 2000S two-liter six-cylinder cars sits on the lawn at Pebble Beach below; it was built in 1954.

A more "standard" MT4 from this period is shown below...

The racing barchettas featured OSCA's trademark "cheese grater" grille, and, unlike contemporary Lancias and early Ferraris, usually featured left-hand drive. This may have reflected the brothers' preferences, as the first postwar Maserati road cars, built while they were still at that firm, favored LHD.

Bodies were contoured tightly in aluminum over the tubular chassis, which featured independent front suspension, a live rear axle, and drum brakes. Bodywork was contracted to specialists like Frua and Morelli, the builders of this purposeful example...

Morelli, a small carrozzeria based in Ferrara, concentrated on OSCAs.  Of the 78 to 80 MT4 models produced, 40 were fitted with Morelli bodies...

The MT4 began to post class wins in small-bore racing in Fifties Europe, and in the expanding schedule of SCCA races in the USA... 

OSCA, and Stirling Moss, sent a shock wave through the racing community, though, when the 1.5 liter, 1260 pound car below, piloted by Moss and co-driver Bill Lloyd, won the 1954 Sebring 12 Hours outright, beating Jaguars, Ferraris and Lancias with over twice the power.  It also beat a 5.5 liter Chrysler-engined Cunningham fielded, like this OSCA, by Briggs Cunningham's team.  After this moment, orders poured in for the little racers with the cheese grater grilles, which were offered by Alfred Momo's shop in New York for $9,000 to $10,000.  This example still makes 130 hp, and still sports a feature unlike other MT4 spiders, the cutout fender wells added by Momo's craftsmen to increase brake cooling...

The OSCA below, chassis #1108, is an early car that was re-bodied by Vignale in a style that closely follows their bodywork on the much larger Cunningham C3.  It's not clear whether this was done to celebrate the Cunningham team's success with OSCAs, which continued into the early 60s...

There were other Vignale coupes, like the MT4 below which raced at Le Mans in 1952 and won its class there in 1953.   Styling is by Giovanni Michelotti.  Note that the front fenders expose the wheels for better brake cooling, but unlike the Sebring winner, the concave surface extends across the doors to the rear wheels...

The Vignale-bodied coupe below was also designed by Michelotti with those concave flanks, but with a different grille design resembling his efforts on the Ferrari 212 series, also built by Vignale.  The photo underlines the small scale of these 86-inch wheelbase cars.

The rear view of the same car shows off the wild rear window arrangement, with the divided backlight extending forward into a kind of skylight.  Michelotti and Vignale experimented with unusual greenhouse schemes in the mid-Fifties, including bubble roofs as on the Lancia Nardi Blue Ray.

The MT4 below was bodied by Vignale in 1954 and also shows a similarity to their work on Ferraris, including the slanting egg crate grille and those portholes.  This car still exists...

...as does the black example below, which was perhaps the most fully road-equipped OSCA up to 1955, when it was exhibited by Vignale in Paris and sold to a local admirer.  Vignale's deft touches include a concave oval grille with fog lights, bumpers providing a bit of protection, and a wraparound rear window resembling that on the then-new Alfa Giulietta Sprint by Bertone.

The cheese grater grille, which appeared almost circular on some early MT4s, became a flattened oval on later OSCAs, like this red sports racer from the 1956-57 period.  It was bodied by Morelli.

The Maserati brothers also built 15 of the Tipo J, an 1100 cc Formula Junior racer, in the 1959-61 period, when Formula Junior gained popularity as entry-level, open-wheel racing.  

By the late Fifties, front-engined racers had nearly exhausted the search for lower profile and frontal area that would soon lead to the dominance of rear mid-engined designs.  Few of those cars, however, offered the sleek, pared-down grace of the S-498 below.  From the 1959-60 period, it was a 2-liter twin-cam four.  This series of cars introduced disc brakes to OSCA, and was also offered with desmodromic valves on the S-498 DS. These were mechanically opened and closed, like those on some Ducati motorcycles, and on the Mercedes 300SLR.  It seemed the Maserati brothers were always finding new ways to spend money on engineering and tooling.

As a way of dealing with these expenses, in a perhaps belated attempt at utilizing racing fame to reach a wider market, the Maserati brothers planned a joint project with Fiat, with Fiat agreeing to manufacture an engine of OSCA design for use in Fiat roadsters as well as in a road-going OSCA GT car.  Other than a handful of  Frua and Vignale-bodied coupes, most of which wound up on race tracks, OSCA had never made a serious touring car (with heater, bumpers, etc.) before. The first fruits of cooperation with Fiat appeared in 1959 as the Fiat-Osca 1500S, and they gave Fiat a high performance "halo car" to entice Americans and increasingly affluent Europeans (something it later tried with the Ferrari-engined Fiat Dino V6).  These cars were familiar Pinin Farina-bodied Fiat roadsters with OSCA engines.  The Maserati brothers wanted something more special...

Fiat soon increased engine size a bit for the 1600S, and the OSCA GT cars, when they appeared in the early Sixties, shared this displacement, though the OSCA version of the engine was a bit different, with forged connecting rods and other tweaks for race duty.  Fiat sold thousands of Fiat-Oscas, but sales of the OSCA 1600GT coupes (most fetchingly bodied by Zagato as on the GTZ above) barely brought OSCA's total career production tally to 200.  In 1963 the brothers sold OSCA to the MV Agusta motorcycle firm, and the last OSCA was built by the end of 1967.

*Footnote:  For a survey of OSCA history beginning with the founding Maserati brothers, see our post entitled "Almost Famous" in the archives for April 20, 2016.  We had a look at an attempt to revive the OSCA (nameplate anyway) with a mid-mounted Subaru flat four in "The Etceterini Files Part 16---OSCA Dromos and Jiotto Caspita: Subaru's Distant Cousins", posted October 28, 2018.  And we recounted the story of the OSCA's mechanical cousin, France's Gordini, in "The Etceterini Files Part 6---Gordini: French Connection, Chicago Subplot" in our post for March 27, 2016.

Photo credits:

Top thru 3rd image (OSCA insignia + 2 monochrome shots):  oscaownersgroup.com

4th:  Linda LaFond

5th:  Rapley Classic Cars

6th thru 10th:  the author

11th:  LCDR Jonathan Asbury, USN

12th:  the author

13th:  italianedacorsa.it

14th & 15th:  carrozzieri-italiani.com

16th & 17th:  vwvortex.com

18th: Wikimedia

19th:  classiccarcatalogue.com

20th:  the author

21th & 22nd:  oscaownersgroup.com

Bottom: the author

Forgotten Classic: TVR --- Death Sled to Movie Star

British chemical engineer and car enthusiast Peter Wheeler bought a car from specialist maker TVR a few decades ago, and had some ideas about how to improve the car.  Instead of penning a letter to the design department, though, he bought the company in 1981.  Soon enough, he was implementing ideas to improve the performance and visual appeal of TVR's wedge-shaped, fiberglass-bodied roadsters and coupes.  At first, these were powered by the 2.8 liter Ford V6, but by 1983 TVR was offering a 3.5 liter version of Rover's aluminum V8. Still looking for more showroom appeal, Wheeler decided on curves and simple, undecorated contours to replace the wedge, and the Griffith, TVR's "New Beginning", caused a sensation when it appeared at the Birmingham Motor Show in September 1990.  Like the previous wedge-shaped Tasmin, the Griffith sent its power to independently-suspended rear wheels by way of a 5-speed gearbox.  Deft design touches include dropping the leading edge of the hood to form an air extractor, and recessing the door's leading edges to form a fender air exit.  Yeah, we know the Dodge Viper had this fender vent feature too, but TVR beat the Viper into production by 16 months.  That the car looks good without bumpers is fortunate, as none were offered.  Weight was just over 2,300 lb. (Series 1 Miata territory), and both 4.0 and 4.3 liter versions of Rover's V8 were offered, with 240 or 280 hp. Four disc brakes slowed it down, a good thing because the Griffith was fast.

The Griffith 500 above was introduced in 1993 and features left hand drive; not all Griffiths stayed in the Mother Country.  The 5 liter Rover was now making 340 hp, with the 0 to 60 run taking just over 4 seconds, and a top speed of around 170.  During the car's dozen years of production, nothing like traction control or anti-lock brakes was offered to go with the Griffith's civilized interior.  British fans nicknamed it the Death Sled.  While the Griffith was never offered in the US, German fans adopted it, perhaps because a fast drive down a winding road could offer even more drama than their beloved Carrera Turbos...

Because Americans never got the Griffith, most of them were unaware that Wheeler's design team had come up with a new TVR for 1999.  Except for those who subscribed to British car mags, their first exposure to the Tuscan Speed Six was likely this example, which appeared with John Travolta in the movie "Swordfish" in mid-2001.  Actually 2 examples of the slinky coupe in Reflex Green were employed in the over-the-top chase scene, their 4 liter, 24 valve inline sixes blaring loud evidence of 360 hp into the looming night...

Wait a minute, no more Rover V8?  TVR's engineering team apparently never got the memo from their accounting dept. about the financial ruin awaiting specialist car companies making their own engines.  So the new engine, in 4.0 and 4.2 liter sizes, provided up to 440 hp in various versions of the Speed Six.  Shifting was by a 5-speed manual.  As with the Griffith, there was no plan to offer anti-lock brakes or traction control, or to send the car Stateside.  Too bad, because lots of folks who saw the movie, even though they couldn't follow the plot, immediately wanted the car...

Design themes include the repeated circles in the recessed lighting fixtures (including the odd, low-mounted tail lights visible in the movie still) and the multiple small holes which serve as the air intake. As with the Griffith, sensual contours replace decoration, with the raised wave form of the hood repeated in the deck lid. The new car appeared as a coupe with removable roof panel in a series of eye-catching colors.  Again, there were no bumpers.  

While it's probably not all that hard to design a comical car (just look at today's computer-designed fright mask SUVs), it takes real talent and dedication to design one that radiates an ominous  aura of mystery.  The mystery begins with how to enter the thing (door buttons are hidden on the base of the door mirrors) and continues on the interior. The analog speedometer arcs over the digital tachometer, and a series of brass buttons caters to unannounced functions (OK, read the owner's manual), which include raising and lowering windows (hmm, those are somewhere on the transmission tunnel).  Overall, the interior scheme seemed like it might have been the result of a team of ex-Citroen engineers experimenting with psychedelic drugs. The car got lots of attention (how could it not?) at prices which, like the performance, paced Porsche's 911.  There were teething troubles with early examples of the engine, though, and warranty claims were added to the costs of a racing program and development of a Speed 12.  Peter Wheeler sold TVR in 2004 to the twenty-something son of a Russian oligarch, and died 5 years later.

The new management introduced the Tuscan Speed Six Mk. 2 in 2005. Improvements included more visible tail lights, plus revised spring rates and a detuned base engine to improve smoothness for those interested in using the car as daily transport. Sadly, more conventional covered headlights and interior controls, along with a unified air intake, replaced the science fiction theme of the originals, but weight stayed at 2,425 lb.  Not many of the 1,677 Tuscan Speed Sixes made were the Mk. 2 version, as the company went bankrupt in 2006, a reminder (like today's headlines) that oligarchs aren't always good at management.  Under different management, a revived TVR announced a new Griffith in 2018 designed by Gordon Murray (a fan of the 1990 car) and powered by a Cosworth-tuned Coyote V8, with an all-electric version to follow.  And while a prototype was shown, recent announcements indicate that only the electric version is planned for deliveries in 2024. This new TVR, like the predecessors of the Death Sled, is really another story, and we'll save both story lines for another day...

*Footnote: Cars from movies have been the focus of a bunch of posts; here are a few:

The Isotta Fraschini featured in "Sunset Boulevard":  "Forgotten Classic:  Isotta Fraschini: Sunset for a Dream" (Sept. 4, 2016).  

"Speeding Into Darkness:  The Cars of Film Noir"  (March 21, 2020).

"Stolen Cars and Stolen Kisses in Jean-Luc Godard's 'Breathless'." (Dec. 27, 2020).

"Steve McQueen's "Le Mans":  Star Vehicle Needs Roadside Assistance" (March 5, 2021).

"Epic Traffic Jam or the End of Civilization in Godard's 'Weekend'."  (Nov. 19, 2021).

"Cars and Trains and Planes:  Essential Movie Chase Scenes"  (Dec. 20, 2021)

Photo Credits:
Top:  Wikimedia

2nd:  classicdigest.com

3rd:  Wikimedia

4th & 5th:  youtube.com
6th & 7th:  Wikimedia

8th:  carandclassic.com
9th & 10th:  TVR Car Club

 

Last Boulder Coffee & Classics of the Season: A 1931 Bugatti Charms Children of All Ages

Your lazy correspondent arrived a half hour late on the last Sunday morning in October as he was less ready to start at 8 than was his trusty English car.  An even later arrival, however, made him forget all about getting in the long line for coffee at Spruce Confections.  It's a 1931 Bugatti Type 40A, and in the photo above, its owner invites a car-bewitched youngster to have a look inside. From a perch on the driver's seat, that lucky kid will see this: the manual controls of a hand-built, Machine Age work of art with no microchips, or even plastic, anywhere...

The Type 40A replaced the Type 40 in May 1931 after 5 years and 790 examples of Ettore Bugatti's "entry level" car.  Only 40 of the Type 40A were released by the Bugatti workshops in Molsheim, Alsace Lorraine.  Nobody used the phrase "entry level" back then, however, and not many would've thought to base a touring car around a racing engine.  In the Type 40, this was the Type 37 GP 1.5 liter aluminum overhead cam four cylinder with 3 valves per cylinder (2 intake, 1 exhaust); the Type 40A got a longer stroke for 1.6 liters, and received twin spark plugs per cylinder. 

The T40A engine, like all classic Bugattis, resembles a piece of Cubist sculpture, enhanced by the swirls of the "engine-turned" finish on the aluminum firewall.  Though Bugatti was an early adopter of advances like multi-valve aluminum engines, overhead cams, and supercharging, the company stayed with rigid suspensions front and rear, and mechanical, cable-operated brakes.

Parked next to the Bugatti we found this Allard* J2X. Offered by Sydney Allard's British firm from 1952-54, the J2X was aimed at American amateur racers during the postwar boom in road races promoted by the SCCA...

For this reason, the J2X was often equipped with Cadillac's 331 cubic inch V8, but some, like this example, featured Chrysler's then-new V8, which had the same displacement, but with hemispherical combustion chambers. The J2X engine was moved back 7 inches in the chassis to improve handling over the previous J2 model built in '50 and '51. Those were powered by Caddy V8s, flathead Ford V8s, and a few Lincoln V12s.  Only 83 of the J2X were built, following 90 J2s. Handling, even on the improved J2X, could be dramatic, as both cars featured a swing axle front suspension...

In the same lineup as the Bugatti and the Allard we found a Ferrari F40, a Jaguar XK120 rom the same era as the Allard, and a silver 1968 Dino 246 that is a frequent visitor to the Sunday sessions. By this time people were cheerfully ignoring the No Parking Any Time signs...

Other Bugatti neighbors included the black Ferrari 328GTS in the foreground and a wild, racing red cousin based on Ferrari's V8 engine design... 

That would be the F40, introduced to celebrate Ferrari's 40th anniversary as a car maker in 1987. The mid-mounted, 2.9 liter, 4-cam, twin-turbocharged V8 sends over 470 hp to the rear wheels through a 5-speed transaxle.  400 units were planned, but over 1,300 were eventually built by the time production stopped in 1992. Styling was by Pininfarina, as on Ferrari's previous supercar, the 288 GTO.

The yellow Alfa Romeo Type 916 Spider below may have been less familiar to visitors than the F40, because along with its 916 GTV 2+2 sister car, it was never exported to the USA.  It was popular in Europe though; the front-driver won design and car of the year awards after introduction in 1995. Over 80,700 of the 916 (Spider and GTV included) were built before production ended for the coupe in 2005 and the Spider in 2006.  Styling, by Pininfarina, combined wedge themes with rounded contours...

This Spider, a 1998 model built for export to Canada, has Alfa's 2 liter, 16-valve Twin Spark inline 4.  Other engines offered over the production run included 12- and 24-valve versions of Alfa's 60 degree 3 liter V6, and also the 3.2 liter version. Transmission choices were limited to 5- and 6-speed manuals.  

As the morning warmed up, the owner of the 1959 Ford Skyliner retractable hardtop gave a demonstration of the hinged steel top's operation.  The Skyliner retractable appeared after much anticipation in 1957 and sold over 20,000 copies that year, nearly as many as 2-passenger T-Bird which was in its last year. 1959 was the final year for the retractable, with a bit over 12,900 examples finding homes. A similar rear-hinged deck design, with lots of motors and relays, would appear on the soft-top Lincoln Continental 4-door convertible for 1961...

This little 1972 Steyr-Puch* Haflinger was one of over 16,000 made by the Austrian Steyr-Puch combine from 1959 to 1975. The tiny (59" wheelbase!) 4-wheel driver was intended for the Austrian military, and used the same 643 cc (39,2 cu. in.), rear-mounted air-cooled boxer twin that appeared in Steyr-Puch's comparatively hot-rod version of the Fiat 500 body, and also in a rare, alloy-bodied 2-seater GT coupe.  The Haflinger was  also adopted by the Swiss Army, sort of like that famous knife.  Horsepower was less than in the Steyr-Puch Imp 700 GT* engine, though, at around 30 max.  And according to the owner, the military did not enjoy the tendency of the carb to vapor-lock.

Weather protection seems about the same as you'd get with a mobile jungle gym. We especially enjoyed the strap detail that substitutes for the doors, which according to the owner, are fabric over a steel frame.  He's fitted a rear vision camera because with the top installed, rearward vision vanishes.  Rear seats fold forward, but there are no seatbelts because of the hinge design...   

The Lotus 7 offered similarly casual weather protection, with not much in the way of doors, but with a sturdier-looking roll bar.  Early Sevens (1958-60) used Ford side-valve fours, but the Super Seven (1961-73) adopted Ford's overhead valve Kent four in 1.3, 1.5 liter sizes, with the Lotus twin-cam available in Series 3 .  Power output ranged up to 125 or so, which doesn't sound like much, but in a 1,600 lb. car gives a power-to-weight ratio better than the V8-powered Allard J2X, with better handling too.  After 1973 Caterham Cars built the original S3 design (not the wider, heavier S4) under license from Lotus, and maintained the Lotus tradition of offering the car in kit form...

The Jensen Interceptor appeared in 1966 with one of the last styling jobs by Italy's Touring Superleggera.  The first 3 test cars were bodied by Vignale; Jensen built the rest of the steel bodies in fastback coupe and (after '73) convertible form, with a few late notchbacks, over 6,400 cars in a decade.  Wheelbase was just over 105", power came from a Chrysler 383 V8 (with over 230 cars optioned with the 440 starting in '71), disc brakes were standard, and the only element that suggested cost savings was the live rear axle. The rarer FF model (320 built) as offered from '66 through '71, and offered Ferguson Formula all-wheel drive along with Dunlop Maxaret anti-lock brakes, a first in a production car.  One Hemi-powered prototype was built. How can you tell an Interceptor from an FF?  Well, there are two diagonal vents behind each front wheel on the FF and a longer wheelbase (109"), and all FFs are right-hand drive.

There were some working class cars to go with all the upper crust stuff on Sunday morning, including this tasty oval-window VW.  The small backlight disappeared for 1958...

The lineup of old cars covered both sides of 8th Street and stretched around the corner on this crisp autumn morning, and our extremely casual popularity count tallied the most numerous makes as follows: Porsche in first place by a pile, then Triumph, with Austin Healey and Alfa Romeo tied for 3rd. We wish everyone involved an enjoyable and not-too-expensive winter of tuning and tinkering...

*Footnote:  

The following cars mentioned in this piece were featured in previous blog posts; dates are in parentheses:

Allard:  "Forgotten Classics: Allard JR and Palm Beach" (January 28, 2021).

Steyr-Puch:  "Streamliners from Mitteleuropa: Steyr and Steyr-Puch" (February 16 2019).

Steyr-Puch Imp 700GT:  "The Etceterini Files Part 28: Intermeccanica, Sometimes Forgotten, Still in Business" (January 12, 2022).

Photo Credits:  All photos are by the author.