The ex-tony Parravano/ Jack Brumby/ Billy Krause 1956 Maserati 450S Sport Competizione Coachwork by Carrozzeria Fantuzzi

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1 Brief history The ex-tony Parravano/ Jack Brumby/ Billy Krause Coachwork by Carrozzeria Fantuzzi Chassis no Engine no Price on request October 1956 Completed at factory and sold to Tony Parravano. Fi r s t p r o d u c t i o n 450S. Painted red with white and blue stripe December 1956 Arrived in California 6th January 1957 Tested by the Parravano team at Willow Springs by Jack MacAfee, Richie Ginther and Bob Drake 1957 Hidden near Mexican border by Pa r r a v a n o 10th September 1957 Demonstrated at Riverside Press Day, driven by Skip H u d s o n Late 1957 Intercepted near San Diego by IRS on board one of To n y Pavarrano s trucks bound for Mexico January 1959 Auctionned by the IRS in the parking lot of a Savings and Loan in San Fernando Va l l e y. Bought for $3,000 by Jack Brumby (Italia Motors) backed by Dr Rey Martinez. Re p a i n t e d s i l v e r- b l u e 31st January 1959 Tested at Pomona, Jack B r u m b y 31st January 1959 Pomona Sprint, Krause, race no. 53, 5th 1st February 1959 Pomona Main Event, Billy Krause, race no. 53, 2nd The woodland creatures scurry, bolt and scramble, for the Bazooka, though still some way distant, is most definitely within earshot. This is not a car for the shy or sensitive, timid or tremulous. Genghis Khan or Vlad the Impaler would have loved it, though. Maserati s Tipo 54, that s Mister 450S to you and me, sounds like thunder and goes like the clappers It s big, beautiful and brutal. M o t o r S p o r t magazine, January Few sports-racing cars carry a fearsome reputation to equal Maserati s thunderous Ti p o 54, better known as the 450S. Originally conceived in 1954 to challenge Ferrari s b i g b a n g e r sports racers, the Ti p o 54 project was bankrolled by South Californian cement and construction baron, team boss and partygoer Tony Parravano. Eager to win the Indianapolis 500, Parravano had ordered two 4.2 V8 engines and intended to put them into Kurtis chassis. Nothing came of this project, so instead Maserati developed a sports racing car around the engine which was intended to challenge Ferrari in the World Sports Car Championship. The new V8, by now enlarged to 4488cc, almost shook the factory walls down as it registered 400bhp on the dyno. The years of Ferrari outmuscling Maserati 7th March 1959 Pomona Sprint, Krause, race no. 53, 1st 8th March 1959 LA Examiner Grand Pr i x, Krause, race no. 53, spun whilst leading, 4th 1 Above: Turn your 450S in, aim for the apex, floor the throttle - and that purebred race pedigree 4-cam V8 engine tucks down the tail, and punches you like an artillery shell towards infinity

2 19th July 1959 Kiwanis Grand Prix, Krause/ Woods, race no. 53, DNF (exhaust fumes) 5th September 1959 Santa Barbara Sprint, Krause, race no. 127, 1st 6th September 1959 Santa Barbara, Krause, race no. 127, DNF after leading 16th October 1960 Times Grand Prix Consolation Race, Riverside, Chuck Ke s s i n g e r, race no. 41, 4th 12th March 1961 Cal Club, Pomona, Chuck Ke s s i n g e r, spun, 7th 15th October 1961 Times Grand Prix Consolation Race, Ke s s i n g e r, 9th 4th March 1962 Riverside Car Club, Ke s s i n g e r, 4 t h Later Owned by Bill Grimiscin, Pe n n s y l v a n i a 1967 Owned by Tiny Gould, Pe n n s y l v a n i a 1968 Owned by Joel Finn, New Yo r k 1969 Owned by Cameron Millar, U K Late 1970s Owned by Count Hubertus von Donhoff, Germany 1980s Restored by Tony Merrick 1996 Sold to present owner, further work by Steve Hart April 2007 Offered for sale by private treaty sale by Kidston SA, G e n e v a 2 were definitely over. recalled M o t o r S p o r t. But its birth was overdrawn and over b u d g e t- the R&D cost of $500,000 was colossal by the standards of the era- and Maserati s win-o r- b u s t attempt to secure the 1957 championship failed dramatically after all three 450S entries (and the Wo r k s 300S) in the final round in Ve n e z u e l a were wrecked by accidents or fire. Perhaps unnerved by the big Maser s gargantuan performance (and that of Ferrari s 4 litre V12s) the powers- t h a t- be implemented a 3 litre sports car formula from 1958, and the car s European career was over. As the backer behind its development, though, Parravano was destined to receive the first production example, chassis 4502, which had been shipped to him at the end of Thankfully 4502 avoided the Venezuelan carnage, stashed away near the Mexican border, supposedly out of reach of the Inland Re v e n u e S e r v i c e. Tony ran a construction empire in Southern California and had trouble maintaining proper books pertaining to his businesses. As a result virtually no corporate taxes were paid until the Internal Revenue Service caught up with him. Tony fled to Mexico in June, 1957, and the IRS people settled Parravano s tax liabilities in January, 1959, by auctioning off his extensive collection of Italian exotics, at least that part not siphoned off to Mexico previously! One of the auctioned cars was the 450S, chassis Willem Oosthoek, The Maserati Club m a g a z i n e. The IRS eventually found the car and sold it at auction; it still looking for To n y. How ironic that Parravano, the man whose cash kick-s t a r t e d Maserati s V8 project, never got to see his 450S run in anger. MotorSport m a g a z i n e. He must have been Maserati s best customer at the time as apart from Ferraris his stable included the Italian GP winning 250F raced by Stirling Moss, a refurbished 300S, now with a 350S engine, and the first 450S, all painted in To n y s racing colours of red and dark blue with white stripes. For some reason the prototype 450S never saw any action under Parravano and by the time 4502 went through the IRS auction it was virtually brand new. It was sold for Left: Beefy beauty 4502 in period wearing its Scuderia Parravano centreline stripes of American white and dark blue on its Italian racing red standard livery.

3 Our thanks to Willem Oosthoek for making his historic research available. Above: Billy Krause has the car steadied under braking, left hand on the slender wood-rimmed steering wheel aims right, and 4502 blasts through another race lap this could be you. $3,000 and the buyers were partners Dr Re y Martinez, associated with the Burbank Hospital, and Jack Brumby of the Italia Motors agency in East Hollywood. 3 Brumby was an amateur racing driver with experience of Po r s c h e s, Alfas and Abarths so it is doubtful if he knew quite what he had bitten off with the 450S. He wasted no time in entering the Maserati in California Regional races, still in Parravano s colours, but a few test laps of the Pomona track scared him enough to start looking for a replacement driver. Based on his 1958 Ti m e s Grand Prix performance, Billy Krause was suggested. I finished 2nd in my first 4.5l race there. Brumby was supposed to drive it himself but the car scared h i m recalls Krause.

4 Above: Billy Krause in command the crossed-arms style will work too!. Below: Motorsport s January 2005 article. Krause led again at the Examiner Grand Prix on the same track a month later until he spun near the end, finishing fourth on three wheels after the right rear tyre burst. July s Kiwanis GP at Riverside looked more promising because the track was faster, but Krause and c o-driver Pete Woods were overcome by exhaust fumes when a scoop the team had cut into the bodywork to improve ventilation instead funneled exhaust gases into the cockpit! The mighty 450S had one final outing with Krause and Brumbya DNF at Santa Barbarabefore the team switched to a more modern, nimble Maserati B i r d c a g e. The car re-appeared in Chuck Ke s s i n g e r s hands in 1960 and 1961 but proved uncompetitive against the latest machinery and the now outdated 450S was finally put into retirement. 4 It is known to have been owned by Bill Grimiscin in Pe n n s y l v a n i a who restored it, followed by Ti n y Gould, also in Pennsylvania, in

5 1967, Maserati collector Joel Finn in New York in 1968, Maserati restorer Cameron Millar in England in 1970, and then Count Hubertus von Donhoff in Germany who had it restored by Tony Merrick in England in the 1980s. During restoration it was decided to add brake cooling ducts in the nose, which saw the first 30cm of the aluminum skin replaced, accounting for a slightly altered nose aperture vis-à-vis the car s 1959 season appearance. Of course, the windscreen is today in full width (ie to WSCC regulation) configuration rather than single screen, and the owner chose an elegant dark blue hue for the overall finish rather than Pa r r a v a n o s red/blue/ white colour scheme. However, the bodywork is otherwise confirmed as original, as is the engine, which has been rebuilt to a very high, race ready standard. During the past decade of its present European ownership, chassis 4502 has participated in historic events such as the Mille Miglia and the Nürburgring Oldtimer Grand Prix, proving rapid and reliable. It is accompanied by its FIVA identity card and FIA papers and is in immaculate condition, ready for the track or the concours lawn. Of the ten 450S Maseratis built (opinions vary as to whether more or less than those ten survive ) chassis 4502 is universally regarded by experts and collectors as one of the very best examples extant. Kidston SA 7 Avenue Pictet-de-Richemont, 1207 Genève, Switzerland Tel Fax info@kidston.com 5