July 16, 2002

Ipswich, Massachusetts, - Many of the exceptional vintage and classic automobiles gracing the Grand Allée of Castle Hill on the Crane Estate in Ipswich, Massachusetts at the Castle Hill Concours d'Elegance presented by BMW Massachusetts Dealers on September 22, 2002 will be fastidiously restored to magnificence. The essence of "elegance," these lavishly restored automobiles with exceptional coachwork speak eloquently of style and fashion, the haute couture of automobiles.

Restoration, however, is a tradeoff for the history which an automobile's bumps, wear, faded paint and expedient mechanical alterations communicate and some owners, coming across a particularly eloquent history, choose preservation over restoration. Making its show debut at the Castle Hill Concours d'Elegance presented by BMW Massachusetts Dealers on September 22, 2002 is one such eloquent physical history, a pre-WWII Maserati V8Ri Grand Prix racer that has spent the past forty years secluded in a Winchester, Massachusetts garage in exactly the condition in which it contested its last competition event.

Only four of this model were built in 1935 and 1936 to compete against the technical and financial might of the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union teams of "Silver Arrows" from Germany. Powered by a sophisticated single overhead camshaft V8 engine with 4-wheel independent suspension, limited resources prevented the Maserati team from developing the V8Ri's reliability. Eventually this car, along with its three counterparts, came to the U.S. to compete in the rich Vanderbilt Cup race at Roosevelt Field on Long Island and passed into American hands where it attempted five times to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 following WWII.

In 1950 it was bought by Phil Cade of Winchester, Massachusetts who raced it frequently in early Sports Car Club of America events in the Northeast. The Maserati V8 engine usually proved to be its undoing and it was replaced in 1951 by a 331 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi V8, raced for two years just as it came from Goldie's Auto Parts in Quincy. It performed admirably at venues as diverse as Thompson Speedway and Lime Rock in Connecticut, Watkins Glen and Bridgehampton in New York and the hillclimbs at Mt. Equinox in Vermont and Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

Cade eventually addressed the Chrysler's performance with some modifications including a 1957 Corvette 4-speed transmission and continued racing the V8Ri until it was supplanted by a Maserati 250F Grand Prix car in 1960. The V8Ri moved to the back of Phil's garage in Winchester, exactly as it had completed its last competition event, and remained there until it was acquired by Center Harbor, New Hampshire's Bob Valpey last year, only months before Phil Cade died.

Bob Valpey declares, "As long as it's in my care it will remain just as Phil raced it," and it is remarkable how many enthusiasts remember Cade's V8Ri and the emotions it stirred when they last saw it … forty years ago. Valpey brought it to the Vintage Sports Car Club of America's Fiftieth Anniversary running of the Mt. Equinox Hillclimb recently and it was the event's focal point, drawing a crowd of spectators despite - or perhaps because of - its casually-applied old red paint, dented bodywork and sweat-stained leather seat. It proudly displays every event, every mishap, every repair and every alteration from its rebuild after near-destruction in the 1935 Italian Grand Prix at the Monza Autodrome to its retirement twenty-five years later in Massachusetts.

The "Restoration or Preservation" debate will continue long after the 2002 Castle Hill Concours d'Elegance - but rarely will "Preservation" be demonstrated so persuasively as by the ex-Phil Cade Maserati V8Ri.

For more information on the event please contact Jennifer Kyte at Castle Hill, 978 412 2564 or e-mail at jkyte@ttor.org.