The Magical Summer of a Maserati 6CM

Photos by Jonathan Sharp

From the VeloceToday Archives, September 2019.

Count Trossi’s Maserati Summer of 1936

Lead photo: Ewen Sergison in the cockpit of Nigel Griffiths’ Maserati s/n 1532 at Goodwood, April 6-7, 2019. See below for much more.

Recently we republished an old story by Ed McDonough about Count Felice Trossi, which prompted a reply from Nigel Griffiths, who told us he owned the ex-Trossi 6CM Maserati and would be at the 2019 Goodwood Members’ Meeting in April with the very same Maserati, s/n 1532.

Now isn’t that coincidental, I said, as Jonathan Sharp would also attend and could he get some photos of 1532? Of course, said Nigel. Jonathan checked the program and found that the 6CM is car 58 entered into race 4 with practice is on Saturday morning, and the Parnell cup is the first race at 9am on Sunday morning. We are good to go.

Ed’s great little piece on Trossi focused on his postwar years with the Alfa 158, but Trossi was also a very accomplished prewar Voiturette competitor; in fact, Trossi won the first time out with the new 6CM at the Nurburgring on June 14th, 1936 and there is good reason to believe that Trossi’s mount that day, if not for the entire year, was 1532.

Having fun all summer long…

It might not be too presumptuous for us to image that, sometime in the waning weeks of 1936, Count Felice Trossi, warmly ensconced in his castle at Biella and surrounded by trophies, looked back upon the summer of ‘36, recalling that it was a very good year.

February- March Earlier in the year the Maserati brothers had constructed a new car to replace the aging 4CM, something fast enough to beat the English ERAs. The factory had all but given up on the 750KG formula V8RI and decided to concentrate winning in the 1500 cc Voiturette class. But there were rumblings. It was rumored that Scuderia Subalpina, financed by Turin based Luigi della Chiesa, Nino Farina, Giulio Aymini, Piero Dusio (later of Cisitalia) and Gaspare Bona, might be in trouble as della Chiasa wanted out. But after watching Trossi at a test session in February, a decision was to stay with Maserati but change the name of the team to Scuderia Torino, probably due to the huffy departure of Farina, who saw Maserati as a loser and teamed up with Scuderia Ferrari. (Trow, p292) In March, patron/driver/customer Gino Rovere oversaw a refinancing of the Maserati concern and was appointed President. In the meantime, Maserati completed the first 6CM engine (1530) and delivered to author (The Racers) Hans Ruesch on March 26th, who installed it into his 4CM. According to Trow, the first complete 6CM was 1531, delivered to Gino Rovere on April 8th. On April 10 at Monaco, Rovere debuted the prototype 6CM, but retired with engine problems.

June It is generally believed that 1532 was to be driven by Trossi at the Eifelrennen on June 14th. There was another 6CM (?) for Laszlo Hartman (1531?) and a 4CM for Amobono Tenni. From his castle north of Milan, Trossi traveled to the Nurburgring to defeat the ERAs, with Tenni coming in second. Seaman in the Delage went off the road while Bira in the ERA worked hard to win third place. It was the beginning of a wonderful year.

On June 28th, he was in Milan for the Circuito di Milano in Sempione Park, right in his back yard. This was an all Italian event, and even the Baroness Avanzo was entered with a Maserati. He won again, with more than a minute over Emilio Villoresi. June was busting out all over.

July Descending from his castle, on July 26th he teamed with the 6CM for a win at the Coppa Ciano in Livorno. Seaman’s Delage was misfiring, and though the Nicholas Embiricos ERA was faster than Trossi’s 6CM, Trossi nevertheless won in a crowd-pleasing event.

August At the Coppa Acerbo at Pescara on August 15th, Trossi lost to Seaman’s fast, black Delage, but still defeated the ERAs. In that season, Seaman proved to have the fastest car, with four wins and totally dominating the races he did win. Neither Trossi nor Bira in the ERA could do anything about it.

September The Brits stayed home that September, while Trossi wrapped up what must have been a magical time. Trossi won the voiturette race on the very tight circuit in the medieval city of Lucca on September 7th. The track ran “…through narrow gateways into the old city and along the ramparts,” wrote David Venables. In Modena, through the streets where Ferrari made its home, on September 21, Trossi led all the way.

Five wins and one second. But aside from the Nurburgring, Trossi did not face significant opposition from the ERA. “Despite its initial promise, the 6CM was not as fast as the ERA or Seaman’s Delage, but his victories gave Trossi the Italian 1500 cc championship for 1936.” (Venebales P 223)

In 1937 Trossi used a 6CM to win again at Naples, but drove a 4CM to a win at Luca. Due to illness, Trossi didn’t compete much in 1938, and by 1939, the replacement for the 6CM, the 4CL, was ready, and the 6CM almost disappeared.

Although the 6CM chalked up victories in 1937, Pritchard noted that “…it was a bitter pill for the Maserati brothers to swallow, it had to be admitted that the rather square-rigged British ERAs were more than a match for the sleek 6CMs.”

But for Count Felice Trossi, the performance of the 6CM Maserati and the results of 1936 could only have been extremely satisfying. Eighty three years later, Maserati 6CM s/n 1532, was set to have another summer of fun. It began on April 6, at Goodwood, where Jonathan Sharp photographed the car from warm up to trackside, and the summer of ’19 ended at the Goodwood Revival on September 13-16, with Ewen Sergison driving again.

Sources
Maserati, The Family Silver, Nigel Trow, Plenham Press, 2016
The Racing Fifteen Hundreds, David Venebales, Transport Bookman, 1984
Maserati, A History, Anthony Pritchard, Arco, 1976

One weekend in the long history of Trossi’s Maserati 6CM

Goodwood Members’ Meeting, April 6-7, 2019 Photos by Jonathan Sharp