Bertocchi confirmed the mercurial Colombo’s work rate: “One morning Colombo took out a blank sheet of paper and said to me, ‘Before evening I’ll have a present for you.’ It was the 4CLT chassis…” (Hmm, yes ‘Guerrino’ old sport, the rush job subsequently showed). “The 250F was almost as quick (to be built). I drove the car first time here at Modena, era buone, forte, veloce… instantly very good, born well.”
Alfieri recalled an A6GCS sportscar bending the unpainted 250F prototype by spinning into it in front of the pits during those first tests. “That meant we had to work Christmas Day morning 1953 to complete two new 250Fs and some customer A6GCMs with the new 2.5-litre engines, for shipping to Argentina on December 26 in time for the first gran premio of 1954. In the Argentinian GP we won, but only after many problems.
“We had only tested in the cold. There in Argentina it was the height of summer, very, very ‘ot!
“We cut big holes in the 250Fs’ noses to improve cooling, and in the race Ferrari were leading and we were right on the limit, Fangio with only 1kg oil pressure, when at that moment arrived a great storm. The rain completely changed our situation — it cooled the cars, our car handled the wet superbly and Fangio drove past the Ferraris and won.
“Good handling, powerful brakes and competitive power provided the keys to the 250Fs’ success. Alfieri mischievously explained: “Our car handled well due to contributory reasons: one, front suspension geometry, not special, but good — unequal-length wishbones and coil-springs; two, De Dion rear suspension very soft with transverse leaf-spring; three, our Pirelli tyres, very good; four, this first space-frame chassis was very poor in torsional stiffness, in the wet lateral force was low, tyre friction poor and so our lack of chassis stiffness did not punish us, instead it made our car perfect for the rain — very pleasant, very special… very lucky!”
The new Maserati was unusual in that its De Dion tube arched around the front of the gearbox/final-drive to keep its mass within the wheelbase. The tube was located by twin radius rods each side and laterally by a centre slider ball in a channel on the transaxle casing. The transverse leaf-spring contributed nothing to wheel location, being pivoted at its centre and passing between pairs of rollers at chassis width which were moveable to provide adjustable roll stiffness. Massive multi-finned bi-metal brake drums appeared in the wheels front and rear, and Houdaille rotary-vane dampers were chassis-mounted and operated by long links from the suspension.
In the early-1954 races the 250Fs suffered bearing failures caused by oil frothing. The dry-sump oil tank’s location within the hot engine bay exacerbated this problem, so Alfieri moved it to the extreme tail. Other problems were more serious. Alfieri: “The original De Dion tube failed sometimes and we increased its wall thickness from 1mm to 3mm, which was heavy, but stiff and strong. Bevel-gear trouble in the transmission was a bigger problem. Fangio won Argentina and Spa without trouble but then went off to drive the new Mercedes…” He paused, gazing silently into space, before continuing: “Marimón remained, we asked Villoresi to drive for us again, and young Moss and others had private cars. With Villoresi first and then Moss began the trouble of the bevel gears and we changed to ‘Model 7’ straight-cut gears, very big, and this was a complete cure.
“Fangio, you see, was always very soft, very gentle on the car. In a race he would consume 10-15 litres less fuel than the others, wear his brakes less, and all other parts of his car too. After he had gone we found the others in comparison were all very hard, rugged on the cars, and we had to make them stronger — but we wanted them lighter and more powerful as well.
“At the end of 1954 engineer Bellentani went to Ferrari and I became totally in charge at Maserati: sportscars, road cars, not only the 250F. So I changed the gran premio chassis design, made a small, better streamlined body, and we did a great study of the engine characteristics to improve its mid-range and 245bhp maximum. Eventually we arrived at nearer 270bhp and reduced weight from 620kg dry, 640 sometimes, down to nearer 600-610kg. We found more power partly by changing from methanol fuel, which we used for more than a year, to nitromethane mixes. We tested 43 or 44 different mixtures, found widely different power outputs and characteristics, and chose the best suited.