22/12/2024
Maserati 4CL 🔱🧡
18 April 1939, from left Giovanni Rocco, Corrado Filippini at the wheel (editor of Auto Italiana magazine) and Gigi Villoresi pose with the Maserati 4CL, chassis 1565, on the Firenze-Mare motorway (a Fiat 1500 emerges from behind, perhaps Villoresi's very car), before setting a speed record. Something needed to be done, after Alfa Romeo revealed the legendary Tipo 158, forcing Maserati to quickly identify a replacement for their dated 6-cylinder. Ernesto Maserati works on a perfectly square four: bore/stroke 78mm, 1500cc but 220hp. Thanks to a sophisticated distribution with four valves per cylinder and Roots compressor, acceleration and top speed are impressive to say the least. The new sports was given the name 4CL, or 4 Cilindri Linguette, to recall the characteristic valves control through the interposition of steel tabs between the eccentrics of camshafts and valves. This system, which the Maserati brothers would resume years later with the Osca, effectively eliminates the lateral stress that the eccentric causes on the valve stems. Lightweight, short stroke, excellent suspension geometry, the "16-valves" is however victim of both WW2 outbreak and above all the changed internal management of the company. The new owners, the Orsi family, moved the headquarters to Modena between October and November, where Maserati still is, to a plant large enough to allow the desired production developments: Adolfo Orsi is president, his brother-in-law Alceste Giacomazzi is the general manager, Alberto Massimino is technical director, relegating the Maserati bros to less relevant roles of trusted consultants. Despite this, there's one last exciting success: Luigi Villoresi, Giovanni Rocco and Franco Cortese are all on the podium with their 4CLs at the 1940 Targa Florio !
