Maserati 8cm Monoposto Grand Prix Car

Three famous racing drivers have driven this first single seater from Maserati: Nuvolari, Taruffi and Sommer.

Three of the greatest racing drivers of all time drove this first Maserati 8CM monoposto (single seater): Tazio Nuvolari, Piero Taruffi and Raymond Sommer. The latter bought two of these cars in 1933 and raced one of them in Monaco, where he discovered that the chassis was too weak for the powerful engine. He sold both cars back to the factory, after which Tazio Nuvolari took them over. That same year he won the Belgian Grand Prix with this car after having the chassis reinforced at the Belgian car manufacturer Minerva. Nuvolari then sold the car to up and coming racing talent Piero Taruffi, who took third place in the Coppa Acerbo with it. Taruffi, however, moved to Bugatti in 1935. By then the Maserati 8CM Monoposto was no longer suitable for the Grand Prix because of a change in the regulations, so Taruffi converted the car into a two seater by widening the bodywork. Taruffi took the car to South Africa to race there and sold the Maserati locally to a driver who competed with it in the 1937 Rand Grand Prix and the 1938 South African Grand Prix. After that the car was put into storage. In 1988 the Maserati 8CM Monoposto was acquired by the Louwman Museum. The conversion to a two seater had been carried out at the time with minimal modifications, so it was relatively easy to return the car to its original single seater form.