Bruce and Andrew on Mt. Sibilini during the 2004 Mille Miglia Storica
Sarasota Café Racer newbie, Bruce Male, believes that racecars, even those that are half-century-old works of art, should still be on the road and track and not spending their golden years in a museum. He doesn’t believe that rare, historic racecars like his 1954 Maserati or1959 Ferrari TdF should be kept in an environmentally controlled bubble or trailered from concours to concours. That’s why he and his co-pilot son, Andrew, continue to race his cars. His stunning Fantuzzi-bodied 1954 Maserati A6GCS/53, (chassis #2071) had been previously campaigned by some of Europe’s great road racers, including Luigi Musso, Sir Sterling Moss and others before ending up in Male’s collection.
Leader of the pack: The Males Maserati at the 2008 Mille Miglia Storica
At the wheel of his Maserati, Bruce took the American Trophy at the 2002 Mille Miglia Storica, competed in the 2002 and 2003 Shell Ferrari Maserati Historics and in 2008 and won a Class 2nd at the Mille Miiglia Storica. His A6GCS/53 is powered by a Formula 2 derived DOHC (double overhead camshaft) twin-plug Six with Weber carburetors. It was Maserati’s
first short stroke engine and the 2-Litre motor has a
7,000-rpm redline.
Twin ignition DOHC Six with three dual-throat Webers.
When this 1954 A6GCS/53 was new it did not have the current streamlined “slipper” nose and head fairings that had been added years later. In 1954 it placed Sixth overall at the Tour de France with Jean Estager behind the wheel. That same year Luigi Musso drove the Maserati to a Third overall at the Mille Miglia (B&W photo shown here). For more than a half century it has been raced successfully in Europe, United Kingdom, South America and the United States. And the beat goes on!
Luigi Musso at the wheel of Bruce Male's Maserati at 1954 Mille Miglia
For more information about the Maserati A6GCS/53 and other period Maserati racecars, please visit: http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z11300/Maserati-A6GCS/53.aspx
http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/menotti06.htm