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 I have made my share of mistakes in the past 46 years of buying,
selling and racing cars. Although I have picked up more than my share of
ex-works cars (ones that used to work), my greatest snafus involved
cars that I should have bought, had I had the foresight. There was the
$2,800 Jaguar XK-SS, the $5,500 Ferrari 750 Monza and many others. But
the closest I ever got to having a real gold-plated classic involved a
friend named Ed Tingle, who owned a two-cycle Maserati 300S.
Well, it wasn't a two-cycle at the time, but Ed's intention was to
repower the tired old racer with an engine of his own design and
construction. I met Ed in 1971, my freshman year in college. I was
living in Grand Prairie, Texas, a wide spot in the road between Dallas
and Fort Worth. Ed lived on the far side of town, which meant a drive of
about five minutes, rush hour or not. Car friend Stan Palmer had been
telling me about an old Maserati racing car that resided in a local home
garage, but I had dismissed the story as wishful thinking or a
misidentified kit car. But one day, another friend informed me that the
car in question was in a local paint shop awaiting a fresh coat of
enamel, so I rushed over to check it out.
I knew what a Maserati 300S was, if only in general terms. Introduced
in 1955, it was Maserati's front-line sports-racer until out-muscled by
the 450S in 1957. The 3.0-liter engine was based on the legendary 250F
Grand Prix car, and the sophisticated space-frame chassis featured a
transaxle and DeDion tube in back. Clothed in a breathtaking aluminum
skin, the 300S was driven by top aces like Stirling Moss, Juan Manuel
Fangio, Jo Bonnier and Harry Schell. It wasn't the top car of the 1950s,
but it won its share and Moss later recalled it as one of his all-time
favorite racing cars.
Tingle was thrilled when he found out I was a Genuine Racing Driver.
Fortunately, he didn't know the difference between a guy like me who
drove 850cc Minis in autocrosses and a bona-fide racing pilot, but he
wanted me to try out his Maserati so we could go road racing…my first
"ride." We set a date to go testing, and I could hardly sleep the night
before. We picked a Sunday for our shakedown, as there was less traffic
and the local college, the University of Texas at Arlington, was closed.
That was important because they had the largest parking lot in the area
and we figured we would have a chance to shake it down a little before
the cops showed up.
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