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The Maserati 450S is a racing car made by Maserati of Italy, and used in FIA's endurance World Sportscar Championship racing. A total of nine were made.
Up to 1956, Maserati solely focussed on small-engined sportscar racing with engine sizes ranging from 1.5 litre in the 150S to the 3 litre in 300S. These were all fine racers but they were never in contention to take the overall lead against the much more powerful Ferraris, Astons and especially Jaguars. So Maserati set out to build an engine and chassis that was capable of beating the 'big-boys'.
The Maserati designers worked simultaniously on two different engines, a new 3.5 litre six cylinder and a 4.5 litre V8. A new chassis was designed to house both engines. The first engine was the six cylinder and it was taken out in a new, stronger chassis for the 1956 Mille Miglia. The 'six' proved underpowered for the heavy chassis and the combination was even outpaced by 3 litre 300S. By the fall of 1956, the V8 was ready and it was taken out at the practice of the Swedish Grand Prix.
Throughout the fall and winter of 1956, the V8 car was further developed and the engine output was raised from the initial 365 hp to 400 hp. With this immense figure, the quad cam, V8 engined 450S was the most powerful front engine sportscar. It was only surpassed by the Panoz prototypes in the late 1990s. The brakes were also revised to be able to cope with the enormous speeds expected from the 450S.
The 450S made its first appearance at the 1957 Argentinian 1000 km race where it was driven by the Grand Prix drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. In the early stages of the race there was no one who could keep up with the storming 450S. The all new and complicated engine was remarkably reliable, although it failed to finish. The drivers were let down by a failing clutch, which after some clutchless gearshifts, caused the transmission to seize. At Sebring in March of that same year the 450S was in top form. This time there was no mechinical failure stopping the Modena based team from scoring their first victory. With the 450S in the hands of Fangio and Jean Behra victory was had.
The second Maserati 450S, chassis number 4502, was sold to loyal American privateer entrant Tony Parravano, who helped bankroll the development of the 450S. Before he could race the car, we was prompted to flee the country to escape a federal warrant from the IRS. The brand new '4502' was eventually seized by the government and sold at auction in 1959. It was subsequently raced in some minor events but with little success. After changing hands several times, this 450S was in the ownership of a prominent German collector and historic racer since the mid-1990s. It was subsequently acquired by a fellow German, who also exercised it at select events. Passing into new, Swiss ownership again more recently, it was shown at the 2014 Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este, where it won Best in Class and was selected by the jury as Best of Show.
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