1958 Maserati 420M/58 Moss

In the 1950s, despite Indianapolis 500 was formally the part of World Driver’s Championship, the comparative levels of major (mostly) European motor racing events, that is Formula 1, and American main racing series, that is US Automobile Club National Championship, was not evident. At least until 1957, when Automobile Club of Milan decided to organize  direct competition between USAC and F1 drivers on newly built Monza oval track. The 500 mile event known as the Race of Two Worlds was held first time in 1957. American Jimmy Bryan on Kuzma-Offy won the 1957 event. Second and last edition of the race was run a year later, and again USAC teams out-performed Europeans. Jim Rathmann, winning all three heats, was declared the race winner, while the best European driver, Stirling Moss, was able to finish on 4^th and 5^th positions in the heats one and two respectively. Moss was entered by Eldorado Ice Cream Company with Maserati 420M car painted white with their logo written across the side. Maserati built this custom car, also known as “Maserati Eldorado”,  based on the design of USAC’s vehicles. The car designated the 420M/58 featured an alcohol-fueled V8 engine which was placed off-center to counteract centripetal force of running on an oval. Learning from their problems the previous year, the car was specifically designed to use the larger Firestone tyres. A two-speed gearbox was also used. This scale model is the part of Maserati Collection released in  2005 by Poligrafici Editoriali, an Italian editorial house. Models in this collection were branded as Grani & Partners but were made by IXO and Schuco (including this particular model).

Season	Series	Event
1958	USAC / F1	500 Miglia di Monza / Race of Two Worlds
Driver	No.	Entrant
Stirling Moss	10	Eldorado Italia
Scale	Manufacturer	Collection
1:43	Grani & Partners / Schuco	Poligrafici Maserati Collection
Cat. No.	Quality	Rarity
No. 23