VINTAGE: Sir Stirling Moss Still Races An OSCA

Automotive Lifestyle

VINTAGE: Sir Stirling Moss Still Races An OSCA

Small Italian sports racer proved its mettle against bigger, more-powerful competition.

Wouter Melissen | http://www.ultimatecarpage.com | Posted November 09, 2009 Goodwood (GB)

Sir Stirling Moss raced his OSCA Spider at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where his 80th birthday was celebrated. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)

Famed British racing driver Sir Stirling Moss owns and vintage races a very special sports racer, a 1958-era OSCA Spider, which serves to commemorate a key victory for both him and OSCA: outright victory in the Sebring 12 Hours with co-driver Bill Lloyd.

Moss can be seen these days piloting his OSCA FS 372 Morelli Spider in such events as the support race for the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 2009 Goodwood Revival, where his 80th birthday was celebrated.

Who else would be better able to recognize the intrinsic qualities of the FS 372 than Moss, who could have chosen any number of race cars that he drove successfully over the years?

The FS 372 was the result of efforts by the Maserati brothers to produce a highly competitive sports racer. Under the OSCA (l'Officine Specialzate Costruzione Automobili Fratelli Maserati) banner, the Maseratis introduced in 1948 the MT4 sports racer, which gradually evolved during the following years, although the basic characteristics remained the same.

The FS 372 was known for competiting successfully against larger and more-powerful race cars. (Photo: Wouter Melissen)

Among the MT4’s many victories was an outright win at Sebring by Moss and Lloyd against competition powered by much larger engines. The biggest evolution came in 1957 when the use of a heavily revised version of the four-cylinder engine warranted a new type name: FS 372.

The reason for the development of a new engine was the introduction of the Formula 2 class that season, which had the convenient displacement limit of 1,500 cc. While that corresponded with the largest OSCA available at the time, the brothers nevertheless figured that more power was needed to make sure the cars were competitive in 1957.

The 372 in the type name was in reference to the unitary displacement of the engine, which was roughly 372 cc. The Formula 2 cars were labeled F2/S and the sports racers with similar engines received the FS tag.

The internal dimensions of the existing 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine were carried over to the new Type 372. Much of the attention instead focused on the cylinder head. The most fundamental change was the swap of the intake and exhaust ports. With the exhausts coming out of the right hand side of the engine, the Type 372 is easily recognizable. The revisions resulted in a performance increase of 10 horsepower over the 1.5 liter MT4 engine.

Mated to a ZF-supplied, four-speed gearbox, the Type 372 engine was mounted in the familiar tubular-steel chassis. Suspension was by double wishbones at the front and a live axle at the rear. In good Italian tradition, drum brakes were still used instead of the superior but harder to source disc brakes used by the British rivals. Like most other OSCA racing cars, the FS 372 was clothed with an aluminum Spider body crafted by Morelli of Ferrara.

Page 1 of 2

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Wouter Melissen

UltimateCarPage.com

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

VINTAGE: Auction-Star Ferrari 625 TRC
Just two were built and then sold to a Ferrari dealer/racer in California…
VINTAGE: Monaco’s Historic Grand Prix
Some of the greatest cars in European racing history compete on the…
VINTAGE: Ferrari’s Beautiful Dino Spyder
One of the 206 S Dinos, launched in 1966 to race in the Group 4 GT…