1938 Maserati 8CTF

Gone was the ridiculous maximum weight of 750 kg that F1 had, replaced instead by a minimum weight depending on displacement, with a maximum of 3 litres for blown and 4.5 for naturally aspirated engines. Given their long experience with Superchargers, it was no surprise that the brothers opted for the former.

The result was doubling in horsepower. The CTF was the first european car to take consecutive wins at the indianapolis 500.

The engines’ main feature was in having an independent power supply group for each set of four cylinders and two compressors type Roots superchargers. Like that twin-cam engine, the 3 litre ‘eight’ used a fixed cylinder head or ‘testa fissa’, which also explains the 8CTF type indication. In fact the new eight cylinder engine was not too dissimilar to the ‘four’ used in the final versions of the 4CM 1500 voiturette car. It was basically built from 2 inline-4 engines lined up.

It initially had over 350 bhp and after successive improvements was good for at least 365 bhp.

The Maserati 8CTF was finished off with an aluminium body similar to that of the 6CM, with a longer nose required by the larger engine.

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