While Maserati's centenary year is drawing to a close, we would like to once again highlight a couple of the many great competition cars built during the last 100 years. The most recent is the 250F T3 Piccolo, which was developed ahead of the 1958 season. It represents the ultimate development of the legendary Formula 1 machine and, as the name suggests, is slightly smaller than the earlier versions. It was only briefly raced by the works team but nevertheless proved significantly faster than the Tipo 2 used the year before by Juan Manuel Fangio to win the World Championship. Halfway through the season, Maserati suspended the factory racing efforts and the two Piccolos were sold to the United States. Fortunately, both cars have survived and are actively campaigned in historic events as can be seen in this 82-shot gallery.
Of a slightly earlier vintage is the 4CLT, which was raced between 1947 and 1951 in the first post-War Grands Prix. Derived from the 4CL, the single seater racer featured a sophisticated tubular chassis and a fabulous sixteen-valve four-cylinder engine with separate exhausts pipes for each of the eight ports. Effectively Maserati's first F1 racer, it was campaigned by many of the great drivers of the day with considerable success. Four different examples are featured in our 79-shot gallery.
In preparation for the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, ESM Racing has shaken down the team's first HPD ARX-04b this weekend. Developed by Wirth Research, it is a brand new Coupe design and replaces the HPD ARX-03b, which in turn was the final development of a design dating back nearly a decade. It was nevertheless still very competitive, and during its debut season, 2012, the HPD ARX-03b won its class at Sebring and Le Mans, and also won the FIA World Endurance Championship in the LMP2 class. The highly anticipated ARX-04b thus does have a lot to live up to.

Enjoy the links:

2015 HPD ARX-04b - Images, Specifications and Information

2012 - 2014 HPD ARX-03b - Images, Specifications and Information

1958 Maserati 250F T3 'Piccolo' - Images, Specifications and Information

1947 - 1950 Maserati 4CLT - Images, Specifications and Information