Comments on: History Detectives Caption Rare Photos

By: Sandra Ghelfi

Sandra Ghelfi — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 13:05:51 +0000

I’d like to thank Mr Don Falk for mentioning my dad, Dan (Danilo). He was an incredible father, and an even better mechanic!
Dad was indeed the head man at Maserati America, and was very proud of having worked with many outstanding drivers, one of them being Mr Stirling Moss.
Dad told my siblings and myself that on one occasion, when one single racing car was driven by 4 or 5 diferent drivers on one specific race day, the driver (I apologize but I cannot remember the name) who raced the maserati before Mr Stirling Moss unfortunately crashed the car; no great damage was done, however one of the hinges securing the hood to the car was irreparably torn up and none of the parts were on stock; and Mr.Moss was very upset by the fact that he could not proceed with his race.
Now my dad passed away in 1987, and though I’d listened to his story many times, I cannot recall which race he was talking about, but I do remember this (and I hope this rings a bell to someone reading this to recall the episode):
my father told Mr. Moss not to worry – that he would fix the car and get it ready for the race (less than 40 mins time, if i recall well)! Mr Moss was a little skeptical, dad said, but agreed to wait at the track.
Well, since there were no spares on hand, what my father did was attach the hood to the Maserati’s chassis by mans of many, many, MANY rolls of black tape, taping the hood to the chassis by literally wrapping the Maserati up like a mummy. He thereby presented a dual colored Maserati (half red and half black) to Mr Moss and on the starting grid for the first and last time in Maserati racing history.
Mr Moss was delighted but his parents were quite worried, asking my father “but Dan, is that car safe?” and dad says he told them not to worry because he did a very good job on Stirling’s car.
A smile still comes to my face when I think of the proud and satisfied look in dad’s eyes when, at the very end of this story – one of his many racing stories, he said “Needless to say, Stirling won that race. I’d done a good job! But the world never saw a black and red Maserati racing again!”

By: Dale LaFollette

Dale LaFollette — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 02:45:44 +0000

Boy, those photos brought a lot of old friends out of the woodwork. I have been busy with a home remodel so I had not seen this until this evening as an email from Jim Sitz woke me up talking about “my” Maserati photos. Now I see what you were talking about Jim. I am sorry to say they are not “my” photos any longer as they all have been sold. Never fear, I am sure there are more someplace and I will make a real effort to find them if they will provide another discussion like this!

By: Wallace Wyss

Wallace Wyss — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 02:01:48 +0000

I haven’t had a chance to enjoy the article and comments thoroughly (especially where people disagree) but I wanted to add more about Shelby’s accident at Riverside. I did’t realize until I read the OFFICIAL biography , as opposed to my unofficial one, that it was more than gashes Shelby suffered at Riverside; his nose actually was cut off and when his girlfriend (as opposed to his wife, which he had at the same time) came into the operating room, his nose was still sitting on his forehead as the doctor was getting ready to sew it back on. That’s why when I show the family portrait of Shelby in my book (SHELBY The Man, the Cars, The Legend), a newspaper picture shot around 1954, he looks slightly different– like a guy pretending to be the Carroll Shelby we knew. That is because it is “old nose” compared to “new nose.”