Maserati in Hawaii

I am in Honolulu and I was corresponding with a gentleman on the mainland about a couple of collector cars that we shared an interest in. This fellow was stationed here at the Barber's Point Naval Air Station during WWII. In one of his letters, he told me about finding this very special Maserati. I do apologise for the pictures. He simply laid the photos on a copy machine and sent me the sheet of paper folded in the envelope with the letter. It looks like the originals were not very good to begin with.

I quote from the letter:

"The race car I found while on liberty one day in back of a service station on Kapiolani Blvd. Some locals were working on it, trying to make it run. It was brought over before the war by Bob Toppings, a millionaire who was married, at one time, to Lana Turner and who owned the New York Yankees. It had run at Indy in 1937, driven by Babe Stapp, but blew up. My buddy and I bought it and took it back to Barber's Point and hid it. We did get it running."
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Hi Marc

When I got my friend's letter, I could not stop staring at those pictures and imagining the excitement of finding such a special machine. Of course, you are right about putting the find in context. When it was here during the war, it was just an old used up race car, and a "funny, furrin' one" at that. My friend was a California Hot Rodder and he also sent me some pictures of a hot rod that he and his buddies built from various parts that they found. This activity was not allowed on the base and he said that he had more than one meeting with "the old man" about his activities. I am sure that is the reason for his remark about taking the car back to base and "hiding it".

No, I am sorry that I do not have a chassis number. The only other information that I have is from a letter that says: "It was a Series RI (about 1935) only about 5 of them were made. The car is now completely restored and is vintage racing in England".

Sadly, my friend has passed away.

Hi Staatsof

I am quite sure that the car left Hawaii during or shortly after the war. Magnum PI filmed here for a number of years and they were always looking for something different and unusual. If something like this showed up in the show, it may have been some kind of kit car or "replicar". I used to see them filming all over the island. The strange thing is, I have never watched the show. Someday I've got to get some of the DVD's. ;>)

 

I am more than a little embarrassed that you gentlemen seem to be more informed about the early racing here than I am. I do not remember the name of the driver, but there was a fatality at one of the early Dillingham Airfield races here on Oahu. I do know that the car involved was a Maserati. I have a friend that was racing a Healey 100 at the time and I remember him telling me that the Maserati had a fuel line running through the cockpit, the driveshaft broke and ripped open the fuel line causing the fire. I did have a scrapbook that was passed to me by another person that was racing here in that time period. I can remember seeing the clipping from the local paper about the tragedy. I gave the scrapbook to the local "SCCA historian" years ago. I should see if this person is still here and see if I can get the book back. I now have a much greater appreciation of this history than I used to.

 

Hi funk21

To be honest, I did not pursue the scrapbook. Since someone had posted the picture of the car and an article about the event, it took some of the motivation away. You have given me great motivation. It is a pleasure to correspond with someone with a direct connection to this man. I was just browsing through some scans of the original "Competition Press" newspaper and the name "Brero" showed in other race reports.

I am very sorry about the tragic event that day at Dillingham Field. My condolences.

I do have a friend that was racing there that day. (I am 99% certain that I have this correct.) I think that he would be willing to tell what he remembers. I don't see any reason why he would not talk to you on the phone if you cared to make such contact.

I WILL make a call or two and see if I can get my hands on that scrapbook.

Aloha
Larry

 

funk21

I did reach the gentleman that I gave the scrapbook to. He made it very clear that he did not want to give it up. He is willing to share any of the information that he has on that race with you, including providing scans of the relevant articles.

He did remind me of a detail that I had forgotten. The scrapbook has a copy of a letter of resignation from the gentleman that was doing tech inspections for the club. He wanted to have some things corrected on the car before it was allowed to race, but the organizers allowed the car to enter despite this.

 

Hi Steve

I am sorry for the delay. I have not checked this section for a couple of days. I did call my friends to get their permission to pass on their contact information. I will PM this to you rather than posting it in the open forum.

 

I came across another interesting piece of information about Babe Stapp, the driver of the Maserati at Indy.

I was reading an article about a group called "Black Cats". They did aerial stunts in the 1920's: wing walking, parachute jumps, mid-air plane to plane transfers, even crashing or blowing up airplanes on purpose!!

The group was limited to a "lucky thirteen" of permanent members, but the article states: Other honorary members included Egbert "Babe" Stapp, former president of the Indianapolis 100 MPH club. The article does not give information about whether Mr Stapp actually did stunts or whether his membership had some other basis. Perhaps Mr Stapp was a daredevil with both wheels and wings.

Aloha
Larry