Wilbur Shaw’s Maserati

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Wilbur Shaw won the Indianapolis 500 in this car in 1939 and 40

For me, one of the most beautiful and significant race cars of all time is Wilbur Shaw’s Maserati. He won the Indianapolis 500 in the car in 1939 and 1940. Shaw led the race for 107 laps in 1941 before crashing due to a misplaced defective tire. I learned about the car in the 1950’s when I read Shaw’s biography, “Gentlemen Start Your Engines!” In 1974 we stopped by the old Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. It was in a small dilapidated temporary building. As we walked in a gorgeous car painted in an elegant amaranth caught my eye. It was the very same car that Shaw had driven for the win in ’39 and ’40. Restored to perfection, it literally took my breath away. Shaw revered that car, and was probably responsible for its preservation. Though he never raced again after his 1941 crash, Shaw was also responsible for rehabilitating the badly neglected track after WWII. He died in an airplane crash in 1954. Because of cars like this and men like Shaw, we call Indy “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

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The engine and cockpit of Shaw’s Maserati

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