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Famous Maseratis for Historic Winton...

American Dean Butler has entered his two priceless Maseratis for the 26th Annual Historic Winton race meeting.

The two cars will compete in the pre-war races and the regularity trials. Dean will drive the Maserati 8CTF, while his colleague, Edward Cottam, will drive the Maserati 26M. A brief history of the Maseratis: Perhaps the most famous Grand Prix Maserati of all time, the 26M was purchased new by Tim Birkin in 1930.who drove the car from Italy to the UK! Birkin came in fifth in the French GP with the car, and he set the mountain circuit lap record with the car at Brooklands.

In 1931 Whitney Straight bought the car from Birkin. He won all manner of events with this car & ran the car is most of Europe’s most important events of the day. Straight kept the car for many years, even after it was no longer a contemporary race car. In the 1950’s the car went to South Africa. In the early 80’s it went to Bob Rubin who got it going again. The car was not actually restored, as it was still remarkably in the same condition in which Straight last used it in the mid 1930’s and only needed recommissioning. Dean purchased the car from Rubin in 1994.

The 8CFT is one of three works cars which ran in the 1938 and 1939 seasons. These cars were actually faster than the vaunted W154 Mercedes and the Auto Union cars, but they did not have the reliability of the german cars. The best finish by Deans' car was fifth in the 1939 Italian GP. The best finish by any of the three cars was second in the 1939 German GP.

These big Masers were most successful at Indianapolis One of them first ran in the 1939 event, then all three ran thereafter, with one of the cars winning Indy twice. The Dean Butler car ran at Indy six times, its best finish being in 1946 - fourth, driven by Amil Andres. Deans car also won the famous Pikes Peak hill climb twice.

Dean Butler worked for 14 years at Procter & Gamble. He left P&G in 1982 to found Lens Crafters, the first one hour optical superstore business (USA). After he sold Lens Crafters (when it was the world’s largest optical retailer), he founded Vision Express in 24 other countries — including Australia, where he had eleven stores. The Australian business was sold to the Japanese company Paris Mike.