REFINING THE VOITURETTE Very few automobiles can claim the purity of design and purpose that characterized Maserati’s pre-war racecars.

The Maserati brothers’ original Bologna-based concern was focused solely on winning races, and never attempted to build a roadgoing model, a sharp contrast to the luxury carmaker that operates under the Trident banner in Modena today.

After initially finding success in grand prix competition with large-displacement inline eight-cylinder engines, by the mid-1930s Maserati was struggling to keep up with the better-funded programs of Alfa Romeo and the state-sponsored teams from Germany.

This prompted the Maserati brothers to shift their focus to developing a car for the junior racing class, a field comprised of the fondly remembered voiturettes whose displacement was limited to 1,500 cubic centimeters.

Developed from the four-cylinder 4CM (which stood for corsa monoposto ), the new model was powered by a twin-overhead cam 1,493-cubic-centimeter inlin...