Maserati 8CTF

The Maserati 8CTF is a single-seat racing car that Maserati built in 1938 and 1939, and it is the only Italian car to have won the Indianapolis 500, leaving aside Dallara, which supplies only chassis. It was conceived by Ernesto Maserati as a supercharged 3 litre once Adolfo Orsi had taken over the company and solved its money problems. The name 8CTF stands for eight cylinders, testa fissa, a fixed head. Its main feature was an independent fuel feed for each bank of four cylinders, with two Roots compressors, and by 1939 the 2,991 cc straight-eight produced 366 CV; the oil tank also served as the central cross-member of the frame. It made its debut at the Tripoli Grand Prix on 15 May 1938. Driven by Wilbur Shaw, the car won the Indianapolis 500 in 1939 and 1940, the first European car to win it twice in a row, and the winning car was nicknamed the Boyle Special after the team owner Michael J. Boyle.