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2074
Completed: May 15, 1954 Chassis: GILCO Coachwork: Fiandri Spyder Engine: 2074
Color: red
Chassis #2074 was delivered to Luigi Bellucci, a skilled racing driver born in Naples in 1905 and a loyal customer for Maserati, this A6GCS being the first car he bought new from the Modena factory. He later purchased a second A6GCS (see the #2097 chapter), and a 200S. Bellucci, an important Lancia concessionaire in Naples, had raced Lancia Aprilia specials in the period between the wars. He was a popular race driver among the Neapolitans and had set up an outfit called Sporting Club Autonautico to race the WRE cars with 4-cylinder Maserati 200 engines and to support other Maserati drivers in the 2-liter class and the powerboats of some friends.
#2074 was the twenty-ninth completed chassis in the series. The car was dressed for the 1954 season in monoposto type with a tonneau cover and a small windshield, and had a chromed front grille fitted with thirteen vertical bars on each side of the middle bar. Bellucci received his A6GCS on May 15, 1954, the day before his home Grand Prix which was raced on May 16 on the 4.1-kilometer in-town circuit of Posillipo. After 59 laps and 2:23 hours of race, the 49-years-old driver finished a promising third to the winner, future Italian star Luigi Musso in his own A6GCS.
A couple of weeks later, Bellucci was with #2074 at the start of the Sicilian Targa Florio on May 30 with race number 64. The race was held on the 72-kilometer Piccolo Circuito delle Madonie and he finished fourth overall and second in the 2-liter category after 7:11 hours under the hot Sicilian sun and despite a small crash on the right front of the car. The race was won by Piero Taruffi, the “Silver Fox” with his 3.3-liter Lancia D.24.
On June 13, Bellucci was on the first row of the starting grid of the Circuito di Caserta with race number 12, but he was forced to retire with gearbox trouble on the twenty-second lap while in second place. Starting from the first row as well, the race was won by Luigi Musso in his A6GCS (see the #2043 chapter).
On June 20 on the new Autodromo, no fewer than ten A6GCS were at the start of the opening race, the Coppa Shell Imola. Chassis #2074 now had two vertical cuts on the front wings to evacuate the hot air from the engine
compartment. With race number 28, Bellucci finished fifth overall in the race won by the Ferrari 500 Mondial of Umberto Maglioli. This was followed on July 4 at L’Aquila for the Coppa Pietro Cidonio on the 3.6-kilometer Circuito di Collemaggio. Bellucci brilliantly won there after 1:53 hours and 50 laps covered. The car was entered in the July 24, 1954, 10 Hours race on the city circuit in Messina, Sicily and appeared there with Luigi Bellucci teamed with Luigi Bosisio. But the two Italian drivers did not finish the race for unknown reason. The next race for #2074 was a 10-lap sprint of 20 minutes on the Circuito Citta di Reggio Calabria on August 8 where the Neapolitan driver finished second to Luigi Piotti with his Ferrari 250 Monza.
Then Bellucci was with his A6GCS for the Pergusa Grand Prix in Sicily on August 29 raced on the Circuito della Cravatta, where after 3:01 hours he finished second to the more powerful Gordini 3.0 liter of Franco Bordoni. Also in Sicily, at the 32-kilometers Catania-Etna Hillclimb on September 19, he finished second to Piero Taruffi with his 3.3 liter Lancia D.24.
At the Coppa d’Oro di Siracusa, on October 10 Bellucci only achieved eighth place. The final 1954 outing was on October 31 at the Trofeo Bettoja, a 2-hour race held on the Castelfusano circuit near Rome, where Bellucci finished first in the 2-liter race and third in the main event. For the 1955 season Luigi Bellucci took delivery of a new A6GCS (see the #2097 chapter) and sold his tired #2074 to Giuseppe Manzini for his 25-year-old son Azzurro from Milan. Azzurro Manzini also owned a Maserati A6G 2000 Zagato. He was a young driver who had started his racing career the year before in 1954 with a Panhard Dyna.
The first outing for #2074 with Manzini was the Giro di Sicilia on April 4, 1955. The car appeared with a new front grille without any bar but with a circled Trident in its middle and a bonnet fitted with two air intakes. No fewer than 15 A6GCS were entered there and Manzini was allocated race number 423. He severely crashed his car, forcing a retirement.
Chassis #2074 was in the entry list for the Mille Miglia on April 30, 1955, with race number 642 but Manzini did not bring his Maserati probably because it
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