Page 23 - Maserati 450S book by Walter Baumer and Jean-Francois Blachette

Rubber Industry in Rio de Janeiro. The 450S was renumbered 345. The car was painted in yellow with two green stripes of 10 cm width, red cloth interior and a black number “6” painted on a white circle, as requested and ordered by Casini. On October 18, 1960, the car was shipped to Brazil from Genoa harbor on the vessel “Augustus“. All the details on the bodywork, such as the four oval cuts in the tail helped to identify the 450S in Kristianstad and Caracas as the same 450S seen later in Brazil. Casini was a very good driver and had previously raced a Maserati 300S loaned to Severino Gomez-Silva, #3069, the ex-Fangio winner of the Portugal and Brazil GP in 1957. Casini successfully drove the yellow 300S with race number 6 from March 1958 to May 1959 and won the title of Brazilian Champion in 1958.
#4507 appeared driven by Casini with the national Brazilian colors of yellow with a double green stripe and large stickers “Casini” on both doors. Besides another non-identified race, Casini participated with the 450S in the Grande Premio Cidade do Rio de Janeiro in Barra da Tijuca on November 5, 1960, where, despite having an accident, he finished in fourth place in what was his last race, as he was 62 years old. The magazine Jornal dos Sport reported in its November 11, 1960 issue: “...When Henrique Casini had upshifted to minimize his distance to the leading car on lap 21, an imprudent person crossed the track [..] Casini, to avoid being hit by a following car, made a sudden counter steering. His car skidded and hurled itself against a DKW that was unexpectedly parked there, crushing a photographer, who suffered fractures in both legs and slightly hitting two girls and a boy, who refused medical help. Casini was able to continue in the race, but he lost his position and had his nervous system shaken, without the necessary peace of mind to keep racing [...].” The race was won by the Portuguese Mario Cabral with the Maserati 300S of Scuderia Centro Sud.
In end of 1960 Casini sold his 450S to Emílio Zambello. According to the Brazilian source Bandeira Quadriculada, Zambello was born in the city of Padova, Italy and immigrated to Brazil in 1950, aged 23. Then he met another Italian, Ruggero Peruzzo, who worked in a Land Rover workshop and was a good mechanic. They became close friends and bought a workshop in downtown Sao Paulo, which they called “Garage Fulgor.” In 1957, also in partnership with Peruzzo, Zambello opened the “Auto Peças Fulgor” store, close to the workshop of Comino, a Weber carburetor maker. Zambello took the damaged 450S from Casini and had it painted red with a double white stripe. As the original engine was then broken, Zambello took a plane to Italy and acquired through Guerino Bertocchi a new Maserati V8 engine numbered 352 which was, as mentioned in the Zagari-Orsini book, invoiced to Brazil on November 12, 1960. First
A great photograph of a relaxed Celso Lara Barberis posing on #4507 at Interlagos. Some details show that the car is far from being in excellent condition. (Fred J. Maroon Archive/The University of Texas)
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