Motorsport: Still a beauty after all these years

Chris Amon took his Maserati 250F to a gentle 160km/h when the pair reunited at Manfeild. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand motorsport legend Chris Amon reckons the car that kick-started his career almost 50 years ago has lost none of its charm.

Amon was reunited at Manfeild Park the other day with the Maserati 250F he drove in New Zealand in 1962 - the same car the legendary Argentine ace Juan Manual Fangio raced on the Formula One world stage in the 1950s.

"It felt very special - the more I drove it, the better it got and the more the memories came flooding back," said Amon.

The 66-year-old showed the near-capacity crowd why the 250F has been called the best Grand Prix machine of all time.

He conceded he'd given it "a bit more of a tickle" than planned - a trackside speed camera clocked the Maserati at 160km/h on the start-finish straight.

But he resisted temptation to chuck the cigar-bodied 2.5-litre single-seater into a four-wheel-drift, a manoeuvre that caught the eye of European team bosses in 1962 and helped launch the then 17-year-old's Formula One career.

Amon said the six-cylinder 250F is unlike any car he's known. The throttle pedal is between the clutch and brake pedals. The oil tank is beside the driver. It is only of two 250Fs with disc brakes.

"The more time I spent in it, the more everything started flooding back," he said. "They (250F) were known as a well-balanced car, and that's how it felt.

"Looking back, it was probably a relatively easy car to race - although it was a car that you very much steered on the throttle."

The 250F first appeared in 1954 and remained on the world scene until 1960. Between 1954 and 1958 it competed in 46 Formula One championship events. Just 26 were built.

Amon's car was bought new from the factory by British team BRM as a test bed. Amon had it for the 1962 summer season, winning an all-New Zealand race at Levin and finishing 11th in the NZGP at Ardmore.

The 250F has been owned for the past 40-odd years by the Southward Car Museum. It is one of a handful of former glory cars the museum is restoring to race-day condition.