---
title: "Watch a 1958 Maserati 250F Race Car Drift Through the Streets of Monaco"
description: "This is what dreams are made of."
date: "2019-12-24"
modified: "2019-12-24"
authors:
  - name: "James Gilboy"
    job_title: "Contributing Writer"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/james-gilboy"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/31537/watch-a-1958-maserati-250f-race-car-drift-through-the-streets-of-monaco"
categories:
  - "Maserati News"
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Watch This"
tags:
  - "maserati"
---

# Watch a 1958 Maserati 250F Race Car Drift Through the Streets of Monaco

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2019/12/maserati-250F-vintage-GP-hero.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

A steel space frame, aluminum bodywork, and a naturally aspirated, 2.5-liter inline-six are a solid recipe for a race car, but it's the way those ingredients worked together in the Maserati 250F that made Stirling Moss remember it as "of its era, the nicest Formula 1 front-engined car to drive." Seemingly designed to be driven in a constant state of borderline [oversteer](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/27898/can-you-drift-a-front-wheel-drive-car>), 250Fs have the unusual tendency to raise their inside front wheel off the ground when cornering at their hardest, which is a quirk likely to throw most drivers off their game. Not vintage Grand Prix racer Frank Stippler, however.

The German grappled with both that and the 250F's almost bicycle-skinny tires while racing his Maserati at the 2014 Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, where he finished second, and which he recorded with an onboard camera giving us a better idea of what Formula 1 looked like to drivers in days of yore. Stippler showcases not only the 250F's tendency toward soft oversteer but also all to the sweet soundtrack that is [a vintage Italian race engine](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/29409/arno-xi-the-only-v-12-ferrari-powered-racing-boat-ever-built-is-up-for-sale>).

https://youtube.com/embed/CMxG5UOBhBY

Stippler's driving is made more impressive by the fact that 250F featured a now-unconventional pedal layout, with brakes on the right, and gas in the center (250Fs were, of course, all manual). Dealing with a mind-bending control quirk like that while racing flat-out in the streets of Monaco is a simply heroic feat, both for Stippler and his forebears that raced the 250F in-period. Sadly, we can't compare his lap times to those of historic F1 drivers, as the Monaco Grand Prix circuit now features an additional two chicanes and a more complicated third sector. Nevertheless, we can't help imagining Stippler would've made a fine gentleman driver at the very least...and [a legend](<https://www.thedrive.com/accelerator/31295/signed-ayrton-senna-1988-mclaren-honda-helmet-sells-for-102000-at-auction>) at best.

## Author
James is a former staff writer for The Drive. He has changed the conversation around electrification, debunked misinformation online, and become a prominent hunter of what he calls "automotive cryptids."

### Author social links  
[Instagram](<https://instagram.com/jamesgilboy>)