Phil Cade

12/6/1916 - 28/8/2001

Record updated 12-Jun-20

Phil Cade was an amateur enthusiast who raced a Chrysler-engined 1935 Maserati V8Ri in SCCA events and the 1959 US Grand Prix.

Born in Charles City, Iowa, Phil Cade bought the ex-Philippe Étancelin 1935 Tipo V8Ri (4501) in 1950 and raced it in early Sports Car Club of America events in the Northeast during the 1950s. The car was imported into the United States in 1937 to compete in the Vanderbilt Cup but the car was withdrawn due to some dispute over the purchase. The car was entered for the Indy 500 in 1939 with George Robson but DNQ.  After the war the car was entered at Indy from 1946 through 1949 and never managed to qualify.

In 1951 Cade replaced the Maserati V8 engine with a 331 cubic inch Chrysler Hemi V8, complete with four Winfield downdraft carburettors on a log manifold and raced it at various tracks including the Thompson Speedway and Lime Rock in Connecticut, Watkins Glen and Bridgehampton in New York and the hillclimbs at Mt. Equinox in Vermont and Mt. Washington. The Maserati engine apparently blew up and was sold to George Weaver who used is as spares to keep his V8Ri 'Poison Lil' going.

He won the Unrestricted class in the SCCA National Point Standings in 1954 with the Maserati and won the Seneca Cup with it in 1958

He entered the Maserati in the US Grand Prix at Sebring in 1959. He managed to qualify in 18th spot ahead of Rodger Ward in a Kurtis, but 39 seconds of Moss' pole time. Unfortunately he blew the engine in qualiying and failed to make the start.

In 1960 he aquired the ex-Jo Bonnier Maserati 250F Grand Prix car (2524) and the Maserati was parked, on its trailer, in Cade’s garage in Winchester. Cade raced it on several occasions coming third in the Glen Region Open on the 23rd Sept 1961 before crashing at Watkins Glen in 1962.

In 2001 Bob Valpey of Center Harbor, New Hampshire, found the car still sitting on it's trailer in the shed where it had been parked for over forty years. He bought and restored it. Sadly, Phil Cade passed away shortly after.



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