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The Retaliator Multi-TC Trio Base Design
The Best Solo Starter Base With Hidden Loot Room in Rust In this video I'm going to show you how to make an OP start base. Please like, comment and subscribe, it really helps! Audio by: Reverie.
This video, the Retaliator Multi-TC Trio Base Design was created by our partner Evil Wurst.
The Retaliator base design is a competitive, compact and affordable multi-TC base targeted for smaller trio-sized groups and draws inspiration from aloneintoyko’s LittleTokyo base design. This base design focuses on active base defense through the use of external and internal peek downs, along with an integrated compound.
This base design utilizes 4 separate tool cupboards, which also help to keep the upkeep manageable, as well as having 4 specific sections of the base. The central tool cupboard maintains the core of the base design, which also doubles as the starter unit, allowing this base design to be a starter-to-main build.
The additional 3 external tool cupboards help maintain the additional honeycomb and compound, allowing for larger furnace placements and other amenities.
Fortify Blueprint
Build Cost
- High-Quality Metal: 600 +/-
- Metal Fragments: 23,000 +/-
- Stone: 61,000 +/-
- Wood: N/A
Upkeep Cost
- High-Quality Metal: 123 +/-
- Metal Fragments: 7,600 +/-
- Stone: 10,800 +/-
- Wood: N/A
Raid Cost
The Retaliator Multi-TC Trio base design will cost approximately 30 rockets to reach the tool cupboard, and an additional 24 to access the external tool cupboards. To access the main loot, it’ll require 36 rockets. To access the main and secondary loot rooms, it’ll require a total of 57 rockets. Griefing the base will be costly, due to the additional tool cupboards.
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Video Transcript
Inner peek-downs have become meta. In the age of grenade launchers and PVP rockets, they’re essential for defending against online raids. However, those peek-downs come at a price. A 5×5 like this one can easily cost north of 20k frags, and 500 high qual upkeep per day and not everyone can afford that.
Introducing the Retaliator. The Retaliator is a competitive multi-TC base, targeted at active solos and small groups. The design is the result of a joint build session with Rust Daddy, and draws inspiration from Alone in Tokyo’s “Little Tokyo.”
To keep the complexity to a minimum, it consists of a core and three externally up-kept honeycomb parts. The core houses main loot and acts as a starter unit at the same time. The external part provides outer and inner peek downs for online raid defense and shift the upkeep cost of those defense capabilities onto the external TCs, which keeps the overall upkeep manageable.
The overall build cost is about 60k stone, 24k frags, and 600 high qual. The combined upkeep is about 10k stone, 7.5k metal fragments, and 130 high qual per day, which is not much for a base with these online defense capabilities. It takes 30 rockets to reach any of the main loot rooms, and about 45 rockets to clear out the core.
Thanks to the external TCs, griefing requires another 24 rockets, which pushes the raid cost to almost 70 rockets already. At the same time, loot storage and spawn points are distributed throughout the base, which makes it challenging and costly to fully raid it. This makes the base more resilient, and you more likely to bounce back after a raid.
According to the cost of the protection ratio metric that I usually calculate, this base is not one of the most efficient ones on my channel. Peek downs, unfortunately, don’t come for free, even in multi-TC configurations. As such, the base is best suited for highly active players. Nevertheless, if Alone in Tokyo can handle a base this size by himself, an active trio should have no issue either. But enough of that, let’s take the tour.
We spawn inside of the external TC outside of the walls of the compound. Keep a few gear sets here in these drop boxes to flank raiders during a raid. With an upkeep of 1.6k frags and 2.7k stones, these are easy to handle. Inside of this airlock, we find those window peeks that allow to engage players inside and outside of the walls of the compound. Through this door we find an auto turret covering parts of the compound. Here, we are seeing the more expensive version of the base with external peek downs. They leave little place to hide inside of the compound.
We enter the base through this door. Behind the garage door, we enter the usable honeycomb. This is the part that is covered by inner peek downs. Use those boxes as drop-off chests. Sleeping bags and another locker can create another spawn point that can be used to defend against online raids. To get into the base, climb up the ladder. The shotgun trap prevents people from going deep easily if the doors are open.
These are the inner peek downs. Those siren lights block players from climbing or falling through the gaps. Behind those doors, we reach the peek downs that cover the corners of the base. If you need to enter the compound in a hurry, use these doors to push yourself through the gap. The single door leads into the bedroom. Jump onto these boxes to keep this space in front of the roof. These beds are distributed across the three sides of the floor, and each bed has a locker and one or two large boxes.
In the center we find the electric circuit. It is kept as simple as possible and used to only run three auto-turrets. Two of them can be found on the roof. The pressure pad quickly opens and automatically closes the garage door for us. On the roof, we find solar panels that feed the battery.
They are placed so that they cannot be easily seen or shot out from the ground. In combination with that barricade, the auto-turrets guard all parts of the roof. This prevents easy raids from the roof. Those roof ramps serve as peek for long-range engagements. If you fall through them and can’t get back up, simply jump into one of the peeks and head back inside.
Down the chute, we arrive at the second floor. It is guarded by two undrainable shotgun traps. Those shotgun traps are separated by a door, meaning that the second one serves as the second line of defense. Most of the utility items and tier three workbench are here. There is one secondary loot room in each of the corners. Thanks to the separation, it’s costly to raid them all. This is the chute that leads down into the core.
Down the chute, we again find two shotgun traps as a defense. Again, if raiders manage to destroy the first one and rocket out the garage door, they may not expect the second one. The tier two workbench is behind this window. The small box below is almost not visible, increasing the chance that raiders miss it. These are the main loot rooms. Behind this window, we find a locker where you can keep your high-value kids. Behind this window is the TC that upkeeps the core. That’s it for the tour, let’s jump into the build.
In the first phase of the build, we will construct the core of the base up to a point where it can serve as a fully functional starter base. The first step is to verify whether the base fits. Start with a triangle of triangles and completely surround it with triangles.
Three squares along the long side, and triangles, square, triangle in between with another triangle on the square. Then add five triangles in front of the three squares. Finally, build out eight squares to check whether you can fit the arms of the external TCs. This is what it should look like. Now delete all excess foundations.
You should be left with this somewhat odd-looking footprint. This is the basis for the core of the base. Locate one of these triangles and use it for the TC compartment. Yes, TCs behind window glasses can be vulnerable to incendiary rockets, however, in a multi-TC base, this is less of an issue. We now turn the rest of this footprint into our starter unit. Furnaces can go next to the TC.
This triangle will be our main loot room for now. Workbench can go into this corner. Place sleeping bags wherever they fit for now. Onto these outer triangles, place at least one wall so that they don’t cave. In front of them, place foundation steps. Do not upgrade them past the stone, or they will prevent the placement of important building blocks. Further, place a triangle in front of them. Now you can turn the space in front of the outer door into a chute. Use the foundation steps to get onto the base. This is the starter unit done.
Now let’s turn our attention to the second floor. The first thing we should do is create an airlock in front of the chute. Place a window to the right, a wall straight ahead, and a double door to the left. I will now upgrade the floor tiles of the core to sheet metal so you can better follow the next steps. Add floating floor tiles around the base. This should be the resulting shape.
Opposite of the chute into the core, build another chute that leads to the roof. Now place two more window frames, four walls around these floating triangles, double doors all around the central triangle, and two wooden single doors as temporary airlock next to this window. For the time being, use those wooden doors to enter and exit the base.
Once you obtain garage doors and reinforced glass windows, let’s bring the core into its final configuration. Bit by bit, replace all double doors with garage doors. Ensure that the TC is protected by reinforced glass, and ideally horizontal embrasures. Move the furnaces into the chute. Turn the section next to the TC into another main loot room. Craft a tier two workbench, and afterward, destroy the tier one.
Place a furnace into the far corner, and a tier two in front of it. Below it, place a small box as far forward as you can, and code lock it. Close it off with a window. The small box now serves as hidden loot storage. I would use this remaining triangle for a locker.
After you placed it, close it off with a window frame. Three sleeping bags should fit onto these open triangles. Please note that you might have to pick them up should you ever need to replace one of the garage doors.
A barrack can go above them for extra comfort. If you managed to obtain the shotgun trap blueprint, place one directly in front of the chute, and a second one into the core. This gives you a nice two-layer defense system if someone manages to go deep. The core is now in its final configuration, which has a nice symmetry to it.
Pop onto the second floor. Bit by bit replace the double doors with garage doors. Thanks to the garage doors, we can now place another three furnaces below the jump up onto the roof. Like in the core, guard the chute with two shotgun traps if possible. Add another shotgun trap guarding the airlock with the wooden doors. The research table and the box can go permanently in front of the chute.
The repair bench can go into this triangle in front of the other window. Another locker can go in front of this empty wall. Note that if you have trouble placing any of those items, try closing the garage doors beneath. Jump onto the roof and add floor tiles into these gaps. This way, it should be easy to land a mini copter on top of the base. Close off the chute with four walls.
Eventually, you will able to reach the top of the roof through it, so seal it off with another door already. At this point, you have a fully functional extended core. This should be sufficient for an early wipe. Of course, since everything is stone, the base is very vulnerable. Do not hesitate to already upgrade vital parts already, such as the outside of the TC compartment. This concludes phase one of the build.
In phase two we will build the compound around the base. This way you are protected while building the peek downs, and you can start deploying large furnaces to speed up the build process. We start by building the foundations of the peek downs. Place a triangle here, build out eight squares, and finish with another triangle. Demolish all the squares and the initial triangle.
Come back with four half-moons, and place a row of three upgraded squares. To make the placement of the external TC less tedious, we will just use those triangles to connect the external TC and not replace them. Upgrade the inner three half-moons. Eventually, they need to be sheet metal. For aesthetic reasons, you can extend them into hexagons. Those additional foundations can remain stone.
Further, complete the row of triangles in front of the squares and upgrade them to sheet metal. They will later provide extra stability to the peek downs. Place the TC on the second last triangle. This is just outside of the building privilege of the core TC, so the placement may be a little challenging.
To protect it, I’m using two garage doors and two single doors. We used two sheet metal compartments with the garage doors to prevent the use of incendiary rockets for a cheaper raid. The two single doors serve as an airlock. Thanks to the garage doors, we can add three sleeping bags.
Place drop boxes against those sheet metal walls. They can hold gear sets and materials to counter raids from the outside of the wall to the compound. Don’t forget to clean up the rest of the twig. Now repeat this step two more times until you have three external TCs. That should look like this.
On the arms to the external TCs, locate these three triangles on the second hexagon. Here, we’re going to build an Alone in Tokyo inspired airlock for our compound. Use three window frames, two single doors, and one double door. The second door is placed strategically to block the entrance if it’s open.
By the front window, we use reinforced glass and for the sides, we ideally use vertical embrasures. Place a single barricade on top of the airlock. After you repeated this step two more times, your base should look like this.
Now we can start to the wall in the compound. I will be using wooden high external walls, just because they may be easier to find. Feel free to use stone ones instead. Line up the wall with the lines on the floor.
At each airlock, clip one high external wall into each of the windows like this. This provides visibility along the inside and the outside of the compound. To get the spacing right, the walls should run parallel to the sides of the three triangles. Now align yourself with the foundation steps in the center of the base. Walk outwards from them, unless space left and right looks a little bit shorter than one high external wall. Wooden high external walls are quite forgiving with the placement. It should be no issue to create a perfectly sealed wall.
Place barricades outside of the side windows of the airlocks. They prevent enemy players from using the corners to hide and door camp you. Thanks to the walls, you can now deploy large furnaces. Place them to the left of that triangle foundation, and very close to the high external walls. Don’t hesitate to use the compound as well for an oil refinery or to grow hemp and food.
To prevent people from building in with twig at these sides, build three additional external TCs. We’re just going to build fully-enclosed single triangle TCs. Bring two stacks of sheet metal. One for the build, and one for the upkeep. The single stack of sheet metal will be sufficient for 13 days of upkeep, thus, it does not make sense to make it window accessible. Unfortunately, compounds and large furnaces attract players to jump or fly over the walls and try to steal the contents of the furnaces. Thus, in case you have the components, consider adding auto-turrets to the airlocks.
For the simplest approach, put a solar panel somewhere. For example, on the ground inside of the compound, or the top of an external TC. Run it into a small battery inside of the airlock and connect this to an auto turret placed inside of the doorway. These turrets help to protect the compound against thieves and raiders. Leave the doors open while you’re online and close to the base, close them if you’re gone for a while. If you spawn into an offline raid, raiders may have ignored those turrets.
By opening the doors, the turrets can help you to regain control of the compound quickly. If you want to be able to service the turrets without the wiring tool, you will need two solar panels and two batteries. Combine their outputs and run them into a switch. These components can be placed above the window. This concludes the second phase of the build. Thanks to the compound, you’re in a good position to accelerate the production of metal fragments, and it is already very difficult to grief you.
In phase three of the build, we’re going to strengthen the core, build the outer honeycomb, the final entrance to the base, and more loot rooms. By now, you hopefully have accumulated plenty of metal fragments and high-quality metal. We will use them to upgrade the core of the base. Upgrade those inner triangles, walls, and foundations to armored.
If an upkeep of 130 high qual per day is too much for you, at least upgrade the TC compartment, as well as the foundations next to those foundation steps. In this case, you can calculate with 1k extra metal fragment upkeep, but only about 60 high qual per day. Upgrade all the floating floor tiles to sheet metal. Surround the triangles next to the foundation steps with sheet metal walls, and upgrade the lone foundation to sheet metal as well. This can later serve to rebuild the base if this armored foundation gets destroyed.
Head inside of the core.
Upgrade the chute at least to sheet metal, better armored. Inside of the core, upgrade everything apart from the garage door frames to sheet metal. On the second floor, upgrade all the floor tiles above the core to armored. Jump onto the roof and upgrade all floor tiles. Eventually, the ones above the core should be armored as well. The floating ones can remain sheet metal.
On your way down, upgrade all remaining walls to sheet metal. Skip over the door frames and the windows. Place note this step is very resource-intensive, many but not all of the upgrades can be delayed until you have the material. The mandatory ones are the upgrades of the compartments behind the windows, namely the TC, the locker, and the tier two workbench as you cannot reach them later anymore.
For the next steps, you need a ladder blueprint. Run outside, and place sheet metal walls onto the center of the base. On top of them, place three triangles going out like this. Place a garage door in front of these sheet walls. Then place two stories of stone walls around the outer perimeter of the three squares. In front of the garage door, build a chute that leads onto the third floor.
Use a ladder to climb up. Place a half-height triangle. Onto the triangle, place a single small box and a shotgun trap. Close it off with a single door. I would use the small box to keep items for raid defense, such as meds, ammo, and excess grenade or rocket launchers if you have them. This is the inner peek down taking shape.
We can build three secondary loot rooms onto the second floor.
Jump onto the three exposed triangles of the core. Make yourself a platform to work by placing twig on the outside. Place this wall to the left side. Deploy two boxes as close to that wall as you can. Add a half-height shelf, and add two more boxes. Add a stone wall frame in the center. This will later minimize the gap in the walls. Upgrade the window frames and rotate them. Close off these two triangles with a wall on this side. Doing this on all three sides creates three perfectly separated loot rooms.
Now let’s protect the space outside of those loot rooms. Place a stone floor frame and a roof on top of it. Then place another roof onto the outer triangle foundation. Now close off the honeycomb space. This covers the gaps and disincentivizes raiding straight through these walls. Optionally, add a sneaky shotgun trap here and place a sandbag barricade inside of the gap. Interestingly, the sandbag barricade is the only thing that could fit there.
Now it’s time to get rid of the temporary airlock. Soft side hatchet out the two wooden door frames. Place a locker into the triangle. Replace the inner door with a garage door. Then place the tier three workbench in the center against the wall. Make sure that it is well aligned and dead center inside of the floor tile.
If done right, you can still place the window frame. However, before doing this, add two small boxes underneath the tier three. You will be able to replace the garage door by turning the workbench. There is a risk that if you misplace the workbench, you won’t be able to place the window. Thus, feel free to place the window frame first. The first and second floors of the central unit are now in their final build stage. This concludes the third phase of the build.
In the final phase of the build, we’re going to work on the defense perimeter. Start by completing the inner peek downs. Consider leaving the inner ones stone. The reason is, if the central triangles get destroyed, those triangles will prevent replacing them. If they are stone, you can at least soft side pick them out to replace the central ones. One suggestion from Lord Desert is to use a siren light to close those gaps. They are not easy to destroy and make it impossible to climb or fall through that gap.
Since the honeycomb below the inner peek down so far is just dead space, let’s make good use of it. Now we’ll place a long row of large boxes along the inner wall. These can be extremely useful if you need to quickly offload large quantities of loot without spending time on sorting things, such as after a successful raid. The remaining space can be used for sleeping bags and maybe a locker.
This gives you yet another spawn point to counter raids. Now let’s turn to the third floor. I will leave the ceiling off so you can better follow my build steps. At the open squares, place wall frames and slanted roofs on top. In front, place the window with metal embrasures. In front of each peek down section, place a single door and two windows. Use embrasures and reinforced glass for the windows. You now have an inner shooting floor surrounding the core.
To strengthen the door path, add a single door and a garage door in front of the three exits. Close this wall off with a window or a full wall. Add another wall frame between the single and the garage door to close this gap. Around the center, place the garage door to the right and the wall to the left. Inside of those compartments that this creates, place one bed, one locker, and two large boxes. Next to the chute, place the locker like this, and the bed behind it.
We are also going to have the second garage door as the bed sticks through the inner one. Here, a large and small box have to suffice. To discourage raids through the roof, I would upgrade the ceilings above the core to armored, and the three triangles above the airlock to sheet. While we’re at it, upgrade the chute to sheet metal as well. Also, consider upgrading the floor tile above the chute for extra protection. Use a shotgun trap to guard the chute. A brute-force raid trying to tunnel in from the top now needs to go through three armored ceilings.
Next, we’re going to work on the outer shooting floor. Start by placing single doors around the outer triangle. Next to the entrance chute, place reinforced glass windows. If you consider those inner peek downs sufficient and prefer to save upkeep costs, simply place windows in those triangles. If external peek downs are a must for you, and worth another 1k metal fragments and 1.5k stone of daily upkeep, do the following. Instead of those windows use single door frames. On the shooting floor level, place three triangles like this. Around those triangles, place windows with embrasures.
Close the gap with a single door. Place the door frame on the side of the gaps so that the door swings outwards. This is how the end result should look like from the top. If you cannot place any of these, you might have to destroy the large furnace below. Let’s close off the ceiling.
If you want to give these peek downs a chance to survive the initial volley of rockets, place sheet metal wall frames into those triangle foundations. Further, upgrade the wall frames below the inner peeks. They will provide extra stability to the peek downs.
Make sure that the floor tiles are sheet metal as well. If you place the doors next to the slanted roof peek in the right orientation, they can allow you to push you out of the doorway. This creates a sneaky way to exit the base and fall into the back of enemy players inside of your compound, should the need arise.
Next, let’s turn our attention to the roof. Closeout the chute with half walls. Add another triangle as an airlock. Have the single door open inwards. Add a shotgun trap in the rear of the triangle. If the roller faces the right way, you can close the single door through the garage door. Place a pressure pad inside of the chute, and connect it to a door controller that is paired to the garage door.
This way, you can make it even harder for roof campers to go deep. These gaps in the ceiling are still an issue, as they allow enemy players to see and shoot into the bedrooms. Thus, place slanted roofs on top of the outer ceilings. If you place additional slanted roofs onto those sides, the roofs will create a solid defensive perimeter. Add low walls onto the center roof to create more options to peek sideways.
To further protect the roof, we will add auto-turrets. We will create a circuit with three auto-turrets as this is easiest to build and maintain. I will place one auto turret above the chute to the core to defend the second floor. The other two auto-turrets should go on top of the roof. Place them at the height of the exit facing the door. A combined field of view covers almost the whole inner part of the roof. Only this bit behind the exit is not covered by either of them. Place a barricade there to prevent players from hiding there. Inside the core of the bedroom, place a medium or large battery against this wall.
On the wall behind it, place four route combiners, one switch, and one splitter. Place a small generator next to the battery. Go onto the roof, and place four solar panels facing north around the center. This way they are not easily visible from the ground floor and cannot be easily shot out with, for example, compound bows.
Run each of the solar panels into one of the inputs of the two leftmost route combiners. Combine their output in the third one, and run it into the input of the large battery. Run the output of the large battery into the fourth route combiner. Connect the output of the small generator as well. This way, the generator can take over if the battery is depleted.
Run the combined output into the switch, and the switch into the splitter. Then connect each of the outputs of the splitter with one of the auto-turrets.
This concludes the final phase of the build. One thing you can consider adding is a crow’s nest on top of the base, like in the Little Tokyo base. I would build a solid column in the center of the base, as well as wall frames to provide stability to a platform that has the same shape as the armored floor. For good shooters, this is sufficient to take heli. Be warned though, this easily adds 1k frags and 2k stone to the daily upkeep. And that’s Retaliator done.
Please remember, I consider my designs to be platforms that you can adapt to your needs. If you’re conscious about upkeep, work with the basic configuration without external peek downs and consider keeping the wall of the core sheet metal. If the upkeep is not an issue for you, add the external peek down, the crow’s nest, and whatever else you need.
Whatever you decide, may the base bring you safely through the wipe.
Evil Wurst, out.
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High-performance two-seater sports cars with detuned Grand Prix mechanicals were a regular development in the early days of motoring, but supercharged four-seaters were a rarer breed.
During the late 1920s and early ’30s, Mercedes-Benz and Alfa Romeo built the famed S-type and 8C for long-distance races, but the scarcest of these exotic pre-war ‘tourers’ was the 1930 Maserati Tipo 26 Sports, a long-chassis design developed for England’s most prestigious race, the Brooklands Double Twelve, and the Irish GP.
Today, just one of these lungo Tipo 26s survives of the two special orders to the Maserati family – better known as Il Fratelli.
The fledgling concern, funded by a spark-plug business and the patronage of wealthy enthusiasts, had developed a reputation for competitive twin-cam machines, handbuilt with pride at its small Bologna base.
The sleek, supercharged two-seaters had impressed Max Morris, director of London carburettor manufacturer RAG Patents Ltd. In late 1930, with backing from mystery Irish millionaire RA Garston, and encouraged by British-based Italian Edgar Fronteras, Morris ordered two special Maseratis to promote his firm.
To match the four-seater regulations for the over-1500cc class in England, the frames were extended by 150mm with deeper, thicker rails to take the detuned 2.5-litre twin-cam straight-eight.
The cars were supplied with bonnet and scuttle but no rear bodywork, retaining the Tipo 26’s distinctive sloping radiator – albeit mounted higher, with a larger core.
The planned debut was the Double Twelve on 9 May 1931, a two-part 24-hour race around the torturous Brooklands track.
Who built the body isn’t known, but the style contrasted with the factory racers. Featuring a wood frame clad with Rexine, plus four seats and a full-length hood, the long-chassis Tipo 26 had a dynamo, starter and lighting system.
To demonstrate his products, Morris replaced the Weber with an RAG carb and the cars were prepared by LC Rawlence & Co on The Cut, near Waterloo, under the supervision of engineer RA ‘Dickie’ Oates, who carried out much of the testing.
Just one car – chassis 2518, as featured here – was finished in time for the Double Twelve, to be driven by Captain George Eyston and Giulio Ramponi, who was both a top mechanic and a trusted pilot.
The second car, for Fronteras and Oates, didn’t make the start.
The team included 28-year-old Walter Ernest Wilkinson, a talented spannerman who later went to work with Ecurie Ecosse and BRM.
Better known as ‘Wilkie’, the Londoner had his first experience as riding mechanic in the Maserati.
Sitting alongside Eyston around Brooklands at 120mph was never forgotten, as he recalled in his autobiography: ‘After the 8am start, for almost the whole of the first 12 hours we drove right up at the top of the banking, close to the unprotected rim. At first it was a terrifying experience, and even after I got used to it, it was still somewhat shattering.’
At speed on the rough surface, with Hartford friction dampers locked, the chassis took a pounding: ‘The Maserati leaped and crashed over the bumps, slamming into the concrete with bone-jarring force… The racket from the exhaust, even with the compulsory Brooklands silencer, was deafening.’
As if that wasn’t enough, Wilkinson had little protection with only a small aeroscreen, linen flying helmet and goggles, but most painful was the heat from the gearbox and exhaust, which badly burnt his leg.
The conditions took their toll on the car, too, with Eyston and Ramponi forced to stop as Wilkinson jumped out to fit new wing stays. ‘These were only minor problems,’ he concluded. ‘The car went very fast all day, like a proverbial bomb.’
Frustratingly, on the last lap of the first race (Brooklands couldn’t stage night events so the race was split across the weekend) the crown wheel and pinion cried enough after a brutal landing on the Byfleet Banking.
On hearing the grinding, Ramponi pulled off the track. No spare axle was available, so the car was withdrawn.
Two months later the two cars, chassis 2518 and 2516, were taken to Dublin for the Irish GP.
Thanks to local patron Madam Garston, the budget was stretched to enlist Giuseppe Campari as star driver in the second car. When teammate Eyston discovered how much the Italian’s riding mechanic was being paid, he insisted that his man’s fee should be equal.
‘That £20 was the biggest sum of money I ever had in my working life,’ Wilkinson recalled – and he certainly earned it in the dramatic race around the 4¼-mile course across Phoenix Park.
Maserati’s main rival in the Éireann Cup for over-1500cc sports cars was the first Alfa 8C, chassis 2111002, which had been ordered by ‘Bentley Boy’ Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin.
The Zagato-bodied Long Chassis was completed late by the factory, so chum Clive Gallop collected it days before the race and drove straight from Milan to Dublin.
Despite the event falling a week before Le Mans, entries included the Hon Brian Lewis in a works Talbot 105, a pair of privateer S-type Mercedes headed by Lord Howe, plus an Invicta Low Chassis and an elderly Austro-Daimler.
After the problems at Brooklands, Wilkinson devised an oiling system worked from the cockpit via a grease gun and flexible pipe, so the axle could be topped up during the race. The hard-working engineer also fabricated a quick-refuelling funnel
The Maserati proved fast in practice, with Campari timed at 120mph on the straight compared to Birkin’s 115mph in the Alfa, but the Italian machinery was no match for the thunderous S-types, headed by Howe.
Starter Base The Mechanical
Race day arrived cold and damp, with more rain forecast, but huge crowds turned out to see Campari and they weren’t disappointed.
When the president of the Republic dropped the flag, a maroon fired over the stand and a spectacular battle began.
Birkin made a demon start, sliding along the wet grass to pass the Mercedes, but by the end of the first lap Howe and BO Davies were leading Campari from Birkin, with Eyston’s Maser close behind.
Howe soon equalled Rudi Caracciola’s 1930 lap record at 91.3mph, but behind the S-type the Maseratis were running strongly.
Eyston passed the Alfa to give the Trident team the lead on handicap, and when the rain arrived the pace of the German big guns slowed dramatically.
Starter Base The Mechanics
As lightning flashed across the dark sky, the deluge turned biblical and Birkin’s wet-weather confidence carried him into the lead on the waterlogged course.
While Eyston struggled with flooded ignition, Campari charged after the Alfa, but again Maserati’s fortune faded.
Birkin was in his sights when the Alfa’s tail slid wide at Gough corner and the Italian was sprayed with mud and stones, smashing his goggles. With fragments in his eye, Campari reluctantly returned to the pits for attention from a surgeon, leaving a nervous Ramponi to take the wheel.
The mechanic was no match for Campari’s pace and, after learning of the car’s lower position, the famous ace was spotted in the middle of the pit straight with a bandaged eye, waving down Ramponi so he could retake the wheel.
From a lap down, and now using only one eye, Campari produced one of the drives of his career as he stormed through the field.
The Irish crowd loved the spectacle, cheering all around the course, but luck and low fuel were against him and he finished three minutes behind the Alfa in second, while Eyston took fourth in the other Maserati.
Pathé footage of the race reveals the differing styles of Birkin and Campari in the wet, the English baronet all over the road while the Italian masterfully drifted his Maserati.
You can imagine the excited conversations over Guinness as fans dried out in the Dublin pubs.
The team entered just one more race, the RAC Tourist Trophy. With Campari now back in an Alfa, Eyston came eighth and Fronteras failed to finish a lap after head-gasket failure.
Like so many businesses in the early 1930s, RAG was knocked out by the Depression and, as part payment for debts, Oates claimed ownership of both Maseratis.
Campari’s chassis 2518 was sold on and continued to race at Brooklands, before later being thrashed around the sands at Southport and Saltburn.
While the second T26 Sports ended up in South Africa, 2518 was enjoyed on the road until the engine threw a rod.
After WW2, an Autovia V8 and then a Ford flathead V8 were tried, but thankfully the great car was saved by the Hartley brothers in 1952 and restored by Maserati fanatic Anthony, the talented engineer lovingly returning 2518 to authentic specification, complete with RAG carb.
Whenever the rare and highly original Tipo 26 appeared at events in the 1960s and ’70s it attracted huge interest.
Hartley kept 2518 for nearly 57 years before his collection was auctioned by Bonhams in 2012, when it sold for £1.6million – a veritable bargain when compared with the huge values of Alfa 8C rivals.
The sole surviving Tipo 26 four-seater was entrusted to Sean Danaher, who has worked on a vast range of Bologna greats.
His passion for the marque came from his father Bob, and as a youngster he helped his dad restore the ex-Nuvolari 8CM for Colin Crabbe.
That indoctrination launched a career of rebuilding, testing and racing historic Maseratis, and the arrival of the ex-Campari four-seater marked a full circle.
“Among enthusiasts, Hartley was a bit of a lone wolf,” recalls Danaher, “but at a Maserati Club event in the late ’70s I got a ride with him in 2518 around Castle Ashby. It felt much more civilised than other pre-war Maseratis I’d driven, thanks to the user-friendly tune and rattle-free wood-and-fabric body.”
Four decades later, that very car arrived at Danaher’s Suffolk workshop for post-auction sorting, and again in 2015 for a cosmetic rebuild to authentic Irish GP style.
The body was sent to Graham Moss to have the original wood frame repaired and re-covered with Rexine before a repaint.
Danaher then turned his attention to remaking the distinctive scuttle and ’screens so the lost hood could be remade: “It was a struggle with no photos or drawings, but Graham was a great help. Now with a hinged front it stows neatly away.” The rear seating has also been improved for more comfort and legroom.
Danaher re-mounted the front Hartford dampers inside the repainted chassis and remade the distinctive apron.
The wing stays, radiator and headlamp supports were all returned to original style, and the car was given a thorough mechanical rebuild because the new owner wanted to enjoy driving it.
An exhaust system was made including a Brooklands-style fishtail so the original could be saved.
During testing, Danaher’s observations from that first run in 2518 were confirmed: “The longer chassis gives it a better ride and more directional stability than the Grand Prix cars.
“The increase in weight also steadies it. The steering is high-geared and hard work at low speeds yet very direct. The cable braking is adequate, but on a par with a Bugatti.
“With wider ratios and extra flywheel weight, the beefy gearbox took getting used to as I found myself changing too quickly.”
For Danaher, the Maserati straight-eight is one of the most exciting units of the era: “We’ve put it back on a Weber, which has a flat-spot from idle but the mid-range is impressive and then it really goes, with a 105mph top speed.
“This softer tune gives 145bhp at 4500rpm. With nearly 20cwt (2240lb) it’s not going to compete with a lightweight Frazer Nash on the track, but this would make a fantastic fast tourer for a run around the Scottish distilleries.”
Were I the lucky owner, I’d take this awesome machine to Ireland to retrace the Phoenix Park course, before heading across the country for a road trip along the Wild Atlantic Way.
Images: Mick Walsh
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Mick Walsh is Classic & Sports Car's International Editor