Maserati History

Maserati is an Italian car manufacturer, most famous for its racing cars and sports cars. The company was established in Bologna in 1914 when the six Maserati Brothers began building automobiles.

Alfieri Maserati, Bindo Maserati, Carlo Maserati, Ettore Maserati, Ernesto Maserati and Mario Maserati: those were the six brothers that formed the Maserati car manufactury. All of them had been involved with automobiles for several years when the company was legally set up in 1914. One of the brother's first successes was the construction of a two-litre Grand Prix car for Diatto, then a well-known Italian car maker.



In 1926 however, Diatto suspended the production of race cars, and so the Maserati family decided to create a car on their own. The brothers were making race cars with four, six, eight and 16 cylinders. The company logo, a trident, is believed to be created by Mario Maserati, the artist among he brothers. In 1926, it was Alfieri Maserati himself who won the Targa Florio race in one of the company's first cars. Only two years later, Alfieri had an accident that caused complications he would never recover from: he died in 1932.


Maserati A6 1946-1950

His three brothers Bindo, Ernesto and Ettore kept the firm going, but sold their shares in the company to the Orsi family in 1937. The company's headquarters was relocated to Modena, but the Maserati brothers were still involved in the construction process. The Maserati marque was a guarantor for racing successes - the cars could match with German giants Auto Union or Mercedes.


Maserati A6G 1951-1953

During the second World War, and Maserati abandoned cars to produce components for the Italian war effort instead. Once peace was restored, Maserati returned to making cars, and the Maserati A6 series was doing pretty well in the post-war racing scene. The Maserati brothers decided to leave the company to form another - less successful - firm of their own.

Maserati 8 CM 1934	Maserati 8 CLT 1950
Maserati 5000 GT 1959-1961	Maserati 3500 GT 1957-1962
Maserati Mistral 1965-1970	Maserati Quattroporte 1966-1970

Meanwhile Argentinian driver Juan-Manuel Fangio raced for Maserati in the 1950s and produced a number of stunning victories including winning the world championship in 1957 in the Maserati 250F. In the same year the fatal Guidizzolo accident happened, and Maserati retired from factory racing participation, though it went on building racing cars to be raced by others.


Maserati Mexico 1969-1972

In the following years, chief engineer Giulio Alfieri focused more and more on road cars, first by building the 6-cylinder Maserati 3500 2+2 coupe featuring an aluminum body over Carrozzeria Touring's superleggera structure. Next came the Maserati Sebring bodied by Vignale and launched in 1962, the Maserati Mistral Coupé (1963) and the Spider (1964), both designed by Pietro Frua, and their first four-door, the Maserati Quattroporte (1963), also designed by Pietro Frua.


Maserati Type 61 Birdcage 1961

Another great change came in 1968 when the company was purchased by Citroën. Adolfo Orsi remained the nominal president, but Maserati changed a great deal. New models were launched, and built in much greater numbers. Citroën borrowed Maserati expertise and engines for the Citroën SM and other vehicles, and Maseratis on the other hand incorporated Citroën technology, particularly in hydraulics.

New models included the Maserati Bora, the first mass-produced mid-engined Maserati, in 1971, and the Maserati Merak and Maserati Khamsin soon afterwards. Maserati Quattroporte II - which shared some parts with Citroën SM - never came into production. Maserati was expanding when during the oil crisis in 1974 the public's demand for fuel-thirsty sports cars shrank. Citroën went bankrupt in 1974, and a year later Maserati also was in liquidation.

Maserati Indy 1970-1973	Maserati Merak 1973-1975
Maserati Khamsin 1972-1979	Maserati Bora 1974-1980
Maserati Biturbo 1983-1985	Maserati Spyder 1984-1988

But only months later, the company was back on its feet. Alessandro de Tomaso, an Argentinian and former racing driver, became the new managing director. He had already controlled the Benelli motorcycle company and arranged for them to buy Maserati from Citroën and install him as its head. New models were introduced in 1976. In the following years, Maserati mostly built squarish, front-engined, rear-drive coupes, cheaper than before but with an aggressive performance. The company also worked closely with Chrysler; the two companies jointly produced a car together: the Chrysler TC by Maserati.

1993 saw the company acquired by Fiat. Substantial investments were made in Maserati, and the company launched the 3200 GT, the only "Fiat Maserati" with a top speed of 285 km/h, in 1999. Four years later, Fiat sold a 50 percent share in the company to Maserati's long-time arch-rival Ferrari (though this was, and is, itself controlled by Fiat). In 1999 Ferrari took full control, making Maserati its luxury division. Six years later Maserati was separated from Ferrari and brought back under Fiat's full control. Fiat plans to create a sports and luxury division from Maserati and another of its marques, Alfa Romeo.



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