Officine Alfieri Maserati was founded on December 1, 1914 in Bologna, Italy. Since then, Maserati has played a consistently important role in the history of sports car culture and its development.

Nearly a century of activity has brought with it glorious achievements both on the road and the track as well as more challenging times, which have helped forge the company’s character and personality.

This section brings you some of the most important milestones in the story of the Maserati marque. These include the 246.029 km/h world speed record set by Borzacchini in 1929, the 1957 F1 World Championship title won by Fangio at the wheel of the 250F, and the more recent launch of the new 405 bhp GranTurismo in Geneva in March 2007.

However, Maserati’s history involves more than its glorious sporting achievements and the launch of great road cars. The company has also developed industrially over the years.

Its relocation from Bologna to the current site on Viale Ciro Menotti in Modena, Italy, in 1940 and its acquisition by Ferrari, completed in 1997, are just two examples of the many major events in the development of Maserati.

Maserati is a marque that began life in a local context but then went on to become a major international player, with representation in 43 countries. In this section, you can relive Maserati’s enthralling history and get to know the people, achievements and cars which have made the marque famous.

 

The Maserati brothers

The seven Maserati brothers were born in Voghera, Italy to Rodolfo, a train driver, and Carolina Losi. Carlo, their first son, was born in 1881, Bindo in 1883 and Alfieri in 1885. At just a few months old, Alfieri sadly passed away and his parents decided to name their next son, born in 1887, after him. They were to have three more children: in 1890 Mario was born, followed by Ettore in 1894 and Ernesto in 1898.

All of the Maseratis were involved in the engineering, design, and construction of cars except for Mario, who was a painter and artist. However Mario’s contribution to the Maserati company was just as important and lasting as his engineer brothers’: he created the company trademark, the Trident, inspired by the statue of Neptune in the square of the same name in their home city of Bologna.

The first of the brothers to become involved with engines was Carlo, who worked in a bicycle factory in Affori, near Milan. He designed a single-cylinder engine for a velocipede, which was later manufactured by the Marquis Carcano di Anzano del Parco. Carlo Maserati also raced on Carcano bikes equipped with the engine he had designed, winning a few races and setting a speed record of 50 km/h (31 mph) in 1900.

Carlo moved to Fiat in 1901 when Carcano closed down and then, in 1903, to Isotta Fraschini, where he worked as a mechanic and test driver. Thanks to his influence, Isotta also employed his brother Alfieri, despite the fact that he was only 16 at the time. Carlo had a brilliant but ultimately short career, dying when he was just 29, by which time he had worked and raced for Bianchi, become General Manager of Junior, and started up his own workshop with his brother Ettore to manufacture both low and high voltage electrical transformers for cars.

Alfieri soon emerged as Carlo's spiritual heir, with the same extrovert personality and skills as a technician and driver. In 1908 Isotta entrusted a car to him which he brought home in 14th place in the Grand Prix for Voiturettes in Dieppe, despite his carburetor breaking. In the meantime, Bindo and Ettore had also joined Isotta Fraschini, where Alfieri had started out as a mechanic and progressed to driving. In 1912, after having represented the company in Argentina, the USA and Great Britain with his brother Ettore, Alfieri was put in charge of Isotta’s customer service structure in Bologna.

The wide-ranging experience he had built up during his career convinced Alfieri that he was ready to explore the possibility of going into business in his own right to exploit his talents and creativity to the fullest extent. In 1914 he rented office space in Via dé Pepoli, in Bologna’s old town center, and this went on to become the first headquarters of the Società Anonima Officine Alfieri Maserati.

 

The first Maserati era, from 1914 to 1937

After the First World War, the company moved from Via dé Pepoli to new offices in the suburbs of Bologna. The Maserati brothers’ main activity was still tuning Isotta Fraschini cars, but they also worked on other marques.

Alfieri began his career as a racing driver and soon proved his worth, winning on the Susa-Moncenisio, the Mugello Circuit and the Aosta-Great Saint Bernard. Diatto offered him a chance to design cars for the company and even to race with them. Unfortunately, in 1924, after having dominated the San Sebastiano GP, he was disqualified for five years, even though he had retired from the race, for having replaced the 2-litre engine in his car with a 3-litre unit. The penalty was lifted a few months later.

Away from the racing world, Alfieri completely dedicated himself to the workshop and in 1926, after leaving Diatto, he produced the Tipo 26, the first all-Maserati car, and the first to sport the trident badge. The Tipo 26 won its class in its debut race, the grueling Targa Florio open road race, driven by Alfieri Maserati himself.

In 1927 Alfieri had a serious accident in the Messina Cup at the wheel of the Tipo 26B, after taking third place at the Targa Florio. But even with him sidelined, Maserati still won the Italian Constructors’ Championship. In 1929 the V4 appeared, with a 16-cylinder engine, making its debut at the Italian Grand Prix and setting the world Class C speed record over 10 km at 246.069 km/h in Cremona, with Baconin Borzacchini.

The record set by the V4 helped to further enhance the company’s image and led to a considerable influx of funds, allowing both the company and its activities to expand. In 1930 the V4 driven by Borzacchini won Maserati’s first outright Grand Prix victory in Tripoli.

In 1931 came the 4CTR and the front-wheel-drive 8C 2500, the last car to be designed by Alfieri Maserati, who died on March 3rd, 1932. An enormous crowd attended his funeral in Bologna, including workers from the plant, famous drivers, and ordinary people, who all wanted to show their affection for the great man.

Alfieri's death did not discourage the Maserati brothers; Bindo left Isotta Fraschini and returned to Bologna to continue the great venture began by Alfieri, alongside Ernesto and Ettore. Maserati's racing activities continued to be both intense and successful; an 8-cylinder, 3-litre engine also appeared.

In 1933 racing great Tazio Nuvolari joined the team, making a significant technical contribution, particularly in fine tuning the chassis, and adapting it to the characteristics of the new engine; Nuvolari won the Belgian Grand Prix, and those of Montenero and Nice. That was when Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union began a sustained – and government backed – assault on the racing scene, making life difficult for Maserati in the more important races.

In spite of this, the company continued to notch up victories in more minor, national races, and this led the brothers to concentrate output in this area. In 1936 they found a patron in Gino Rovere who invested a great deal in the company and appointed Nino Farina, his ‘protégé’, as Chairman. The 6CM appeared, which gave Maserati the competitive edge in the voiturette class.

 

The golden years, from 1937 to 1967

In 1937 the Maserati brothers sold their shares in the company to the Orsi family from Modena, even though they were not in need of the financing, and the company relocated from Bologna to the now historic headquarters on Viale Ciro Menotti in Modena.

Ernesto had already designed the 4CL and 8CL engines, which powered the cars of the same name in the late 1930s. The Maserati brothers stayed on in Modena as chief engineers until 1948.

The company dominated the racing scene again, despite strong competition from Mercedes. On May 30, 1939 it scored an important victory in the Indianapolis 500 with Wilbur Shaw at the wheel of the 8CTF, a feat it repeated the following year. Maserati remains to this day the only Italian marque to have won the Indy 500.

During the Second World War Maserati adapted its production accordingly, turning out machine tools, electrical components, spark plugs and electric vehicles, but returned to its original activities after the war, with a new GT car, the A6 1500. The A6G CS successfully debuted on the Modena circuit with Alberto Ascari at the wheel; and in those years its racing rivals were the Alfettas, Ferraris and Talbots. After several wins racing became much more competitive in the 1950s with the rise of Alfa Romeo and Ferrari. In 1953 Gioacchino Colombo was appointed Chief Engineer and modified the A6GCM. The team was also strengthened by the arrival of drivers of the caliber of Fangio, Gonzalez, Marimon, Bonetto and de Graffenried and brought home some important victories in the 1953 season; in fact, Fangio won that year's Italian Grand Prix ahead of Ascari’s and Farina’s Ferraris in a race that was only decided after the final corner.

Colombo also laid the foundation for the legendary Maserati 250F, which saw its debut in 1954. Fangio won the Argentine Grand Prix on its debut race.

In 1955 and 1956 Maserati won other important victories; in 1957 Fangio returned to Maserati and won the World Title for the fifth time – the first time for Maserati - with the 250F. Fangio’s win in a 250F at the Nürburgring in 1957 is considered by many racing historians to be the greatest drive in the history of the sport.

Although the company announced its official retirement from racing that very year it never withdrew from the scene completely because Maserati continued to build sports racing cars like the Birdcage and other prototypes for private teams, and to supply engines for the Formula 1 cars of other constructors, such as Cooper, for which it developed a 12-cylinder, three-valve engine with triple ignition in 1965. The Birdcage was an innovative racecar, and was campaigned most notably by the Camoradi Racing team with legends Stirling Moss, Masten Gregory, Dan Gurney and Carroll Shelby all taking turns behind the wheel. Carroll Shelby's last race as a driver was behind the wheel of a Birdcage, when health concerns sent him off into another famed venture.

The Birdcage was such an iconic racer that in 2005 and the Birdcage idea was reborn by Pininfarina, as a modern design concept to celebrate their own 75th Anniversary.

Production of the 3500 GT road car, which was launched in 1958, began the start of an important new era for Maserati and consequently the plant had to be expanded. Production cars and sales became the main goals and the future of Maserati.

The Sebring was presented in 1962 and the Quattroporte, the first modern sports sedan, in 1963.

 

Highs and lows, and back to highs, from 1968 to the present day

The big news came in 1968, when Citroën bought out the Orsi family's shares, although Adolfo Orsi remained the company’s Honorary Chairman.

The Giugiaro-designed Bora, the first mass-produced mid-engined Maserati, was presented at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show; Maserati also built the occasional racing car engine, and that same year, a Citroën SM with a Maserati engine won the Morocco Rally.

With the launch of the Merak and Khamsin Maserati’s production continued apace. But in 1973 the Yom Kippur War sparked the Oil Crisis, making life increasingly uncertain for the company, although it still had enough vitality to introduce both the Quattroporte II prototype, bodied by Bertone, and the Merak SS.

The situation worsened, and on 23 May, Citroën announced that Maserati had gone into liquidation (the French car maker had signed an agreement with Peugeot but had lost interest in Maserati). Pressure from the industrialists’ association and the local and provincial councils in Italy succeeded in persuading the government to intervene, and Maserati avoided closure by handing over control to GEPI (a government agency that financed companies in difficulty in order to save jobs).

In an agreement signed on August 8, 1975, most of the company's share capital was acquired by the Benelli company, and Alejandro De Tomaso, a former racing driver from Argentina who had also competed for Maserati, became Managing Director. De Tomaso managed to get the company off the ground again, albeit with difficulty, and by 1976 he had launched a new model, the Kyalami, and presented the Quattroporte III, designed by Giugiaro, soon after at the Turin Motor Show. By the end of the year, output had significantly increased.

The 1980s saw the production of a new type of car, with a relatively low purchase price but impressive performance: the Biturbo, of which over 30 different versions appeared, in coupé, 4-door sedan and spyder forms.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s a major recession devastated the economy in North America, and Maserati, along with other storied European brands such as Citroën, Peugeot, Alfa Romeo and Fiat, withdrew from that market.

The turning point for Maserati came in 1993, when the company's entire share capital was acquired by Fiat Auto. A year later the first new arrival under Fiat ownership appeared in the form of the Quattroporte IV. Designed by Marcello Gandini, it boasted all of the refinement, luxury and sportiness for which the marque was renowned.

On July 1, 1997 Fiat transferred control of Maserati to Ferrari, also a part of Fiat, and an exciting new era began for the company. Once fierce competitors on both the street and track, now Ferrari and Maserati were joining forces, combining their engineering skill and technical expertise. That year the historic plant on Viale Ciro Menotti closed temporarily while an ultra-modern assembly line was installed, to produce a new car, the 3200 GT.

The 3200 GT was presented to the public at the 1998 Paris Motor Show and proved to be a thoroughbred, front-engined GT in the best Maserati tradition. It was joined that same year by the Quattroporte Evoluzione, and production soon exceeded 2,000 cars a year.

The complete reorganization of the marketing network and the expansion of the plant, where new management offices were built, gave further momentum to the renewal process in 2000. The following year the new Spyder appeared, unveiled for the first time at the Frankfurt Motor Show, during which Maserati also announced its intention to return to the North American market. This decision was confirmed in January 2002, when the Coupé made its world debut at the Detroit Motor Show. Like the Spyder, it introduced a number of important innovations, from a new 4,200 cc 390-bhp V8 engine co-developed with Ferrari, to its suspension, chassis and F1-style gearbox, also making use of Ferrari racing technology.

Besides returning to the most important markets with high-class and sophisticated models, Maserati also made a successful comeback to the world of racing thanks to the MC12 (in the FIA GT and ALMS championships), the Trofeo (in the single-make series for gentlemen drivers in Europe and Brazil) and the Trofeo Light (in the Italian GT and the American Grand-Am series). To date the MC12 has amassed 8 different Championship titles, securing its place as one of the greatest modern racecars and a fitting continuation of Maserati’s racing heritage.

In September 2003 at the Frankfurt motorshow the car that would be at the center of Maserati’s unstoppable growth was previewed: the Maserati Quattroporte. The new Maserati sedan enjoyed immediate success in terms of sales and also earned many prizes and widespread praise from clients and journalists around the world.

2005 was a record year for Maserati, with 5,659 cars sold worldwide. This was an increase of 22.8% from the equally impressive 2004, and the natural confirmation of the product and quality measures begun in 1998, when only 518 vehicles were sold.

Great satisfaction also came from Maserati’s Corse racing group. The incredible work of this team allowed Maserati to claim the Constructors’ Cup and Team Vitaphone (Maserati) the team title. Maserati’s one-two finish at the Spa 24 Hours was truly unforgettable, topped only by another 1-2 victory in 2008.

The Trofeo Light also secured a number of titles and wins, dominating the GT3 class of the Italian GT championship. The company’s vitality is strengthened by the success of its single-make series, now into its fourth year in Europe and its third in Brazil.

In early 2005, ownership of Maserati was transferred from Ferrari back to Fiat, which allowed Maserati to achieve important industrial and commercial synergies with Alfa Romeo – leading to the beautiful Alfa Romeo 8C, which was developed and built by Maserati for Alfa Romeo in the Maserati factory. Close technical and commercial collaboration within the group has provided Maserati with the impetus to position itself as the leader in its sector. It has also broadened its presence throughout the international markets thanks to models including the GranSport, the GranSport Spyder, and the MC Victory, developed to celebrate successes in the FIA GT series.

Maserati’s success in North America was also swift and dramatic, with sales in the US and Canada now accounting for over 30% of Maserati’s worldwide volume. Maserati has truly resonated with North American clients and has achieved tremendous growth: Maserati was the fastest growing car company in the US in 2007, and the dealer network has grown from 33 dealers in 2002 to almost 60 in 2008 to meet demand.

In 2007, above all, Maserati’s impressive performance was mainly thanks to the new GranTurismo as the accounts once more showed a profit. The GranTurismo is a car that can be used everyday, with superb handling and a sporty, captivating ride. The international press deemed the car an immediate success and lavished it with praise as it made the covers of countless magazines.

Maserati continues to excel in the world of competition and recently claimed all four titles on offer in the GT1 Class of the 2007 FIA GT International championship, adding to the Manufacturers' Cup won in 2005 and continuing the winning trend following the Team and Drivers’ titles from 2006.

2008 saw the introduction of the GranTurismo S, and the refreshed Quattroporte and new Quattroporte S – models that look set to continue the spectacular success of Maserati.