Maserati
July 9th, 2008
They were introduced to the world in 1914, on the December the 1st, in Bologna. Right now, their office is abse in Modena. Main purpose for creating this kind of brand was to compete with English giants Aston Martin and Jaguar and also 3 main German car manufacturers - Audi, Mercedes and BMW.
Today, Maserati is owned by Fiat, who bought them in 1993.
The Maserati brothers, Alfieri Maserati, Bindo Maserati, Carlo Maserati, Ettore Maserati, Ernesto Maserati and Mario Maserati, were all involved with automobiles from the beginning of the 20th century. Alfieri, Bindo and Ernesto built 2-litre Grand Prix cars for Diatto. In 1926, Diatto suspended the production of race cars, leading to the creation of the first Maserati and the founding of the Maserati marque. One of the first Maseratis, driven by Alfieri, won the 1926 Targa Florio. Maserati began making race cars with 4, 6, 8 and 16 cylinders (actually two straight eights mounted parallel to one another). Mario, an artist, is believed to have devised the company's trident emblem, based on one the Fontana del Nettuno, Bologna. Alfieri Maserati died in 1932 but three other brothers, Bindo, Ernesto and Ettore, kept the firm going, building cars that won races.
In 1937, the remaining Maserati brothers sold their shares in the company to the Adolfo Orsi family, who in 1940 relocated the company headquarters to their hometown of Modena, where it remains to this day. The brothers continued in engineering roles with the company, however. Racing successes continued, even against the giants of German racing, Auto Union and Mercedes. In 1939, a Maserati 8CTF won the Indianapolis 500, a feat repeated the following year.
The war then intervened, Maserati abandoning cars to produce components for the Italian war effort. During this time, Maserati worked in fierce competition to construct a V16 towncar for Benito Mussolini before Ferry Porsche of Volkswagen built one for Adolf Hitler. They failed in this endeavour and the plans were scrapped. Once peace was restored, Maserati returned to making cars, the Maserati A6 series, doing well in the post-war racing scene.
Key people will join the Maserati team, Alberto Massimino, an old Fiat engineer, with both Alfa Romeo and Ferrari experiences. He will be in charge of overseeing the design of all racing models for the next ten years. With him will join "ingeniore" Giulio Alfieri (1924–2002),Vittorio Bellentani and Gioacchino Colombo (1903–1987), the designer of the V12 Ferrari. The focus was to come with the best engines and the best chassis to succeed in car racing. All these new projects will receive the last contribution of the Maserati brothers, who after the 10-year contract with Orsi, went on to form the O.S.C.A. car builder. This team worked on several projects (Maserati 4CLT, Maserati A6 series, Maserati 8CLT), including one that will be pivotal for the future success of the company: the Maserati A6GCM
The famous Argentinian driver Juan-Manuel Fangio raced for Maserati for a number of years in the 1950s, producing a number of stunning victories including winning the world championship in 1957 in the Maserati 250F alongside with Toulo de Graffenried, Louis Chiron, Prince Bira, Enrico Platé and with a few others. Other racing projects in the 50s were the Maserati 200S, Maserati 300S (with several famous pilots, among these, Benoit Musy), Maserati 350S, Maserati 450S, followed in 1961 by the famous Maserati Birdcage.
Maserati had retired from factory racing participation due to the Guidizzolo accident (1957), though it built racing cars to be raced by others after that date. After 1957, Maserati became more and more focussed on road cars, and chief engineer Giulio Alfieri built the 6-cylinder Maserati 3500 2+2 coupe featuring an aluminum body over Carrozzeria Touring's superleggera structure, a design also used for the small-volume V8-powered Maserati 5000. 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. The two-seater Maserati Ghibli coupe was launched in 1967, followed by a convertible in 1969.
1975 saw the company back on its feet with Alessandro de Tomaso, an Argentinian former racing driver, the new managing director. De Tomaso had arranged for the Benelli motorcycle company, which he controlled, to buy Maserati from Citroën and install him as its head. New models were introduced in 1976, including the Maserati Kyalami and the Maserati Quattroporte III.
The 1980s saw the company largely abandoning the mid-engined sports car in favour of squarish, front-engined, rear-drive coupes, cheaper than before but with aggressive performance, like the Maserati Biturbo.The Maserati Biturbo has been declined in a large number of models, all sharing key components among which a short two door coupe Maserati Karif and a cabriolet, the Spyder, designed by Zagato. The last version of the Maserati Biturbo was called Maserati Racing. It has been a transitional model in which several features to be found on the Ghibli II and the Shamal were tested. Two new coupes, the Maserati Shamal and Maserati Ghibli II, were released in 1990 and 1992, respectively.
The company also worked loosely with Chrysler, now headed by de Tomaso's friend Lee Iacocca. Chrysler purchased part of Maserati and the two jointly produced a car, the Chrysler TC by Maserati that took much too long to introduce on the US market.
In 1997, Fiat sold a 50% 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. A new factory was built, replacing the existing 1940s-vintage facility. Ferrari is credited for bringing Maserati back into business, after many lackluster years of Maserati teetering on the brink of bankruptcy.
More recently, Maserati discussed an agreement with Volkswagen for the German company to share its Audi division's Quattro all-wheel-drive technology (originally meant for the still-born Maserati Kubang sport utility vehicle concept) for Maserati's current Quattroporte platform. This idea has since been abandoned because Volkswagen owns two of Ferrari's direct rivals, Lamborghini and Bugatti.
Meanwhile two new models have been shown to the public: the MC12 road supersports and successful GT racer with an Enzo Ferrari–derived chassis and engine. And the Quattroporte, a high luxury saloon with the 4.2l V8 engine. Maserati is nowadays back in the business, very successfully selling on a global basis. In 2001 year Ferrari decided to throw away all the old instruments and installed high-tech devices in the Modena's factory. In 2001 Maserati's factory became one of the most advanced in the world
Since early 2002 Maseratis are once again being sold in the United States market, which has quickly become for Maserati the largest market worldwide. The company has also re-entered the racing arena with their Trofeo and, in December 2003, the Maserati MC12 (formerly known as the MCC), which took part in select GT races in 2004. The MC12 is based on the Enzo Ferrari supercar; 50 street-legal homologation models (roadsters and coupes) have been sold for about US$700,000 each.
