"SocietĂ Anonima Officine Alfieri Maserati" was officially founded on December 14, 1914 in Bologna: a brand that was to become a legend on all the racetracks and the roads of the world.
Founders: The Maserati family constitutes seven brothers Carlo Maserati, Bindo Maserati, Alfieri Maserati, Mario Maserati, Ettore Maserati and Ernesto Maserati. The third brother who was also called Alfieri died in his infancy and hence the fourth brother was also given the same name. It was Alfieri who founded the company and begun producing some fabulous race cars that took his name and his brand "Maserati" across the world.
Alfieri efforts to manufacture world class race cars was ably assisted by his brothers Ettore, Ernesto and Bindo Maserati. Although Carlo was the first to venture in manufacturing cars, he breathed his last in 1910. It was his passion for cars brought his brothers to this field.
The first model that was produced under the flagship of Maserati's was a Tipo 26 in 1926, it was a two seater race car with 8 cylinder engine with 1.5 litre supercharged displacement that developed 120 bhp at 5300 rpm. Mario Maserati though did not venture his life into the engineering field like his brother also contributed; he presented a badge of the Trident that was evoked from Bologna famous statue of King Neptune.
The Tipo 26 made its debut in the racing tracks in Targa Florio, 1926 with Alfieri Maserati on the wheels and it emerged a superior racing car of its kinds. This was the first win for the Maserati with Alfieri the driving force behind the company and the car won his first victory. The company focused all its talent in producing other superior models for racing. Victories were sparse, Maserati's continued their domination in the racing sector and in 1929 they won the Tripoli Grand Prix and Mille Miglia. Alfieri never looked back and started venturing to improve his machines performances and subsequently the Tipo V4, 3.5 litres set the New World Speed Record.
Alfieri masterpiece design the Tipo 26M was one of the most renowned models that won him many victories in the racing circuits. Alfieri revolutionary ideas to fine-tune his engines brought 4 CTR a 4-cylinder, 1088 cc turbocharged model into existance, though that was his last designed car, since he died at 44 in 1932.
Maserati's brothers Ettore, Ernesto and Bindo Maserati took their respective places and
revitalized their companies economic crisis and in the year 1933 the Maserati's 8C won the Belgian Grand Prix, Coppa Ciano and Nice Grand Prix. Everything looked stable and they continued to improvise the performances of their machines and the revolutionary model 8CTF won the Indianapolis 500, this is the only Italian car that had a triumphant victory in Indianapolis till date.
Though Maserati's dominated the racing circuits their financial conditions wooed and the Adolfo Orsi acquired Maserati in 1939. Under the new leadership the company was moved to Viale Ciro Menotti. Maserati re-entered the racing circuits under their new leadership in 1946 and won straight-away the Nice Grand Prix and Marseilles G.P. Maserati's desire to venture into manufacturing road cars were duly honoured by the introduction of A6, the first ever road car of Maserati. In 1957 Maserati continued its dominence in the racing circuits and sweeped all three places in Argentine Grand Prix and by the end of the season Maserati won the F1 Championship.
Economic crisis hit the company badly and the Maserati announced their decision to pull out from the racing arena and decided to manufacture racecars and their road versions. It was after this period Maserati (1957 - 1975) produced many successful cars in the Italian Car History. To sum up their successful models produced during this era are A6, A6G, A6G/54, 3500 GT Touring coupé, Vignale, 5000 GT, Shah of Persia Touring version, Vignale Sebring, Quattroporte, Mistral, Ghibli, and Indy.
In 1968, Citroen acquired Maserati from The Orsi family and they introduced the series of cars with Two Centre-Engined Models The Bora, Merak and Khamsin. It was the period of the worst Oil crisis the motor market subsided and Maserati was taken up by Alejandro De Tomaso and GEPI in 1976 and new model was introduced the same year in the Geneva Motor Show, The Kyalami. Maserati remained close to the market pace and it produced cars of diffferent models.
In 1993 Maserati was taken by the Motor Giants "Fiat" and currently it is managed by The Ferrari Management. Ferrari's technical strength and experience with Maserati's elegance proved to be very strong and they contributed much more powerful version of 3200 GT.
Maserati remains a Passion for both the F1 G.P. racers and the owners who own them.
