Maserati
Maserati S.p.A. is an Italian luxury car manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914 in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021.
History
The Maserati brothers
The Maserati brothers, Alfieri, Bindo, Carlo, Ettore, and Ernesto, 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.File: - Fontana del Nettuno.jpg|thumb|140px|right|The trident logo of the Maserati car company, designed by Mario Maserati, is based on Neptune's trident of Fountain of Neptune in Bologna's Piazza Maggiore.
The trident logo of the Maserati car company, designed by Mario Maserati, is based on Neptune's trident of the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna's Piazza Maggiore. In 1920, one of the Maserati brothers used this symbol in the logo at the suggestion of family friend Marquis Diego de Sterlich. It was considered particularly appropriate for the sports car company due to the fact that Neptune represents strength and vigour; additionally the statue is a characteristic symbol of the company's original home city.
Alfieri Maserati died in 1932, but three other brothers, Bindo, Ernesto, and Ettore kept the firm going.
Orsi ownership
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 home town of Modena, where it remains to this day. The brothers continued in engineering roles with the company. Racing successes continued, even against the giants of German racing, Auto Union and Mercedes.Indianapolis 500
In back-to-back wins in 1939 and 1940, an Maserati 8CTF won the Indianapolis 500, making Maserati the only Italian manufacturer ever to do so.The second world war then intervened and Maserati abandoned car making to produce components for the Italian war effort. During this time, Maserati worked in fierce competition to construct a V16 town car for Benito Mussolini before Ferry Porsche of Volkswagen built one for Adolf Hitler. This failed, and the plans were scrapped. Once peace was restored, Maserati returned to making cars; the Maserati A6 series did well in the post-war racing scene.
File:Fangio & Maserati 250F.jpg|thumb|Juan-Manuel Fangio driving a Maserati 250F
Key people joined the Maserati team. Alberto Massimino, a former FIAT engineer with both Alfa Romeo and Ferrari experience, oversaw the design of all racing models for the next ten years. With him joined engineers Giulio Alfieri, Vittorio Bellentani, and Gioacchino Colombo. The focus was on the best engines and chassis to succeed in car racing. These new projects saw the last contributions of the Maserati brothers, who, after their 10-year contract with Orsi expired, went on to form O.S.C.A. This new team at Maserati worked on several projects: the Maserati 4CLT, the Maserati A6 series, the 8CLT, and, pivotally for the future success of the company, the A6GCS.
File:Fangio in 1955.jpg|thumb|200px|Juan Manuel Fangio driving for Maserati won his fifth and final Formula One World Drivers' Champions.
Formula One
The famous Argentinian grand prix driver Juan-Manuel Fangio raced for Maserati for a number of years in the 1950s, achieving a number of stunning victories including winning the Formula One World Championship in 1957 in the 250F.World Sportscar Championship
Other racing projects in the 1950s were the Maserati 200S, Maserati 300S, Maserati 350S, and Maserati 450S, followed in 1961 by the famous Maserati Birdcage Tipo 61.Mille Miglia
Maserati retired from factory racing participation because of the Guidizzolo tragedy during the 1957 Mille Miglia, though they continued to build cars for privateers. Maserati became more and more focused on building road-going grand tourers.The 1957 3500 GT marked a turning point in the marque's history, as its first ground-up grand tourer design and first series-produced car. Production jumped from a dozen to a few hundred cars a year.
Chief engineer Giulio Alfieri took charge of the project and turned the 3.5-litre inline six from the 350S into a road-going engine. Launched with a Carrozzeria Touring 2+2 coupé aluminium body over superleggera structure, a steel-bodied short wheelbase Vignale 3500 GT Spyder open top version followed in 1959. The 3500 GT's success, with over 2,200 made, was critical to Maserati's survival in the years following withdrawal from racing.
The 3500 GT also provided the underpinnings for the small-volume V8-engined 5000 GT, another seminal car for Maserati. Born from the Shah of Persia's whim of owning a road car powered by the Maserati 450S racing engine, it became one of the fastest and most expensive cars of its days. The third to the thirty-fourth and last example produced were powered by Maserati's first purely road-going V8 engine design.
In 1962, the 3500 GT evolved into the Sebring, bodied by Vignale and based on the shorter wheelbase convertible chassis. Next came the two-seater Mistral coupé in 1963 and Spider in 1964, both powered by a six-cylinder engine and styled by Pietro Frua.
In 1963, the company's first saloon was launched, the Quattroporte, also styled by Frua. If the 5000 GT inaugurated the marque's first road-going V8, the Quattroporte's Tipo 107 4.2-litre DOHC V8 was the forefather of all Maserati V8s up to 1990.
The Ghia-designed Ghibli coupé was launched in 1967. It was powered by a 4.7-litre dry sump version of Maserati's quad cam V8. The Ghibli Spyder and high performance 4.9-litre Ghibli SS followed.
Citroën ownership
In 1968, Maserati was taken over by Citroën. Adolfo Orsi remained the nominal president, but Maserati was controlled by its new owner. The relationship started as a joint venture, made public in January 1968, in which Maserati would design and manufacture an engine for Citroën's upcoming flagship called SM. Launched in 1970, the SM was a four-seat front-wheel-drive coupé, powered by a Maserati Tipo C114 2.7-litre 90° V6 engine; this engine and its gearbox had been used in other vehicles, such as rally-prepared Citroën DSs used by Bob Neyret in Bandama Rally, and in the Ligier JS2.With secure financial backing, new models were launched and built in much greater numbers than years prior. Citroën borrowed Maserati's expertise and engines for the SM and other vehicles, and Maserati incorporated Citroën's technology, particularly in hydraulics. Engineer Giulio Alfieri was key to many of the ambitious designs of this period.
The first new arrival was the 1969 Maserati Indy, a Vignale-bodied four-seater GT with a traditional V8 drivetrain, 1,100 units of the Indy were made.
File:Maserati Boomerang fl.jpg|thumb|Maserati Boomerang concept car designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro based on Maserati Bora
In 1971, the Maserati Bora was the company's first series production mid-engine model, an idea agreed with administrator Guy Malleret shortly after the 1968 takeover. The Bora ended Maserati's reputation for producing fast but technologically out of date cars, being the first Maserati with four wheel independent suspension. In contrast, competitor Lamborghini had used independent suspension in 1964.
In 1972, the Bora was transformed to the Maserati Merak, now employing a Tipo 114 SM-derived V6 enlarged to 3.0-litres.
Citroën never developed a 4-door version of the SM – instead Maserati developed the Maserati Quattroporte II, which shared most of its mechanical parts with the SM, including the mid-engine, front-wheel-drive layout, and six headlight arrangement.
To power this large car, Alfieri developed a V8 engine from the SM's V6 on the behest of Factory Manager Guy Malleret. The engine was rated at and fitted to a lightly modified SM, which proved that the chassis could easily handle the power increase. Citroën's and Maserati's financial difficulties hampered the type homologation process; the development costs for the stillborn saloon further aggravated Maserati's situation. Only a dozen Quattroporte IIs were ever produced, all with the V6.
The replacement for the successful Ghibli was the Bertone-designed Maserati Khamsin, a front-engine grand tourer introduced in 1972 and produced until 1974; it combined the traditional Maserati V8 GT layout with modern independent suspension, unibody construction, and refined Citroën technologies such as DIRAVI power steering.
Crisis years
Meanwhile, the 1973 oil crisis put the brakes on the ambitious expansion of Maserati; demand for fuel-hungry sports cars and grand tourers shrank drastically. Austerity measures in Italy meant that the domestic market contracted by 60–70%. All of the main Italian GT car manufacturers were heavily affected, having to lay off workers in order to empty lots of unsold cars. Maserati received the hardest blow, as its home market sales accounted for over half of the total—in contrast with Ferrari's 20%. In this situation, the only Maserati automobile that continued to sell in appreciable numbers was the small-displacement Merak.In 1974, with the 1973–75 recession at its climax, things took a turn for the worse. Citroën went bankrupt and its incorporation into PSA Peugeot Citroën begun. The year closed with domestic sales tumbling from 1973's 360 to 150 units, and losses exceeding the share capital.
On 22 May 1975, a press release from Citroën management abruptly announced Maserati had been put into liquidation. The workforce immediately picketed the factory, but production was not halted. Trade unions, the mayor of Modena, and local politicians mobilised to save the 800 jobs; industry minister Carlo Donat-Cattin even flew to Paris to meet Citroën chairman Francois Rollier. An agreement was reached in June, after several meetings and assemblies. During one of these meetings, Citroën liquidators disclosed that a possible Italian buyer had shown up, and the name of Alejandro de Tomaso was put forth for the first time. Citroën accepted to suspend liquidation as requested by the Italian government, which on its part guaranteed six months of special redundancy fund to pay the salaries.