The Maserati brothers ,
Bindo,
Ernesto, and
Alfieri Maserati The Maserati brothers,
Alfieri (1887–1932),
Bindo (1883–1980),
Carlo (1881–1910),
Ettore (1894–1990), and
Ernesto (1898–1975), were involved with automobiles from the beginning of the 20th century. Alfieri, Bindo, and Ernesto built 2-litre Grand Prix cars for
Diatto. After Diatto suspended the production of race cars in 1926, the brothers founded 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 (two straight-eights mounted parallel to one another). 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 company's
trident logo, 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 appropriate for the sports car company because Neptune represents strength and vigour and the statue is a symbol of the company's original home city. Alfieri Maserati died in 1932, but 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 moved the company headquarters to their home town of
Modena, The second world war then intervened and Maserati abandoned carmaking 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. 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. 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. SS 4.9 Coupe 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 Spyder 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. is the first mid-engine Maserati road legal automobile. 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. 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%. 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.
De Tomaso era On 8 August 1975, an agreement was signed at the Ministry of Industry in Rome, and property of Maserati passed from Citroën to Italian state-owned
holding company GEPI and
Alejandro de Tomaso, an Argentinian
industrialist and former racing driver, became
president and CEO. the remaining 11.25% stake was being controlled by de Tomaso through a holding company which grouped his automotive interests in Maserati and
Innocenti. After de Tomaso bought Maserati in August 1975, he dismissed long time Chief Engineer Alfieri on the day of taking over the business. Beginning in 1976, new models were introduced, sharing their underpinnings—but not their engines—with
De Tomaso cars; first came the
Kyalami grand tourer, derived from the
De Tomaso Longchamp, restyled by
Frua and powered by Maserati's own V8. Following the Kyalami was the
Giugiaro-designed
Quattroporte III based on the
De Tomaso Deauville, which was introduced in 1976 and put on sale in 1979. The Bora's sales dwindled down; the Khamsin was discontinued between 1982 and 1983. Progressively stripped of its Citroën-derived parts, the Merak continued to sell over one hundred units a year, until 1982. Despite the downturn in sales, awareness of the brand increased during this time as a result of the popular song
Life's Been Good by
Joe Walsh, which contained the lyrics "My Maserati does one eighty-five."
The Biturbo The 1980s saw the company largely abandoning the mid-engine sports car in favour of a compact
front-engine,
rear-drive coupé, the
Biturbo. Of fairly conventional construction, the Biturbo's highlight was its
twin-turbocharged V6 engine, the
first for a production car. This engine, descending from the 90° V6 engineered by Giulio Alfieri, was fitted in a large number of models, all sharing key components; every new Maserati launched up to the 1990s would be based on the Biturbo's platform. The Biturbo family was extremely successful at exploiting the
aspirational image of the
Maserati name—selling 40,000 units. In 1983 and 1984, the range was extended to include
saloons (the 425 and 420) and a
cabriolet (the
Zagato-bodied Spyder), respectively on a long and short wheelbase of the Biturbo platform. During 1984,
Chrysler bought a 5% share in Maserati. Following an agreement between De Tomaso's friend and Chrysler head
Lee Iacocca, a
joint venture was signed. Maserati would go on to produce a car for export to the American market, the
Chrysler TC by Maserati, with Chrysler-sourced engines. In July of that same year, a
merger between Maserati and Nuova Innocenti was decided; it was carried out in 1985. Chrysler upped its stake to 15.6% by underwriting three quarters of a 75 billion
Lire capital raise in 1986. New Biturbo-based cars and model evolutions were launched year after year. In 1984, it was the 228, a large coupé built on the long wheelbase saloon chassis, with a new 2.8-litre version of the twin-turbocharged V6.
Weber Fuel injection was phased in starting in 1986, bringing improved reliability and a host of new model variants. The same year, the ageing Quattroporte III was updated and marketed as the luxurious
Royale, built to order in an handful of examples a year; its discontinuation in 1990 marked the disappearance of Maserati's four-cam V8 engine, a design that could trace its roots back to the 450S racer and the legendary 5000 GT. In 1987, the 2.8-litre 430 topped the saloon range. 1988 brought the
Karif, a two-seater, based on the short wheelbase Spyder chassis. Meanwhile, the Biturbo name was dropped altogether, as updated coupés and saloons were updated and became the 222 and 422. 1989 marked the reintroduction of an eight-cylinder grand tourer: the
Shamal, built on a modified short wheelbase Biturbo chassis, clad in new muscular bodywork styled by
Marcello Gandini. It was powered by an all-new twin-turbocharged 32-valve V8 engine paired to a 6-speed gearbox. 2.0-litre, 24-valve V6 engines were also added to the Shamal range.
De Tomaso-FIAT years In October 1989, De Tomaso bought the remaining GEPI quota. In December, the
Fiat Group entered in Maserati's history. Maserati and Innocenti were separated; Innocenti Milano S.p.A., the company that sold Innocenti cars, continued its business under a 51% FIAT Auto ownership. All of the
Modena and
Lambrate plants went to a newly created company, the still existent Maserati S.p.A.; 49% of it was owned by FIAT Auto and 51% was controlled by De Tomaso through the old company, Officine Alfieri Maserati. In the early 1990s, a
mid-engine sports car prototype was developed, the Maserati Chubasco, which was supposed to be built in 1992, but the project proved very expensive and was shelved. It featured Gandini-designed body, a V8 powertrain, and a
backbone chassis. The project was cancelled, as part owner Fiat deemed the project to be too close to Ferrari in the marketplace. Starting in 1990, the entire range of the Biturbo received a facelift designed by Marcello Gandini, on the lines of the Shamal's styling. The last version of the Biturbo coupé was called Racing. It was a transitional model in which several features to be found on the upcoming Ghibli were tested. The
Ghibli II was introduced in 1992. It was a six-cylinder coupé, with modified Biturbo underpinnings dressed by new Gandini bodywork (toned down from the Shamal) and the latest evolution of the 24-valve twin-turbocharged V6 with record breaking specific output. The underpinnings of the stillborn Chubasco gave birth to the
Maserati Barchetta, a small open top mid-engine sports car styled by Synthesis Design's Carlo Gaino. a
one-make racing series was held in 1992 and 1993, using the Barchetta Corsa racing version; the road-going Barchetta Stradale was never put into production. Just 17 units of the Barchetta were produced. Between 1992 and 1994, all models save for the Ghibli and Shamal were progressively discontinued.
FIAT ownership On 19 May 1993, 17 years after having rescued it from liquidation, Alejandro De Tomaso sold his 51% stake in Maserati to Fiat, which became the sole owner. In 1994, the aging Quattroporte III/Royale was replaced by the
Quattroporte IV which was ultimately based on Biturbo underpinnings. Styled by Marcello Gandini, it was initially available with a V6 engine shared with the Ghibli II. A more powerful V8 variant was made available in 1996 and "Seicilindri" and "Ottocilindri" (six and eight cylindres in Italian) badging was introduced to distinguish between the two models. The engine of the V8 model was a development of the Shamal's V8. Over two decades after the ill-fated
Chrysler TC by Maserati during Chrysler's brief ownership stake in Maserati, the two companies became interconnected again when Fiat purchased majority control of Chrysler in 2011 as a result of
Chrysler's bankruptcy. Maserati and Citroën also later interconnected for the first time since 1975, following the PSA-FCA merger in 2021 with the formation of
Stellantis.
Ferrari In July 1997, Fiat sold a 50% share in the company to Maserati's long-time arch-rival Ferrari, as the latter itself being owned by Fiat. In 1998, a new chapter began in Maserati's history when the company launched the
3200 GT. This two-door coupé is powered by a 3.2 L twin-turbocharged V8 derived from the Shamal engine, which is rated at . In 2002 the 3200 GT was replaced by the
Maserati Coupé and Spyder; evolved from the 3200, these cars used an all-new,
naturally aspirated,
dry sump 4.2-litre V8 with a
transaxle gearbox. In turn Coupé and Spyder were replaced by the
GranTurismo and GranCabrio. Meanwhile, two new models were shown to the public: the
Maserati MC12 road supersports and successful GT racer with a
Ferrari Enzo–derived chassis and engine and the new
Quattroporte, a luxury saloon with the 4.2-litre V8 engine of the Gran Turismo. In 2001, Ferrari decided to change all of the old tooling and installed high-tech devices in the Modena factory. Since early 2002, Maserati once again entered the
United States market, which has quickly become its largest market worldwide. The company has also re-entered the racing arena with their Trofeo and, in December 2003, the MC12 (formerly known as the MCC), which was developed according to FIA GT regulations and has since competed with great success in the world FIA GT championship, winning the championship three consecutive times from 2005 to 2007. The MC12 has also been raced in various national GT championship as well as in the American Le Mans series. The
Maserati MC12 is based on the
Ferrari Enzo sports car; 50 street-legal homologation models (roadsters and coupés) have been sold.
The Maserati and Alfa Romeo Group under FIAT Group The Maserati and Alfa Romeo group, under the Fiat Group ownership, started in 2005, when Maserati was split off from Ferrari and partnered with Alfa Romeo. On 9 June 2005, the 20,000th Maserati, a Quattroporte V, left the factory. In the second quarter of 2007, Maserati made profit for the first time in 17 years under Fiat ownership. On January 22, 2010, Fiat announced that it had created a new partnership/brand group for Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and
Abarth. The group was led by Harald J. Wester, the current CEO of Maserati.
Sergio Marchionne stated that "[the] purpose of bringing the Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Abarth brands under the same leadership is to emphasize and leverage the value of the shared qualities of the three brands in terms of their sporting characteristics and performance." Abarth stayed under Wester's leadership until 2013, leaving Maserati and Alfa Romeo in the brand group, led by Wester. Although Maserati and Alfa Romeo are in a brand group, Alfa Romeo is structured under FCA Italy S.p.A., which itself is structured under FCA, whereas Maserati is structured solely under FCA. In addition, in an interview with Wester in 2015, he clarified that his "role at Maserati is different from that in the Alfa Romeo as the latter is better integrated into the Fiat Group" and that "the new Alfa car won't share any parts with the current Maserati model. I'm not planning any technical merging of these two makes." In 2013, Maserati started its expansion with the
Quattroporte VI, which was designed to better compete with the
Mercedes-Benz S-Class. This was followed by the introduction of the
Ghibli, which was slated to compete against the
Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the
BMW 5 Series.
The 100th anniversary of the foundation at
Geneva International Motor Show in 2014 In 2014, to celebrate the centenary of its foundation, it released a
concept car called
Maserati Alfieri, in honor of the brand's founder,
Alfieri Maserati. On May 6, 2014, Maserati confirmed production of the
Maserati Levante SUV and the Maserati Alfieri. However, the Alfieri concept, which received great critical and commercial success, never came to production. This model was supposed to replace the
Maserati GranTurismo, but this production change was cancelled due to the success of the GranTurismo, which underwent improvements and updates until 2019. Along with their expansion, Maserati started their re-entrance into the high-performance car field, in order to compete with brands such as
Mercedes-AMG,
BMW M,
Porsche,
Jaguar, and in certain cases,
Ferrari. This was done by introducing Maserati models that have high power output engines, higher performance components, and better handling. The top-of-the-line variants of the Quattroporte VI, Ghibli, and Levante have V8 engines with all-wheel drive, in order to better compete with their rival offerings. . From left to right: Maserati GranCabrio Sport, Maserati Ghibli III and Maserati Quattroporte VI Maserati sales in 2013 was 15,400 units, which is up from just over 6,000 units worldwide in 2012 (2013 included the release of the new Quattroporte and Ghibli towards the end of the year, and thus the first year to fully represent the sales inclusive of these models is 2014). In May, 2014, Maserati sold a company record of over 3,000 cars worldwide, causing them to increase production of the Ghibli and Quattroporte. For that same month in the United States, Maserati sold 1,114 vehicles, which is up 406.19% over the same month in the previous year in the United States. Maserati's best month of sales in the United States was September 2014, with 1,318 units sold. The month in 2014 where the increase on sales for the same month of the previous year was the highest was May, with a volume increase of 406.19%. Worldwide, in 2014 Maserati sold about 36,500 cars, a 136% increase over 2013. Harald J. Wester stated that Maserati would not surpass the 70,000 sales per year mark, and that Maserati would maintain its current position in the higher end of the luxury sports car market, rather than expanding downmarket and making vehicles smaller and less expensive than the Ghibli and Levante (such as those similar to the Audi Q5 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class), as other FCA brands, specifically Alfa Romeo, are in those market spaces.
FCA In 2014, Fiat S.p.A. merged with American automaker Chrysler to form
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Under FCA, new models were released that met with excellent critical and commercial success, but above all, sales, such as the
Maserati Levante, Maserati's first SUV. Furthermore, the
Maserati Ghibli and
Maserati Quattroporte also confirmed excellent sales. The
Maserati GranTurismo was produced until 2019, confirming its huge success for the brand. Furthermore, in 2020, a year marred by the
COVID-19 pandemic, a new sports car, the
Maserati MC20, was released, which achieved great critical and commercial success. The Maserati range consolidated the brand's profitability and image and prestige.
Stellantis Subsequently, in 2021, FCA merged with the French
PSA Group to form Stellantis, reuniting Maserati with Citroën under the same ownership. Under Stellantis, a new SUV will be released starting in 2022 alongside the Levante, the
Maserati Grecale, smaller in size than the Levante, which achieves good critical and sales success. In 2023, production of the
Maserati Ghibli and
Maserati Quattroporte was halted, while the new
Maserati GranTurismo was released also with the new electric motor called Folgore. In 2024, the GranCabrio, an open-top variant based on the GranTurismo, was released, while the production of
Maserati Levante was halted. However, starting in 2024, uncertainties surrounding the transition from combustion engines to electric ones and in 2025, uncertainties due to the application of tariffs leaded to a weakening of both production and sales for the entire Stellantis group and consequently also for Maserati. The inefficiencies of Stellantis's commercial strategy in 2024, which resulted in a drastic loss of both production and sales and consequently market share, led to the resignation of Stellantis CEO
Carlos Tavares and a renewal or redefinition of the positions of all the group's corporate managers, and led to a period of great uncertainty within Maserati. In 2025, the new Stellantis CEO,
Antonio Filosa, supported by Santo Ficili, the CEO of Maserati, relaunched the brand through a commercial policy aimed at building customer loyalty, drawing on the brand's glorious history in races such as the
Mille Miglia and in vehicle customization through the Officine Fuoriserie program. In 2025, Maserati unveiled at the
Goodwood Festival of Speed the
Maserati MCPura based on the previous
Maserati MC20, but with minor styling changes, including redesigned front and rear fascias and slightly modified driver and passenger seats. It is expected to begin production in 2026 and will replace the MC20. As for the MC20, the MCPura is also available in the Cielo version, an open-top variant. Furthermore, the customization program developed by Officine Fuoriserie also continues for the MCPura.
Electrification On 17 March 2022,
chief executive officer Davide Grasso announced that Maserati will produce an
electric version of all of its models by 2025. The CEO also announced plans to phase out all of its internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030. == Leadership ==