Elegant interpretation of the spirit of racing

What kind of company is Maserati? I think my friends will give many answers: Italian supercars, Fiat Group, and Ferrari share the power system. Yes, this is the Maserati now. However, Maserati occupies a very important position in the process of the development of Italian racing and sports cars. This 97-year-old Italian racing brand has dominated the world’s major events in the 1930s and 1950s. Even in the 21st century, Maserati is still active in the FIA GT Championship and has won the championship 12 times. At the same time, Maserati perfectly implanted the spirit of racing into its products and performed a new interpretation, deriving classic models such as GT, Quattroporte (President), etc. The following is an introduction to the development history of Maserati.

The name Maserati is derived from the surnames of its founders, Maserati brothers, who are Alfieri Maserati, Bindo Maserati, Carlo Maserati, Ettore Maserati, Ernesto Maserati and Mario Maserati. The brothers all have a keen interest in cars and racing. Among them, the eldest Carlo Maserati designed a single-cylinder engine by himself in 1898, and his outstanding talent was selected by Fiat and he was hired as a technical consultant and test driver. Then other brothers also joined in.

In 1914, Alfieri Maserati co-founded Officini Alfieri Maserati with Bindo Maserati and Ernesto Maserati. The new company focused on car modification. With the efforts of the Maserati brothers, the company’s business continued to expand. The company was renamed Societa Anonima Officine Alfieri Maserati in 1925. At the same time, the company began to use the trident as the company logo, which was based on the statue of Neptune, the god of the sea, standing on Maggiore Square in Bologna, designed by Mario Maserati.

 

Maserati launched its first racing car, the Tipo 26, in 1926. This car is equipped with a 1.5L inline eight-cylinder engine with a top speed of 160km/h. Alfieri Maserati drove Tipo26 in the Targa Florio race and won the first place in the same class. Then Tipo26 won many other games. Since then Maserati began to consider producing racing cars.

 

In 1929, Maserati launched a V4 car equipped with a 16-valve engine. This car accelerated to 246.069 km/h within a distance of 10 kilometers, setting a world record for land speed at that time. This record made Maserati attracted more attention. . After that, Maserati has successively introduced classic models such as 4CTR and 4CL.

 

In March 1932, the soul of the company, Alfieri Maserati, passed away, saying goodbye to his beloved racing career forever. In March 1937, Maserati was acquired by the Orsi family, and the headquarters moved to Modena, a supercar mecca in Italy.

At the same time, Maserati received competition from Mercedes-Benz on the field, but Maserati still won a series of competitions. In May 1939, a driver drove the Maserati 8CTF to win the Indianapolis 500 Mile Grand Prix, one of the world’s three major car GPs, and won it again in 1940.

 

In September 1939, when the Second World War broke out, Maserati temporarily suspended the production of sports cars, and instead began to produce machine tools, spark plugs and other electronic equipment. After the war, the Maserati factory resumed sports car production in 1947 and launched the A6 1500 Sport sports car designed by Pininfarina, which was the first two-door sports car suitable for road driving launched by Maserati.

 

In the nearly 30-year history of officially participating in racing competitions, Maserati has won a total of nearly 500 race victories and numerous graded competition victories, which is an extremely brilliant record. It not only proves Maserati’s outstanding ability in racing car manufacturing, but also has accumulated enough experience for Maserati to launch civilian vehicles in the future.

In 1957, Maserati officially withdrew from the car race and began to focus on the development of civilian models, but Maserati still paid attention to the car race and continued to introduce F1 engines. In 1959, Maserati launched the 3500 GT and 5000 GT. As one of the most beautiful two-door sports cars in the history of Maserati, the 3500 GT was madly sought after. Subsequently, Maserati launched the 5000 GT model, which was a customized model, and its customers were all the powerful people at that time.

 

 

In 1962, Maserati launched the Sebring two-seater sports car, and successively launched the Mistral and Maserati’s first four-door sedan, the Quattroporte. This Quattroporte is the first generation model of the current Quattroporte. The Quattroporte was hailed as the fastest large luxury four-door sedan in the world.

In 1968, the ownership of Maserati was purchased by Citroen and produced Bora, Merak and Khamsin under its banner. In 1975, Maserati changed hands again and was taken over by the Italian state-owned company GEPI. In 1976 Maserati launched the second-generation Quattroporte. This car was selected as a state vehicle by the Italian president at the time.

 

In the 1980s, Maserati abandoned the previously used mid-engine format and switched to a front-engine with rear-wheel drive format. This design made the cost of vehicle manufacturing lower, and at the same time improved handling. Its representative model is the third-generation Quattroporte model. The 5.0L V8 engine and the front-rear drive layout make the third-generation Quattroporte have better handling than the previous two-generation models.

 

In the 1980s, another Maserati innovation was the application of twin turbocharged engines, which included Maserati 425, Biturbo E/S, Spyder and fourth-generation Quattroporte models.

  

In 1993, Fiat Group purchased Maserati, and on July 1, 1997, 50% of Maserati’s shares were transferred to its world-renowned supercar brand Ferrari. So far, Maserati officially belongs to Ferrari.

In 1998, Maserati, which belonged to Ferrari, launched the 3200 GT model. The 3200 GT model was very fashionable and avant-garde at the time. The streamlined body design made this car look very dynamic. This car is equipped with a 3.2L V8 twin-turbocharged engine with a maximum power of 365 horsepower and a 6-speed manual gearbox matching the engine. In 2000, the 3200 GTA with a 4-speed automatic transmission was launched.

 

In 2001, Maserati launched the 4200GT Spyder and Coupe models. In these two models, Maserati is equipped with a 4.2L V8 engine from Ferrari, with a maximum power of 390 horsepower.

 

In September 2003, the fifth-generation Quattroporte was officially released at the Frankfurt Motor Show. This Maserati flagship luxury four-door coupe is still designed by Pininfarina and is equipped with the 4.2L V8 engine on the 4200GT. The engine has been tuned by engineers, and its maximum power has been increased to 397 horsepower.

 

In 2004, Maserati launched the MC12 super sports car. The frame of this car is based on Ferrari Enzo and the body is made of carbon fiber. MC12 is equipped with a 6.0L V12 naturally aspirated engine from Ferrari, with a maximum power of 628 horsepower and a maximum torque of 652N·m. In order to match the powerful power output, the MC12 is equipped with Maserati Cambiocorsa six-speed gearbox.

 

MC12 can participate in the World Supercar Championship without any modification. MC12 sold 50 cars to customers from 2004 to 2005, and the price of each car was as high as 600,000 euros at that time. In addition to being sold as a commodity, the most important task that MC12 shoulders is racing, which marks Maserati’s official return to world-class racing events.

The MC12 has also lived up to expectations. Since 2005, the Maserati MC12 has won 12 international championships in the FIA GT Championship. And in 2009 won the World Supercar Championship (FIA GT) driver and team championships.

Also in 2005, Fiat separated Maserati from Ferrari and was fully controlled by the Fiat Group. Ferrari will still provide technical support for Maserati. After operating independently, Maserati launched a modified Quattroporte at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show, which looks more elegant in appearance, and adds a 4.7L V8 engine with a maximum power of 430 horsepower.

 

In 2008, the successor of the 4200GT, GranTurismo, was launched. The design of GranTurismo is both elegant and dynamic. The designer fully combines the unrestrained passion of Italians with elegance. Power is also equipped with a 4.7L V8 engine.

  

Summary:

In Italy, Maserati is known as the queen of sports cars, and Ferrari and Lamborghini are called  “two kings and one queen”. Many people think that Maserati’s products are not as violent as Lamborghini and not as extreme as Ferrari. But this is precisely what Maserati excels. Maserati has implanted racing spirit into its products and endowed it with elegance. This may be the essence of Maserati.