Feature - Maserati Centennial

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WHEELS OF FORTUNE

ORIGINS

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A Fork oN thE road

F1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS, ICONIC CARS, BANKRUPTCY AND REVIVAL, SLT SALUTES THE CENTENARY OF ITALIAN LUXURY MOTORING’S OFTFORGOTTEN, BUT ALWAYS PIONEERING MARQUE: MASERATI. Words: James McCarthy Pictures: Maserati / Newspress / Getty

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O

ver the years, and across a multitude of long-famous brands, the Italians have delivered some of the most beautifully crafted automobiles to grace the tracks and thoroughfares of the world’s most affluent cities. However, when asked, the first names that trip off the tongues of laymen and women are usually Ferrari and Lamborghini, followed by “oh yeah, and Maserati.” Given its turbulent history - the company's ownership has changed hands more times than James Bond's tuxedo - it is, perhaps, unsurprising that Maserati is perceived to be the "third wheel" on the Italian luxury motoring machine.

Il Tridente has long lived in the shadow of its Maranello-based counterpart, that of the prancing horse, and its slightly more mentally unhinged cousin from Sant’Agata Bolognese that bears the mark of a raging bull. Yet, Maserati, which is preparing to celebrate a centenary of fine motoring, arguably has a greater pedigree than either of its more flamboyant friends.

In fact, the story of Maserati starts a good 15 years before Enzo established Scuderia Ferrari, and a half-century before Ferruccio figured that feuding with Enzo was more fun than building tractors.

Some would argue that the original Modena-based motoring company is more in keeping with the Italian ethos of style than its competitors, too, with the understated, yet voluptuous shapes that both its historical and modern fleet of cars have adopted. Equally, there are those that would argue that such style comes at the cost of substance, but Italian motoring is an incredibly partisan environment and a competitive racing spirit is ingrained in its very fabric.

Such spirit can be found in the DNA of Maserati, a car company forged in the crucible of competition by five brothers, Alfieri, Bindi, Carlo, Ettore and Ernesto Maserati, on December 1st 1914, all of whom were automotive engineers and had been involved in some form of motorsport since the turn of the 20th century.

THE RACING YEARS

After WWI drew to a close, Alfieri, Bindo and Ernesto built 2-litre Grand Prix cars for fellow Italian marque, Diatto, until the company suspended production of racing cars in 1926. This led to the creation of cars bearing the Maserati moniker. One of the first, the Tipo 26, with Alfieri at the wheel, won the Targa Florio, an open-road endurance race held in the mountains of Sicily.

While the brothers got to work building four, six, eight and 16-cylinder racing cars, Mario Maserati, an artist and the only non-engineering brother, designed the now famous Trident logo; a symbol of strength and vigour, based on the Fontana del Nettuno in Bologna, the city in which Maserati had established its headquarters. He settled on a red and blue colour scheme that matched that of city's crest, and a legend was born.

By 1929, Maserati set its first world record when, at Cremona, Baconin Borzacchini finished the 10 kilometre race flying at an average speed of 246.069 km/h, a speed record that would remain intact for another eight years.

As the 1930s rolled around, the marque registered its first international victory at the Tripoli Grand Prix and, by the time the Italian GP at Monza loomed large, a chap called Enzo Ferrari was just starting to stoke a rivalry that would shape the next two decades of Italian motorsport.

Maserati dominated the first encounter and was the only constructor on the winners’ podium. The Tipo 26M succeeded in the Grands Prix of 1931.

Among other titles it won that year was the Mountain Championship at Brooklands in the UK under the control of renowned gentleman racer and former “Bentley Boy,” Tim Birkin.

(Top) Four of the Maserati brothers outside the Bologna factory; (above) Alfieri Maserati at the wheel; (right) Alfieri's Tipo 26 winning the Targa Florio.

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In 1937, the remaining Maserati brothers sold their shares in the company to the Italian businessman Adolfo Orsi, who, in 1940, relocated the company headquarters to their hometown of Modena, where it remains to this day. The weight of business responsibility lifted from their shoulders, the brothers did what they did best and continued in engineering roles with the company. More racing successes followed, even against the giants of German racing, Auto Union (known today as Audi) and Mercedes. Away from the Grands Prix, in back-to-back wins in 1939 and 1940, a Maserati 8CTF became the first, and only, Italian car ever to win the Indianapolis 500, the jewel in the crown of US motorsport.

Following a hiatus in racing operations during WWII, the forerunner of modern Formula 1 was born. It was a golden age for Italian motorsport with the intense rivalry between Maserati and Ferrari heating up race tracks across the world. Modena became a city divided on race day, as the two marques duelled it out for supremacy of the track and rival fans traded verbal barbs in bars, factories, offices and across farm fences, hoping it was their team that would earn them Monday morning bragging rights.

“M

ASERATI IS A MARQUE FORGED IN THE CRUCIBLE OF COMPETITION.”

The famous Argentinian driver, Juan-Manuel Fangio, who, after winning his first world title with Alfa Romeo in 1951, joined Maserati in 1953 and produced a number of stunning victories for the team, securing second place in the championship. It was a black day for Maserati fans when he decamped to Daimler-Benz midway through the 1954 season, and blacker still when, in 1956, he joined bitter rival Ferrari, winning the world title with each of them. However, in 1957 he made his triumphant return to Il Tridente and delivered the company’s first (and his fourth consecutive and fifth overall) world championship in the Maserati 250F. Shortly afterwards, the motor racing world was devastated by the tragedy which took place in the village of Guidizzolo during the 1957 Mille Miglia. Spanish driver Alfonso de Portago's Ferrari veered off the road and tore through a group of spectators, killing him, his co-pilot and nine bystanders, five of which were children. It all but marked the end for the famous 1,000 mile enduro, and in the immediate aftermath, Maserati decided that, while it would continue to build cars for privateers, the company would retire from factory racing participation and switch its focus to creating road cars under the mantra “Excellence Through Passion.”

ON THE ROAD TO SUCCESS

Even though Maserati handed Italian racing dominance to its equinebadged neighbour in favour of road-going reward at the end of the 1950s, its stall had been firmly set out a decade earlier with one of the company’s critical post-war projects. At the beginning of March 1946, the prototype of the first Maserati destined for daily use and not for racing was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show. Simply christened “A6” in honour of the late

(Right and far right) Juan-Manuel Fangio in the Maserati 250F during the World Championship-winning 1957 Grand Prix season.

(Above and right) Maserati's Modena factory as it looked in the early 1960s.

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TIPO 26M 1953 A6GCS

Alfieri and denoting the number of cylinders, the project was initiated by Ernesto Maserati before the brothers decided to leave the company. The design and originality were a hit with the public and production started in earnest. In 1948, at the Turin Motor Show, Maserati exhibited the first A6 1500 model which, in true Italian automotive fashion, wore the incredible styling of renowned designer Pininfarina.

This was the beginning of an era that would see Maserati, under the watchful eye of its chief engineer Guilio Alfieri, produce some of its most iconic cars. Among them, the “White Dame,” the first prototype of the 3500 GT. The Shah of Persia was so impressed, he commissioned something even more exclusive. Alfieri took up the challenge and finally realised a long-awaited dream of putting the eight-cylinder engine of Fangio’s 450S endurance racer into a grand tourer. The resulting car, The Shah of Persia, is still considered to be one of Maserati’s finest models by collectors and car historians. Its gold and precious wood finishes quickly earned it the title of the most exclusive and luxurious car in the world at the time. In 1961, Maserati also introduced the 3500 GTI, famous for being the first car in Italy with a direct fuel injection engine.

A cold wind from the South of France gave its name to Maserati’s next iconic car, the Mistral. With its long swooping bonnet and glass fastback design, it was presented at the 1963 Turin Motor Show. The Mistral was the last Maserati to be fitted with the dual ignition, twin camshaft, six-cylinder engine derived from Fangio’s world championship winning 250F, and nearly a thousand were produced. A spyder version launched with the 3500 GT’s 3.5 litre engine.

1957 3500GT

1963 QUATTROPORTE

More significantly, at the same show, the company debuted its first Quattroporte, a four-door sedan fitted with a race spec engine, after a suggestion made to Adolfo Orsi by Italian motoring journalist, Gino Rancati. The Quattroporte, exuding elegance, sportiness, power and luxury as imagined by Alfieri and Pietro Frua, immediately became Il Tridente’s flagship car, and remains so to this day.

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Shortly after the success of the Quattroporte, in the mid-1960s, Maserati began a collaboration with well-known Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro, forging a relationship that would last for years to come. His first project, the 8-cylinder Ghibli, debuted at the Turin Motor Show in 1966 and was an immediate success. Originally planning to produce just 100 cars, Maserati soon raised production to 400, based on the public’s response. By the end of 1972 when the first iteration of Ghibli ceased production, Maserati had turned out a total of 1,295 models, a figure comprising both spyder and coupé versions.

Business was booming, so in 1968, realising that the company needed to expand and produce cars in greater numbers, Orsi sold the company to French car manufacturer, Citroën. Orsi remained the nominal president, but Maserati changed a great deal. The company became more prolific and experimental as new models were launched, and built, in much greater numbers than before. Citroën borrowed Maserati’s expertise and engines for its vehicles, while Maserati incorporated Citroën technology, particularly in hydraulics.

Among the new cars that were conceived during the honeymoon period of this new marriage were 1971’s Bora, the first mass-produced mid-engined Maserati, and the 1975 Khamsin, both exhibiting the de rigeur wedge-shape sported by most performance cars in the 70s. The much-anticipated redux of Maserati’s flagship, the Quattroporte II, however, never made it into mass-production, but seven were made to special order.

Unfortunately, the Citroën-Maserati alliance, despite its success, was short-lived as demand for fuel-hungry sports cars came to a grinding halt when the world fell foul to the global oil crisis. Citroën went bankrupt in 1974 and, in May 1975, Maserati followed suit by announcing it was in administration. However, propped up by Italian government funds, the company was kept in business until a buyer was found later that year in the form of Argentinian former racing driver, Alejandro de Tomaso, and his Benelli Motorcycle company. De Tomaso’s tenure at the pointy end of Il Tridente, while not greatly changing the fortunes of the company, did oversee the launch of the Quattroporte III in 1979.

1965 MISTRAL

1967 GHIBLI

1975 KHAMSIN

2004 MC12 GT

The 1980s were a bit of a wasteland of style, creativity and profit for Maserati, which largely abandoned the mid-engined sports car in favour of boxy, front-engined, rear drive coupés. These included a short twodoor coupé, the Karif, and a cabriolet, the Spyder, which was designed by the legendary coachbuilder, Zagato. In 1990 and 1992, respectively, two new, but uninspiring additions, the Shamal and the Ghibli II, were released to an apathetic world.

There were further projects that never saw the light of day, one of which was the epically-styled, but unfortunately-monikered V8 mid-engined Chubasco. Seventeen examples of a pretty spectacular looking small, open-top, mid-engine sports car, designed by Carlo Gaino of Synthesis Design, called the Barchetta made it out of the factory. These were nothing more than concepts, though, and it seemed that Maserati was spent as a motoring force.

Then, in 1993, Fiat Auto bought the company and breathed new life (and a ton of money) into the brand, before selling it to arch-rival, Ferrari, in 1999. Ironically, given the history of the two Modena-based marques, it fuelled something of a renaissance for Maserati.

New manufacturing facilities were built to replace the now archaic 1940s factory, and a flush of investment in the 2000s saw the company regain its creative - and competitive - spark with the MC12 GT racer, which was based on the same chassis as the ultra exclusive Ferarri Enzo, taking its bow in the American Le Mans series. At the same time, the new, criticallyacclaimed, Quattroporte marked the return of Pininfarina’s design touch to the marque. Sporty roadsters like the GranTourismo and GranCabriolet

soon followed, helping to return the company to profitability. As the internal machinations of the Fiat Group saw Maserati partnered with Alfa Romeo, commercial success continued and Il Tridente once again regained its lustre.

With the launch of the new Ghibli in 2013, and the Levante SUV in the works, Maserati is once again a force in the world’s luxury sports car market, producing more than 6,000 vehicles in 2011 and returning a revenue in excess of US$800m in the same year. These figures are set to continue growing in the coming years as global operations expand to new markets and flourish in established ones.

The "third wheel" has finally turned a full revolution on the road to success. Back on the race track, back in profit and with a renewed sense of innovation, this sprightly centurion, it seems, has designs on becoming the "steering wheel" of Italian luxury motoring in the next 100 years.

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