In the early 20th century, with the futurism movement gaining momentum, the Maserati brothers grew a fascination for mechanics and speed.

Their passion led them into motorsport and cars. 

The brothers were very close to each other and their differing talents and personalities fueled their collaboration.

In these formative years, they gathered the experience necessary for what was to come next.

December 1st 1914, in Bologna, Alfieri Maserati established a new business: the ‘Società Anonima Officine Alfieri Maserati’.

Mario was the only brother not to show a great interest in cars, yet as the creator of the Trident logo, his contribution to the family business was significant. 

The iconic emblem paid tribute to the city where Alfieri’s business was first established, Bologna, in via Pepoli, not far from Piazza Maggiore. 

There, a fountain with the statue of Neptune holding a trident, watches over the piazza still to this day.

In the Twenties, after many years in preparation, Maserati made an audacious entrance into the world of motorsport.

In 1926, Alfieri, Ernesto and Ettore launched their first racing car: the Tipo 26. During its debut at the Targa Florio competition in Sicily,

the model proudly displayed the Trident for the first time and introduced a new protagonist to the world of sports cars.

Maserati celebrated another unprecedented occasion in the Twenties. 

In 1929, the racing driver Mario Umberto Borzacchini set the new Class C world record at the wheel of Maserati’s 16-cylinder V4, covering 10 kilometers at a speed of 246.069 km/h. This record stood until 1937.

In the Thirties the changing international political landscape started to influence the Italian economy, but the Maserati brothers had a vision for what their brand could become and were cautiously optimistic. 

Unfortunately, tragedy was about to strike. Following a high-speed collision, Alfieri suffered continued ill health and ultimately passed away in 1932. 

All the most distinguished drivers of the time paid their respects, recognizing Maserati as an important and fully-fledged racing car manufacturer. 

After the loss of Alfieri, Bindo joined the company to support the other brothers. 

The following year, the Italian racing driver Tazio Nuvolari was engaged by Maserati and won the Belgian GP, the Nice GP and the Tourist Trophy at the wheel of the 8CM. 

Maserati was collecting victories, victories and victories.

Queues started to form to buy the 8CM, in front of the workshop located in via Emilia Levante, where the name of another iconic model will later come from. 

Despite the growing popularity the financial struggle was still evident and ultimately the company was sold to Adolfo Orsi in 1937 and relocated to Modena three years later.

Until his death, Alfieri Maserati was the point of reference for his brothers. He was forward-thinking, good with mechanics and public relations. 

The only demon he couldn’t free himself from was his passion for speed and racing. 

It’s because of him that Maserati evolved from a sports car tuner to a well-renowned racing car manufacturer.

With Italy deeply impacted by the events of the World War II, the Maserati brothers were dealing with a financial situation that seemed desperate, but the Forties were not short of reasons to celebrate.

The decade started successfully with the American racing driver Wilbur Shaw at the wheel of the 8CT, renamed Boyle Special, winning the 1939 and 1940 editions of the Indianapolis 500 at an average speed of 183.911 km/h (114.227 mph).

Maserati is still the only carmaker to have won this trophy with a fully built vehicle. 

The brothers remained consultants and with Adolfo Orsi they worked to start production of the 1947 1500 Gran Turismo, creating a new segment: the Gran Tourer. 

The legendary automobile designer Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina is an important part of the Maserati story. 

He was the designer of the A6 GranTurismo, which showcased elegant lines, recessed headlights and a Plexiglas sunroof. 

Winning the Grand Prix d’Elegance, the A6 GranTurismo was a genuinely revolutionary car, and signaled the marquee’s beginning as a maker of luxurious sports cars for the road.  

At Maserati, the new Orsi management aimed to maintain the family-like feeling among co-workers while establishing financial stability. 

With the economy booming and in a renewed climate of optimism, Maserati was able to create some of the most appreciated cars of the time.

This decade saw both the racing legends, British Stirling Moss and Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio, at the wheel of the iconic 250F. With his Maserati, Juan Manuel Fangio won two F1 championships. 

This was only the tip of the iceberg of the success Maserati was experiencing.

The company started to produce small runs of grand touring and two-seated cars capturing the mood of the public that had developed a taste for, and fascination with, speed. 

The 3500 GT, aka “The White Lady”, was destined to become one of the most gorgeous looking Maserati of all time.

The 3500 GT wasn’t the only Maserati hero in the Fifties and Maserati’s racing history in this decade didn’t limit itself to the racing legends Fangio and Moss.

The Italian racing driver Maria Teresa De Filippis competed and won the Catania-Etna hill climb in 1955 and in 1958 she achieved her greatest accomplishment: being the first woman to race in two Formula One Grands Prix, in a Maserati.

The Sixties were a time of tangible change, and the car industry was no exception. Handmade, bespoke car factories were being overshadowed by industrial giants and despite its growing popularity, Maserati had to deal with a different global economy.

The power, speed and style of Maserati cars were admired the world over and VIPs. Including Luciano Pavarotti, the world famous Modenese opera singer, started to feel attached to the brand bearing the Trident.

The 3500 GT was a favorite in the hearts of car enthusiasts, so much so that the Shah of Persia asked for a special version of it, which led to the creation of the 5000 GT.

The 8-cylinder Ghibli by Giugiaro debuted at the Turin Auto Show in 1966 to resounding success, comparable to the one showed by the extremely successful Sebring and the Mistral. 

While it maintained its racing attitude and heritage, Maserati evolved into a full road car manufacturer like no other. It was in these years that Maserati
thought of a luxury sedan with a racing 

engine destined to become a trademark of the brand: the Maserati Quattroporte was about to make its debut. 

However, the car industry was changing radically and the Orsis had to find a partner up to the challenge of guaranteeing Maserati’s future, reason why Maserati was sold to Citroen in 1968.

The Sixties heralded a decisive encounter between the Italian automobile designer Giorgetto Giugiaro and Maserati.

In years of great vitality for the automotive market, the Ghibli was launched. The main objective was to offer a powerful model for a luxurious yet comfortable travel experience.

History says that, that objective, has been achieved.

After Citroen purchased 60% of the company, the shift in managerial style was dramatic, changing to a highly effective industrial model, but two oil crises and an economic recession led car-manufacturers to consider engines downsizing and looking for optimizations.

Citroen’s era of Maserati began to launch one model after another.

The first one was the Ghibli Spyder in ’68. Two years later, along came the Citroen SM Coupé with a 6-cylinder

engine, the same engine that powered the Bora, the sports coupé designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. 

The Seventies also saw the debuts of the Merak and the Khamsin.

At the beginning of the decade, Adolfo Orsi and his son Omar quietly stepped down from the new Maserati, but also for the French manufacturer times were far from favorable.

Maserati was about to be shut down when Peugeot and the Italian public finance group, GEPI, purchased it, entrusting the Argentinian industrialist Alejandro De Tomaso as CEO.

Adolfo Orsi came from a large family where the only income was his father’s rug business. 

Taking it over, Adolfo scaled the business to a completely different level, his managerial abilities eventually allowing him to become the owner of Maserati. 

Adolfo Orsi’s story is that of a self-made man with a strong passion for a special brand.

In these years of financial positivity, Maserati came up with a new vision. A luxury, beautiful and extremely powerful six-cylinder at a competitive price: the Biturbo. With 37,000 sold, the Biturbo quickly became the best-selling vehicle in the history of Maserati.

In the meantime, the Quattroporte kept its premium status, appearing in numerous iconic movies like Rocky III, The Fly and Dead Zone. 

It was not only Hollywood falling in love with style and elegance of the Quattroporte; Italy’s President, Sandro Pertini, picked it as his official state car.

Alejandro De Tomaso, who in the past had racing car ambitions, became well known for his business instinct and energetic pragmatism. 

De Tomaso was certainly not short of ideas. He decided to produce a small cubic capacity Maserati at a reasonable price to increase sales volume. 

It led to the design of the legendary Biturbo, one of Maserati’s best-selling vehicles.

In the Nineties, the Fiat Group’s acquisition of Maserati paved the way for two historic rivals, the Trident and the Prancing Horse of Ferrari, to cross paths. 

The two old rivals lived under the same roof in then new buildings erected at the historic Viale Ciro Menotti.

The first contribution of the new management was to complete an ongoing project: the 3200 GT, a coupé designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro on behalf of Italdesign for the exterior, together with Enrico Fumia for the interior, originally presented in 1998 in Paris. 

The stunning coupé was upgraded with a Ferrari engine.

Marcello Gandini, born in 1938, is known for designing some of the most beautiful Italian sports cars from the Sixties onwards. 

In 1974 he designed the Maserati Khamsin, but his relationship with Maserati grew even stronger in the Nineties with his connections to the Shamal, the second generation of the Ghibli and the 1994 Quattroporte.

The dawn of the new millennium saw Maserati’s great comeback in the United States. This decade also marked a return to racing and, more importantly, winning.

The rollout of the Spyder was an absolute success and had a key role in the US market comeback, but there was more coming. 

Another milestone in the brand history was marked by the launch of the epic new Quattroporte V, a car awarded with 

57 international prizes and which became an instant global icon. 

In 2007, Maserati revealed another ‘instant classic’ designed by PininFarina: the GranTurismo.

In 2004, Maserati also returned to winning on the racetrack thanks to the extraordinary MC12, standing for Maserati Corse 12-cylinder, which will accumulate an impressive haul of trophies. 

Maserati’s participation in the FIA GT from 2005 to 2010 was crowned with 14 titles and 19 victories, plus the three absolute victories on the Spa 24 Hours (2005, 2006 and 2008).

On September the 5th 2004 on the Imola Circuit, two MC12s marked Maserati’s return to racing. 

The championship was the FIA GT. The racing team included Andrea Bertolini, Johnny Herbert, Fabrizio De Simone and Mika Salo.

The 12-cylinder racing car flew at over 340 km/h and trophies from the most important international championships racked up throu

As global lifestyle started shaping a new relationship between brands and consumers, Maserati expanded its production plant capacity and aimed to bring its performance and luxury to unexplored market segments.

In April 2010, it was Sergio Marchionne who announced Maserati’s new plans and product. Since the production plans exceeded the capacity of the Modena factory, the ex-Bertone factory in Grugliasco, just outside Turin, was re-opened. 

The Quattroporte VI, with its timeless silhouette, was the first car produced in the new Gugliasco plant. In this decade the first Diesel engine in Maserati’s history made its debut with the Ghibli, a

noticeable sign of Maserati’s expanding ambitions. 

Furthermore, determined to conquer new market segments, in 2011 Maserati revealed its first interpretation of a SUV, the Kubang – a second concept car which drastically evolved from a 2003 prototype. 

A few years later, the concept car Kubang became the extraordinary SUV the world knows as Levante.

To deal with a global economy and new challenges ahead, Maserati deployed an impressive management team. As Head of Maserati Style Centre, Lorenzo Ramaciotti was in charge of the outstanding look of the cars; Harald Wester was firmly at the helm of the trident as CEO; while President of FIAT John Elkann and CEO of FIAT and President of Maserati Sergio Marchionne brought Maserati back to a wider and global oriented vision for the brand’s future. 

With this management team in place, Maserati assumed a more important role on the world stage than ever before, and became one the two jewels in FCA’s crown.

In 2020, communication technologies opened unprecedented opportunities to connected people and brands. Society focused on inclusiveness, respect, diversity and the environment. And Maserati’s direction takes a turn.

While fine tuning its range with important collaborations, Maserati decided to look back at its origins, focusing on adrenaline, uncompromised performances and racing cars. Years of meticulous preparation finally takes the sinuous shape of a new breed: the MC20. The car is breathtaking, marking an important event in the history of the brand for the engine, called Nettuno, is both an homage to the brand’s origins and is entirely conceived and assembled by Maserati. 

While the Nettuno engine makes its roaring debut on the streets, the Trident’s trailblazing path to innovation moves forward with the development of a future line of fully electric sport-luxury icons.  

Electric and still roaring. At the beginning of 2022, Maserati revealed exciting news: the Trident is going to take the track back. It will compete in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, the world’s first all-electric road-racing motorsport series. With the spirit of competition rooted in its DNA, Maserati is the first Italian brand to compete in Formula E. 

This decade is dedicated to Maserati’s enthusiasts. Those who choose their path over the set rules. Those who dare to push themselves forward and drive the pack. It’s for them that Maserati keeps pushing boundaries and races one step ahead of the future. This decade revolves around you, those who drive the world.