Maserati – Alfieri, Ettore, Bindo and Ernesto founded the company in December
1914 in Bologna as licensed agents for Isotta Fraschini, where they made themselves
a very good name. In 1926 they obtained an order to design and build a racing car.
When their sponsor went bankrupt they named their first car with a 1500cc eight
cylinder engine Maserati Tipo 26.
Alfierie managed to win his class at the Targa Florio with this car. Before the second
World War they only built racing cars. In 1928 they enlarged the engine to 1980cc
named Tipo26B, which was very successful in winning the Indianapolis 500 both in
1939 and 1940. In 1938 they were forced to sell their company to Adolfo Orsi,
although they continued to work for the Maserati company for at least another ten
years, after which they formed O.S.C.A.
In 1954 Stirling moss started racing the Maserati 250F. Looking back Moss
recounted that the 250F was everything he could have wished for. The car was
faster and more powerful than anything I had driven before. The only problem I
battled with was the reliability of the car. Juan Manuel Fangio was also impressed
with the Maserati 250F and achieved some excellent racing results.
Maserati was taken over by Citroën in 1968, while Orsi remained as President.
This new relationship lead to a collaboration to build the Citroën SM with a new
Maserati engine, which was launched in 1970. But after Citroën went bankrupt in
1974 Maserati was taken over by a Italian state company GEP together with de
Tomaso who became president. In 1989 Fiat bought shares in the company and
later took over Maserati in 1993.
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