Ask anyone to name a luxury Italian car manufacturer and 95% of people will answer Ferrari .One of the most recognizable brands in the world, the Maranello marque is famous as an established name in supercars for the road and in motor racing across the world. You might get one or two who propose Lamborghini in response to the question, as the ‘Raging Bull’ is the ‘other’ famous supercar maker from Italy.
Once upon a time there was a third player in the market, a brand that is still with us today but in a much-diluted form. For while Ferrari endured FIAT ownership and was brought back from the brink as a more powerful force than before, and Lamborghini’s many owners did their best to break the bull’s back only for VW to rescue the iconic marque and rebuild it, Maserati, our missing third man, survives in diluted, saccharine form, a maker of very nice and very capable cars that are a world away from their roots.
The Maserati story begins in 1914, when Enzo Ferrari was just 16, and two years before Ferruccio Lamborghini was born.
The Early Days and Motor Sport
The five Maserati brothers – Alfieri, Bindo, Carlo, Ernesto and Ettore – were involved in motor sport from the earliest days, initially in building racing cars for the short-lived Diatto marque. When that company failed in 1926, the brothers gave their own name to their creations, and added the famous trident logo as a brand image, this being the symbol of their home city, Bologna.
The 1930’s saw great success with the marque winning Grands Prix and other international races – including the Indianapolis 500 in 1939 and 1940, when the great Wilbur Shaw took a Maserati 8CTF to victory, the only Italian car to have won The Great Race to this day. Road cars had not been much on the agenda and with World War Two curtailing plans, the brothers sold out in 1937 to the Orsi family. This was the signal for the beginning of the Golden Age of Maserati.
The Glory Days
Where Ferrari is known for its range of exclusive and precise supercars, and Lamborghini has always bordered on the outrageous, Maserati’s first road cars were significantly more elegant, and usually exceptionally beautiful indeed. Having enjoyed much success in Grand Prix racing in the post-war years – notably with Juan-Manuel Fangio who took the iconic 250F to World Championship victory in 1957 - the Orsi brothers retired the marque from racing in 1957, although the factory would continue to build racing cars for private owners.
The 250F remains one of the most collectable racing cars of all; it is difficult to say how many were built as parts from crashed cars were used on others. What we can say is that if a verified example were to go to auction today, it would be expected to reach $6million (£4.5million) as a minimum.
The face of the company changed in 1957 with the launch of the Maserati 3500GT, the first dedicated road car from the Modena factory. Styled by the Touring design house, the initial 2+ 2 coupe – a Grand Tourer in every way – was joined by a spectacular ‘Spider’ convertible a couple of years later. Both cars, powered by a race derived V12 engine, were a success, and set the standard for Maserati offering the most exclusive, beautifully crafted GT’s in the world. Many 3500GT’s still survive with prices at auction reaching in excess of $400,000 (£300,000) for good examples.
The face of the company changed in 1957 with the launch of the Maserati 3500GT, the first dedicated road car from the Modena factory. Styled by the Touring design house, the initial 2+ 2 coupe – a Grand Tourer in every way – was joined by a spectacular ‘Spider’ convertible a couple of years later. Both cars, powered by a race derived V12 engine, were a success, and set the standard for Maserati offering the most exclusive, beautifully crafted GT’s in the world. Many 3500GT’s still survive with prices at auction reaching in excess of $400,000 (£300,000) for good examples.
The 3500GT was followed by the Maserati Sebring, which followed the design cues of the original and remained a true 2+2 GT, and what was effectively a 2-seat version of the Sebring – the Mistral – with a six-cylinder engine made it to market in 1963. By now, Maserati was very much at the forefront of luxury road car production in Italy, but a surprise take-over was about to shake the roots of the company.
The Citroen Effect
In 1967 Maserati startled the automotive world with the introduction of what is still regarded as one of the most spectacularly beautiful cars of all: the Ghibli, and its high-powered SS variant. A sleek, elegant and breathtakingly striking design, this amazing coupe design would influence Ferrari greatly in years to come, and set the template for styling cues for the 1970’s. The Ghibli joined the first Maserati Saloon – the Quattroporte – in the line-up, and two more different cars could not have been imagined. A Maserati Ghibli is highly collectible car these days with good examples fetching in the $300,000 (£225,000) price range right now. Compared to Ferrari’s equivalent Daytona, the Ghibli is a bargain.
In 1968 the motoring world was shocked by the takeover of the Italian marque by French maker Citroen. The first result would be the extraordinary Citroen SM (‘Special Maserati’) supercar, as strange and wonderful a road car as has ever been seen, while the first Maserati from this era was the Indy, a coupe with spider equivalent following the design ethos of the Ghibli.
But it is for two other models that this version of Maserati – the pre-crisis edition – will be remembered: the Bora, and the Merak.
The Winds of Change
There is no doubt that the Maserati Bora remains one of the greatest of the early supercars. Most industry commentators agree that the first ‘supercar’ was the ground-breaking Lamborghini Miura, first seen in chassis form at the 1965 Turin Motor Show where its revolutionary mid-engined design raised eyebrows. Other makers realized this was a game-changer, and Maserati began looking at mid-engined concepts.
The Bora, penned by a team at ItalDesign led by perhaps the most respected designer of all, Giorgetto Guigiaro, remains a timeless design even now, some 50 years. Clean, uncluttered, and simply incredibly beautiful, this was the car that was to lead the planned expansion of Maserati into a world-leading luxury supercar maker. Production began in 1971 – just at the start of the world oil crisis – and would go on until 1978 when the car was binned by new owners, De Tomaso. Only 564 Bora’s were produced, and they rarely come up for sale.
The Merak looked in every way like a scaled-down Bora, and was intended as the Maserati ‘junior’ supercar, much as the Dino was to Ferrari, and the Urraco to Lamborghini. Unbelievably pretty, the Merak sold well and more than 1800 were built before it was retired in 1983.
By 1975, Citroen had abandoned its big plans for Maserati and put the company into liquidation. Maserati was not alone in struggling in this era – the products it, Ferrari, Lamborghini and other similarly exotic motor manufacturers offered were simply no longer viable in a time of austerity – and the take-over by De Tomaso and a government-owned holding company in 1975 was seen as the light at the end of the tunnel. Notably, even Citroen – a French institution of great standing – went bankrupt during this time.
The Sad Decline
Those of us who love the Maserati name – and for this writer it remains the most evocative of all the supercar makers of the golden years – would only be deeply saddened by what happened next. Along came the Maserati Biturbo in the early 1980’s, a car intended to revive the brand. On paper this pretty little coupe with its neat front engine, rear-wheel drive design should have done the business.
Sadly it was badly built, with quality that rendered it a joke in luxury car circles, and even the bigger 228 and Ghibli II models – and a variants of these such as the curious Shamal and Karif – could not revive the name. It’s interesting that the Biturbo, Karif and Shamal are now coveted models that have shown considerable capital appreciation of late, with survivors having mostly undergone restoration to better than factory state.
Resurrection?
So to the present day, in which Maserati is part of the FIAT group, having previously been owned by Ferrari.
The title of this article refers to Maserati having ‘lost its soul’ and, while the current range of Maserati’s are not bad cars – in fact, some are very good indeed – there is a massive gulf between a hand-built 1967 Ghibli and the current 4-door saloon that shares that legendary model’s name. These are not Maserati’s at heart, and although quite beautiful, they don’t resonate the same as a true Modena Maserati does. So, is the Maserati now a Mercedes and BMW chaser, an option for executives who want something different to the norm? Possibly, although there is hope.
In the making is a car that could just put the Maserati name back where it belongs, in the mix with its rival supercar makers. This car is the MC20; a mid-engined, two seat out and out sporting car to match its Ferrari rivals, with looks that are right there and a 630bhp V6, the MC20 – delayed by the coronavirus crisis – could just be the car that puts the soul back into the name, and here’s hoping it does.