Six brothers formed the basis of Maserati. Carolo, Bindo, Alfieri, Mario, Ettore and Ernesto Maserati founded the company in 1914. They made spark plugs and ignition coils. In 1926 they built their first race car, the Tipo 26. The car raced for the first time in the Targa Florio driven by Alfieri Maserati and it won immediately. After that, Alfieri won many more races. Well into the 50s, Maserati was involved in racing. Among the race cars they built are the 250 F and the 'Birdcage'. These are the best known models and they have been very successful.
In the late 50s, the realization came that Maserati could not live on racing alone. Then it was decided to also start producing consumer cars. The first series-produced car is the 3500 GT from 1957, 2000 units are made of this car. In the 60s and 70s, Maserati built a name as an exclusive brand of GTs. The names they come up with for these cars sound just as exotic with names like Mexico, Ghibli, Indy, Bora, Merak, Khamsin and Quattroporte. They were all fast touring cars that were produced in small numbers.
In the 70s, Maserati was taken over by Citroën. As a result, the hydraulic technology of this brand could be found in the cars of Maserati. At the end of the 70s, Citroën wanted to dump Maserati again, because Maserati was no longer making a profit. The company was eventually taken over by De Tomaso and immediately produced a successful model with the Biturbo in 1982. This very fast car could compete with the BMW 323i. The factory was first taken over by Ferrari, but has recently been added to Alfa Romeo within the Fiat group.
