Italy's "two queens and one queen" are very famous in the industry, but with the passage of time, many people are only familiar with the "two queens", and the understanding of Maserati, the "queen of sports cars", is becoming more and more shallow. Even many people don't know that Maserati has been founded for 108 years, and in terms of history, it is older than Ferrari and Lamborghini.
Maserati's place in the development of racing and sports cars in Italy is undoubted, and Maserati's pioneering work was a pure racing car. Even in the 21st century, Maserati has left a glorious record on the racing track and has won 12 championships. Today we will review the history of Maserati, the queen of sports cars.
Maserati is the name of the brand and the surname of the founder, which was founded by three Maserati brothers. The Maserati brothers were interested in cars and racing cars, and the eldest brother would design his own engine. Because the engine he designed was favored by the relevant person in charge of Fiat, he was later invited to Fiat as a test driver and technical consultant.
Fiat is also a very powerful car brand, although it is not famous in the domestic market, but in the European market, Fiat is second to none, and being able to work in such a company is a rare opportunity for Maserati brothers. So after the eldest brother entered Fiat, other brothers also entered the work of Fiat.
But working for others was always only a worker, and there were many ideas that could not be realized, so the Maserati brothers later resigned from Fiat and in 1914 founded a car company whose main business was car modification. The three brothers are also very thoughtful in car modification, so the business is also doing well. In 1925, they changed the name of the company and at the same time began to use the trident as a logo.
Maserati was founded very early, but the first model did hit the market 11 years later. Maserati's first model, the Tipo 26, is a pure race car powered by a 1.5-liter inline 8-cylinder engine that can reach a top speed of 160 km/h. Maserati's founder drove the car to the Targa Florio race that year and finished 1st.
Their success on the racing track led the Maserati brothers to become interested in racing and laid the foundation for Maserati racing car manufacturing. In 1929 Maserati introduced a 16-valve V4 racing car, which also set a land speed world record at the time and brought the Maserati brand to more attention.
In 1932, Alfieri Maserati, one of Maserati's founders, died, and the company's operations were adjusted. In 1937, Maserati was acquired by the Orsi family, and its headquarters was moved to the Italian supercar town of Modena, since then Maserati has become a "neighbor" with Ferrari and Lamborghini, and created the world of "two queens and one queen".
Although Maserati cars are now more domestic, it has always occupied a very important place in the sports car field. And in many of the world's top competitions, Maserati still has a very good performance, and the world's top supercars such as Ferrari and Lamborghini have not opened the gap.