Founded in December 1914, Maserati built race cars for the Diatto-Clément motorcar company until 1926 when Alfieri, Bindo and Ernesto Maserati started the Maserati brand. The first car with the Maserati name won its class in the 1926 Targa Florio with Alfieri behind the steering wheel (9th overall).
The company went on building race cars, with customers like Tim Birkin and Raymond Sommers. Alfieri Maserati died in 1932 and his brothers Ernesto, Bindo and Ettore continued the company in Bologna.
In 1937 the three Maserati brothers sold the company to Adolfo Orsi who relocated the factory and headquaters to Modena in 1940. After WW II Maserati started building road cars with the introduction of the Maserati A6.
In 1947 the Maserati brothers left the company and founded OSCA to produce small displacement racing cars.
Citroën bought Maserati in 1968 but went bankrupt in 1974. The new owners of Citroën (PSA) decided to sell Maserati to Alejandro de Tomaso in 1975. During the years of de Tomaso, well known Maserati’s where the BITURBO, the Quatroporte, the Shamal and the Ghibli.
FIAT became the new owner of Maserati in 1993.
