. for other uses see maserati disambiguation . maserati s.p.a. type societ per azioni industry automotive predecessor officine alfieri maserati s.p.a. founded 1 december 1914 bologna italy founder alfieri maserati headquarters modena italy area served worldwide key people sergio marchionne chairman reid bigland ceo products luxury vehicles production output 36 448 units 2014 15 393 units 2013 revenue 2.767 billion 2014 1.659 billion 2013 operating income 275 million 2014 106 million 2013 number of employees 1100 2013 parent fiat chrysler automobiles nv website maserati.com footnotes references 1 2 maserati italian pronunciation maze ra ti is an italian luxury vehicle manufacturer established on december 1 1914 in bologna . 3 the maserati tagline is luxury sports and style cast in exclusive cars 4 and the brand s mission statement is to build ultra luxury performance automobiles with timeless italian style accommodating bespoke interiors and effortless signature sounding power . 5 the company s headquarters are now in modena and its emblem is a trident . it has been owned by the italian american car giant fiat chrysler automobiles fca and fca s italian predecessor fiat s.p.a. since 1993 . maserati was initially associated with ferrari s.p.a. which was also owned by fca until being spun off in 2015 but more recently it has become part of the sports car group including alfa romeo and abarth see section below . in may 2014 due to ambitious plans and product launches maserati sold a record of over 3 000 cars . this caused them to increase production of the quattroporte and ghibli models . 6 in addition to the ghibli and quattroporte maserati offers the maserati granturismo the granturismo convertible and has confirmed that it will be offering the maserati levante the first maserati suv in 2016 and the maserati alfieri a new 2 2 in 2016 . 7 maserati is placing a production output cap at 75 000 vehicles globally . 8 contents 1 history 1.1 the maserati brothers 1.2 orsi ownership 1.2.1 withdrawal from racing 1.3 citro n ownership 1.3.1 crisis years 1.4 de tomaso era 1.4.1 the biturbo 1.4.2 de tomaso fiat years 1.5 fiat ownership 1.5.1 ferrari 1.5.2 the maserati and alfa romeo group under fiat group 2 automobiles 2.1 current and upcoming models 2.1.1 maserati quattroporte 2.1.2 maserati ghibli 2.1.3 maserati granturismo and grancabrio 2.1.4 maserati levante 2.1.5 maserati alfieri 2.2 sales history 3 motorsport 4 see also 5 notes 6 citations 7 references 8 external links history the maserati brothers see also maserati brothers ettore bindo ernesto and alfieri maserati the maserati brothers alfieri bindo carlo ettore and ernesto were all involved with automobiles from the beginning of the 20th century . alfieri bindo and ernesto built 2 litre grand prix cars for diatto . in 1926 diatto suspended the production of race cars leading to the creation of the first maserati and the founding of the maserati marque . one of the first maseratis driven by alfieri won the 1926 targa florio . maserati began making race cars with 4 6 8 and 16 cylinders two straight eights mounted parallel to one another . piazza maggiore s neptune and his trident the trident logo of the maserati car company is based on the fountain of neptune in bologna s piazza maggiore . in 1920 one of the maserati brothers artist mario used this symbol in the logo at the suggestion of family friend marquis diego de sterlich . it was considered particularly appropriate for the sports car company due to fact that neptune represents strength and vigour ; additionally the statue is a characteristic symbol of the company s original home city . 9 alfieri maserati died in 1932 but three other brothers bindo ernesto and ettore kept the firm going building cars that won races . orsi ownership in 1937 the remaining maserati brothers sold their shares in the company to the adolfo orsi family who in 1940 relocated the company headquarters to their home town of modena 3 where it remains to this day . the brothers continued in engineering roles with the company . racing successes continued even against the giants of german racing auto union and mercedes . in back to back wins in 1939 and 1940 a maserati 8ctf won the indianapolis 500 the only italian manufacturer ever to do so . the war then intervened maserati abandoned car making to produce components for the italian war effort . during this time maserati worked in fierce competition to construct a v16 town car for benito mussolini before ferry porsche of volkswagen built one for adolf hitler . this failed and the plans were scrapped . once peace was restored maserati returned to making cars ; the maserati a6 series did well in the post war racing scene . juan manuel fangio driving a maserati 250f . key people joined the maserati team . alberto massimino an old fiat engineer with both alfa romeo and ferrari experiences oversaw the design of all racing models for the next ten years . with him joined engineers giulio alfieri vittorio bellentani and gioacchino colombo . the focus was on the best engines and chassis to succeed in car racing . these new projects saw the last contributions of the maserati brothers who after their 10 year contract with orsi expired went on to form o.s.c.a. . this new team at maserati worked on several projects the 4clt the a6 series the 8clt and pivotally for the future success of the company the a6gcs . the famous argentinian driver juan manuel fangio raced for maserati for a number of years in the 1950s producing a number of stunning victories including winning the world championship in 1957 in the maserati 250f alongside toulo de graffenried louis chiron prince bira enrico plat and a few others . other racing projects in the 1950s were the 200s 300s with several famous pilots among them benoit musy 350s and 450s followed in 1961 by the famous tipo 61 . withdrawal from racing maserati retired from factory racing participation because of the guidizzolo tragedy a during the 1957 mille miglia though they continued to build cars for privateers . maserati became more and more focused on building road going grand tourers . a 1960 maserati 3500 gt the 1957 maserati 3500 gt marked a turning point in the marque s history as its first ground up grand tourer design and first series produced car . production jumped from a dozen to a few hundreds cars a year . chief engineer giulio alfieri took care of the project and turned the 3.5 l inline six engine from the 350s into a road engine . first launched with a 2 2 coup aluminium body over carrozzeria touring s superleggera structure a steel bodied short wheelbase vignale 3500 gt convertibile open top version followed in 1960 . the 3500 gt s success with over 2200 made was critical to maserati s survival in the years that followed the withdrawal from racing . the 3500 gt also provided the underpinnings for the small volume v8 engined 5000 gt another seminal car for maserati . born from the shah of persia s whim of owning a road car powered by the maserati 450s racing engine it became one of the fastest and most expensive cars of its days . from the third to the thirty fourth and last example produced it housed maserati s first ever road going v8 engine design . the svelte ghibli in 1962 the 3500 gt was evolved into the sebring bodied by vignale and based on the convertibile short chassis . next came the two seater mistral coup in 1963 and spider in 1964 both six cylinder powered and designed by pietro frua . also in 1963 the company s first saloon car arrived the maserati quattroporte designed by frua as well . if the 5000 gt inaugurated the marque s first road going v8 the quattroporte s tipo 107 4.2 litre dohc v8 was the forefather of all maserati v8s up to 1990 . the ghia designed ghibli coup was launched in 1967 . it was powered by a 4.7 l dry sump version of maserati s quad cam v8 . the ghibli spyder and 4.9 litre ghibli ss followed . citro n ownership in 1968 maserati was taken over by french car manufacturer citro n. adolfo orsi remained the nominal president but maserati changed a great deal . the relationship with citro n started as a joint venture made public in january 1968 10 in which maserati would design and manufacture an engine for an upcoming citro n flagship car the citro n sm . launched in 1970 the sm was a four seater front wheel drive coup powered by a maserati tipo c114 2.7 l 90 v6 engine . the v6 maserati engine and its associated gearbox have been used in other vehicles such as special rally prepared citro n ds as used by bob neyret in bandama rally and in the ligier js 2 . bora the first mid engined maserati with secure financial backing new models were launched and built in much greater numbers than before . citro n borrowed maserati expertise and engines for the citro n sm and other vehicles and maseratis also incorporated citro n technology particularly in hydraulics . engineer giulio alfieri was key to many of the ambitious designs of this period . the first new arrival was the 1969 maserati indy a vignale designed four seater gt with a traditional v8 drivetrain which was produced in over 1100 units . in 1971 the maserati bora was the first series production mid engined maserati an idea agreed with maserati administrator guy malleret shortly after the 1968 takeover . the bora ended maserati s reputation for producing fast but technologically out of date cars being the first maserati with four wheel independent suspension . 11 in contrast competitor lamborghini had independent suspension in 1964 . 12 in 1972 fitting a tipo 114 sm derived v6 enlarged to 3.0 litre into the bora produced the maserati merak . 13 citro n never developed a 4 door version of the citro n sm instead maserati developed the maserati quattroporte ii that shared most mechanical parts with the sm including the mid engine front wheel drive layout and six headlight layout . 14 to power this large car alfieri developed a v8 engine from the sm v6 with 260 ps 190 kw ; 260 bhp and fitted it to a lightly modified sm proving that the chassis could easily handle the power increase . 15 citro n s and maserati s financial difficulties hampered the type homologation process ; the development costs for the stillborn saloon further aggravated maserati s situation . only a dozen quattroporte iis were ever produced all with the v6 . the replacement for the successful ghibli was the bertone designed maserati khamsin a front engined grand tourer that introduced in 1972 and produced from 1974 ; it married the traditional maserati v8 gt layout with modern independent suspension unibody construction and refined citro n technologies such as diravi power steering . crisis years tipo c114 maserati v6 in a citro n sm meanwhile the 1973 oil crisis put the brakes on this ambitious expansion ; demand for fuel hungry sports cars shrank drastically . austerity measures in italy meant that the domestic market contracted by 60 70 % . 16 all of the main italian gt car manufacturers were damaged having to lay off workers in order to empty lots of unsold cars . maserati received the hardest blow as its home market sales accounted for over half of the total in contrast for example with ferrari s 20 % . 17 in this situation the only maserati that continued to sell in appreciable numbers was the smaller engined merak . in 1974 the 1973 75 recession at its climax things took a turn for the worse . citro n