Throughout Maserati’s rollercoaster of a life the marque has been known for producing luxury sports cars and race winning track cars. This culminated in the 1957 when Juan Manuel Fangio won the Formula 1 World Driver’s Championships in the Maserati 250F. After a tragic accident in 1957, Maserati pulled out of factory racing production and concentrated on creating road cars instead.
A pivotal moment in the company’s history came in 1968 when the company was bought by Citroën. Through a sharing of technology and expertise, Maserati expanded and produced the Bora in 1971, the first mass produced Maserati in the company’s history. As a result of the 1973 oil crisis demand for petrol thirsty sports cars were in small demand and in 1975 Citroën declared that Maserati was in liquidation. The company changed hands once more before being sold to Fiat in 1993. In 1997 Fiat sold a 50% stake in Maserati to Ferrari who took full control in 1999, with the aim of making the Maserati marque the luxury division of Ferrari. Under Ferrari two new cars were released in the form of the iconic MC12 supercar and the next edition of the Quattroporte.
During Ferrari’s tenure the traditional manufacturing ways used by Maserati were stripped away and replaced by state of the art technology. Today back under full control of Fiat, Maserati is still benefiting from the upgrade and it this technology leap that has allowed Maserati to create innovative safety modifications to their vehicles. Maserati’s philosophy in active safety is to give the driver as much control of the car as possible. With this in mind Maserati has created the Maserati Stability Programme, which works with the ABS to reduce torque and distribute braking force across the front and rear axles thus giving the driver more control in the event of a skid. Another is the Tyre Pressure Monitoring System which alerts the driver if tyre pressure drops below a minimal safe level.
In 2005 Fiat bought Maserati back from Ferrari with a long term plan to create a sports and luxury division from both the Maserati and Alfa Romeo brands. There is a planned strategic relationship between the two; engines, platforms and possibly dealers will be shared in some market areas.