The Maserati myth at Retro Classics 2012

Italian automotive legend at the Stuttgart automobile exhibition; presentation of superb rarities from the marque with the trident

"No matter what the future holds for Maserati, I will never forget the beauty of a Tipo 8 CM, an early Tipo 26 B, the 8 CL and the fast 250 F which I loved driving. The raw ferocity of the Tipo 450 S or the Tipo 151 and the functionality of the famous 'Birdcage' will always be remembered."

Visitors to Retro Classics 2012 in Stuttgart will be able to experience Sir Stirling Moss' enthusiasm for the Maserati marque and its incomparable vehicles. A hitherto unique special Maserati show (Hall 4), which is being organised by the Stuttgart-based lawyer Bjorn Schmidt, will present the first steps of the Maserati marque in motor racing (1926) up to the tentative culmination of the Maserati factory entries with the victory in the 1957 Formula 1 World Championship, as well as the famous GT and sports cars of the 1960's and 1970's right up to the present day.

What first began, before the outbreak of the First World War, as a small workshop manufacturing spark plugs under the name "Maserati" in Pontevecchio near Bologna, Italy, was transformed in 1926 into "Officine Alfieri Maserati" which constructed its first racing car. At the outset there were originally seven brothers who were passionately interested in everything relating to technology. In 1898 Carlo, the oldest of the Maserati brothers, built a prototype combustion engine which he fitted to a bicycle. At the latest when the former coach builder Diatto from Turin commissioned Alfieri Maserati in 1922 to build a racing car, the now five remaining Maserati brothers began thinking about making a racing car bearing the Maserati name and the trident logo designed by their brother Mario. Right up until today, the trademark of Maserati automobiles has bore witness to the sea god Neptune who churned up the oceans with his trident.

The first Maserati, the Tipo 26, was a supercharged eight cylinder, 1492.6 cc racing car developing 115 bhp, whose elegant mechanics were reminiscent of the work of a clockmaker. Alfieri Maserati and Guerrino Bertocchi celebrated a brilliant debut with this car, i.e. the class victory in the Targa Florio Race in 1926. Whereas the original racing car design more or less remained the same over the years, Maserati managed to wring more and more power from the supercharged engine and modify it accordingly. Engine variants were therefore produced with a capacity of 1100, 1980, 2495 and 2992 cc. Maserati actually used the existing basis to construct a V engine containing 16 cylinders and a supercharger. Apart from a few exceptions, the vehicles were conceived purely for use in races. The racing cars were extremely successful; for example, Maserati is the only European marque to have won the Indianapolis 500 twice - in 1939 and 1940 - under modern conditions.

The Maserati sports cars were only slightly modified Grand Prix models, for example the "Sedici Cilindri" with the two juxtaposed 8-cylinder supercharged engines.

The decline of the Maserati marque began with the death of Alfieri Maserati aged just 44 on 3 March 1932. None of the surviving brothers could replace Alfieri Maserati's genius. The end of Maserati as a family-run company came in 1937 when it was taken over by the Orsi family from Modena. As the head of the family, Adolfo Orsi managed the fortunes of the wide-ranging enterprises of the Orsis. He had started out as a rag and bone man, risen to become a scrap metal dealer and opened the first steel works in the region around Modena in 1921. Maserati moved to Modena in 1938/39. Ten years later, as agreed contractually, the Maserati brothers finally left and founded the sports car company O.S.C.A. (Officine Specializzate Costruzioni Automobili - Fratelli Maserati SpA). However, the proud racing tradition of the Maserati marque was continued and culminated in Juan Manuel Fangio winning the World Championship in 1957 in a Maserati Tipo 250 F, which was regarded as the most beautiful Formula 1 racing car during the 1950's. The construction of pure Formula racing cars then stopped and henceforth attention was paid (almost) exclusively to the construction of sports cars.

The special Maserati show during Retro Classics will feature selected pre-war racing cars bearing the Maserati marque. It must be noted in this respect that hardly any of the first Tipo 26 racing cars have survived. Visitors will certainly be able to admire a Maserati Tipo 8 CM-3000 (construction year: 1934) whose in-line supercharged 8-cylinder engine generated 260 bhp and gave this racing car a top speed of 240 kph. Only a total of 18 units of the Tipo 8 CM were built and they were primarily sold to well-off private racing drivers. The famous Tazio Nuvolari achieved the first Grand Prix victory for the Tipo 8 CM at the Belgian Grand Prix in July 1933. Another highlight of the pre-war display will be a Tipo 6 CM-1500 dating from 1937. This is a successful Maserati single-seater, pre-war racing car from the Voiturette Class, of which a total of 27 units were built. The Maserati 6 CM-1500 model was intended by Maserati for the Voiturette Formula Class, which became increasingly more popular after 1935 and was open to lightweight single-seater racing cars with a maximum engine capacity of 1500 cc. The 6 CM-1500 replaced its predecessor of the 4 CS/CM model which had no chance against the competition, especially ERA, lastly in the 1935 season.

Maserati said that the engine power of the 6 CM-1500 model built in 1936-37 was 155 bhp (116 kW) at 6200 rpm. In the 1938/39 racing seasons Maserati equipped the 6CM model with a more powerful engine developing 175 bhp at 6600 rpm. The two last vehicles of the 6 CM-1500 model were fitted for experimental and test purposes with four valve cylinder heads. In order to reduce the weight, Maserati used electron both in the engine and the chassis. With a dry weight of 650 kilograms, the 6 CM-1500 model therefore reached speeds of up to 230 kph depending on the transmission. The 6 CM-1500 had independent front suspension which Maserati took over from the VR8I. The chassis for the 6 CM-1500 after the construction year 1937 was revamped with modified leaf springs.

The promotional breakthrough of the Maserati 6 CM-1500 was achieved during the l0th Eifel Race at the Nurburgring on 14 June 1936, Count Carlo Felice Trossi notched up victory in the works 6 CM (chassis number: 1532) ahead of Tommaso Omobono Tenni in a Maserati 4 CS/CM (s/n 1529), The allegedly biggest rival in the shape of Prince Bira in the ERA was beaten into third place. In particular, the independent front suspension helped Trossi to win on the bumpy Nurburgring with its numerous bends. This was followed by further victories. Special mention must be made of Trossi's win in the first staging of the GP de Picardie von Peronne on 21 June 1936, Trossi's win in the "Circuito di Milano" on 28 June 1936 and his victory in the "Coppa Ciano" on 2 August 1936 and in the "Coppa Edda" Ciano on 7 September 1936. Finally, Trossi came first in the Voiturette race at the Modena Circuit on 21 September 1936. The publicity drum forthe 6 CM-1500 was therefore successful beaten. Maserati then easily began to sell the 6 CM-1500 successfully to private racing drivers from all over the world. In addition to at least one Maserati Tipo A6 GCS/53, a Maserati 300 S and the famous Tipo 61 "Birdcage", the special show of post-war racing cars at Retro Classics will prominently feature a Tipo 250 F and probably the most powerful Maserati racing sports car of all, i.e. the Tipo 450 S.

Freely according to Sir Stirling Moss, the Maserati 250 F was exactly what he expected from a racing car at that time. It was faster and more powerful than anything else which he had previously driven. However, what astonished Moss so much was the fact that it was extremely simple and easy to drive. The 250 F Maserati is one of the most extraordinary, most successful and most endurable Formula 1 racing cars ever, and was designed by the factory for the new 2.5 litre formula, which came into force in Formula 1 in 1954. The Maserati 250 F is now regarded as a stylistic icon for the entire Formula epoch of that era. The name "250 F" denotes the engine capacity of 2500 cc and the "F" for Formula. All series and further developments taken together, the factory built the 250 F model between 1954 and 1958. Juan Manual Fangio attained the greatest success of the 250 F by winning the Formula 1 World Championship in 1957. This achievement made him and the Maserati 250 F immortal. The design of the 250 F was based on its predecessor, the Maserati A6 GCM model. At times, "old" A6 GCM chassis were also modified to create new 250 F models. These cars were, primarily due to the outdated chassis, inferior to the new 250 F. The converted A6 GCM cars could be recognised by the external tension struts. At least 34 Maserati units of the 250 F model were therefore built. This is an astonishing figure when it is considered that the cars were actually made by hand back then. A tubular frame had to be welded, an engine constructed and installed, and a separate gearbox developed and produced. The Tipo 450 S from 1956, of which only 9 were built, one of which as a coupe, was the world's first small-series racing car to break through the 300 kph "sound barrier" at a speed of 310 kph with its 4000 bhp. It won the Sebring 12 Hours and the Swedish Grand Prix in 1957. With just a little more luck in the last race in Caracas in the Sports Car World Championship in the 1957 season, Maserati would have easily managed to beat the upstart and arch rival from Maranello - Ferrari - and win the World Championship. The post-war display will feature one more highlight in the form of the last representative of the Maserati marque in Formula 1, i.e. a Cooper-Maserati F1 car from 1966 with a Maserati V12 engine as a carburetted version and a fuel injection version in an untouched original state.

A special Maserati show must also naturally include the road GT cars and sports cars of the post-war era. In particular, the GTs such as a 3500 GT Touring Coupe or the "Gentleman Express" with the name of Ghibli from the late 1960's also helped to make the marque with the trident famous. Visitors to the special show will also be able to see a pre-series 3500 GT Spyder which dates from 1959 and was styled by Carrozzeria Vignale. Only 9 units with this design were built. However, a Vignale Spyder is certainly an absolute rarity because only 242 units were built and no model has all the same details as another. In 1959 a new Vignale Spyder cost more than a Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder LWB. Whereas the price of good Vignale Spyders is now around €350,000, you can easily add on another "0" for a rival model. That's how times have changed. The Maserati Quattroporte display will also be a special retrospective. Maserati presented the later legendary Maserati Ouattroporte from the first series in 1963 at the Turin Motor Show. The body came from Frua and was only available with a 4.2 litre V8 engine and subsequently a 4.7 litre V8 engine. From 1965 onwards, the then world's fastest series-produced 4-door saloon could be purchased and had a top speed of 230 kph thanks to a power output of 260 bhp. A total of 679 units were built, a real sales success story at the time.

The Quattroporte I will be accompanied by a third series Quattroporte freshly restored to the state of a new car. This model built in 1982 has the contemporary original colour "Marrone Colorado", a dark brown metallic colour which has only recently become fashionable again. Only 2,155 units of the 4.9-litre V8 monster, whose angular shape was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro's company Italdesign, were built and only a very few were fitted with the ZF-5 gearbox. The majority of these units were fitted with a 3-speed automatic gearbox for the USA, the main sales market. The topic of Quattroporte is also ideally suited for smoothly bridging the gap to the present day. The new car display will therefore show the latest interpretation of this topic, the current Quattroporte V. The GranTurismo and the GranCabrio will also naturally be presented in order to prove categorically that Maserati, after its varied history with all ups and downs, is now still able to produce the world's most beautiful and most fascinating sports cars and sports saloons.

The automobile exhibition Retro Classics will be held for the twelfth time in 2012. In 2011 65,000 visitors came to the exhibition which covered an area of 100,000 square metres in eight halls. The exhibitors, dealers, restorers, tradition departments of automobile manufacturers and their recognised clubs come to Stuttgart from all over Europe. In addition to aficionados of classic cars from the pre-war and post-war eras, lovers of highly traditional omnibuses, legendary trucks and motorcycles, and tractors get their money's worth at Retro Classics. The exhibition programme contains a special feature with the "Neo Classics" category, i.e. classic cars of the future. These are concept cars and manufacturers' vehicles which are currently being produced in limited numbers. The exhibition programme is rounded off by the Retro Night as a get-together for the automobile scene, along with auctions, the sales hall and the international parts market.

Opening hours of Retro Classics 2012:

Retro Classics 2012 will be open from 15.00 to 19.00 on Thursday, 22 March 2012, from 10.00 to 19.00 on Friday, 23 March 2012 and daily from 09.00 to 18.00 on Saturday, 24 March 2012 and Sunday, 25 March 2012.

During the Preview Day on the Thursday, the halls will be open specially for journalists and visitors wanting to admire the exquisite exhibits in peace and quiet.

The RETRO NIGHT® will be staged on the same day in Hall 1 from 19.00 to 22.00.

Simply follow the instructions at www.messestuttgart.de/tickets for registration, downloading and printing of tickets!

You can now pass the turnstiles at the trade fairgrounds without queuing.