ROME – This of the four Maserati brothers, who came up from nothing and became renowned manufacturers of racing cars that remained invincible for a long time, would be a beautiful American story. Instead it is a 100% Italian story, a beautiful family story where the brothers, instead of knives, lived on art and love, each happy with the place assigned, happy to contribute to the general fortune rather than pawing for the right to peck and shoes each other, as unfortunately often happens.
The four Maseratis, sons of Rodolfo and Carolina Losi, were actually six and were born in Voghera in rapid succession: Carlo (1881-1910), Bindo (1883-1980), a first Alfieri who died immediately (1885-1886), a second who is the Alfieri we all know (1887–1932). Followed by Mario (1890-1981), who will be a talented painter, Ettore (1894-1990 and Ernesto (1898 – 1975) who, together with Bindo, will support Alfieri in the foundation of the house of the Trident. The coat of arms, inspired by the Bolognese Neptune, was designed by Mario and right in the city of Bologna, in via dei Pepoli 11, the first headquarters of the company will be located.
Carlo, the eldest son, who died prematurely not yet thirty, is missing. Very early, in 1898 he had built a single-cylinder engine applied to a bicycle with which he imposed himself in various competitions. For a decade there will be different manufacturers that will compete for his skills: Fiat, Isotta Fraschini, Bianchi, and who knows what career he would have had and what impulse he could have given to his brothers if tuberculosis hadn’t taken him away in 1910.
At that point Alfieri took the helm and founded the Officine Alfieri Maserati in 1914 with the collaboration of Ernesto and Ettore (Bindo would only join them in 1932, after Alfieri’s death). They begin first with the production of spark plugs for the aeronautical industry (which in the war years 1914-18 will establish itself as a strategic weapon) to finally start in 1926 the manufacture of racing cars. The Maseratis soon achieved remarkable results and production success was assured for at least a decade.
Then the typical difficulties of small factories that do not have a strong and profitable mass production behind them begin to make themselves felt. An adverse fate that afflicts more or less all the constructors on their own (only Enzo Ferrari will be able to escape it by entering the Fiat orbit in 1965 without however losing his independence) and the difficulties will become even more serious with the death of Alfieri, in 1932, after a botched surgery.
In 1937, the company was sold to the Modenese steel industrialists, Adolfo and Marcello Orsi, and was transferred to Modena, in viale Ciro Menotti. The survivors Bindo, Ettore and Ernesto remain as consultants, as expressly provided for in the clauses of the sale. Throughout the Second World War they will have to concentrate again on the manufacture of spark plugs, batteries and industrial machinery, to finally resume the construction of racing cars and grand touring cars after the war. The top model will be the A6 1500, which will make its victorious debut in 1947 on the Modena circuit, piloted by Alberto Ascari.
After the ten-year option with the Orsis had expired, the Maserati brothers left the company and in 1947 set up a new company, OSCA (acronym for Officine Specializzate Construction of Cars), in San Lazzaro di Savena (BO), with the intent to produce small-engine racing cars. The first model will be the 1948 MT4 barchetta, powered by a 1092 cc 72 HP twin cam and intended for racing in the 1.1 liter category. It will be victorious at the 1948 Naples Grand Prix with Luigi Villoresi and in various other competitions. Like the Trieste-Opicina of 1958, piloted by Ada Pace, greatly “bullied” by the males who, with each victory, demanded checks hoping to eliminate it (without success) or even childishly refused to go on stage as seconds and thirds (it happened in Modena in 1960 after the victory of the Aci Cup).
Ada Pace retaliated by putting the inscription Sayonara (goodbye in Japanese) in place of the plaque so that it was clear to the overtaken that they would never get it again. Still at the wheel of an evolution of the OSCA MT4, he won the 1960 Targa Florio and the following year, in the Stallavena-Bosco Chiesanuova time trial, he won the Sport category with the same car, setting a record that remained unbeaten.
However, we are approaching the swan song. Despite further triumphs (an MT4 equipped with a 165 HP 2-litre DOHC engine with desmodromic timing, driven by Stirling Moss, won in the prestigious 12 Hours of Sebring) the Maserati brothers decided in 1964 to sell the majority of the shares to the Domenico brothers, Mario and Corrado Agusta (Vincenzo died in 1958), owners of the homonymous motorcycle company and licensees of the American Bell AB204 helicopters, the ones on which surfer colonel Bill Kilgore (the unforgettable Robert Duvall!) leads the charge to the sound of Wagner’s Walkirias in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979).
In 2022, the entrepreneur from Molise Massimo Di Risio, owner of the DR Automobiles Groupe, bought the rights to develop the OSCA from Fabia Maserati, Ernesto’s nephew. We just have to hope for the best and dream of seeing their modern cars on the road again reincarnations.