Date of birth: 1914Nationality: Italian The four brothers - Alfieri, Ernesto, Ettore and Bindo - who founded the Maserati company were well used to grease and engineering swarf under their fingernails, as they had worked for Isotta-Fraschini before setting up their own business. This was initially a garage where one sold and serviced Isotta-Fraschini cars, and later built a spark-plug factory that subsequently was located in Bologna.
Here, the brothers built their first race cars, on Isotta-Fraschini chassis and powered by aircraft engines. But their first full car was the Tipo 26 which brought them to prominence when Alfieri won the 1926 Targa Florio with it. The 26 was powered by a supercharged 1.5-litre 8-cylinder inline engine.
In 1929, the increasingly famous brand set a land speed record in 1929, and the now 2.8-litred Tipo 26M continued Grand Prix racing into the 1930s.
But in 1937, poor finances forced a sale of the company to the Orsi family, who were later to move the plant and the ethos to Modena and road cars respectively. In 1939 and 1940, Maserati cars became the first - and still the only - Italian cars to win the Indianapolis 500.
In 1946, the A6 set the brand on the public road, though racing was still the main business of the company and versions of that car were also used in racing. In 1957, after many years of trying, and with a pretty decent set of racing wins under the brand's bonnet, the trident motif was first across the line in the Formula One championship on a 250F. However, that was the same year the company had to get out of motorsport, again being financially in trouble.
Still in 1957, the company's first true road car was revealed, the 3500GT, a luxury coupé. Two years later came the 5000GT, which in turn bred the Mistral (1963), and then a new generation of V8-engined four-door saloons, with the first appearance of the Quattroporte name.
Between then and 1967, the two-seater Mexico and Ghibli were the sexy cars from the brand. But in the late 1960s, Citroën took control of Maserati, and oversaw the development of the Bora (1971), the Khamsin (1974) and the Quattroporte II which was stillborn when the Italian company went into receivership in 1975.
Under a revival of the marque by De Tomaso came the Quattroporte III which was to continue in production until recent years, the Biturbo 2-door coupé (1981), and the Shamal (1989). Also in 1989, Fiat bought half the company, and then completed the takeover in 1998, when Ferrari was given the job of reviving the brand's fortunes. The brand-new 3200GT was the first car under the new regime, a two-door coupé with body designed by Giugiaro.
The new Maserati Spyder was introduced at Frankfurt in 2001, followed by the coupé version. Both have 4.2-litre V8 engines and are the spearheads of Maserati's return to the US market after a hiatus of more than a decade.
Best Car: to the purist, probably the 3500GT launched in 1957.
Worst Car: Maybe the 1976-83 Kyalami, which never caught the public imagination.
Weirdest Car: The original 1963 Quattroporte, (pictured) which was stylistically a mess but was unique in being a four door saloon 'supercar'.