How time flies. One day you are a fledgling car-maker working out of a dark garage in Bologna, Italy, the next you are an international icon with 100 years of history behind you.
Italian luxury car-maker Maserati has celebrated its 100th birthday this year at the famed Monterey Car Week at the Pebble Beach Concourse d'Elegance, where there was a rich collection of cars on display, including a 1954 Pininfarina-designed A6GCS Spyder – which took the prize for the best Granturismo – a 1955 Maserati 250F Monoposto, and a 1956 Maserati 300S Fantuzzi Spyder.
The next generation of Maseratis was represented too, with the likes of the stunning Alfieri concept 2+2 on display. The concept was introduced at the Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion held at the Mazda Raceway, where the head of Automobile Global Design at Fiat Chrysler, Lorenzo Ramaciotti, said "This car has a racing breed," adding that it has "a kick of poetry."
The Monterey Car Week also included auctions of classic cars, among which was a 1969 Maserati Ghibli 4.7 Spyder that Bonhams sold at auction for US$841,000, and a 1949 Maserati A66 1500/3C Berlinetta that brought US$891,000. At Gooding and Company, the Maserati 250F that was victorious in the hands of by Sir Stirling Moss at Monza in 1956, sold for US$4.2 Million.
All in all, it has been a fitting celebration of 100 years as a car-maker.
For Maserati it all started on December 1, 1914 when founder Alfieri Maserati and his brothers, Bindo, Carlo, Ettore and Ernesto set up shop and became heavily involved in motorsport, producing grand prix cars for Italian car-maker Diatto.
Quickly followed by Maserati-branded cars, the motorsport connections grew deeper and deeper and countless victories on the racetrack and on the road followed.
Maserati as a brand is now firmly stamped into the early history of the motorcar and is one of the few names in the car business that has survived through to the present.