There are few more illustrious brands in the automotive world than Maserati. Images of luscious red sports cars spring to mind, as well as the svelte Grand Prix cars that began pre-war and culminated in the delicious 250F – surely one of the most beautiful Formula 1 cars ever created. But there was more to the brand than is commonly remembered, including a brief period as a motorcycle manufacturer.
Rodolfo Maserati, a railroad worker with a passion for precision engineering and powered machinery, had seven children with his wife Carolina Losi. Three of the boys, Alfieri, Ettore and Ernesto, opened a car workshop in Bologna in December 1914, and five months later Italy was at war. The company struggled through, making spark plugs and batteries, but post-war embarked on their real passion; the design and building of fine sporting cars. The first car, the Tipo 26, released in 1926, proudly displaying the Trident symbol taken from the statue of Neptune in their home town of Bologna.
