14 Oct MASERATI CENTENARY
A unique exhibition dedicated to the Centennial of Maserati was recently inaugurated in Modena. “Maserati 100 – A Century of Pure Italian Luxury Sports Cars” retraces the story of the manufacturer through an exhibition featuring some of the Trident marque’s most significant road and racing cars, plus a highly engaging show employing 19 projectors, enabling visitors to relive Maserati’s most significant moments and learn about the individuals who shaped its history. Staged in the futuristic Enzo Ferrari Museum, a stone’s throw from the Maserati headquarters in Viale Ciro Menotti, the exhibition will run until January 2015. Considering the historic value of the models exhibited, this is the greatest exhibition of Maserati cars ever staged anywhere in the world.
The inauguration of the exhibition was attended by cousins Carlo and Alfieri Maserati, the respective sons of Ettore and Ernesto Maserati, the two brothers who in 1914, together with Alfieri Maserati, founded the company that still bears their name. The guest of honour at the inauguration was the legendary Sir Stirling Moss, the 1950s Maserati racing driver who scooped incredible victories for the Trident marque. The curator of the exhibition is Adolfo Orsi jr, grandson and son of Adolfo and Omer Orsi respectively, owners of Maserati between 1937 and 1967. Twenty-one Maseratis are on permanent display for the duration of the exhibition and approximately 30 will be put on view over the course of the six-month run.
The Maserati exhibition encapsulates the two spirits of the company: the initial “sports” vocation that characterised the period from the early 1920s until the end of the 1950s, followed by a shift in focus to road-going models, a period that testified to the company’s coming-of-age as a car manufacturer. Among the highlights of the exhibition are cars including the Tipo 26 – the first car to sport the Maserati marque – and the V4 Sport Zagato, which set the world speed record in 1929 driven by Baconin Borzacchini. The exhibition would not be complete without the legendary Maserati 250 F and the Tipo 60 ‘Birdcage’. The road cars on show include Maserati’s first ever road car, the A6 1500 of 1947, the first granturismo, the 3500 GT of 1957, and the first series of the ‘world’s fastest saloon’, the Quattroporte of 1965.
FMM has five Maseratis in its collection: a 1938 6CM, a 1948 4CLT, a 1954 250F, a 1956 150S and a 1985 Quattroporte, which was owned by Anthonij Rupert. Some of these cars are on currently on view. MM
