Maserati: A History

Maserati is one of the greatest marques in the history of motorsport and the company's cars were raced by famous drivers such as Tazio Nuvolari, Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss. This deeply researched and lavishly illustrated book chronicles the design, development and competition history of the Maserati racing and sports cars, from the first appearance of a Maserati in the 1926 Targa Florio road race in Sicily to the final entry of a rear-engined car at Le Mans in 1965. These competition cars were built by racing enthusiasts for racing enthusiasts. Drawing on his own memories of 1950s Grand Prix racing, from factory archives and the memories of drivers, engineers and mechanics, Anthony Pritchard chronicles the full story of the Maserati brothers and their early days, how Alfieri Maserati and his brothers created the first racing cars, their successes and failures, their battles with the British ERAs in the 1930s, the contest between Maserati, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz in post-war days and Fangio's final World Championship in 1957.

Maserati drivers -- including Emmanuel de Graffenried, Roy Salvadori and Bruce Halford -- describe racing with this marque and the story is rounded off with information on the works Cooper-Maseratis from 1966-67, other Maserati-powered cars, and the de Tomaso-sponsored Barchetta competition cars built in 1992. Appendices provide details of key personalities, Grand Prix car chassis information and specifications of the competition cars. The 230 monochrome photographs of the Maserati brothers and Maserati cars from the turn of the 20th century are supplemented by 20 period colour photographs of these great cars in action in the 1950s. Anthony Pritchard is a much-published writer of motor racing history, with a preference for Italian subjects. He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the cars, drivers and racing of the past half century.