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69-615: The series consists of events in various European countries which feature two races over a weekend. In its first year, the races had an identical format to the Spanish GT Championship, with two 200 km races, the first held on Saturday and the second on the Sunday. Three of the six rounds were joint events for the Open and the Spanish GT Championship. In 2007, the first race, known as Pro-Am , covers approximately 200 km distance, while

138-595: A transaxle gearbox. In turn Coupé and Spyder were replaced by the GranTurismo and GranCabrio . Meanwhile, two new models were shown to the public: the MC12 road supersports and successful GT racer with a Ferrari Enzo –derived chassis and engine and the new Quattroporte , a luxury saloon with the 4.2-litre V8 engine of the Gran Turismo. In 2001, Ferrari decided to change all of the old tooling and installed high-tech devices in

207-555: A 6-speed gearbox. 2.0-litre, 24-valve V6 engines were also added to the Shamal range. In October 1989, De Tomaso bought the remaining GEPI quota. In December, FIAT entered in Maserati's history. Maserati and Innocenti were separated; Innocenti Milano S.p.A., the company that sold Innocenti cars, continued its business under a 51% FIAT Auto ownership. All of the Modena and Lambrate plants went to

276-444: A V16 town car for Benito Mussolini before Ferry Porsche of Volkswagen built one for Adolf Hitler . This failed, and the plans were scrapped. Once peace was restored, Maserati returned to making cars; the A6 series did well in the post-war racing scene. Key people joined the Maserati team. Alberto Massimino , a former FIAT engineer with both Alfa Romeo and Ferrari experience, oversaw

345-664: A combined circuit of the road course and the then newly constructed NASCAR speedway), Wellington in New Zealand and Mount Fuji in Japan . The Championship was well-supported by the factory European teams of Ford , BMW , Maserati and Alfa Romeo (until Alfa withdrew following the European races), but was embroiled in controversy. Unfortunately, the leading BMW Motorsport teams and the Ford Europe backed Eggenberger Motorsport had developed

414-502: A dozen Quattroporte IIs were ever produced, all with the V6. The replacement for the successful Ghibli was the Bertone -designed Khamsin , a front-engine grand tourer introduced in 1972 and produced until 1974; it combined the traditional Maserati V8 GT layout with modern independent suspension , unibody construction, and refined Citroën technologies such as DIRAVI power steering. Meanwhile,

483-408: A dozen to a few hundred cars a year. Chief engineer Giulio Alfieri took charge of the project and turned the 3.5-litre inline six from the 350S into a road-going engine. Launched with a Carrozzeria Touring 2+2 coupé aluminium body over superleggera structure, a steel-bodied short wheelbase Vignale 3500 GT Spyder open top version followed in 1959. The 3500 GT's success, with over 2,200 made,

552-411: A host of new model variants. The same year, the ageing Quattroporte III was updated and marketed as the luxurious Royale , built to order in an handful of examples a year; its discontinuation in 1990 marked the disappearance of Maserati's four-cam V8 engine, a design that could trace its roots back to the 450S racer and the legendary 5000 GT. In 1987, the 2.8-litre 430 topped the saloon range. 1988 brought

621-585: A long and short wheelbase of the Biturbo platform. During 1984, Chrysler bought a 5% share in Maserati. Following an agreement between De Tomaso's friend and Chrysler head Lee Iacocca , a joint venture was signed. Maserati would go on to produce a car for export to the American market, the Chrysler TC by Maserati , with Chrysler-sourced engines. In July of that same year, a merger between Maserati and Nuova Innocenti

690-467: A motor manufacturer. This can sometimes be a motor racing team running cars of behalf of the manufacturer or cars being run directly by the factory. Below is a timeline of manufacturer entries from the beginning of the championship in 2005. Maserati Maserati S.p.A. ( Italian: [mazeˈraːti] ) is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914 in Bologna , Italy,

759-453: A newly created company, the still existent Maserati S.p.A.; 49% of it was owned by FIAT Auto and 51% was controlled by De Tomaso through the old company, Officine Alfieri Maserati. In the early 1990s, a mid-engine sports car was developed, the Chubasco  [ it ] — which was to début in 1992. It featured Gandini-designed body, a V8 powertrain, and a backbone chassis . The project

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828-785: A single season in 1987 as the World Touring Car Championship and most recently a world championship (WTCC) that has run between 2005 and 2017. Following the 2017 season, an agreement was reached for the FIA WTCC to become FIA WTCR and use the TCR technical regulations. The first World Touring Car Championship, which was open to Group A Touring Cars, was held in 1987 concurrent to the long-running European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). Additional rounds were held outside Europe at Bathurst and Calder Park Raceway in Australia (Calder used

897-769: A situation of "you don't protest us, we won't protest you" . While this worked well in the European races, when the championship landed in Australia the local teams took exception to the Europeans somewhat liberal interpretation of the Group A rules. Subsequently, the Eggenberger cars were protested against and eventually disqualified from the Bathurst 1000 results. The championship was provisionally awarded to West German Eggenberger Ford Sierra RS500 drivers Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz . It

966-570: A traditional V8 drivetrain, 1,100 units of the Indy were made. In 1971, the Bora was the company's first series production mid-engine model, an idea agreed with administrator Guy Malleret shortly after the 1968 takeover. The Bora ended Maserati's reputation for producing fast but technologically out of date cars, being the first Maserati with four wheel independent suspension . In contrast, competitor Lamborghini had used independent suspension in 1964. In 1972,

1035-490: Is a characteristic symbol of the company's original home city. Alfieri Maserati died in 1932, but three other brothers, Bindo, Ernesto, and Ettore kept the firm going. In 1937, the remaining Maserati brothers sold their shares in the company to the Adolfo Orsi family, who, in 1940, relocated the company headquarters to their home town of Modena , where it remains to this day. The brothers continued in engineering roles with

1104-607: Is structured under FCA Italy S.p.A., which itself is structured under FCA, whereas Maserati is structured solely under FCA. In addition, in an interview with Wester in 2015, he clarified that his "role at Maserati is different from that in the Alfa Romeo as the latter is better integrated into the FIAT Group" and that "the new Alfa car won't share any parts with the current Maserati model. I'm not planning any technical merging of these two makes." In 2013, Maserati started its expansion with

1173-555: The 1973 oil crisis put the brakes on the ambitious expansion of Maserati; demand for fuel-hungry sports cars and grand tourers shrank drastically. Austerity measures in Italy meant that the domestic market contracted by 60–70%. All of the main Italian GT car manufacturers were heavily affected, having to lay off workers in order to empty lots of unsold cars. Maserati received the hardest blow, as its home market sales accounted for over half of

1242-464: The 2005 , 2006 and 2007 Drivers and Manufacturers Championships. In 2008, Frenchman Yvan Muller won the title after Race 1 in Macau in his SEAT León TDI . This marked the first time an FIA sanctioned world championship, in any category, being won by a diesel powered racing car. SEAT León TDI won both championships for a second time in 2009, this time in the hands of Gabriele Tarquini . 2010 marked

1311-476: The 4CLT , the A6 series, the 8CLT, and, pivotally for the future success of the company, the A6GCS . The famous Argentinian grand prix driver Juan-Manuel Fangio raced for Maserati for a number of years in the 1950s, achieving a number of stunning victories including winning the world championship in 1957 in the 250F . Other racing projects in the 1950s were the 200S , 300S , 350S , and 450S , followed in 1961 by

1380-751: The Ferrari F430 Challenge, the Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, and the Marcos Mantis . A GTS class was created to house the FIA GT3 class, consisting mainly of Dodge Viper Competition Coupes and Lamborghini Gallardo GT3s. Starting in 2015, the International GT Open began using only FIA GT3 -spec cars with 2 sub-categories. The Am category is only for drivers given the "Bronze" designation by GT Sport. Pro-Am requires one Bronze driver with no restrictions on

1449-600: The GT Cup Open Europe with some race weekends also featuring TCR Europe and the Alpine Elf Europa Cup . Past support series have included the SEAT León Supercopa (2014-2016), and Formula V8 3.5 Series (2016). Each race consists of a field of grand touring-style cars broken into different classes based on power and weight. For 2006, two classes were used, known as GTA and GTB. GTA was equivalent to

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1518-558: The Karif , a two-seater, based on the short wheelbase Spyder chassis. Meanwhile, the Biturbo name was dropped altogether, as updated coupés and saloons were updated and became the 222 and 422. 1989 marked the reintroduction of an eight-cylinder grand tourer: the Shamal , built on a modified short wheelbase Biturbo chassis, clad in new muscular bodywork styled by Marcello Gandini . It was powered by an all-new twin-turbocharged 32-valve V8 engine paired to

1587-547: The Ligier JS2 . With secure financial backing, new models were launched and built in much greater numbers than years prior. Citroën borrowed Maserati's expertise and engines for the SM and other vehicles, and Maserati incorporated Citroën's technology, particularly in hydraulics . Engineer Giulio Alfieri was key to many of the ambitious designs of this period. The first new arrival was the 1969 Indy —a Vignale-bodied four-seater GT with

1656-583: The Maserati GranTurismo and two SUV models, the Maserati Levante (the first ever Maserati SUV) and the Maserati Grecale . Maserati has placed a yearly production output cap at 75,000 vehicles globally. The Maserati brothers, Alfieri (1887–1932), Bindo (1883–1980), Carlo (1881–1910), Ettore (1894–1990), and Ernesto (1898–1975), were all involved with automobiles from the beginning of

1725-842: The Quattroporte VI , which was designed to better compete with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class . This was followed by the introduction of the Ghibli , which was slated to compete against the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the BMW 5 Series . On May 6, 2014, Maserati confirmed production of the Levante SUV and the Alfieri (previously a 2+2 concept sports car that was named after Alfieri Maserati). The Alfieri has not started production as yet. At this event, it

1794-458: The United States . Technical rules were modified in 2011 to allow 1.6L turbo gasoline engines, and the 2.0L gasoline and turbodiesel engines were outlawed in 2012. In 2014, new car regulations were introduced with the name TC1, with larger wings and more engine power. The old 1.6L turbo cars were renamed TC2 for a year and were dropped for 2015. The series adopted TCR regulations for 2018 and

1863-432: The share capital . On 22 May 1975, a press release from Citroën management abruptly announced Maserati had been put into liquidation . The workforce immediately picketed the factory, but production was not halted. Trade unions , the mayor of Modena , and local politicians mobilised to save the 800 jobs; industry minister Carlo Donat-Cattin even flew to Paris to meet Citroën chairman Francois Rollier . An agreement

1932-420: The 20,000th Maserati, a Quattroporte V, left the factory. In the second quarter of 2007, Maserati made profit for the first time in 17 years under FIAT ownership. On January 22, 2010, FIAT announced that it had created a new partnership/brand group for Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Abarth. The group was led by Harald J. Wester, the current CEO of Maserati. Sergio Marchionne stated that "[the] purpose of bringing

2001-449: The 20th century. Alfieri, Bindo, and Ernesto built 2-litre Grand Prix cars for Diatto . In 1926, Diatto suspended the production of race cars, leading to the creation of the first Maserati and the founding of the Maserati marque. One of the first Maseratis, driven by Alfieri, won the 1926 Targa Florio . Maserati began making race cars with 4, 6, 8, and 16 cylinders (two straight-eights mounted parallel to one another). The trident logo of

2070-510: The 3500 GT evolved into the Sebring , bodied by Vignale and based on the shorter wheelbase convertible chassis. Next came the two-seater Mistral coupé in 1963 and Spider in 1964, both powered by a six-cylinder engine and styled by Pietro Frua . In 1963, the company's first saloon was launched, the Quattroporte , also styled by Frua. If the 5000 GT inaugurated the marque's first road-going V8,

2139-399: The Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Abarth brands under the same leadership is to emphasize and leverage the value of the shared qualities of the three brands in terms of their sporting characteristics and performance." Abarth stayed under Wester's leadership until 2013, leaving Maserati and Alfa Romeo in the brand group, led by Wester. Although Maserati and Alfa Romeo are in a brand group, Alfa Romeo

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2208-565: The Bora was transformed to the Merak , now employing a Tipo 114 SM-derived V6 enlarged to 3.0-litres. Citroën never developed a 4-door version of the SM – instead Maserati developed the Quattroporte II , which shared most of its mechanical parts with the SM, including the mid-engine, front-wheel-drive layout , and six headlight arrangement. To power this large car, Alfieri developed a V8 engine from

2277-507: The Championship. A silhouette formula championship (proposed by Ecclestone) was announced by the FIA for 1988 which would have seen specialist racing chassis carrying bodywork resembling production roadcars powered by the about to be outlawed Formula One 1.5 litre turbo regulations, but manufacturers did not support the concept. Only one car, based on an Alfa Romeo 164 with a 3.5 litre V10 engine

2346-633: The FIA's points system used in the FIA Formula One Championship and the FIA World Rally Championship. Between 2005 and 2009, the championship adopted the following points scoring system: For the inaugural 1987 season, the championship used the following points scoring system: As per FIA WTCC all-time statistics on the official site of the WTCC. The WTCC features entries with the backing, funding and technical support of

2415-671: The GT2 class used in the FIA GT Championship , but it also allowed non-homologated cars provide they obey the FIA GT2 technical regulations. Most of the field was made up of Ferrari F430 GTs and Porsche 911 GT3 -RSRs. Non-homologated cars like the Mosler MT900 R and the SEAT Cupra GT were also competitive. The GTB class consisted of cars usually from a manufacturer's one-make cup series, like

2484-459: The Maserati car company, designed by Mario Maserati, is based on the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna 's Piazza Maggiore . In 1920, one of the Maserati brothers used this symbol in the logo at the suggestion of family friend Marquis Diego de Sterlich. It was considered particularly appropriate for the sports car company due to the fact that Neptune represents strength and vigour; additionally the statue

2553-609: The Modena factory. Since early 2002, Maserati once again entered the United States market, which has quickly become its largest market worldwide. The company has also re-entered the racing arena with their Trofeo and, in December 2003, the MC12 (formerly known as the MCC), which was developed according to FIA GT regulations and has since competed with great success in the world FIA GT championship, winning

2622-465: The Quattroporte's Tipo 107 4.2-litre DOHC V8 was the forefather of all Maserati V8s up to 1990. The Ghia -designed Ghibli coupé was launched in 1967. It was powered by a 4.7-litre dry sump version of Maserati's quad cam V8. The Ghibli Spyder and high performance 4.9-litre Ghibli SS followed. In 1968, Maserati was taken over by Citroën . Adolfo Orsi remained the nominal president, but Maserati

2691-412: The SM's V6 on the behest of Factory Manager Guy Malleret. The engine was rated at 260 PS (190 kW; 260 hp) and fitted to a lightly modified SM, which proved that the chassis could easily handle the power increase. Citroën's and Maserati's financial difficulties hampered the type homologation process; the development costs for the stillborn saloon further aggravated Maserati's situation. Only

2760-466: The Stellantis merger in 2021. In July 1997, FIAT sold a 50% share in the company to Maserati's long-time arch-rival Ferrari (Ferrari itself being owned by FIAT ). In 1999, Ferrari took full control, making Maserati its luxury division. A new factory was built, replacing the existing 1940s-era facility. The steps taken by the new parent company resulted in the improved Quattroporte Evoluzione which

2829-525: The co-driver. All other entries are scored overall with the only driver restriction being a ban on having two Platinum drivers. Title won on number of wins count back. World Touring Car Championship The FIA World Touring Car Championship was an international touring car championship promoted by Eurosport Events and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). It has had several different incarnations, including

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2898-490: The company's headquarters are now in Modena , and its emblem is a trident . The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Maserati was initially associated with Ferrari . In May 2014, due to ambitious plans and product launches, Maserati sold a record of over 3,000 cars in one month. This caused them to increase production of the Quattroporte and Ghibli models. In addition to the Ghibli and Quattroporte, Maserati offers

2967-544: The company. Racing successes continued, even against the giants of German racing, Auto Union and Mercedes . In back-to-back wins in 1939 and 1940, an 8CTF won the Indianapolis 500 , making Maserati the only Italian manufacturer ever to do so. The second world war then intervened and Maserati abandoned car making to produce components for the Italian war effort. During this time, Maserati worked in fierce competition to construct

3036-673: The day of taking over the business. Beginning in 1976, new models were introduced, sharing their underpinnings—but not their engines—with De Tomaso cars; first came the Kyalami grand tourer, derived from the De Tomaso Longchamp , restyled by Frua and powered by Maserati's own V8. Following the Kyalami was the Giugiaro -designed Quattroporte III based on the De Tomaso Deauville , which

3105-426: The design of all racing models for the next ten years. With him joined engineers Giulio Alfieri , Vittorio Bellentani , and Gioacchino Colombo . The focus was on the best engines and chassis to succeed in car racing. These new projects saw the last contributions of the Maserati brothers, who, after their 10-year contract with Orsi expired, went on to form O.S.C.A. This new team at Maserati worked on several projects:

3174-695: The drivers standings. This gave Chevrolet a clean sweep of both titles. The 2012 championship saw Chevrolet pick up where they left off in 2011, leading to a second year of championship clean sweeps, this time with Rob Huff taking the drivers title. The modern series has held events based all around the world including races in Argentina , Morocco , Hungary , Germany , Russia , France , Portugal , Slovakia , Czech Republic , Japan , China , Thailand and Qatar with former races in Brazil , Great Britain , Italy , Macau , Netherlands , Spain , Sweden , Turkey and

3243-499: The famous Tipo 61 . Maserati retired from factory racing participation because of the Guidizzolo tragedy during the 1957 Mille Miglia , though they continued to build cars for privateers . Maserati became more and more focused on building road-going grand tourers . The 1957 3500 GT marked a turning point in the marque's history, as its first ground-up grand tourer design and first series-produced car. Production jumped from

3312-450: The lyrics "My Maserati does one eighty-five." The 1980s saw the company largely abandoning the mid-engine sports car in favour of a compact front-engine , rear-drive coupé, the Biturbo . Of fairly conventional construction, the Biturbo's highlight was its twin-turbocharged V6 engine , the first for a production car . This engine, descending from the 90° V6 engineered by Giulio Alfieri,

3381-460: The public due to the intense competition and Eurosport live broadcasts. At the request of interested manufacturers, the ETCC was changed to the current WTCC beginning with the 2005 season, continuing to use Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 regulations. 2004 ETCC Champion Andy Priaulx and his BMW 320i were the dominant driver-car pairing during the first three years of the revived championship, winning

3450-623: The second race is 150 km and known as GT Open . The only exception is the Open GT Barcelona, which is a single 300 km race. In early seasons, a few races have been a part of the World Touring Car Championship support package. Now the first race of a weekend is 70 minutes long and the second is 60 minutes. The current support series are the Euroformula Open Championship (formerly Spanish F3 Open) and

3519-426: The sole owner. In 1994, the aging Quattroporte III/Royale was replaced by the Quattroporte IV which was ultimately based on Biturbo underpinnings. Styled by Marcello Gandini, it was initially available with a V6 engine shared with the Ghibli II. A more powerful V8 variant was made available in 1996 and "Seicilindri" and "Ottocilindri" (six and eight cylindres in Italian) badging was introduced to distinguish between

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3588-449: The start of Chevrolet 's dominance of the championship with its Cruze model. Frenchman Yvan Muller became World Champion, fending off tough competition from Gabriele Tarquini and Andy Priaulx to win the first world championship for Chevrolet . Muller continued his success into 2011, winning both drivers championship and helping Chevrolet to its second manufacturers championship after Muller's two teammates finished second and third in

3657-467: The teams championship three consecutive times from 2005 to 2007. The MC12 has also been raced in various national GT championship as well as in the American Le Mans series. The MC12 is based on the Enzo Ferrari sports car; 50 street-legal homologation models (roadsters and coupés) have been sold. The Maserati and Alfa Romeo group, under FIAT Group , started in 2005, when Maserati was split off from Ferrari and partnered with Alfa Romeo. On 9 June 2005,

3726-436: The total—in contrast with Ferrari 's 20%. In this situation, the only Maserati automobile that continued to sell in appreciable numbers was the small-displacement Merak. In 1974, with the 1973–75 recession at its climax, things took a turn for the worse. Citroën went bankrupt and its incorporation into PSA Peugeot Citroën begun. The year closed with domestic sales tumbling from 1973's 360 to 150 units, and losses exceeding

3795-432: The two models. The engine of the V8 model was a development of the Shamal's V8. Over two decades after the ill-fated Chrysler TC by Maserati during Chrysler's brief ownership stake in Maserati, the two companies became interconnected again when FIAT purchased majority control of Chrysler in 2011 as a result of Chrysler's bankruptcy . Maserati and Citroen also later interconnected for the first time since 1975, following

3864-513: Was built before it was abandoned. In 2001, the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) was resumed with support from the FIA, the precursor to the current WTCC. In 2001, the Italian Superturismo Championship became the FIA European Super Touring Championship, with an extra class for Super Production cars alongside the main Super Touring class. In 2002, this evolved into the brand new FIA European Touring Car Championship, using Super 2000 rules, dominated by Alfa Romeo and BMW , but popular with

3933-414: Was cancelled, as part owner Fiat deemed the project to be too close to Ferrari in the marketplace. Starting in 1990, the entire range of the Biturbo received a facelift designed by Marcello Gandini, on the lines of the Shamal's styling. The last version of the Biturbo coupé was called Racing. It was a transitional model in which several features to be found on the upcoming Ghibli were tested. The Ghibli II

4002-476: Was controlled by its new owner. The relationship started as a joint venture, made public in January 1968, in which Maserati would design and manufacture an engine for Citroën's upcoming flagship called SM . Launched in 1970, the SM was a four-seat front-wheel-drive coupé, powered by a Maserati Tipo C114 2.7-litre 90° V6 engine ; this engine and its gearbox had been used in other vehicles, such as rally -prepared DSs used by Bob Neyret in Bandama Rally , and in

4071-513: Was critical to Maserati's survival in the years following withdrawal from racing. The 3500 GT also provided the underpinnings for the small-volume V8-engined 5000 GT , another seminal car for Maserati. Born from the Shah of Persia 's whim of owning a road car powered by the Maserati 450S racing engine, it became one of the fastest and most expensive cars of its days. The third to the thirty-fourth and last example produced were powered by Maserati's first purely road-going V8 engine design. In 1962,

4140-462: Was decided; it was carried out in 1985. Chrysler upped its stake to 15.6% by underwriting three quarters of a 75 billion Lire capital raise in 1986. New Biturbo-based cars and model evolutions were launched year after year. In 1984, it was the 228, a large coupé built on the long wheelbase saloon chassis, with a new 2.8-litre version of the twin-turbocharged V6. Weber Fuel injection was phased in starting in 1986, bringing improved reliability and

4209-427: Was fitted in a large number of models, all sharing key components; every new Maserati launched up to the 1990s would be based on the Biturbo's platform. The Biturbo family was extremely successful at exploiting the aspirational image of the Maserati name—selling 40,000 units. In 1983 and 1984, the range was extended to include saloons (the 425 and 420) and a cabriolet (the Zagato -bodied Spyder), respectively on

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4278-421: Was held in 1992 and 1993, using the Barchetta Corsa racing version; the road-going Barchetta Stradale was never put into production. Just 17 units of the Barchetta were produced. Between 1992 and 1994, all models save for the Ghibli and Shamal were progressively discontinued. On 19 May 1993, 17 years after having rescued it from liquidation, Alejandro De Tomaso sold his 51% stake in Maserati to FIAT, which became

4347-470: Was introduced at the March 1998 Geneva Motor Show . In 1998, a new chapter began in Maserati's history when the company launched the 3200 GT . This two-door coupé is powered by a 3.2 L twin-turbocharged V8 derived from the Shamal engine, which is rated at 370 horsepower (280 kW). In 2002 the 3200 GT was replaced by the Maserati Coupé and Spyder; evolved from the 3200, these cars used an all-new, naturally aspirated , dry sump 4.2-litre V8 with

4416-421: Was introduced in 1976 and put on sale in 1979. The Bora's sales dwindled down; the Khamsin was discontinued between 1982 and 1983. Progressively stripped of its Citroën-derived parts, the Merak continued to sell over one hundred units a year, until 1982. Despite the downturn in sales, awareness of the brand increased during this time as a result of the popular song Life's Been Good by Joe Walsh , which contained

4485-441: Was introduced in 1992. It was a six-cylinder coupé, with modified Biturbo underpinnings dressed by new Gandini bodywork (toned down from the Shamal) and the latest evolution of the 24-valve twin-turbocharged V6 with record breaking specific output. The underpinnings of the stillborn Chubasco gave birth to the Maserati Barchetta , a small open top mid-engine sports car styled by Synthesis Design's Carlo Gaino. A one-make racing series

4554-462: Was not until March 1988 when their Bathurst disqualification was finalised that results were confirmed and Italian Schnitzer Motorsport driver Roberto Ravaglia in a BMW M3 was declared the champion. The Entrants Championship was won by the Eggenberger Texaco Ford No 7 entry. The WTCC lasted only one year and was a victim of its own success — the FIA (and Bernie Ecclestone ) feared it would take money away from Formula One and stopped sanctioning

4623-439: Was reached in June, after several meetings and assemblies. During one of these meetings, Citroën liquidators disclosed that a possible Italian buyer had showed up, and the name of Alejandro de Tomaso was put forth for the first time. Citroën accepted to suspend liquidation as requested by the Italian government, which on its part guaranteed six months of special redundancy fund to pay the salaries. On 8 August 1975, an agreement

4692-729: Was renamed World Touring Car Cup (WTCR). Official factory teams are not allowed, though many drivers and teams receive backing from manufacturers. The WTCC uses Super 2000 and Diesel 2000 cars, as cost control is a major theme in the technical regulation. Super 2000 engines are 1.6 L turbo-charged 4-cylinder engines producing approximately 380 bhp. Wheels are 18" in diameter, and large front and rear aerodynamic devices are permitted. Many technologies that have featured in production cars are not allowed, including variable valve timing , variable intake geometry , ABS brakes and traction control system . Currently, all WTCC races are awarded equal points. From 2010, these points have been based on

4761-574: Was signed at the Ministry of Industry in Rome, and property of Maserati passed from Citroën to Italian state-owned holding company GEPI and Alejandro de Tomaso , an Argentinian industrialist and former racing driver, became president and CEO. As of December 1979, GEPI's quota amounted to 88.75% of Maserati, the remaining 11.25% stake was being controlled by de Tomaso through a holding company which grouped his automotive interests in Maserati and Innocenti . After de Tomaso bought Maserati in August 1975, he dismissed long time Chief Engineer Alfieri on

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