The 60th anniversary of the Maserati Quattroporte

A top three player in a chrome grille, with four doors, five seats and eight cylinders for the first time for Vmax at world record level: Maserati boss Adolfo Orsi knew the sensation would bring his financially troubled supercar brand back on the list of the purchase of the rich and powerful in 1964. In keeping with the 50th anniversary of the brand once founded by the racing driver Alfieri Maserati, the Quattroporte model went into series production. The simple and pleasant model name – previously also spelled 4 Porte – emphasized: four doors of a modern high-performance sports car with a 4.1-liter V8 made from an Italian engine design, something that had never existed before.

Maserati Quattroporte: Built in series

What was also new was that the Quattroporte, designed by the star designer Pietro Frua with a light glass house and a low waist, was not built individually as usual with supercars, but in series. Adolfo Orsi reckoned that the winners of the world economic growth – in 1964 the world economy grew by 7.3 percent, the highest growth rate to date – and the high society of the established age of the airplane could not resist its speed of 230 kilometers per hour Quattroporte.

In fact, Maserati sold 679 units of what was the world’s fastest luxury liner by 1969, but too few to consolidate Maserati’s finances. However, Gran Turismo is making automotive history as a “limousine with a racing spirit” (advertising slogan), and more than 75,000 Quattroportes have been built in six generations to date.

Hitting the spirit of the times and Italian emotions directly into the heart of the imagination, how this work could be achieved was something that those at Maserati understood very well 60 years ago. Alitalia has connected continents for the first time with DC-8 fast jets, the Shinkansen became the world’s first high-speed train in Japan, Germany’s Bundesbank issued the first banknotes with a higher denomination than 1,000 marks during an economic miracle, and Italian world stars like Sophia Loren or the young Luciano Pavarotti (with his debut at the opera house in Modena, then the new headquarters of Maserati), but also the 16-year-old Gigliola Cinquetti and Italy’s first victory at the Eurovision Grand Prix, announced spirit of hope.

Angry French businessmen just died with Facel-Vega, from England only expensive Lagondas, soothing Bentleys and luxurious Jaguars came, and from Germany only a six-cylinder Mercedes or a large Mercedes 600: What was missing at this festival of a limo. it was a V8 Berlina with supercar talents that also served as a representative car.

60 years of the Maserati Quattroporte: the design challenge of Pietro Frua

A welcome design challenge for Pietro Frua, which he solved with a five-meter-long Maserati four-door car in such a style-defining way that others took their attention away from the grandeur of the Quattroporte I. With the Glas 2600/3000 V8, Frua was allowed to transfer the Maserati concept to the coupé, which caused a stir as the Bavarian “Glaserati”. In fact, Frua’s lines were so elegant in the fast-moving 1960s that the introduction of the two-style headlights (1965) and the increase in output to 213 kW / 290 hp from a displacement of 4.7 liters was enough to maintain the appeal of The Italian V8 until 1969 stood upright.

Not even a steam hammer Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 could dethrone the current 240 km/h Maserati, Prince Rainier III. of Monaco such as Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev or Hollywood stars Stewart Granger, Anthony Quinn and Peter Ustinov. But when Citroen took over the financially poor carmaker from Modena in 1968, the curtain fell on the first Quattroporte a year later. Even the Berlina wearing Frua’s new design in 1971 did not change this decision.

Instead, Maserati first drove the Citroen SM, introduced in 1970, with an innovative four-camshaft V6, before this engine was also intended to ensure a suitable driving performance in the Quattroporte II, introduced in 1974. However, This second Quattroporte, now designed by cult designer Marcello Gandini at Bertone with a 147 kW/200 hp 3.0-liter V6, had no chance against new business jets like the Jaguar XJ V12. When Citroen also ran out of money and the Peugeot brand was absorbed into the PSA group, production of the Quattroporte II series did not resume. Instead, renowned sports car manufacturer Alejandro de Tomaso and Italian state-owned company Gepi Maserati took over. De Tomaso already had the 230 km/h V8-engined Deauville in its portfolio since 1971 as a replacement for the Quattroporte, but was now moving forward with the development of the Quattroporte III for the 1980s.

This time Giorgio Giugiaro was allowed to plan the 4.93 meter long Berlina as a stylistic work of art, with a V8 of 4.9 liters and 221 kW / 300 HP in the final stage of expansion to ensure optimal performance. The Quattroporte III couldn’t win the battle for first place in the series movement, but it was at the forefront until a 250 km/h group consisting of the BMW 750i, Mercedes 560 SE and Lexus LS temporarily settled the speed debate. in the late 1980s decided. Instead, the Quattroporte – especially in the evolutionary stage of the “Royale” introduced in 1986 – set new standards in Italian luxury, including glasses of the best Ferrari Riserva Spumante fridge-temper. However, neither this flagship model, which was produced in 2,241 units, nor the cheaper Maserati biturbo models could prevent the sale of the brand to Fiat in 1993.

From 1994, the biturbo V6 also powered the Quattroporte IV, which was only 4.55 meters long and its unique design came from Marcello Gandini. However, this four-door was irresistible to sports car fans with its 246 kW/335 hp V8, because all the more expensive V12s had no chance against this 270 km/h sprinter. Italian politicians and celebrities also loved the restrained contours of the four-door car, of which a total of 2,400 were sold.

From the elite production model to the “molecular” model, the Quattroporte made this level in generations V (from 2003) and VI (from 2013): According to Maserati, the total number of Quattroporte production is said to be more than 75,000 units today . To this end, Fiat first modernized the Modena plant, and from 2001 it also showed its flag in the United States again, and had Pininfarina tailor emotional-muscular shapes for the Quattroporte V, originally with 294 kW / 400 hp. It was a combination that pleased the President of Italy (the weapon was also available) as well as German speedsters, so from 2004 onwards more than 300 units were sold per year in this country for the first time. Since 2013, the 5.26 meter Quattroporte VI has been showing how it can run confidently, especially with all-wheel drive and a V8. Today, however, it is called “Arrivederci V8” – the V6 should be comforting – and we are waiting for the Folgore, which the Quattroporte VII starts in the electric future.