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Maserati News |
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| Since the Maserati factory in Modena re-opened
in May there have been a few rumours floating around that Maserati may once again go
racing. An article in prestigious Autoweek Magazine of June 8, 1998 had this to
say: Maserati building an engine for the Indy Racing League. Couldn =t be. Could it?taken from Autoweek Magazine June, 1999: The hot rumour out of Italy has Maserati supplying an engine for the IRL in 2001, in conjunction with the company =s US market return. Officially, Maserati is saying it has no plans to enter the IRL. But the buzz increased Memorial Day weekend when Piero Lardi Ferrari, Ferrari SpA vice chairman, was at Indianapolis as Gian Paolo Dallara=s guest, hosted in the IMS/IRL suite.Dallara whose chassis Eddie Cheever drove to the 500 win, has traditionally been Ferrari =s motorsports partner, except in F1. Dallara designed and built the Ferrari 333SP World Sports Car.Maserati sources said if the company decides to race in IRL, the decision will come in the next six months, with Dallara as a special adviser. The final decision rests with Pino D =Agostino, who was chief engineer on the Alfa Romeo Indy car effort in the 1980sSupplier base shake-up for Ferrari and Maserati taken from Automotive International, by Anthony Lewis July, 1998 - Ferrari's control of Maserati will lead to a shake-up in the supplier network to the sister marques, according to new Maserati managing director Paolo Marinsek. More than 1,000 suppliers are shared between Modena, base of Maserati, and Maranello, home to Ferrari. "Rationalization s a priority," said Marinsek, who is also managing director of Ferrari, reporting to Luca di Montezemolo. He said the supplier vase needed to be reduced to a maximum of 400 companies and he would not rule out cutting it further to 250 or even 200.Marinsek said: "It is an opportunity for quality suppliers to work for us. It does not mean just Ferrari suppliers also becoming Maserati suppliers." He added he was looking for supplier synergy, "not the same components but using the same suppliers and logistics" for both companies." Ferrari took operating control of Maserati last July. It has refitted the Modena factory with a new assembly line, installed a component delivery system and is now ready to relaunch Maserati across the globe, with the US earmarked for entry in 2001. By then, Marinsek plans to be building more Maseratis than Ferraris. Current predictions are for 4,500 units a year by 2003; last year Maserati produced just 700 cars. Eventual production could be as much as 7,000 annually and Marinsek's ambitions could push output even higher. Ferrari currently builds 3,500 cars a year. Marinsek will make extensive use of Ferrari's global dealer network and expects 80% of all Ferrari dealers to sell Maseratis also. He said: "We want to create strong synergies with the Ferrari network around the world. The guidelines for dealers will allow us to meld the two. The corporate identity of each is very important." He added Ferrari could manage and control Maserati without any conflict. Maserati currently has a presence in just 17 markets worldwide, with Italy taking 30%. Marinsek said: "Relaunching Maserati is an important job and we have a very clear policy to renew the product." First of the new products will be a coupe, which will be unveiled in September at the Paris show. Marinsek said: "The coupe will be like magnificent Masertis of old n it is fantastic." He refused to confirm the name Mistral had already been chosen.A spyder version will arrive in 2001 in time for the US market re-entry. By then, a replacement for the Quattroporte sedan will also be ready. Andrea Zappia, sales director, said: "Maserati will always be a three-product marque with a sedan, coupe and spyder." * Maserati hopes to return to profitability by 2001. Last year the company suffered losses of L21 billion ($12 million) on sales of L25 bn. In this time the assembly line has been completely updated at a cost of L20 bn. Legal problems with former owner de Tomaso in the US means Maserati is locked out of its potentially most lucrative market until 2000. |
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