Maserati: Open Air Emotions

MODERNA, Italy - July 2, 2009: Maserati open-top models have been the main attraction at two events paying tribute to Maserati's heritage that took place, within a few days, on different continents.

They are the fourteenth edition of the prestigious international event "Vernasca Silver Flag", held in the hills near Piacenza, Italy, and the equally famous event "Le Belle Macchine d'Italia" which took place on the race track in Pocono, in Pennsylvania. The renowned Italian race and the spectacular reunion in the United States were dedicated this year to Maserati on the 70th anniversary of the first of Maserati's two wins at the Indianapolis 500 and the 80th anniversary of the first world record set by Maserati.

A unique and unparalleled passion on the part of Maserati collectors in Europe and in the United States was on display on these two weekends.

Younger generations of collectors, clients and friends of the marque have been enthralled by such a passion, which is precisely the winning recipe of Maserati today: never let its glorious past be covered by dust, invest in it and take inspiration from it to build the future.

For a manufacturer who chose to gain fame on the race track and has, over the years, continued to produce only high performance sports cars, open-top models represent a synthesis of passion, elegance and total driver involvement. Driving a Maserati convertible - spyder or cabriolet - is both a way of experiencing the excitement of driving an open-air barchetta in the guise of the drivers of the golden days of racing, as well as being able to slip along the streets of the world's most fashionable locations, and feel at one with the power being transmitted to the road, the sound of the engine blowing free on the wind.

Absolute protagonist of the Vernasca Silver Flag was the 8CM, once owned by Tazio Nuvolari and now property of the Donington Museum in the United Kingdom. Among the other extraordinary Maserati vehicles featured, a special mention goes to two single-seaters 4CM and two 250F, the car that Juan Manuel Fangio drove to clinch the Formula One world championship for Maserati in 1957.

Taking the wheel of these stunning classic cars were legends

such as Sir Stirling Moss, the uncrowned motor racing king of the 1950s and 1960s responsible for extraordinary victories at the helm of Maserati vehicles, as well as the legendary Maria Teresa de Filippis, who in 1958 became the first woman driver to compete in Formula One at the wheel of a Maserati.

In Pocono, the focus of everybody's attention was the 8-cylinder Maserati known as "Boyle Special", which won the Indianapolis 500 in 1939 and 1940, courtesy of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, together with the evolution of an unique V16-engine car which, on September 28th 1929, established the flying 10 km land speed record, Maserati's first world record.