During this time, Maserati worked in fierce competition to construct a V16 town car for Benito Mussolini before Ferry Porsche of Volkswagen built one for Adolf Hitler.

Alberto Massimino, a former FIAT engineer with both Alfa Romeo and Ferrari experience, oversaw the design of all racing models for the next ten years.

Maserati retired from factory racing participation because of the Guidizzolo tragedy[a] during the 1957 Mille Miglia, though they continued to build cars for privateers.

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 relationship started as a joint venture, made public in January 1968,[10] in which Maserati would design and manufacture an engine for Citroën's upcoming flagship called SM.

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 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.

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, the 1973 oil crisis put the brakes on the ambitious expansion of Maserati; demand for fuel-hungry sports cars and grand tourers shrank drastically.

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.

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.

[19] 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 was signed at the Ministry of Industry in Rome, and property of Maserati passed from Citroën to Italian state-owned holding company GEPI[b] and Alejandro de Tomaso, an Argentinian industrialist and former racing driver, became president and CEO.

After de Tomaso bought Maserati in August 1975, he dismissed long time Chief Engineer Alfieri on the day of taking over the business.

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 the lyrics "My Maserati does one eighty-five.

"[24] The 1980s saw the company largely abandoning the mid-engine sports car in favour of a compact front-engine, rear-drive coupé, the Biturbo.

In 1983 and 1984, the range was extended to include saloons (the 425 and 420) and a cabriolet (the Zagato-bodied Spyder), respectively on a long and short wheelbase of the Biturbo platform.

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.

[30] Starting in 1990, the entire range of the Biturbo received a facelift designed by Marcello Gandini, on the lines of the Shamal's styling.

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.

The steps taken by the new parent company resulted in the improved Quattroporte Evoluzione which was introduced at the March 1998 Geneva Motor Show.

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 a transaxle gearbox.

[47] Along with their expansion, Maserati started their re-entrance into the high-performance car field, in order to compete with brands such as Mercedes-AMG, BMW M, Porsche, Jaguar, and in certain cases, Ferrari.

The top-of-the-line variants of the Quattroporte VI, Ghibli, and Levante have 570 PS (419 kW; 562 hp) V8 engines with all-wheel drive, in order to better compete with their rival offerings.

[54] Harald J. Wester stated that Maserati would not surpass the 70,000 sales per year mark, and that Maserati would maintain its current position in the higher end of the luxury sports car market, rather than expanding downmarket and making vehicles smaller and less expensive than the Ghibli and Levante (such as those similar to the Audi Q5 and Mercedes-Benz C-Class), as other FCA brands, specifically Alfa Romeo, are in those market spaces.

[45] Since 2009, Marco Tencone was the head designer of Maserati cars, although, in late 2015, he was announced as remaining in executive positions at Lancia and FIAT only.

On 17 March 2022, chief executive officer Davide Grasso announced that Maserati will produce an electric version of all of its models by 2025.

Grecale shares the company's Giorgio platform with the Alfa Romeo Stelvio and the fifth generation Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Maserati developed fifteen GranTurismo MC racecars, homologated for the European Cup and National Endurance Series, one of which was raced by GT motorsport organization Cool Victory in Dubai in January, 2010.