Throughout its 110-year history, the Italian car manufacturer Maserati has participated in various forms of motorsport including Formula One, and various forms of sportscar racing and touring car racing, both as a factory team and through private entrants.
Maserati was very successful in pre-war Grand Prix racing using a variety of cars with four, six, eight, and 16 cylinders, winning the Indianapolis 500 twice (1939 and 1940), and the Targa Florio from 1937 to 1940. Post-war, Maserati participated in sports car racing from 1954 and in 1956 the factory team was the runner-up in the World Sportscar Championship with the legendary 300S.
The Trident was also successful in Formula One, with a total of 9 Grand Prix wins and Juan Manuel Fangio winning the 1957 World Championship of Drivers and part of the 1955 World Championship of Drivers with a Maserati 250F. In the 1960s, Maserati supplied V12 engines to the Cooper Formula One team and achieved some success with the Cooper-Maserati T81.
After a hiatus of 37 years Maserati returned to sportscar racing in 2004 with the MC12 (the MC stands for Maserati Corse) developed from the “MCC” (Maserati Corse Competizione) and road-going “MCS” (Maserati Corse Stradale). This limited production two-seater sports car, based on the chassis of the Ferrari Enzo, is the spiritual forebear of the MC20.
In 2004, 25 cars were produced and a further 25 were built in 2005. With 12 racing cars built, only 62 were ever produced. The MC12 dominated the FIA GT Championship for five years from 2005, winning five teams’ championships and four drivers’ championships in a row, as well as the inaugural FIA GT1 World Championship for Drivers in the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship.