O.S.C.A. (Officine Specializzate Costruzione Automobili—Fratelli Maserati S.p.A.) was an Italian racing and sports car manufacturer that was active from 1947 to 1967. It was established in 1947 by the Maserati brothers. The company gained a reputation as a premier manufacturer of race cars as well as a constructor of Formula One cars in the 1950s.
History
OSCA was founded in 1947 by Ernesto Maserati (engineering manager) and his two brothers Ettore, and Bindo (operations managers) who had all left Maserati after their ten-year contract with Adolfo Orsi terminated. Ten years earlier, in 1937, the remaining Maserati brothers had sold their shares in the Bologna-based company to the Orsi family, who relocated the company headquarters to their hometown of Modena in 1940. The Maserati company remains there to this day, but the Maserati brothers once again chose Bologna to be the home for their new company.
The OSCA factory was located in San Lazzaro di Savena outside Bologna, where Maserati were originally made from 1926 to 1940. Their basic business goal was to develop an automobile to compete in the popular Italian 1,100 cc racing class.
OSCA's first automobile was the MT4, for Maserati Tipo 4 cilindri. The 1,092 cc engine, which produced 55 PS (40 kW; 54 hp) at 6,000 rpm originally, had a in-house designed block, alloy head, and the bodywork was built as a two-seater, cycle-fendered roadster. The MT4 first raced in 1948 at the Pescara Circuit and the Grand Prix of Naples, where it was driven to a win by Luigi Villoresi. The engine was modified to 1,342 cc capacity in 1949. ,and then enlarged to 1,453 cc in 1953. A further enlargement, this time to 1,491 cc, followed in 1954 and was given twin spark ignition in 1955 for the OSCA MT4 TN (for Tipo Nuovo, "new model"). This version is often referred to as the 1500 TN.
