O.S.C.A. (Officine Specializzate Costruzione Automobili—Fratelli Maserati S.p.A.) was an Italian manufacturer of

racing In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...

and

sports car A sports car is a car designed with an emphasis on dynamic performance, such as handling, acceleration, top speed, the thrill of driving and racing capability. Sports cars originated in Europe in the early 1900s and are currently produced by ...

s established 1947 in

San Lazzaro di Savena San Lazzaro di Savena ( Bolognese: ) is an Italian ''comune'' (municipality) of some 32,000 inhabitants in the Metropolitan City of Bologna, Emilia-Romagna. Geography The town is located on the Via Emilia, a major thoroughfare for town traffic, ...

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

, by the Maserati brothers, and closed down in 1967. The company name is usually written OSCA or Osca.

History

OSCA was founded in 1947 by

Ernesto Maserati Ernesto Maserati (4 August 1898 – 1 December 1975) was an Italian automotive engineer and racer, with Maserati of Modena since its inception in Bologna on 14 December 1914, together with his brothers Alfieri Maserati (leader), Ettore Maserati ...

(engineering manager) and his two brothers

Ettore Ettore is a given name, the Italian version of Hector. People *Ettore Arrigoni degli Oddi (1867–1942), Italian naturalist *Ettore Bassi (born 1970), Italian actor and television presenter *Ettore Bastianini (1922–1967), Italian opera singer *Et ...

, and Bindo (operations managers) who had all left

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

after their ten-year contract with

Adolfo Orsi Adolfo Orsi (23 March 1888 – 20 December 1972) was an Italian industrialist, known for owning the Maserati automobile maker. Born within a poor family in Sant'Agnese, near Modena, Orsi lost his father in 1899 - an event that forced him to start ...

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 Modena (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language#Dialects, Modenese, Mòdna ; ett, Mutna; la, Mutina) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern I ...

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,Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of O.S.C.A.
from maserati-alfieri.co.uk where

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 at 6,000 rpm originally, had a in-house designed block,

alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductility, ...

head, and the bodywork was built as a two-seater, cycle-fendered roadster. The MT4 first raced in 1948 at the

Pescara Circuit The Pescara Circuit was a race course made up entirely of public roads near Pescara, Italy that hosted the Coppa Acerbo auto race. Pescara is the longest circuit to ever host a Formula One Grand Prix. The country and town roads used were both na ...

and the

Grand Prix of Naples The Grand Prix of Naples was an auto racing event, held in Posillipo, outside Napoli. In its original incarnation, it began in 1934. Known as the ''Coppa Principessa di Piemonte'' in honor of Marie-José of Belgium, it continued from the same even ...

, where it was driven to a win by

Luigi Villoresi Luigi Villoresi (16 May 1909 – 24 August 1997) was an Italian Grand Prix motor racing driver who continued racing on the Formula One circuit at the time of its inception. Biography Born in Milan, Lombardy, and nicknamed "Gigi", he was the older ...

. 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 Alfa Romeo Twin Spark (TS) technology was used for the first time in the Alfa Romeo Grand Prix car in 1914. In the early 1960s it was used in their race cars ( GTA, TZ) to enable it to achieve a higher power output from its engines. And in the ea ...

ignition in 1955 for the OSCA MT4 TN (for ''Tipo Nuovo'', "new model"). This version is often referred to as the 1500 TN. The all new ''tipo'' 372 DS engine has

desmodromic valve :''In general mechanical terms, the word ''desmodromic'' is used to refer to mechanisms that have different controls for their actuation in different directions.'' A desmodromic valve is a reciprocating engine poppet valve that is positively clos ...

s and was developed from the final MT4 engine in 1957 and built exclusively for F2 or sports car racing. This car received the new name F2/S or FS 372 (depending on its intended field of competition), and five were built until 1959. One of these belonged to Sir

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

, who raced it in historic races across the globe until his retirement in 2011. Versions of this engine went on to be used in coupé and convertible models of regular Fiats from 1959 to 1966. The

1954 12 Hours of Sebring The 1954 12 Hours of Sebring (officially the Florida International 12-Hour Grand Prix of Endurance ) was a motor race for sports cars, staged on 7 March 1954 at the Sebring International Raceway, Florida, United States. It was the second race of t ...

was won by drivers

and Bill Lloyd in an OSCA MT4 as part of the Briggs Cunningham Team. In 1955, a 1500 TN engined MT4 chassis with a streamliner body called the "Simpson Special" beat a number of records at the

Bonneville Salt Flats The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bur ...

. Afterwards, the car was sold to Harry Allen Chapman, heir to the

Mobil Mobil is a petroleum brand owned and operated by American oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil. The brand was formerly owned and operated by an oil and gas corporation of the same name, which itself merged with Exxon to form ExxonMobil in 1999. ...

fortune, who went on to take a minor share of OSCA and also replaced Edgar Fronteras as the company's US distributor. From 1951 to 1962, automobiles or engines made by OSCA also were entered in some

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

and

Formula Two Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name retur ...

events although they mainly built small sports cars of which some were designed by

Pietro Frua Pietro Frua (2 May 1913 - 28 June 1983) was one of the leading Italian coachbuilders and car designers during the 1950s and 1960s. Early years Frua was born in Turin, the centre of coachbuilding in northern Italy. He was the fourth son of Angela, ...

. In the

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world series run for sports car racing by the FIA from 1953 to 1992. The championship evolved from a small collection of the most important sportscar, endurance, and road racing events in Europe and No ...

OSCA ranked 10th (1953), 4th (1954), 6th (1957), 5th (1958) and 4th (1961). The 750 cc type S 187 was introduced in 1956. Weighing , this car had a top speed of . The name "187" refers to the displacement in cubic centimetres of each cylinder of the engine. In 1959 Jim Eichenlaub won the American H-Mod Title with his OSCA S 187. Operating on a shoestring budget, Eichenlaub often slept in his tow car because there was no money for a motel. However he won his first race at Pensacola in April 1959. The

Formula Junior Formula Junior is an open wheel formula racing class first adopted in October 1958 by the CSI (''International Sporting Commission'', the part of the FIA that then regulated motorsports). The class was intended to provide an entry level class ...

(FJ) used a

Fiat Fiat Automobiles S.p.A. (, , ; originally FIAT, it, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili di Torino, lit=Italian Automobiles Factory of Turin) is an Italian automobile manufacturer, formerly part of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and since 2021 a subsidiary ...

engine of 1089 cc, and saw wins by

Colin Davis Sir Colin Rex Davis (25 September 1927 – 14 April 2013) was an English conductor, known for his association with the London Symphony Orchestra, having first conducted it in 1959. His repertoire was broad, but among the composers with whom h ...

and

Berardo Taraschi Berardo is a given name and a surname. Notable people with this name include: * Saint Berardo of Teramo (died 1123), Italian saint * Saint Berardo dei Marsi (1079–1130), Italian saint * Berardo di Castagna (died 1252), Italian Roman Catholic ar ...

in 1959. In 1963 the brothers sold the company to Count Domenico Agusta, owner of

MV Agusta MV Agusta (, full name: MV AGUSTA Motor S.p.A., original name: Meccanica Verghera Agusta or MV) is a motorcycle manufacturer founded by Count Domenico Agusta on 19 January 1945 as one of the branches of the Agusta aircraft company near Milan in ...

, They did design work for Agusta until 1966. One of their final designs was a

desmodromic :''In general mechanical terms, the word ''desmodromic'' is used to refer to mechanisms that have different controls for their actuation in different directions.'' A desmodromic valve is a reciprocating engine poppet valve that is positively clos ...

four-cylinder engine. OSCA ended operations in 1967. File:OSCA FJ Donington 2007.jpg, 1959 FJ 1100 at

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

(2007). File:Fiat OSCA 1500 S engine.jpg, The OSCA twin cam engine of the Fiat 1500 S File:1955 Osca MT4 Morelli Spider.jpg, 1955 OSCA MT4 Spider by Morelli

OSCA Fiats

The 1500S Coupé and Convertible were available with OSCA's twin cam 1491 cc engine as the 1200 were produced with a Fiat engine. These SAE 1500S models, DIN went on sale in November 1959, with

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian mu ...

bodywork. The engine was uprated to 1568 cc and SAE, DIN in the summer of 1962 (1600 S, ''tipo 118SB'') thanks to a 2 mm bore increase, and the shell underwent a facelift as the

Fiat 1300/1500 The Fiat 1300 and Fiat 1500 are a series of front-engine, rear-drive automobiles manufactured and marketed by Fiat from 1961 to 1967, replacing the Fiat 1400 and Fiat 1200 coupé, spyder and cabriolet. The 1300 and 1500 were essentially identica ...

replaced the original 1200 in 1963. The 1600 S continued in production until replaced by the

Fiat 124 The Fiat 124 is a small family car manufactured and marketed by Italian company Fiat between 1966 and 1974. The saloon superseded the Fiat 1300 and was the basis for several variants including a station wagon, a four-seater coupé ( 124 Sport Cou ...

coupé/spider, which used Fiat's own twin cam engine, in late 1966. In total, 3,089 OSCA-engined Fiat Coupés and Convertibles were built. OSCA also offered their own cars powered by the 1.6-liter derivative of this engine, such as the Fissore-bodied 1600 GT2, the Zagato GT and Zagato GTS, and a Touring-bodied 1600 GT. File:Osca 1600 GT 2 von Fissore 1963.JPG, 1963 OSCA 1600 GT2 with

Fissore Fissore is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: People * Matías Fissore (born 1990), Argentine footballer *Riccardo Fissore (born 1980), Italian footballer Companies *Carrozzeria Fissore Carrozzeria Fissore was an Italian coach ...

bodywork File:Rétromobile 2015 - Osca 1600 GT Touring - 1961 - 001.jpg, 1961 OSCA 1600 GT Touring File:1965 Osca 1600 GTZ Zagato.jpg, OSCA 1600 GTZ Zagato

Vehicles

Name and year of introduction: * OSCA MT4 (1947) * OSCA S187 (1956) * OSCA 750S (1957) *OSCA 1050 Spider * OSCA 1100 FJ (for

) * OSCA 1100 (1960) *OSCA 2000 Desmodromico ( Morelli, 1959/60) * OSCA 1600 GT2 (1962) * OSCA 1600 SP (1963)

Complete Formula One World Championship results

As a constructor

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

As an engine supplier

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ;Notes * – The Constructors World Championship did not exist before .

References

External links

OSCA Owners Group

O.S.C.A. badge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osca Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of Italy Automotive companies established in 1947 Formula One constructors Formula One entrants Italian auto racing teams Italian racecar constructors 24 Hours of Le Mans teams World Sportscar Championship teams Italian companies established in 1947 Car manufacturers of Italy Sports car manufacturers