O.S.C.A. (Officine Specializzate Costruzione Automobili—Fratelli Maserati S.p.A.) was an Italian manufacturer of racing and sports cars established 1947 in San Lazzaro di Savena, Bologna, 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 (engineering manager) and his two brothers Ettore, and

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(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 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were originally made from 1926 to 1940.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 head, and the bodywork was built as a two-seater, cycle-fendered roadster. The MT4 first raced in 1948 at the

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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. 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 valves 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

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

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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 and Formula Two events although they mainly built small sports cars of which some were designed by Pietro Frua. In the World Sportscar Championship 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

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engine of 1089 cc, and saw wins by

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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 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 The OSCA MT4, also spelled the O.S.C.A. MT4 or Osca MT4, is an Italian sports car prototype, designed, developed, and made by Officine Specializzata Costruzioni Automobili, between 1948 and 1956, but was raced and used in active competition unti ...

Spider by

Morelli Morelli is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Anthony Morelli (born 1985), former American football quarterback *Anthony Morelli (blogger), Anthony Morelli (born 1968), American blogger *Antonio Morelli (1904-1974), orche ...

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 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 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 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: *

(1947) * OSCA S187 (1956) * OSCA 750S (1957) *OSCA 1050 Spider * OSCA 1100 FJ (for

) * OSCA 1100 (1960) *OSCA 2000 Desmodromico (

, 1959/60) * OSCA 1600 GT2 (1962) * OSCA 1600 SP (1963)

Complete Formula One World Championship results

As a constructor

(

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) (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