DiattoOttovù Zagato

01

Origins

Diatto — the Turin marque whose 1920s Grand Prix programme incubated the first Maseratis before closing in 1929 — returned as apparition in 2008: Zagato built the Ottovù, an aluminium-bodied V8 coupé marking the company's centenary, its name recalling Diatto's celebrated 8V and its double-bubble roof signing the coachbuilder's involvement. Based on modern Maserati mechanicals, the Ottovù appeared at Geneva with talk of limited production that remained largely ceremonial; the project's value was commemorative, reasserting a great dormant name at the moment Italian heritage revivals became fashionable. For historians the gesture completed a circle — Zagato honouring the marque whose racing engineers, the Maserati brothers, had shaped Italian speed — even if the revival itself stayed a beautiful footnote.