Skip to main content

It’s all in the trident. Meet the man who makes Maseratis look like Maseratis

Maserati

Alfa Romeo and Maserati are institutions of the Italian automotive industry. Both brands are over 100 years old, and they’ve gone through their fair shares of ups and downs over the past century, yet they’ve remained surprisingly faithful to their respective heritage. Their cars are quick, luxurious, and brimming with character but it’s the exterior design that first draws the eyes.

Recommended Videos

Digital Trends chatted with Klaus Busse, the mastermind in charge of the design center that draws cars for both brands, to get insight on what it takes to keep tradition alive while breaking new ground.

Digital Trends: Maserati is a brand with an immense amount of heritage. Do you feel restrained by it when you’re designing new models?

Klaus Busse: I don’t feel retrained; I feel responsibility. When you design a Maserati, you’re designing a future collector’s car. That in itself is a monstrosity of a responsibility that is on your shoulders.

When you design a Maserati, you’re designing a future collector’s car.

As a design team, we have identified what we believe is Maserati. Some of our competitors make cars with big air intakes and grilles. We try to express the power of the vehicle, its self-confidence, by using purely the trident logo and the shape of the grille. If you’re in a Quattroporte or a Ghibli, for example, when you’re at a light you don’t need to rev your engine to show how much power it makes because your car wears the trident. You’re driving a Maserati, that’s a supreme level of self-confidence you’re expressing. That’s what we try to honor. The body itself is more on the elegant side.

How can you evolve this design language?

We evolve it by staying true to two fundamental aspects. It’s really the trident that makes the face of a Maserati. And then, of course, you’ve got the rest of the car.

Klaus Busse
Klaus Busse FCA

At auto shows people ask me if I see something that inspires me and I usually say “no.” Everything you see at a car show was done two or three years ago, it can’t possibly inspire me for something I want to do two or three years from now. The gap is just too big. For me, believe it or not, just sitting at a piazza in Turin drinking an espresso and looking at people and how they dress, Italian fashion, tells me much more about where we can take Maserati.

Italian design is not what they teach you in art school, like perfect symmetry. It’s something with much more character that can lead to confusion when observed individually but becomes amazing when perceived as an overall statement. This will continue to guide us with Maserati.

Italian design is not what they teach you in art school, like perfect symmetry.

Is there a specific type of car you’d like to design for Maserati?

Interesting question. I think the answer is “no.” Look at the Levante; you could say “Maserati did an SUV.” I’d say, “we did another Maserati which happens to have the space and the ride height of an SUV.” When we started the project, we had nothing to refer to. How do you do a Maserati SUV? We don’t. We just do what we do, give it a Maserati face, an elegant body, but instead of having a three-box design we did it almost like a hatchback. The most beautiful complement we’re getting is the fact no one asks, “why did Maserati do the Levante?” No one is criticizing us or surprised by it.

Maserati

It’s been a successful recipe. It doesn’t matter what we work on in the future as long as we get the chance to continue this design philosophy.

You’re also responsible for Alfa Romeo design. What would you say characterizes the brand’s modern styling language?

Alfa Romeo was as adventurous as Maserati, if not more. Look at the classic cars like the Disco Volante, the 33 Stradale, and even the Montreal. There is not one golden recipe we can follow. I can tell you two things that, for me, are very important.

2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti Lusso Q4 Chris Chin/Digital Trends

Number one, we have the very unique face. That’s something you don’t want to mess with. If you walk through an auto show, you can probably separate all faces into five categories, more or less. The beautiful thing is that [Alfa Romeo parent company] Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles owns two of those: Jeep and Alfa Romeo. The face will continue to play an important role the way it is.

I don’t think [Alfa Romeo] will go into super-flat surfaces anytime soon.

The second thing is that I don’t think we’re going to go into super-flat surfaces anytime soon. Italy is the land of sculpture, the land of Michelangelo, the land of beautiful shapes. That’s something I am very proud of. In the Centro Stile we have amazingly talented hand sculptors. We use computers like everyone else to accelerate a project and to simulate things but we are still very, very proud of the car’s hand-crafted nature.

Hand-wash a Giulia or a Stelvio and you’ll feel it. If you try that on other cars you’ll cut your hand. That’s great for them. It’s great that they celebrate a design that looks like it’s never been touched by a human hand, but we do the opposite.

Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
Topics
Waymo recalled 1,200 robotaxis following collisions with road barriers
Waymo Jaguar I-Pace

Waymo’s autonomous-car technology has made great advances over the years to the point where it’s now allowed to offer paid robotaxi rides in select locations in the U.S.

But the development of the technology is ongoing, and the robotaxi rides continue to gather valuable data for Waymo engineers to pore over as they further refine the driverless system to make it as reliable and efficient as possible. Which is why glitches will sometimes occur.

Read more
Apple CarPlay Ultra looks stunning in Aston Martin supercar debut
Apple CarPlay Ultra

Apple CarPlay Ultra is the next generation of the Cupertino, California-based firm's smartphone projection system for your car, and it's available in new vehicles in the US and Canada.

When we say "new cars", your options are very much limited to one brand... Aston Martin. So you'll need deep pockets if you want to experience CarPlay Ultra for yourself.

Read more
Archer’s flying taxis head to LA for the 2028 Olympics
archer air taxi la28 inglewood aerial a final

Remember the buzz about flying taxis zipping through Paris for the 2024 Olympics? That sci-fi fantasy never got off the ground —Germany’s Volocopter dream was denied certification, leaving fans staring at the same old ground traffic. But now, the skies are opening again for a second shot at glory—this time over Los Angeles.
Archer Aviation, the California-based electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) company, has been named the exclusive air taxi provider for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Archer’s Midnight aircraft, a piloted electric air taxi designed to carry four passengers, will be whisking around VIPs, fans, and stakeholders between venues and key locations like LAX, Hollywood, Santa Monica, and even Orange County. Think 10-20 minute flights that skip the infamous LA gridlock and land you right where the action is—on the roof, basically.
“We want to transform the way people get around Los Angeles and leave a legacy that shapes the future of transportation in America. There’s no better time to do that than during the LA28 Games,” said Adam Goldstein, CEO and founder of Archer Aviation.
And Midnight isn’t just a pretty rotor. It’s a whisper-quiet, emission-light aircraft with 12 rotors and a redundant, airline-level safety design.
What’s more, Archer and LA28 are working together to electrify vertiport hubs around the city—think futuristic sky stations—to serve not only Games-time needs but also to plant seeds for a post-Olympic air mobility network.
The air mobility market has been fast developing over the past few years, featuring the likes of Hyundai partnership with China’s XPeng HT Aero and Toyota's backing of Joby Aviation, a U.S. venture. Joby bought Uber Elevate in 2020, hoping to someday pair its air taxis with Uber’s ride-hailing app.
Archer, for its part, has been busy building a strategic partnership with United Airlines, which has already placed orders for the aircraft and is helping with logistics to integrate air taxis into airport-to-downtown travel. More than a demo for the cameras, the LA28 partnership will showcase urban air travel for real-world daily use, starting with one of the most high-profile events on Earth.
After raising false hopes in Paris, the air taxi dream is aiming for liftoff in LA—and this time, it might just stick the landing.

Read more