The Biturbo marked a turning point for Maserati. Unveiled in December 1981, it was conceived under Alejandro De Tomaso as a more accessible, lower-priced way to bring new buyers into the brand without abandoning the company’s sporting identity. The original car was a compact two-door coupé with a luxurious interior and a technical novelty that became central to its identity: a twin-turbocharged V6. Maserati has highlighted it as the first production car to use that approach.
The Biturbo nameplate was used on the initial model introduced for the 1982 model year and remained in production through 1985. In that form, it helped define Maserati’s 1980s direction, combining grand touring intent with smaller-displacement turbocharged performance. The car’s success gave Maserati a wider audience and laid the groundwork for a much larger Biturbo-based family that followed.
Although later Maserati derivatives would carry names such as Biturbo S, Biturbo i, and Biturbo Si, the original Biturbo itself was a distinct early-1980s coupé era rather than a long-running continuous badge. Today it is remembered as one of the most important Maseratis of the modern era: the model that reintroduced the brand to a broader market and established the turbocharged, compact-gt formula that defined much of Maserati’s output for the rest of the decade.