Some cars have gone down in history for legendary wins, for the innovations they introduced or for the drivers who piloted them to glory. Others, meanwhile, have become veritable icons for what they represented: a unique story, a turning point in history, a social phenomenon, an event that rippled beyond the stands of the race track to ultimately define an era.
One such case was the Maserati Eldorado, which became famous in 1958 as the first single-seater car in Europe to be sponsored by a brand not linked to the world of motorsport. The brand in question was Eldorado, an ice-cream manufacturer. This was the first example of modern sponsorship, where the car was painted in the colours of the partner company, abandoning the traditional colour assigned to each country by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). This was a real revolution for the day, of vital importance to the future of motorsport, which from that moment on opened its doors to new financial backers.
