MC Hammer: The Maserati MC20

Although it arrived on Asian roads almost two years ago, Prestige got to drive Maserati’s MC20 supercar only recently. Was it worth the delay? You bet.

String together the words “Italian”, “motor” and “car”, and what instantly springs to mind is a litany of some of the most famous names in the History of the automobile. Names so familiar that they trip effortlessly off the tongue – Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Fiat, Lamborghini, Lancia and Ferrari – as well as those perhaps less well-known, such as Autobianchi, Bizzarrini, Dallara, De Tomaso, Innocenti, Isotta Fraschini and Osca. And, of course, there’s also Maserati, the Modena- based manufacturer that later this year will celebrate its 110th anniversary. A company whose motorsport star shone so brightly during the late 1930s and also the mid-’50s that it was often the car everyone had to beat – and by definition wanted to drive. At the pinnacle stood the 250F single-seater, which won eight Formula 1 World Championship races between 1954 and ’57, a car said by the late racing ace Sir Stirling Moss, widely regarded as the greatest driver never to have won a world title, to have been “probably the nicest, most user-friendly F1 car ever built”.

In spite of making great cars, Maserati – and this is true of countless other motor companies, Italian or otherwise – was rarely anything other than a problem child for its owners, of which there were many. Indeed, since its inception in 1914, the company has undergone almost as many changes of owner as there were decades, among which can be counted the French Citroën company, the Argentine industrialist Alejandro De Tomaso, Italy’s huge Fiat combine and, later, Fiat’s then-subsidiary (and Maserati’s former motorsport arch-rival), Ferrari. Now subsumed into the sprawling automotive multinational Stellantis, Maserati has also undergone numerous swerves in direction over the years, from being positioned as a direct comPetitor to Ferrari on and off the track to a more recent upper-mass-market orientation as an Italian alternative to BMW’s and Mercedes’ executive saloons and SUVs. And whereas its mid-engine super-Sportscars of the ’70s and early ’80s were seen as worthy adversaries to those from Ferrari and Lamborghini, by the early years of the current century not only had supercars long become History at Maserati, but the company had even stopped designing and building its own engines.

MASERATI MC20

ENGINE

Twin-turbocharged 3-litre V6

TRANSMISSION

Eight-speed dual-clutch

MAX POWER

626bhp

MAX TORQUE

730Nm @ 3,000-5,500rpm

MAX SPEED

325km/h

ACCELERATION

0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds

UNLADEN WEIGHT

1,475kg

PRICE

From HK$3.688 million

So when, around six years ago, news began to leak that a proper mid-engine road car was in the development stages at Maserati’s Innovation Lab in Modena – and that it would also be powered by motor designed and built in-house – the excitement among car enthusiasts was palpable, even if tempered by an understandable degree of scepticism. Could they begin with what was effectively a blank sheet of paper, yet still pull off such an audacious move?

The answer was resoundingly in the affirmative once the all-new car, named MC20, made its debut late in 2021. Indeed, by the time test cars were made available early the following year, the acclaim was so rhapsodic as to be almost off the scale. In spite of not building a mid-engine car for 40 years – and that, by industry standards, the MC20’s journey from drawing board to production took an incredibly brief 24 months – Maserati had not only come up with an absolute blinder, but done so entirely on its own.

The MC20 is built around a carbon-fibre tub rather than the more conventional aluminium chassis of, say, a Ferrari 296, a construction solution that’s made engineering the car’s droptop variant, the Cielo, an absolute breeze – and will doubtlessly aid in re-engineering it for pure-electric power, which is definitely on the way. As for the ICE-powered car that I’m driving, instead of a turbocharged or hybridised 4-litre V8 engine nestling beneath its transparent acrylic engine cover, Maserati’s Nettuno twin-turbo unit extracts its not inconsiderable 626bhp from just six cylinders and a capacity of only 3 litres (a remarkable feat that results partly from the use of F1-style twin combustion chambers on each cylinder). Thanks to its carbon construction, the MC20 is a tad lighter than the comPetition, too, which means that when the “Corsa” setting is selected on the rotary drive-mode control, the car can sprint from a standstill to 100km/h in an astoundingly fast 2.9 seconds, with twice that speed appearing on the digital readout in less than nine – numbers that, not so incidentally, probably make the MC20 the fastest Maserati ever.

It’s a looker, too: low, long and curvaceous, yet balanced, subtle and – because much of the aero trickery takes place on the underside – clean in its execution, the only mildly extreme element being the gaping front orifice that’s become a brand signature in the last couple of decades. As if to confirm its lineage, there’s also a hint of the cab-forward stance of the ultra-limited-edition Ferrari Enzo-based MC12 of 20 years ago, though without that car’s uncompromising track-focused mien. Throw into the mix the lovely pearlescent effect of the car’s Bianco Audace halo paint job, which depending on the light throws out tantalising hues of blue and purple, and, by gosh, the MC20 really is a corker.

Swinging up the butterfly doors and easing your way into the two-seat coupe’s crepuscular cabin, you encounter an interior that, well, isn’t quite so spectacular, though there are no evident flaws either. Everything fits and functions as it should: the optional one-piece racing-style seats and driving position are perfect, the central “mirror” actually takes its image from a rear-mounted camera (a good thing, too, because the view through the plexiglass is non-existent), and the exposed carbon surfaces speak of engineering honesty rather than cosmetics. These may not be the fanciest surroundings you’ve ever sat in, but they work fine. My only reservation concerns the pedals – or, to be brutally self-critical, the size of my feet, as occasionally I find myself hitting both brakes and accelerator when trying to slow the car down. Memo to self: do not wear clodhopping shoes when driving.

And on the latter score, the MC20 is an utter delight, combining class-leading refinement with breathtaking, adrenaline- surging excitement. The combination of double-wishbone suspension and adjustable dampers front and rear imparts a ride quality at least as luxuriously supple as a McLaren’s – the ride-quality yardstick for supercars – while the quite staggering sense of lightness and agility, and an electromagnetic steering set-up that delivers plenty of road feel with negligible skittishness, encourage you to exploit the chassis’ dynamic capabilities to the fullest. And as it’s all so beautifully balanced and the car so approachable, finding the right rhythm on a twisty road in this wonderful machine quickly becomes an absolute doddle.

And then there’s the powertrain’s fabulous pairing of a massively flexible, high-revving V6 – one that packs a mighty, though not excessive, punch – with a snappy eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox, which in sportier modes provides whipcrack up- and downshifts, and delivers the motor’s full whack of grunt instantaneously. Occasionally the eight-speeder does let you down – as, for instance, when attempting a downshift in manual mode, and it just refuses to respond to the left-paddle input – though fortunately those moments are rare, so you can expect to find that hurling the MC20 down a deserted country road is an absolute joy. It sounds good, too: obviously the noises from the engine bay and exhaust aren’t quite as spine-tingling as from eight or 12 cylinders, but it’s a pretty raucous assault on the eardrums all the same.

As for living with the MC20, it’s an exceptionally friendly car to drive, docile when you want it to be, but easily equal to any of the competition when it’s time to unleash the firepower. There are one or two foibles though: it’s as wide as a bus (or at least feels like it), so tight parking spaces are best avoided, and luggage space is little more than notional. So if you’re thinking of driving flat-out towards the sunset, fling only your cards, a change of clothes and a toothbrush into the smallest bag you can find. Then, free of encumbrances, off you go. Because I can think of few cars I’d rather spend a weekend putting the hammer down than in this perfectly poised, utterly brilliant Maserati.