Maserati MC20

The Maserati MC20 Dakar is the unofficial answer to the Lamborghini Sterrato

With more body armour and a roof box, could this conceptual render become the next big supercar-turned-rally-raider?

Off-road supercars saw a marked return to form in 2023 with the release of the Porsche 911 Dakar and the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato, but what if a third option existed? Say, a Maserati MC20 that’s been through car renderiser Siim Parn’s school of 3D modelling madness?

Let’s start with the substantial and entirely digital underbody protection. Up front, this means a revised front bumper with some cladding, a less aggressive bonnet and a pair of square tow hooks for when its driver (inevitably) needs rescuing from their overambitious approach.

Along the flanks, the cladding continues across both wheel arches and is met in the middle by strengthened side skirts. The original alloys do remain, but will likely need to be swapped out if the MC20 Dakar was ever to make the leap from digital fantasy to real-life-sand-stormer. Steelies, anyone?

Out back, the diffuser has also been remodelled while the miniature wing is painted to match the new suit of armour. Looks clean. Robust. And perhaps somewhat difficult to see out the back of, what with the rear windows hiding behind a closed-shield to restrict visibility to all of four per cent. There's also some sort of square box on top with additional lights bolted to the front. A strange contraption to add to a rally raid car.

 
Maserati MCXTrema Looks and Sounds The Business On Track

Maserati is returning to the track with the ferocious MCXtrema. This beast is an evolution of the MC20 but with a singular focus on track dominance.

Powering the MCXtrema is a twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 engine based on the Nettuno that explodes with 720 horsepower (537 kW) and 730 Nm (538 lb-ft) of torque. That power gets channelled to the rear wheels via a six-speed sequential transmission.

Development of the MCXtrema hasn’t been all about brute force. Maserati meticulously honed the car’s performance through a combination of virtual simulations and real-world testing at the Autodromo Varano de’ Melegari.

Maserati understands that even the most elite drivers crave a touch of personalization. Enter the MCXlusiva program, which allows owners to tailor their MCXtrema to their taste. Choose between the Tech Beast, Corse, and Speed Beast trims, each offering a distinct aesthetic. You can also select from unique wheel and seat colour options to create a car that reflects your personality.


 
The Maserati MC20 has been Mansorified… and it now looks like a GT2 car

More power, more speed, more... carbon, meet the 'MXC Pergusa', limited to just five units

What do you do if you want a Maserati MC20 GT2 that’s road-legal, has more power and a body kit that’d put the Hulkbuster to shame? Making a call to Mansory would be a good start, which would then direct you toward its latest creation: the MXC Pergusa. It is, by and large, the MC20 from hell, via a quick run through a carbon factory.

Mansory begins by taking a standard MC20 and upping its twin-turbocharged ‘Nettuno’ V6 to 760bhp (139 more). The car has also gained an extra 111 torques, bringing the new total to 649lb ft. Eat your heart out, GT2.

Want some more numbers? As a result of all this fettling, Mansory has brought the sprint to 62mph down to just 2.6s and increased the top speed to 208. That makes it faster than the MC12, for some perspective.

Now to address the elephant in the room: styling. In truth, and by Mansory’s lofty standards for ruination, the Pergusa isn’t actually that bad to look at. The all-new, all-carbon body kit adds a thicker layer of bulges, canards and inlets all across.

 
Novitec’s 721bhp take on the Maserati MC20 Cielo is… quite grown up

Gold and grey theme aside, the German tuner has added a Formula One-grade exhaust and slashed the 0-62mph time to 2.8s

By Novitec’s lofty standards for dramatic plastic surgery, its interpretation of the Maserati MC20 Cielo is actually quite... subtle. Shock, horror. Though there’s nothing subtle at all about the performance, with the ‘Nettuno’ twin-turbo V6 receiving a strident makeover which now peaks at 721bhp and 603 torques.

The number fiddling doesn’t stop there, that power boost slashing the 62mph run down to just 2.8s, albeit toward an unchanged top speed of 202mph. This has been achieved thanks to several new mechanical add-ons, including a flap-regulated exhaust, metal catalysts and a replacement particulate filter.

You also get very new and very yellow sports suspension springs, which are tucked away behind forged 21in alloys from Vossen. The gold theme plays off the pearlescent grey body quite well, we'd proffer.

Before you start making a commotion about Novitec getting all grown up, have a closer look and you’ll spot a sliver of its core DNA in there: a sharp ducktail spoiler, carbon bits along the vented bonnet and even more carbon moulded into the front splitter. Novitec will also throw on a gold-plated Inconel exhaust if your pockets are deep enough. That’s Formula One-grade equipment, by the way. How about that for a flex?

 
The Maserati GT2 Stradale is a (slightly) lighter MC20 dressed for track days

The Trident tries its hand at a superleggera supercar, with a 631bhp V6

First, there was the Maserati MC20 – the first mid-engined Maser supercar for two decades. And it was good.

Then Maserati decided it fancied finding out how good, by taking it racing. And lo, the world smiled in the Maserati GT2, with its huge swan-neck rear wing and a bonnet like an angry cheese-grater.

Now, Maserati’s decided to combine those two for a more extreme, road-legal-but-track-focused supercar. This is the GT2 Stradale or ‘street’. They don’t even call it ‘MC20’ anymore.

Obviously though, that’s what it is. Same carbon fibre tub, same butterfly doors, same 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 with another 10bhp dolloped on top to give 631bhp. That means it’s actually more powerful than the old MC12 supercar’s Ferrari Enzo V12, needing enlarged cooling ducts to gulp in 16 per cent more air.

 
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