Maserati has been in the automotive headlines quite a bit over the last week or so, and not really for the right reasons. Still, parent company Stellantis has doubled down on its commitment to the fabled brand, and to take everyone’s minds off its shaky start to 2024, it’s getting ready to debut a more focused version of the Maserati MC20 during Monterey Car Week.
The MC20 platform is no stranger to track-biased versions. There’s an actual racing version, the Maserati GT2, and the MCXtrema, one of the many track-only versions of supercars out there designed essentially as playthings for the wealthy.
Maserati MCXtrema
This one, though, is set to be road-legal, with Maserati saying it has “details typical of a racing car without sacrificing the comfort and hallmarks of road models.” Indeed, the one teaser image we have so far shows the front wing of an MC20 with some aero slats above the wheel.
Logic dictates, then, that we’re looking at something in the vein of the Porsche 911 GT3 RS or Ferrari 488 Pista – a lighter, harder, stripped-out version of the MC20. It’s apparently been developed by the same team that did the GT2 racing version.
Maserati MC20 GT2
It’s quite a safe bet that it’ll be based on the combustion version of the MC20, featuring an evolution of its 3.0-litre, twin-turbo ‘Nettuno’ V6. An increase on that car’s 621bhp and 538lb ft of torque wouldn’t come as a surprise. An all-electric Folgore version of the car is incoming, but we’re still a while off seeing it, and it wouldn’t be the most sensible base for a hardcore, track-focused MC20.
Whatever form it ends up taking, it’s set to be the most hardcore Maserati road car since the MC12, which was effectively a reclothed Ferrari Enzo designed as a homologation special to allow the company to go GT1 racing. We’ll see this mysterious Maser in full when it gets revealed at The Quail motorsport show on 16 August.
