Maserati MC20 Cielo Review: Looks Supercar Special, Doesn’t Always Feel It

Maserati’s first proper drop-top supercar is here, but does removing the roof make or break it? We find out

While the Maserati MC20 was far from inevitable, (who really saw a mid-engined supercar from Stellantis these days?) once it had arrived, a drop-top version certainly was. After all, pretty much everything else in its category ends up with one eventually.

Ferrari has been at it for decades, McLaren pretty quickly clocked onto the fact and of course, there’s never going to be a modern Porsche 911 Turbo without a Cabriolet. More often than not, the convertible versions of each tend to take the majority of sales.

And thus, Maserati’s is here, the MC20 Cielo. The story is a familiar one, really – here is the Italian manufacturer’s first volume production supercar, with its hardtop roof shed in favour of a metal folding top. What more is there to say, really?

Well, enough for us to reach an SEO-friendly word count anyway. If you’re already familiar with the MC20 then none of its technical details are set to surprise you. It’s powered by the same 3.0-litre twin-turbo Nettuno V6 as the coupe, producing 621bhp and 538lb ft of torque, delivered to the rear wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox.

The carbon fibre tub is identical, as are all the chassis gubbins attached to it – including the same double wishbone setup and carbon brakes as optioned on this car, measuring 360mm front and 350mm rear.

With that tub, Maserati hasn’t felt the need to add any additional strengthening measures to counteract the lack of a fixed roof which keeps the weight differential down. Naturally with all the moving parts required the total claimed figure is up to 1540kg, although that’s just a 65kg increase. Certainly not awful for the tradeoff of having the option to take the roof down.

Do so, and I think it transforms the look of the MC20. The Cielo is again identical to the coupe at the A-pillar forwards, but things are a little different towards the back.

There are the two buttresses for a start, which predominantly serve as roll hoops but serve well to give the MC20 a more dramatic presence. Gone too is the (IMO) tacky see-through engine cover with the Maserati logo cut into the glass to serve as cooling, instead with a somewhat more graceful near-flat surface. It looks special, and is if the car was designed as a Cielo from the start and worked into a coupe, rather than the other way around.

If you really miss the Maser logo, you can at least option a big sticker across the back of it. Don’t.

Things don’t feel quite as special inside, though. There are lashings of carbon fibre and a shedload of Alcantara, but everything feels altogether a little bit sensible and very un-Italian.  It’s functional, and buttons are pretty much exactly where you’d expect them to be – which is a largely good thing but doesn’t feel very supercar. It’s a bit too sensible, with no real elegant touches.

A lot of the controls are housed within the Stellantis-standard infotainment system, including the climate and the roof. Marks off for having to be stationary to do the roof and requiring you to hold your finger on the screen the whole time it’s operating.  The system is fine otherwise though, and does support both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Build quality across the board is decent too, and visibility out of the front is even impressive. Good luck seeing out of the back, although there’s a digital rear-view mirror utilising a camera mounted on the engine cover. It’s handy if you have the roof up, but it is nearly impossible to make out with the sun beaming down.

One party trick the Cielo introduces while you’re driving with the roof up is a creatively named ‘Cielo’ dimmer for the roof glass. Switch it on, and it’ll block out anything glaring down on you or switch it off for a clearer view above.

A sense of sensibility carries through to driving the MC20 Cielo at lower speeds which, let’s face it, is really the most important thing for those bimbling around Monaco or Mayfair in one.

Sure, there’s no escaping the fact it’s a wide, low supercar that’s going to snap necks as you drive by but there’s little theatre to how it does its business. There’s a smoothness to the gearbox and engine, the engine isn’t deafening, the suspension is far from back-breaking and there’s even a lightness to the steering that makes it easy to manoeuvre. These are all good things.

Does that dampen the way it drives as you open the taps? In some ways yes, in others not quite so.

Push it really hard and there’s a raw feeling to it that makes other stuff feel a little sanitised, too reliant on tech and electronic assistance rather than simply delivering real excitement.

When you put your down and there’s an immediate sense of scrappiness to it. The wheels will light up and you can feel the rear axle shimmying as it desperately scrabbles for traction. There’s a bit of delicacy needed as you’re exiting corners too – go too early, and it’ll happily snap at you. Get it right and it’s very rewarding, get it wrong and you risk yourself with a redder face than the paintwork.

It makes it a little baffling that otherwise there’s a numbness to it in other places and ultimately lacks the theatre you’d expect of a supercar. Unless you’re really on it, which let’s face it outside of a race track (not a single Cielo will ever see one), it’s not all that thrilling.

There’s not a great deal of feel through the steering, and the V6 isn’t so much an orchestra pounding out behind you as Classic FM turned down on the radio in the background. It sounds muted, even accounting for having the roof down and with the occasional pop and bang, it’s not as dramatic as you’d hope.

What the V6 lacks in drama, it doesn’t in usability though. Power delivery through the revs is good and the gearbox is sharp, and keen to make the most of the power on offer – rarely leaving you in the wrong gear at the wrong time. It’s a strong unit, I just wish it sounded better.

Its price is almost irrelevant at this end of the market, but this one is £300,000 as specified, so it’s proper supercar money. A McLaren Artura Spider can be had from £20,000 below the MC20’s £240,000 starting price and will be a little more engaging to drive for the self-proclaimed ‘helmsmith’, but it doesn’t have the same presence.

See also the 911 Turbo S Cabriolet, although that will be faster, and a lot cheaper starting from £190,000-ish. Not that you can buy one right now as we await the 992.2.

Really, though, if you can afford the near-£40,000 premium you’re almost certainly going to want to stump up for Ferrari 296 GTS. It’s faster, a lot more dramatic and quite frankly, it’s a Ferrari. The only real reason to opt for an MC20 Cielo otherwise is because you can’t afford the 296, or for the sake of being a little different.

If you want to turn heads and have a sense of the supercar experience without having a tough car to do all that in though, the Maserati MC20 Cielo certainly has a place. Get it on the right road, and it feels special in its own right too. It’s just a shame it doesn’t feel like that more often.