In this video, we join Matt as he drives Maserati’s return to the supercar world, the MC20. It’s a bit of a left-field choice when compared to it’s rivals, but does it perform as well as it looks?
I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for maserati the styling the way they sound and ultimately that italian charm for the most part though they weren’t really cars you just want to get in and drive but now the mc20 hopes to turn that on its head it’s nearly 20 years since we last saw a mid-engine maserati with the enzo derived mc12 but that’s obviously an
Absolute unicorn this new mc20 is at least a little bit more down to earth and it’s a huge moment in the company’s history the gran turismo has grown old and faded away and they’ve been selling more diesel saloons and suvs than anything else of late so thanks to our friends at alexander’s prestige we’re about to find out if the mc20 has what it takes to re-light
Maserati’s fire so here we are in the car that essentially hopes to give maserati his mojo back after all these years today’s the first time i’ve even seen one in the flesh and it is a really impressive looking bit of kit it’s super cool it gets loads of attention in this color obviously it’s something really different it’s not that whole look at ferrari it’s
More wow that’s cool what is it it’s got dihedral doors that open up so it really does look like a through and through supercar and when you get inside you sit super low but the quality in here is more than i would have expected from maserati everything’s super solid it’s just a nice place to be this steering wheel is absolutely perfect really nicely sculpted
With alcantara and this super smooth and satin carbon fiber everything that you touch like the paddles of that really nice carbon as well really solid static models and what we really want to know is what it’s like to drive if we twist maserati’s version of ferrari’s mandatino down here into corsa let’s find out so what have we got first of all well this car
Is maserati from the ground up which is a refreshing change nothing’s just borrowed from ferrari or alfa romeo or even be it like the old plastic keys so we’ve got maserati’s own three liter twin turbo v6 mid mounted and whether this is a coincidence or not i don’t know but it has to the exact horsepower the same power output as the mc12 621 brake horsepower
But it actually has more torque being turbocharged so here secondly it was bold out there now it’s rear-wheel drive even with all that torque the traction is unbelievable now it was a little skittish on cold tires earlier and it does weigh less than 1500 kilos so with that sort of power it is quite actually quite a savage experience just clawing for grit where
Does it go i mean you’d expect nothing less from the figures not to 62 under 2.9 seconds top speed 202 miles an hour yeah it feels it as for the chassis we’re starting a full carbon monocoque so as well as being quite light it’s super rigid as well the suspension’s a bilstein damtronic setup which adjusts through the different modes so we’ve got gt mode which
Is just for cruising sport mode which is a little more firm and then we’re in corsa now which is the most hardcore mode get a sharper throttle slightly more aggressive gaseous with that little kick in the back from the 8-speed dual clutch and there is a suspension button in the middle of this dial as well so that no matter which mode you’re in if you’re in gt
Mode you can firm up the suspension or if you’re in sport or course or it acts like the bumpy road mode button in a ferrari where it just slackens it off a bit so that’s what i’ve got now we’re in coarser mode but with the dampers in mid because it’s really firm in full-on mode it is livable in the softest mode it is still quite firm but it could play a sort
Of firm gt car if you need it to and on a track in its firmer setting it must be unbelievable because the handling is unreal on this thing to me this feels much more mclaren than it does ferrari which is not what you might expect it kind of makes me feel like if lotus made a supercar the turning is unbelievable it stays so flat that the weight catapults out
A corner it is definitely very firm so you get thrown around a lot on these bumpy roads i think it could do with being a little softer for british roads if i’m honest brakes we’ve got carbon ceramics and brembo so no problems there and another similarity to mclaren’s and something which i like about mclaren is the brake pedal feel they’re not grab it if you
Want to stop hard you’ve got to press them hard so they’re really easy to modulate when you’re driving quick another thing i should mention actually which will be helping it get out of the corners so well is it comes standard with a mechanical limit it’s lifted but this has the optional electronically controlled dick 621 horsepower fully pinned in second gear
Out of that corner and nothing it just goes what don’t i like well i know it sounds like i’m totally raving about it and to drive quick there is a lot to rave about but at first i wasn’t really sure i was going to get into it because at low speeds it doesn’t really give you much back there isn’t a lot of noise there and unfortunately really when you’re going
Quick there isn’t a lot of noise either it’s not the nicest noise is it it’s just quite cool and characterful all the turbo blow off noises when you let off but it’s not like having a screaming v8 or v10 or v12 behind you isn’t it but does the way of the world now none of its rivals sound that great either but it is nice that they’ve at least been able to inject
A bit of character with those turbo noises with the gear shifts in courses that give you that little kick it is a great gearbox and yeah criticism is that it is very firm what it means is when you’re driving fast on a road like this it isn’t boring it’s always sort of moving around keeping you on your toes it feels exciting despite there not being that much
Noise it really is exciting but you do have to really push on to unlock that character that’s the only downside so yeah it’s not perfect but it’s great fun it’s much more fun than i thought it was going to be when i was just driving it slowly earlier it does have a bit of a character of its own and it’s something different it’s just nice that someone else
Has come along and entered this segment with a fresh choice if you don’t want a ferrari mclaren a lamborghini whatever if you want to be a bit different here it is well that escalated quickly it took me about five minutes from thinking i wasn’t really going to gel with the mc20 to absolutely raving about it and all it took was grabbing it by the scruff and
Driving it hard i guess it’s the opposite of what you might expect from a maserati and the fact that it isn’t anything to write home about at low speed but it really shines as you start to press on and it doesn’t have any glaring flaws and when i say it feels like a mclaren or as if lotus made a supercar i mean that as a serious compliment it definitely isn’t
As supple as a mclaren over a bumpy english b road but with the way it moves around and the very vocal turbos constantly washing behind you i think the mt-20 might be more exciting on the road okay it’s not a naturally aspirated screamer and it doesn’t really sound of much at all when you’re just cruising but that’s the way of the world now and it does at least
Have some character to it it’s just nice to have a new left field choice in the supercar game but the great thing is you wouldn’t just buy it to be different because for the first time since the mighty mc12 the best thing about a maserati is the way it drives a big thank you to alexanders and specifically their own andrew for trusting us with his personal car
Today and if this is a sign of things to come with maserati the future looks pretty good to me you
Transcribed from video
Maserati's Beautiful Comeback | Maserati MC20 DRIVEN | Supercar Driver | 4K By Supercar Driver