It may have the trident badge, but the Maserati MC20 was originally intended to be an Alfa Romeo. The latter did eventually get its own flagship sports car with the 33 Stradale based on the MC20. It means there are now two new supercars from Italy that don’t carry a prancing horse or a raging bull badge. This one made the trip to the Nürburgring where Sport Auto magazine’s test driver put it through its paces for a lap of the Green Hell.
Driver Christian Gebhardt needed 7 minutes and 25 seconds to complete a lap of the Nordschleife with the MC20 equipped with Bridgestone Potenza Sport tires. How does the Maserati stack up against other high-end performance cars? The very same driver lapped the challenging circuit in 6:58 while behind the wheel of the Ferrari 296 GTB and in just 6:54 with the Porsche 911 GT3 RS.
Looking at the lap times posted by Sport Auto with cheaper cars, the BMW M4 CSL did it in 7:17, so the front-engine Bavarian coupe is way faster than this mid-engine Italian exotic. Not that we’re trying to make excuses for the MC20, but the Bimmer did have stickier Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tires. A couple of years ago, Christian Gebhardt tested the bigger, heavier BMW M5 CS with a time of 7:29 — only about four seconds more than the Maserati.
Lap times aside, the MC20 hopped onto the dyno after completing a hot lap of the Nürburgring. Powered by a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6, the flagship is advertised as having 621 horsepower. As with all automakers, Maserati lists the Nettuno’s output available at the crank. The dyno test showed significantly smaller numbers, however, landing at 510 hp at the wheels. To reach 621 at the crank would mean approximately an 18 percent power loss through the driveline, which is a bit much compared to other modern mid-engine supercars. Of course, there are many factors that can affect how a chassis dyno measures power.
While it’s not shared with other brands, this V6 is not exclusive to the MC20 supercar since it also powers the Grecale Trofeo and GranTurismo, albeit in lower states of tune.
