| Designed to win races, the Maserati MC12 is actually | | | | V-12 from Ferrari with 622 bhp |
| sold as a road car, albeit it a very impractical one. Still | | | | The Maserati MC12 looks completeley different from |
| what do you expect with a 620 bhp exotic car? The | | | | the Enzo, though,, with a long nose and very long tail. |
| car looks just like the sports racing car that it is. To | | | | Where the Enzo is angular, the MC12 is curved. It has |
| be fair, it is a real two-seater while the cars that race | | | | a carbon fiber body structure with steel sub-frames |
| at Le Mans are more like single-seaters. | | | | front and rear. Power comes from a 6.0 liter V-12 |
| Only 25 MC12s were built initially, and quite a few | | | | developing 622 bhp @ 7,500 rpm, and 480 lb ft (652 |
| were used for racing. Actually, when they heard | | | | Nm) torque @ 5,500 rpm. A semi-racing engine to be |
| about Maserati building the MC12 for the GTA | | | | sure. It is coupled to a semi-automatic six-speed |
| championship (ooops, sorry for sale as a road car, | | | | sequential gearbox, developed by Ferrari in racing. |
| was the official line, I think) some of the other | | | | Suspension is by double wishbones, with inboard |
| companies threatened to withdraw as they thought | | | | spring and damper units acting through pushrods. |
| the presence of the MC12 on the starting grid would | | | | These are mounted horizontally as on the Enzo. The |
| make a farce of the whole series. | | | | dampers have variable rates. Quite a car, but not as |
| Although the Maserati MC12, is a true exotic car, it is | | | | extreme as the Bugatti Veyron or the latest Saleen |
| based on the Ferrari Enzo. The whole idea was to | | | | S7. |
| upgrade Maserati's image following a checkered | | | | Following the racing success of the MC12, Maserati is |
| history. The glory of the 50s, when Maserati was a | | | | now to build a more extreme version - the MC12 |
| regular winner of Grand Prix, got lost in the mire of | | | | Corsa. The MC12 Corsa has a massively uprated Enzo |
| an economic downturn, when the company took the | | | | V-12 engine giving about 750bhp. You can get this for |
| wrong turn more than once. | | | | about $1.3 million - or 700,000 or Euros 1 million |
| As Ferrari and Maserati are both part of the Fiat | | | | depending where you live. |
| Group, and were in fact in the same sub-group, it | | | | But this is not a road car, nor will you be able to race |
| made sense to modify the Enzo to get Maserati | | | | it in any official categories so this is a trackday |
| back as a winner. Now, Ferrari and Maserati have | | | | special at a huge price. Maserati plans to build about |
| been put in different sub-groups, so this sort of | | | | 12 MC12 Corsas a year. |
| collaboration is not expected in the future. | | | | |