Maserati’s MC20 review: the most civilised of supercars

Popping down to our local pub for dinner in Maserati’s MC20 supercar… what could possibly go wrong?

Gull-wing doors: the Maserati MC 20

Last Wednesday we decided we’d fire up the Maserati I had on test and pop to the local for a quick fish pie. In five minutes we were in the pub’s car park. And five minutes after that we were still in the pub car park because neither of us could find anything that even remotely resembled a door handle. “We’d have been screwed if we’d crashed into a lake,” Lisa said.

Eventually I turned on my phone’s torch and found the little button you must press to unlatch the door, and then we were out. And then I was back inside very smartly because the car was starting to roll down a hill. Having applied the brakes, I spotted a message on the dashboard and after finding my spectacles I was able to read it. It said I must put the car in “park”, but how do you do that when there’s no gearlever? I pushed and pulled at the flappy paddles and systematically trawled the dash looking for a button with a “P” on it. There wasn’t one.

But I did find, deep in the footwell, a button that applied the handbrake. Figuring that this would do, I set it, got out again and noticed the car was making bonging noises. So I got back inside, assuming I hadn’t turned the lights off properly. I therefore turned them off and they stayed on. The bonging persisted. And there was no handbook, either in the glovebox or in electronic form in the command-and-control system. Nor was YouTube any help. It’s a very rare Maserati and no one has done a “how to” guide on it yet.

After an hour of swearing I called a colleague, who said that to engage “park” and turn out the lights I had to stop the engine twice. So I pushed the button to turn the motor off, then pushed it again. Which caused it to start. The colleague said that when I pushed the button the second time my foot had to be off the brake pedal. He was right – which meant that we just caught last orders in the pub.

Now you may be expecting me, after such a shoulder-sagging ordeal, to tear the new Maserati apart. But actually, when you know where the door handle is and you know how to turn the engine off, you quickly come to realise that this is a very interesting car.

The first interesting thing is why on earth they made it. Maserati is part of the same company that owns Ferrari, so why did the bosses say, “What we need is another expensive mid-engined two-seater supercar”? It’s not just Ferrari either. There’s Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren and a whole host of chancers trying to sell expensive mid-engined two-seater supercars. So who would look at all the options and say, “You know what? I think I’d prefer a Maserati”?

Well, I would. Ferraris these days are too far up their own bottoms to be taken seriously and while I like the McLaren alternatives, they somehow don’t have the same kudos. Lamborghini does, but Maserati does even more. It’s a name to savour.

Under its skin the MC20 has a 100kg carbon fibre tub to which everything is attached. This makes it ridiculously light. It’s like the love child of Victoria Beckham and a party balloon. Couple this lightness to a clever new V6 twin-turbo that produces 470kW and the result is going to be obvious. It’s lightning fast. However, no matter what setting you use, it’s awfully bouncy when you’re going quickly. Think Tigger after he’s had a spoonful of Roo’s strengthening medicine. Then there’s the brakes, which take a deal of thigh power to work properly, and the gearbox, which reacts to requests to change cogs as if it’s just woken from a deep sleep.

It is not, then, anything like as dynamically sharp as a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or any of the McLarens. But on the upside, it’s nowhere near as hysterical. You can potter about in an MC20 because it’s quieter and more civilised than any of its rivals. And much less intimidating. It feels more like a sports car than a supercar. Inside it’s surprisingly plain. Certainly it’s untroubled by a park button. The dash is completely ordinary and there’s no trinketry at all. I liked this simplicity and I absolutely loved the fact that the main controls for the lights, wipers and indicators are where they belong: on stalks.

So, summing it all up: it’s not like a Ferrari. It drives beautifully but you don’t get the sense that you can control it with telepathy like you do in a 488. It’s not like a Lamborghini either. There’s very little “look at me” bravado. In fact, it’s not really like any other car out there. It’s a lovely thing to look at. But the main reason I’d choose this over any other car of its type is simple. I liked it.

MASERATI MC20

Engine: 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 (470kW/730Nm). Average fuel 11.6 litres per 100km

Transmission: Eight-speed twin-clutch auto, rear-wheel drive

Price: From $438,000

Stars: 4 out of 5