Can the MCXtrema return Maserati to winning ways?

But it continued to win. They couldn’t stop it. The MC12 was just so good right down to its (Ferrari derived) bones, that the race victories just kept on coming. Maserati chose to build on this legacy by, um, pulling out of motorsport again and still hasn’t returned at the highest level even as endurance racing enjoys a new golden era. It’ll be along eventually. Just when it all goes wrong, probably. It’s the Maserati way. Greatness must be followed by mediocrity, just as sure as pasta follows antipasti.

Photography: Jonny Fleetwood

However, Maserati is currently in a good place and it does remember the MC12. When the company recently launched the rather wonderful MC20 supercar, an idea was sparked. Why not take the bones of this car – including a mid-engined configuration, carbon fibre tub and double wishbone suspension all round, just like the MC12 – and make something to honour and acknowledge its old fearsome, beautiful GT racer’s amazing success? The result is this car, the MCXtrema. It’s not actually a racecar but only because it’s too powerful and has too much aero for, say, GT3 class racing. Just 62 will be built and they’re all sold despite a price of just under £1 million.

Honestly, I love Maserati. The soap opera of its history just does it for me. From the glory of Fangio in a 250F to the pure glamour of a Ghibli from the 1960s; from the sinister luxury of a 1980s Quattroporte in The Godfather to the terror of a 3200GT on full boost on a rainy day. There’s something raw and magnetic about cars with a Trident on the nose and the very best of them makes it easy to shrug off the thought of a ropey old Biturbo or a four-cylinder mid-sized SUV. Well, almost.

The point is that I’m deeply excited about trying the MCXtrema and meeting Andrea Bertolini, Maserati’s test driver and a man who won four FIA GT world championships at the wheel of the MC12. The MCXtrema is his baby, underlining that connection between MC12 and the latest track monster.

I first catch sight of it in a pit garage at the Autodromo di Modena. Raised up on air jacks and with no wheels fitted, people buzz around the MCXtrema and draped over the sills of the carbon tub are wires with laptops attached. It sits motionless and silent but there’s activity and energy all around. Maserati is very, very proud of this car and everyone is here to see it run. Lead chassis and powertrain engineers, the PR team, plus a host of others. We have just six hours with it and I feel guilty that I can’t speak to each individual and hear their part in the creation of this car, but the smiles on their faces put me at ease. They just want to be around the MCXtrema and to see and hear it in anger. Now that, I can help with.

So, what exactly is it? Well, it’s basically an MC20 unleashed in terms of power and performance and evolved towards a pure racecar in terms of aerodynamic efficiency. The 3.0-litre twin turbocharged V6 Nettuno engine features much bigger Garrett motorsport turbochargers (the road car uses IHI turbos), new intake and exhaust systems, a motorsport ECU and a host of other changes. Power is up to 724bhp at 7,500rpm and 538lb ft at 3,000rpm and it drives through a six-speed sequential gearbox and mechanical limited-slip differential to the rear wheels.

The suspension is radically overhauled and features four way adjustable Öhlins dampers and adjustable anti-roll bars, plus there’s a full racing braking system (featuring endurance style cast iron discs). The chassis is reinforced with an FIA-spec roll cage and there is also a 120-litre fuel tank. Then there’s the bodywork, which is clearly MC20-derived but is much more than a road car with some added dive planes and a big rear wing. It was jointly developed by Maserati Centro Stile and the engineering department for high downforce and stability and, crucially, a wide window of performance for amateur drivers. Not every owner will have Andrea Bertolini’s talent, so ease of use was fundamental to the project. The MCXtrema weighs 1,300kg dry and produces over 1,000kg of downforce.

Beyond the performance, a car like this needs to feel special. And it does. The interior is really cool – it doesn’t just ape racecar best practice and nor does it feel like a stripped out road car. The way you’re enclosed with two thick spars of carbon fibre creates an environment that’s almost like a single seater. The luminous yellow rings surrounding each control create a sense of fun and the small steering yoke with built-in dash screen looks and feels just the right amount of sci-fi. Then the Nettuno fires up with a deep, venomous and tuneless cacophony. It’s never been a sonorous engine, but I love its intent even in the road car. Here it’s cranked up to a whole new level of fury.

Yet the MCXtrema immediately, somehow, feels friendly. The clutch is easy to operate and as I roll out of the pit box and enter the circuit, there’s a lightness and ease of response to every control. The steering is deliciously smooth and responsive, the brake pedal requires a strong shove but offers so much feel and reassurance and the engine – despite those big new turbos and a massive 240bhp per litre – has good manners and seems to pull hard from very low revs. Of course, once up and running, changing gear is just the flick of a paddle and the clutch is no longer required.

The clashing noises are big and should be terrifying. There’s gear whine, valve train thrash, aggressive exhaust blare and all sorts of chuffs, chirrups and whistles from the turbos, but the easygoing nature of the MCXtrema makes the soundtrack fascinating rather than foreboding. You just want to extract more noise and force. The car feels elemental but on your side, and pretty soon the tight, technical Autodromo di Modena is rushing towards me at huge speeds. This place might not be the natural hunting ground for a car of this potency, but it’s all ours and the MCXtrema’s inherent qualities are shining through. Every 1.28-mile lap is a real event.

In terms of raw lap time, Bertolini says this extreme interpretation of the MC20 is quicker than a GT3 car – much of which will be down to the straight line performance, which is neck tearingly mighty – but the way the car behaves is different. 

I’ve driven GT3 cars before and they’re utterly fantastic, but they feel all about efficiency and lap times. Locked down, clinical in many ways, they set about picking apart a track with minimal fuss. The MCXtrema is more playful and seems to be enjoying the process as much as the end result. It has ferocious turn-in, which sets the tail ever so slightly loose and the adjustable traction control gives you leeway to slide and cajole the MCXtrema around the track.

With so much power (remember, a GT3 car is usually pegged at closer to 500bhp) you can light up the fat slicks at will and many of the corners at the Autodromo di Modena soon have thick black lines smeared into the surface. It’s a fantastic sensation to be not only driving a car of this massive potential, but making it bend to your will so easily. There’s a lovely juxtaposition of monstrous capabilities and incredibly benign characteristics. In some ways it feels like a throwback and I can’t help but paint pictures in my mind of the MCXtrema luridly sliding past a farmhouse in Sicily on a resurrected Targa Florio.

There’s real quality here. The braking setup is fantastic and immune from fade, the engine is a snorting beast that hits harder than even 724bhp describes and has a delicious sense of being untamed in a similar way to, say, a Ferrari F40 that’s had a few tweaks, and the chassis is a dream that marries high downforce loads with progressiveness you’d associate with a car on skinny tyres. Like everyone in attendance today, Bertolini is deeply proud of the MCXtrema. The driving experience justifies that sense of achievement. It’s an awesome and indulgent experience and is positively dripping with character. It feels like a real Maserati, complex, exotic, unique and possessed of something intangible that’s impossible to resist.

Of course, it’s no MC12. It doesn’t have that pedigree, that aura of motorsport glory and the MCXtrema will never get to write one of Maserati’s greatest stories as it stalks and defeats Ferraris, Porsches, Aston Martins and the like on tracks around the world. It will never be banned or penalised. Its rivals will never lobby for it to be ejected from a race series. Yet there is hope that the MCXtrema is more than just a plaything for the very rich.

Already Maserati has developed the MC20 into a GT2 class racer with considerable success. The MCXtrema further proves the suitability of the MC20 to be pushed in ever more exciting directions and the reliability of the Nettuno engine at racing speeds. Who’s to say a Maserati MC20 programme in the GT3 category isn’t round the corner? And you know where GT3 cars can race now, right? Yep. The ACO couldn’t ban Maserati this time and maybe this car will inspire a full on factory effort at Le Mans. That would be a poignant culmination of this story. Racing and winning where the MC12 was never allowed to compete. I say as much to Bertolini. He just smiles. “Today, let’s just enjoy the MCXtrema,” he says. Oh, I did. But something about his eyes said he’s thinking about tomorrow.