The Maserati MC20 Cielo offers pure supercar thrills | GRR Cars of the Year 2023
It's been an incredibly exciting year for the motoring industry. We here at GRR have driven so many brilliant cars over the past 12 months, and everything we’ve always loved is still right here, it’s just arguably better than it’s ever been. To evidence our point, we’ve pulled together nine cars that we consider to be among the very best of 2023, and we’re going to celebrate their brilliance right here at Goodwood.
It’s risky business returning to the supercar game after 15 years and tasking said supercar with nothing less than being the foundation of a soft reboot and a brand rebirth. The car is the MC20, the brand is Maserati and the job, by all accounts, is well and truly done. Coming out of nowhere, they’ve only gone and given us one of the best supercars of recent years and now, with the Cielo, you can pop the top too.
With all that said, need we justify its presence as one of Goodwood Road & Racing’s cars of the year? Well, yes. It won’t be the only high-performance c.£200,000 two-seater on the roster, so how does it distinguish itself? If others bring witheringly single-minded track focus and bleeding-edge tech, the Maserati MC20 Cielo, good as it is, is a refreshing splash of the old-school, with a fist-sized glob of quintessential Italian style for good measure.
For a start, it’s all-motor, with no hybrid. That 630PS (463kW) 3.0-litre twin-turbo Netuno V6 might be super high-tech, with its F1-style pre-chamber ignition design but in operation, it has the brutality and effervescence of a Metro 6R4, sans timezone-crossing turbo lag. It’s an engine that roars, whoops and wheezes as you explore its bandwidth and never really slumbers or settles into a cruise.
The short of it is that the MC20 is a beautifully suspended car. The steering, while a little light, vibrates just enough with the signals of the road beneath you and, allied with an eager well-judged ratio, a really good (if suspiciously familiar) wheel and the natural mass-rearward balance, the job of turning it in becomes a joy. Throw the performance into the mix, the drama of that engine and the sublime chassis and you get a car that has you yearning for Stelvio, Furka and Col de Turini.
Ethan Jupp Contributing Editor, GRR
If the engine has the personality of a gloriously blunt instrument, the chassis is automotive ballet. There’s nothing flashy or all that high-tech about the way it feels, even though the MC20 utilises a carbon tub, which incidentally informs the Cielo’s retained dynamic prowess even without a roof. It just feels utterly natural and so spectacularly well-judged, for both road and track use. The ride on the road is sublime – controlled, yet comfortable. Even the hardest ‘Corsa’ mode isn’t offensive, where the track-oriented settings of some cars could be dismissed as downright dangerous on the public highway. And if you do find it a little rumbly, knock the dampers from ‘hard’ to ‘mid’ via the prominent rotary controller.
If the engine is a little unhinged and the handling is bottled lightning, the cabin is… classically Italian. There are borrowed bits and some iffy fit and finish but it’s utterly charming. Slightly cobbled-together though it is, there’s style, rhyme and reason to the MC20’s cabin and the surprisingly low-slung glasshouse gives great forward and side visibility. The less said about the view out the back the better, though you can drop the glass post hatch independently of the whole roof if you just fancy a breeze and some more turbo noises without the sunburned bald spot. Did we mention it’
Be sure to watch the Goodwood Road and Racing Cars of the Year video when it launches on Friday 15th December.
Photography by Joe Harding.
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Cars of the Year
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