The Maserati MC20 is a very rapid machine with incredible aerodynamic efficiency. It received the prize for Best of the Best at the Red Dot Awards 2021 in the Product Design category. Innovative by nature, its every design detail is functional: the butterfly doors are not only stunning, but they also improve the car’s ergonomics and enable optimal access to and from the cabin.
MC20 means Maserati Corse 2020 and celebrates that the brand will return to racing. The super sports car is the first model of the new Maserati era and was developed at the Maserati Innovation Lab; it is built at the Viale Ciro Menotti Plant in Modena.
Italy is justifiably famous for iconic design from the fanciest fashion to the sleekest supercars. Maserati, founded in Bologna in 1914 by the brothers Alfieri, Ettore and Ernesto Maserati – has handcrafted one such from that pioneering era. Decades of motorsport successes followed, and an impressive line of sporting exotica culminating in the grand tourer or GT. What was to follow were the genre known as supercars.
The first racing car to wear the Trident logo was the Tipo 26, where the number indicated the year of manufacture, and in the same way, the MC20 will be the first car born in the new era of the Modena firm. The super sports car is the natural evolution of the highly successful MC12, the car that in 2004 marked Maserati’s return to racing after 37 years.
The MC12 won 22 races (including 3 victories in the 24 Hours of Spa) and 14 Championship titles across Constructors’ Championship, Drivers’ Championship and Teams’ Championships in the FIA GT category from 2004 to 2010. MC20 is expected to follow suit.
So MC20 is the first step in the new era, paving the way for the future of Maserati with its innovation, uniqueness and audacity. The supercar’s striking design is achieved by finely balancing a series of opposites. The focus on performance led to the conception of a car with a distinct personality, with refined aerodynamics and unmistakable lines. The new super sports car represents the pure form of speed.
The Nettuno V6 engine, delivering 463kW with torque of 730Nm translates to a sizzling 0-100km/h acceleration in under 2.9 seconds and a top speed over 325 km an hour. The patented engine was conceived, developed, designed and built entirely by Maserati, and uses a pre-chamber combustion technology derived from Formula 1 engines.
The Red Dot Awards is an international design competition run by Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany, which has been assessing and selecting the most aesthetically exciting, functional, intelligent, innovative products from all over the world since 1955.
Every year, this prestigious competition rewards excellence in the field of product and brand design and communication at the global level, with criteria constantly updated to the socio-cultural context. A jury of 50 international experts chooses products in almost fifty different categories, from fashion to accessories and from furnishings to vehicles.
The MC20 received the prize for Best of the Best and Maserati CEO Davide Grasso says: ‘Our mission was to develop a car that would be remembered in the future as the model that launched the Maserati New Era. And I think we’ve achieved our goal with MC20. Maserati is innovative by nature, powered by passion and unique by design: the new super sports car embodies all these values and is the founding model of this new phase in the brand’s history.’
Klaus Busse, Head of Maserati Design, added: ‘We are honoured to receive this coveted accolade, which recognises the work of an entire team who have worked hard on this unique project, creating a car that opens a new chapter in Maserati’s history.’
The price of the car whose superb looks conceal an uncompromisingly sporty soul has an indication dependent on the options chosen during the very personal build of an individual MC20. It’ll be one that’s likely to make an asset manager blanche.
