relisysj4

finally had a somewhat warm day outside in jerzey (50s) to run our cars...my friend and finally got a chance to see how the cars compare.....E55 took the maserati quite easy!!! about 2 car lengths ahead ....... though we were having alot of traction problems....slippin and slidding all over the place...but we lived to tell the tail.....we're going to try again the spring when it get warmer...he was definitely having problems though launchin the maserati....the car has a weird traction control

C43AMG

.....need pics of both cars !

Beowulf

Surprised you didn't take him by more, but you didn't say the distance involved.
What tranny - stick or Cambiocorsa? Love my E55, but I gotta say the sound of the Maser at full wail is a thrill. Their traction control is called Skyhook, IIRC (weird name - reminds me of the Tailhook sex scandal). Regardless, I made sure it was turned off when I was driving.

merc655

wrong forum but nice kill

Gavidev

HI!

I sold my 2002 coupe cambiocorsa to buy my 2004 E55. There is no contest, in a straight linethe E55 will kill the maser. In the twisty stuff, the maser would be able to stay with the E. The sound of the maser was awesome but, the quality was terrible. The benz is more reliable.

Victor

jangy

Why wrong forum?

ClayJ

I think that even a Gransport couldn't compete in a straight line.... Now in the twisty's....

Beowulf

Yep, no contest in a straight line. It would take an MC-12 to best the beast in the quarter mile and if the M-B was modded, the tables would tip in the Benz's favor. The MC-12 would definitely rule in the corners, no contest. BTW, never liked the blue & white color scheme on the MC-12 - car would look much better in all black.

I'd still take a CLK DTM over it any day.

merc655

i just figured itd be posted in the kill stories section but since its with an E55 its all gravy

ClayJ

The car and the colors are much nicer in person. Photos don't do justice to the pearl white paint or the richness of the blue IMO.
There is a performance upgrade available BTW (developed from first year of ALMS), bringing HP to over 700 and torque to over 490.
I've seen consistant 0-60mph times of 3.5-3.6 secs, and 0-125mph times of 9.5-9.6 secs -- that would have to be a pretty heavily modified E55, wouldn't it?

I think that the cars are fantastic - and on the track? Absolutely Fantastic!

(...I tried to leave you even less to identify in these pics.... )

Beowulf

Still like the all black scheme, strictly personal preference.

While hardly an authoritative source, I recall M/T tested the MC-12 @ 11.8/123 & change in the quarter. Traction may have been an issue, but that's a far cry from 0-125mph times of 9.5-9.6 secs. If there's some actual documentation of the latter times, I'd be grateful for the link.

ClayJ

I'm going from personal experience but I think I've still got a bunch of write-ups from last sometime last year? on my laptop -- I'll pull 'em up and see what I have and psot 'em... . If I remember correctly we compared times at some point to the write-ups and they weren't that far off of observed -- not that much of a difference if I remember right....
I'll post-up whatever I find....
I've actually never seen a street version in another color(!) -- but the Competizione's do look good in the solid colors:

ClayJ

MT June 2005 Review
One one thousand. Two one- The V-12 engine of Maserati's $800,000 MC12 supercar bounces off the rev limiter, and I belatedly tug on the paddle protruding from the right side of the steering column to engage second gear through the idiot-proof, shift-without-lifting semiautomatic transmission. One one thousand. Two one thou- Damn! I'm into the rev limiter again before I can grab third gear. Note to self: Pay attention to the needle arcing wildly across the large, white-faced tachometer. This is, after all, a car based on the chassis, drivetrain, and mojo of the Ferrari Enzo. In other words, wicked fast. One one thousand. Two one thousand. Thr- Fourth gear, and I continue to flatfoot it around the high-speed oval at the Balocco test track in Italy. Back in the day, Alfa Romeo Formula 1 cars were tested here. Which is only fitting, since the MC12 is a homologation special-the roadgoing version of the racing car that finished fifth in class in the 12 Hours of Sebring this year. One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand. Pause, clunk, fifth gear. Over the intoxicating snarl of the exhaust, I can hear vast volumes of air being sucked down the gaping maw of the roof-mounted snorkel and into the ridiculously powerful 6.0-liter engine. You want numbers? How about 623 horsepower, 481 lb-ft of torque, 0 to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds, and a top speed-drag-limited-of 205 mph? One one thousand. Two one thousand. Three one thousand. Four one thousand. Five one thousand. Sixth gear. The pylons funneling me into a makeshift chicane form an orange blur. I see 260 klicks-a tick more than 160 mph-on the speedo as I bomb past the you-might-seriously-want-to-consider-braking-here marker that Maserati officials have kindly erected to ward off disaster. A barrier at the end of the chicane appears to be approaching at warp speed. Brake! I hammer the brake pedal. My torso lurches against the four-point harness, and the car hunkers down into the pavement as the ground effect produced by the rear diffusers takes, well, effect. Like something out of a cartoon, the barrier still seems to be doubling in size every nanosecond. Brake harder! I pull back on the left paddle to go down a gear-and another, and another. With each downshift, the Cambiocorsa gearbox instructs the ECU to blip the throttle, and the successive blasts of glorious double-clutching twelve-cylinder fury make me sound like a hero. The brake pedal is pulsating like a cheap Magic Fingers mattress by the time I make it down to second gear. Pucker up! The Maserati is long and wide, with compromised visibility. The chicane is tight and narrow, with a formidable band of Armco at the exit. It's a scary moment as I slice toward the apex. And then . . . nothing. No muss, no fuss, that is. A quick left-right flick, and before I can remember what I was worried about, I'm hauling *** down the next straightaway
And that, in the end, is the most impressive thing about the MC12. Sure, it's stupid fast and crazy capable, but that's only to be expected when you're spending enough money on it to capitalize an entire rental-car fleet. The surprise is that it's so benign, compliant, and user-friendly-a supercar that Clark Kent could love. Think of it as a 200-mph, $800,000 daily driver. With a two-year production run-recently completed-of a mere fifty units, the MC12 is obviously a halo car, but it's driven by more than corporate ego. On the contrary, it's designed to be a tangible symbol of a new and improved Maserati, a reinvented company that hopes to carve out a small but profitable niche between Jaguar and Porsche. The MC12 was created to achieve three goals, one for each prong of the trident displayed so prominently on the car's grille. First, it reconnects with the marque's storied competition heritage and racing cars such as the Birdcage. Second, it signals the company's renewed determination to build serious sports cars as well as grand-touring machines such as the Coupe and the Quattroporte. Third, and most important, it sends the message that Maserati isn't just Ferrari Lite.
In 1993, the sad remains of Maserati were acquired by Fiat SpA, the Italian industrial conglomerate that owns Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, and Ferrari. Four years later, Maserati was bought by Ferrari. The 3200GT debuted in 1999, and Maserati returned to the United States in 2002 with the Coupe. Worldwide sales now rival Ferrari's. Maserati's future seems so bright that Fiat, financially flush after its recent $2 billion divorce from General Motors, reacquired Maserati from Ferrari earlier this year and realigned it with Alfa Romeo. But despite its successes, Maserati, the new generation, had yet to build a genuinely hard-edged, high-performance car, much less a racer of the sort that was once the company's raison d'être. Until the MC12. Three years ago, the company decided to return to Le Mans. The rules governing the GT classes require that a certain number of road versions of a racing car must be built before it can be homologated, or approved, for competition. So the MC12 road and racing car programs were planned and proceeded in lockstep. Maserati didn't have the technical or financial resources to develop an outrageously expensive, don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it run of supercars. So it did the next best thing: it took the technology underpinning the Ferrari Enzo and modified it for its own purposes.
The mid-mounted engine powering the MC12 is a 6.0-liter, 65-degree V-12 with four gear-driven camshafts, hydraulic lifters, dry-sump lubrication, an aluminum crankcase, and titanium connecting rods. It's redlined at 7700 rpm, 300 lower than the Enzo, which means it makes marginally less power than the Ferrari. Unless you've got a dyno in your garage, you won't notice the missing 27 horses. The monocoque chassis is built up from a high-tech sandwich of carbon fiber and Nomex honeycomb, with aluminum sub-frames hanging off the front and rear. The wheelbase is 5.9 inches longer than the Enzo's, which translates into more high-speed stability than in the Ferrari. Passengers also benefit from the significantly larger dimensions of the Maser-17.4 inches longer, 2.4 inches wider, and 2.3 inches taller. Maserati assigned the MC12 to Frank Stephenson, the American responsible for the new Mini and the Quattroporte. While working on the styling, Stephenson spent long sessions hanging out with the aerodynamicists during wind-tunnel testing. "As long as I didn't ruin the aerodynamics," he says, "I had a lot of freedom with the car." Stephenson came up with a sensuously flowing long-tail design inspired by the Group C Le Mans cars of the '80s. The carbon-fiber body is covered in a blue-and-white paint scheme that pays homage to the American Camoradi racing team. The MC12 looks particularly striking from the rear three-quarters, a view that showcases the black louvers of the engine cover, an artfully integrated wing, and gigantic carbon-fiber diffusers. Oh, and the quad exhausts don't hurt, either. Inside the car, Stephenson strove for a look that was racy without being Speed Racer-ish. There are plenty of carbon-fiber structural elements. But most of the accents are provided by a textured material called BrighTex, which resembles carbon fiber without looking as if it belongs in a nitrous-ized Civic.
Climbing into the MC12 requires some modest contortions, but once you slide into the enveloping carbon-fiber seat, the world is an exceedingly pleasant place. Although there's ample headroom for anybody who's not playing in the NBA, the roof can be removed for top-down motoring. Of course, there's no place to stow it-or anything else, including a spare tire. So be prepared to use your Bentley as a chase vehicle. Crank the key to arm the battery, pull both gearshift paddles simultaneously to select neutral, then punch the blue start button in the center console, and the V-12 sparks immediately to life. (It also shuts down instantaneously, just like a racing engine.) There's no clutch pedal, so engaging first gear is simply a matter of tickling the paddle shifter. Opting for Race mode is a no-brainer. Besides producing more aggressive shifts, this also defeats the traction control, though the stability control system remains on. "This is our suggested position," technical director Roberto Corradi says, no doubt having a nightmare vision of wadded-up MC12s. For those so inclined, however, the stability control can be turned off manually. Can the MC12 be driven in everyday traffic? In theory, you bet. In the real world, forget about it. The nose is too low to clear obstructions (though it can be raised from the ****pit to crawl over curbs and speed bumps). There's no rearview mirror. The chassis clatters horribly as rocks and gravel bounce off it. Oh, and God forbid if you had to parallel-park the thing. Still, it's a remarkably civilized beast. The engine lugs endlessly without overheating, and it's tractable from idle to redline. It's not too loud, either, at least until you floor it. The steering is light and direct at low speed. (It loads up as the speed and the downforce climb.) The suspension, featuring double control arms and pushrods, produces an agile ride. And while the specially developed Pirelli P Zeroes-245/35 at the front and 345/35 at the rear-look appropriately ominous on the 19-by-9- and 19-by-13-inch wheels, they don't beat you up.
The MC12 is a hoot at low speeds and in tight corners. Big as it is, the car gives the impression that it can be grabbed by the neck and tossed around without biting you in the butt. The stability control lets the fun factor get reasonably high before kicking in, and even when it does, it's subtle and unobtrusive, not a teacher rapping your knuckles with a ruler but a conductor gently admonishing the orchestra, Piano! Piano! But as the speed mounts, the MC12 enters a different regime. More miles per hour means more downforce, and mechanical grip is trumped by aero loading. Air running through the diffusers and under the wing sucks the car to the ground, and you're left with the weird sensation that the tires are literally burrowing into the pavement. At Balocco, a billiard-table-smooth racetrack, this is very cool. But we wonder how the car accommodates dips, crowns, ripples, and other road imperfections.
The racing version of the MC12, of course, is a still more violent creature, but not, ironically, because it's more powerful. On the contrary, thanks to the competition-mandated inlet restrictors, the racing and road engines produce similar peak power, though factory driver Fabrizio de Simone says the racing engine generates more of its grunt at peak revs. The racing car benefits from bigger brakes, a stouter gearbox, stiffer suspension, and slick tires-the usual suspects. But its biggest advantage over the street car is aerodynamic. With its lower ride height, front splitter, and bigger and taller rear wing, the racing car generates exponentially more downforce, and that's what causes lap times to plummet. The MC12 debuted last year in mid-season and impressively posted two wins in four FIA GT races against Ferrari 550/575 Maranellos and Saleen S7s. Now the bad news: Maserati's entry for Le Mans, the world's premier sports-car race and a principal goal of the MC12 program, was rejected by the infamously *****ly Automobile Club de l'Ouest because of a minor rules infraction. Somehow, this seems perfectly fitting for the perennially snakebit marque. "Can't win for losing" is the cliché that comes to mind.
But with the MC12, at least, Maserati gets the last laugh. Here's a car that's more exclusive, more expensive, and arguably more attractive than even the Enzo. Ferrari owners, eat your conceited little hearts out.
Price: $799,000
Engine: 6.0L DOHC V-12, 623 hp, 481 lb-ft
Drive: Rear-wheel
0-60 mph: 3.8 sec
Top Speed: 205 mph


Motor Trend, June 2005
Its basic carbon composite chassis and 65-degree V-12 drivetrain started life in the street-legal Ferrari Enzo. Maserati did an extreme makeover, transforming the Enzo into an FIA GT race car. Then, with another nip and tuck, it was morphed back into a street-legal vehicle for a production run of 25 cars to satisfy series homologation rules. In the movie and play, Andrews is at her most alluringly feminine when festooned as Victor the drag queen, and it turns out that the Enzo makes a more comfortable and attractive road car when made over as a butch Maserati racer in street couture. Let's slip into the dressing room and examine the costume changes. No room back here for luggage or a spare tire. None up front, either--horizontal radiators fill the long overhang.
The transformation from Enzo to MC12 Versione Competizione is extensive. The wheelbase is extended 5.9 inches, and the nose and tail are stretched to add another 11.5 to the overall length in the name of optimized aerodynamics. This long, pointy shape, along with the wings, spoilers, and underbody venturis, provide enough downforce to change the static 41/59 front/rear weight distribution to 34/66 at speeds above 125 mph. The body also is 2.2 inches taller (due to the roof-mounted air-intake snorkel) and 2.4 inches wider. The windshield is the only exterior part directly carried over from the Enzo. The overall look is voluptuous and slightly reminiscent of a Jaguar XJ220. Under the new skin, much of the carbon fiber structure, suspension, and brake hardware is Enzo derived. The engine is hardened for race duty with an upgraded dry-sump oil-scavenging system and gear-driven cams in place of the Enzo's chains. The cams, pistons, and engine control system are tuned for optimum performance breathing through the mandatory 33mm intake restrictor. Ferrari's six-speed auto-clutch paddle-shifted gearbox is little changed. All race versions are painted dark Maserati blue.
The race car transformation is quite convincing in battle. Maserati fielded two MC12s in the last four races of the 2004 season, taking two wins, three seconds, and one third-place finish. Maserati won't be eligible for driver or manufacturer points in ALMS, however, because the car is longer and wider than the Automobile Club de l'Ouest regulations allow. Recostuming the race car for Stradale duty went way beyond the bare minimum lighting, emissions, and safety requirements needed to certify the MC12 for legal road use. Because the 90-year-old company was determined to make a genuinely desirable halo supercar out of its FIA racer, it chose to add such touches as a removable roof panel--a bonus not offered on the quasi-gullwing Enzo. The lightweight removable roof panel unclips and lifts off as easily as a Corvette's, but can't be stored on board. The interior is also far more opulent than one might expect in a rehabbed racer. There's still plenty of naked gel-coated carbon fiber showing on the floor and door panels, but it's dressed up with blue leather and BrighTex fabric--a silver lame type material overlaid with a grippy, open-weave mesh that brings the look of carbon fiber to the seat inserts and upper dash. Air conditioning is standard; an audio system isn't offered (what musician would dare shout down the glorious sound of a racebred V-12, anyway?). All street versions are painted pearl white over blue.
Mechanical revisions to the road car include more docile cams and engine tuning. Output is rated at 624 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque. Race teams never divulge official engine output, but the Competizione's peak numbers are assumed to be close, with differently shaped power and torque curves. The Enzo made 651 horsepower and 485 pound-feet and redlined at 8200 rpm. Maserati paints the redline at 7500 revs in the MC12 Stradale, but lets it rev to 7700. The racing brakes and tires are swapped for more street-friendly compounds, and the track widths are reduced slightly. The pushrod-actuated coil-over Boge shocks aren't adjustable like the Enzo's and are tuned for a more compliant ride over small impacts. Relative to the race car, the aerodynamics are toned down, trading the adjustable rear wing for a lower profile unit that overhangs the body to give the sideview mirrors a better view of what's directly behind the car. This is crucial, because the engine air-intake snorkel blocks what would've been the rear visibility. Center-lock wheel nuts are color-coded, blue for the right side, red for the left. Much modified Enzo motor is recostumed for Maserati duty with all crackle red parts rendered in blue or white.
The test track built in Balocco, Italy, in the 1960s for Alfa Romeo's Formula One team is an ideal stage on which to strut the MC12's stuff. Its 4.75-mile tri-oval would be a great place to probe the claimed 205-mph top speed if not for a half-dozen narrow chicanes erected in hopes of making three test cars survive four waves of ham-fisted journalist test-drives. Team driver Fabrizio de Simone gives a hair-raising lap in a Quattroporte, threading the big sedan through the chicanes deftly at about 40 mph, leaving his braking until roughly the middle of each posted braking zone. Given just two laps of the high-speed track, the first couple of chicanes are negotiated at well under de Simone's pace. This car measures nearly eight inches wider than a Quattroporte, after all. But the quick, precise steering and excellent forward visibility quickly build confidence and chicane speeds. By the second lap, it feels right to carry nearly 40 mph through the gates leading onto a mile-long straight and then floor the accelerator. The steady, strong push is attended by what sounds like the MGM lion roaring in the engine room. After four such growls, the speedometer just kisses 170 mph as the first braking marker flashes by. A deep steady stab of the brake erases three-quarters of the entry speed with no sign of fade except an ever-stiffening pedal. No side-to-side squirming or darting; just steady, stable deceleration.
For act two, the cars are turned loose on part of a 6.7-mile handling circuit for another two-lap session. Lap one, driven as one would on an unfamiliar public road, reveals incredibly communicative and confident steering that becomes more so as the speed and aero downforce increase. Street compound brakes make no noise, can be applied smoothly and gently at any speed, and don't require heating up to become effective as racing brakes do. The road-legal Pirelli PZero Corsas feature a tread pattern that's about 34 percent open in the front, 28 percent in the rear, so there's a bit of squirm on initial turn-in. But at higher speeds, there's less tramlining and very little nervousness at the wheel. Dialing up the heat a bit for lap two reveals relatively high but safely approachable levels of lateral grip. Time the trail braking just right and feed just enough throttle in to spin the tires by an amount allowed by the ASR traction control's "Race" programming, and the car adopts a nice, satisfying drift, setting up perfectly for the next corner. There's none of the "knife-edged limit handling" we criticized in the more extreme Enzo. It's even more forgiving at the limit than an Acura NSX. The brakes are strong, but they demand a bit of respect. One self-described pro-rally driving journo piloting the Stradale as if he were in competizione managed to return with flames shooting off the pads.
At the end of the day, we strap our test gear onto the MC12 to quantify its straight-line capabilities (the black lakes and skidpads were off-limits). To launch the car, simply engage the Race mode (to quicken shifts and allow more wheelspin before the ASR kicks in), then quickly open the throttle about 30 to 50 percent--enough to call for a big clutch drop, but not so much that the engine overpowers the ASR--then feed throttle in gradually as the grip allows. It's easier than it sounds--our second launch is our best. (Note that the rear brakes need to be cool for ASR to work at all.) Get it right, and the tires hook up by around 3500 rpm. Pull the upshift paddle just before fuel shutoff at 7700 rpm in each gear, and 60 mph arrives in 3.7 seconds, the quarter mile in 11.8 at 123.9 mph. That's about 0.3 second behind an Enzo at 60 mph and 0.8 back at the quarter mile. Can't have a Maserati outperforming the ultimate Ferrari, can we? Engine tuning and increased aero drag account for the difference. Perhaps a more apt comparison is with the similarly easy-to-drive Mercedes-Benz McLaren SLR, which performs within a couple tenths of the MC12.
Of course, the SLR offers a trunk that'll carry golf clubs; it costs about half as much as the MC12, and it can be imported legally to the U.S. The MC12 carries nothing but two people, some gloves, and 30 gallons of premium fuel. It sells for 600,000 euros or just a shade under $800,000. It's not homologated for U.S. sale, but a handful of cars can be imported under the show-and-display law. The first 25 cars sold out quickly in 2004. There are more than 25 orders for the 2005 run, but the cars haven't all been assigned yet, so there's still time to fill a suitcase with "incentive" cash and hop a plane to Modena. Do so, and you'll own a car that'll forever keep folks guessing.
Road Test: Maserati MC12 (cont.)

Maserati MC12
Powertrain/Chassis
Drivetrain layout Mid-engine, RWD
Engine type 65-degree V-12
Valvetrain DOHC 4 valves/cyl
Displacement 366.1 cu in/5999 cc
Compression ratio 11.2:1
Power (SAE net) 624 hp @ 7500 rpm
Torque (SAE net) 479 lb-ft @ 5500 rpm
Weight to power 5.1 lb/hp
Redline 7500 rpm
Transmission 6-speed auto-clutch manual
Axle/final-drive ratios 4.10:1 / 3.12:1
Suspension, front; rear Control arms, pushrod-actuated coil-over shocks, anti-roll bar; control arms, pushrod-actuated coil-over shocks, anti-roll bar
Steering ratio 14.0:1
Turns lock-to-lock 2.8
Brakes, f;r 15.0-in vented, cross-drilled disc; 13.2-in vented, cross-drilled disc, ABS
Wheels, f;r 19 x 9.0; 19 x 13.0, cast aluminum
Tires, f;r 245/35ZR19 93Y; 345/45ZR19 110Y, Pirelli P Zero Corsa
Dimensions
Wheelbase 110.2 in
Track, f/r 65.4 / 65.0 in
Length x width x height 202.5 x 82.5 x 47.4 in
Turning circle 39.4 ft
Curb weight 3150 lb (mfr)
Weight dist, f/r 41 / 59 %
Seating capacity 2
Cargo volume 0 cu ft
Test Data
Acceleration to mph
0-30 1.7 sec
0-40 2.2
0-50 3.0
0-60 3.7
0-70 4.9
0-80 5.9
0-90 6.8
0-100 8.0
Passing, 45-65 mph 1.2 sec
Quarter-Mile 11.8 sec @ 123.9 mph
Braking, 60-0 mph 108 ft
Top-gear revs @ 60 mph 2680 rpm
Consumer Info
Base price $792,000 (Italy)
Price as tested $792,000 (Italy)
Stability/traction control No / yes
Airbags Dual front
Basic warranty 4 yrs / 50,000 miles
Powertrain warranty 4 yrs / 50,000 miles
Roadside assistance 4 yrs / 50,000 miles
Fuel capacity 30.4 gal
EPA city/hwy econ 8/12 mpg (est)
Recommended fuel Unleaded premium



www.QV500.com - Maserati MC12 Part 1: MC12 Stradale
To be homologated into the FIA GT Championship, 25 MC12 road cars had to be built, all of which were pre-sold. The Ferrari Maserati Group’s wealth of technological resources were apparently poured into its design, but in reality, most components were taken directly from the Enzo. The main differences between the two cars lay in the dimensions, brakes and monocoque composition. MC12's were an amazing 441mm longer, 61mm wider and had a wheelbase stretched by 150mm. They used cast iron rather than carbon brakes and had a monocoque manufactured entirely from carbon fibre and nomex (the Enzo using a carbon tub supplemented with aluminium honeycomb). Advanced composites and alloys enhanced chassis rigidity and kept overall weight down, two aluminium subframes supporting the ancillaries at either end. The pushrod suspension was a fully independent double wishbone affair with anti-dive / anti-squat geometries, progressive rate steel dampers and coaxial coils and springs. Track was identical to the Enzo. Brembo brakes were cross-drilled and ventilated discs with six-piston calipers at the front and four at the rear, Bosch supplying the 5.3 ABS.

19-inch alloy wheels of 9 and 13-inches front / rear came attached via a single centre-locking nut and were originally shod with Pirelli tyres. Powered by a normally aspirated six-litre 65° V12 from the Enzo, displacement was unchanged at 5998cc thanks to a bore and stroke of 92 x 75.2mm respectively. Equipped with an aluminium crankcase, titanium con rods, a four-valve cylinder head and four overhead camshafts, compression was set at 11.2:1 and Bosch engine management utilised. Weighing in at just 232kg, the dry-sumped V12 also featured a drive-by-wire accelerator and produced 630bhp at 7500rpm.

By contrast, the unit found in Ferrari's Enzo produced 20bhp more thanks to its higher redline, the MC12's having their rev limits reduced for racing reliability. The engine was coupled to a rear-mounted longitudinally-positioned transmission, gear changes having been carried out electronically via paddles mounted behind the steering wheel. One of two shift modes could be selected, Sport mode including traction control whilst Race mode ditched the ASR and allowed faster change times. A 115-litre fuel tank was installed, weight distribution having been 41% front and 59% rear. Externally, the all carbon fibre bodywork was created from a Giugiaro idea by Maserati's in-house technicians, every one of the 25 Stradale's being completed in a white and blue livery that harked back to those cars run by Briggs Cunningham and Camoradi. A removable hardtop meant the MC12 could be converted from Berlinetta to Roadster in moments, the cars imposing dimensions meaning the styling was best described as functionally-inspired. At an extraordinary 5143mm, the MC12 was 441mm longer than the Enzo, its massive front and rear overhangs having been the result of intensive windtunnel testing

A multitude of intakes, vents and aero devices optimised air flow, the one-piece front end being dominated by two tapering apertures and a traditional Maserati grille. Positioned just behind the hard top was a roof-mounted air scoop, the tail featuring a vast carbon wing and inverted half moon-style exhausts. The whole underside of the car was faired in, two huge diffusers delivering maximum ground effect. Inside, the cabin combined acres of bare carbon with perforated leather trim and high-grip technical fabric, the instruments being organised around a central speedometer placed directly in front of the driver.

At the intersection of the dash and centre console was a characteristic oval clock and blue engine Start button just beneath, the upper part of the leather and carbon-trimmed steering wheel having been slightly flattened. Windows were electric, pedals drilled aluminium and mats rubber. The carbon fibre bucket seats were trimmed in a mixture of leather and hi-tech fabric. Weighing in at 1335kg, a top speed approaching 210mph was possible, 0-60 requiring just 3.6 seconds and 0-125mph a mere 9.9. Maserati claimed the MC12 was not only more driveable than the Enzo thanks to a broader, flatter torque curve, but also stiffer and more stable at high speeds by virtue of its longer wheelbase and overhangs. Launched at the Geneva Salon in March 2004 (two months after the first Competizione pictures were released), all 25 Stradale's were pre-sold at a price of €600,000. The 25 customer cars were then lined up for inspection by the FIA scrutineers in late August. Alongside were three Competizione's, one having been the Geneva Salon car whilst the other two would debut at Imola that weekend for AF Corse.

Beowulf

Here's a shot of a solid blue:



And a group shot with some blue Competizione's in the foreground and silver Stradales in the background:

chem0

Oh that is one orgasmic shot...

ClayJ

That doesn't look like a Competizione(!) Wow, that car looks good.
That second shot was from the homologation inspection when they had to put-up or shut-up with the 25 homologation cars. The two blues were both Competizione's - and one of them was the Geneva car, I think.
Very Cool, thanks!

Beowulf

Right - the first car is a Stradale - check the mirrors, wheels & rear wing, among other things.

ClayJ

How totally cool...makes me wonder a little bit now 'bout having some painting done....

Owner must have had it painted....

Beowulf

Don't own one, haven't ridden in one, but courtesy of an invitation from Maserati NA, I observed first-hand the #35 car which finished 8th overall at the Road Atlanta ALMS race in October.

Nice lunch provided, as well as what purports to be a Frank Stephenson signed "limited edition" print of the MC-12 (3786/6000). Had to bail early, but unfortunately all of my track vids include a Mazda rotary powered car that completely drowned out the sound of anything within 200 yards, the Maser included.

vraa

Beowulf: food > Maserati.

ClayJ

ALMS is one of my favorite series....
Print up behind glass on a wall, or rolled up in a drawer?

Beowulf

LOL, you've got that right! Free catered lunch + ALMS race pass = I'm there.

Thankfully, they weren't rolled when given, so it's currently lying flat in a drawer. I'll get around to framing it one of these days.

ClayJ

That's why i asked -- in case you didn't know that flat in a drawer is the way to keep it until....
Very Cool.

carbizindio

I have the 2005 spyder cambiocorsa that has the F1 gearbox. I have not taken it to the track but it seems like 13sec 1/4 mile time you hear about on the net is very in accurate. I've raced a few street bikes from 0-130 and never been taken. With traction control off and a good driver I would put my money on the stock maserati over the stock E55 any day.

iAMGod

Unless you mean street pushbikes, any half decent 600cc is way out of your league by a long way....... 750cc, 1000cc forget it.