| Designed to win races, the Maserati MC12 is | | | | Ferrari and Maserati have been put in different |
| actually sold as a road car, albeit it a very | | | | sub-groups, so this sort of collaboration is not |
| impractical one. Still what do you expect with a | | | | expected in the future.V-12 from Ferrari with 622 |
| 620 bhp exotic car? The car looks just like the | | | | bhpThe Maserati MC12 looks completeley different |
| sports racing car that it is. To be fair, it is a real | | | | from the Enzo, though,, with a long nose and |
| two-seater while the cars that race at Le Mans | | | | very long tail. Where the Enzo is angular, the |
| are more like single-seaters.Only 25 MC12s were | | | | MC12 is curved. It has a carbon fiber body |
| built initially, and quite a few were used for racing. | | | | structure with steel sub-frames front and rear. |
| Actually, when they heard about Maserati building | | | | Power comes from a 6.0 liter V-12 developing |
| the MC12 for the GTA championship (ooops, | | | | 622 bhp @ 7,500 rpm, and 480 lb ft (652 Nm) |
| sorry for sale as a road car, was the official line, I | | | | torque @ 5,500 rpm. A semi-racing engine to be |
| think) some of the other companies threatened | | | | sure. It is coupled to a semi-automatic six-speed |
| to withdraw as they thought the presence of the | | | | sequential gearbox, developed by Ferrari in |
| MC12 on the starting grid would make a farce of | | | | racing.Suspension is by double wishbones, with |
| the whole series.Although the Maserati MC12, is a | | | | inboard spring and damper units acting through |
| true exotic car, it is based on the Ferrari Enzo. | | | | pushrods. These are mounted horizontally as on |
| The whole idea was to upgrade Maserati's image | | | | the Enzo. The dampers have variable rates. Quite |
| following a checkered history. The glory of the | | | | a car, but not as extreme as the Bugatti Veyron |
| 50s, when Maserati was a regular winner of | | | | or the latest Saleen S7.Following the racing |
| Grand Prix, got lost in the mire of an economic | | | | success of the MC12, Maserati is now to build a |
| downturn, when the company took the wrong | | | | more extreme version - the MC12 Corsa. The |
| turn more than once.As Ferrari and Maserati are | | | | MC12 Corsa has a massively uprated Enzo V-12 |
| both part of the Fiat Group, and were in fact in | | | | engine giving about 750bhp. You can get this for |
| the same sub-group, it made sense to modify the | | | | about $1. |
| Enzo to get Maserati back as a winner. Now, | | | | |