Back in the heady days of pre-recession 2007 the economy was going gangbusters and Maserati had no problem selling people on the idea of a $1.5 million track day car that they didn’t actually have to own. Back when the car was fresh, Maserati would store, prepare, and transport the racer to the track for you during special events a few times a year. It was, and remains, a play thing for the ultra rich, but at least now you can park it at your house, even if you still can’t drive it on the street.
Based on the MC12 GT1 race car that was winning championships in the same period, the Versione Corse features a V12 with over 700 horsepower in a time when Mustangs still had 300, some 120 horsepower more than the street version. It’s a stripped down track machine with proper racing seats and harnesses, carbon everything, and zero electronic nannies—even ABS is omitted.
From a visual perspective, it’s easy to spot a Corse as it differentiates from the standard MC12 with a shorter GT1-derived nose cone (needed for ALMS regulations at the time), a much lower ride height, and a stand-alone motorsport-style wing instead of the road car’s body-integrated wing. Only 12 examples of the Corse model were built, so it’s not like your neighbor will have one, and they don’t exactly come up for sale every day.
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While Ferrari had their own FXX program for the MC12’s chassis mate Enzo, which served much the same market, Maserati didn’t use their customers for testing future product. Where FXX customers help Ferrari develop their next generation of supercars, Versione Corse customers were only expected to show up at the track and have a great fucking time.
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Even when they were contemporaries, I always preferred the Maserati to the Ferrari counterpart. It’s a classier design that has a sloped nose, which sort of reminds me of Ferrari’s own F40 in a way. In any case, this is a beautiful and very fast car. If you have several million to spend on one today, this could be the track day car you need to add to your own garage. To see more photos and absolutely no further information on this car, check out Pagani of Beverly Hills.
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