Maserati has a long-standing practice of naming its cars after the world’s most famous winds. It all began in 1963, with the legendary Mistral and this was followed by Ghibli, Bora, Merak and Khamsin. And in 2016 by Levante, the first SUV in Maserati’s history.
After the spark ignited by the Ghibli Hybrid, presented in July, the power of the Trofeo Collection launched in August, and the world première of the MC20 supercar, revealed to the world with an unprecedented event, the time has now come for a real journey into the future of Maserati in Modena, where the Brand’s tomorrow is being built, starting from its roots.
The starting-point for this journey is the historic plant on Viale Ciro Menotti in Modena. The Modena plant, where the Trident has had its home for over 80 years, is a magical location that combines the Brand’s “made in Italy” DNA and its Heritage with an irrepressible drive towards the future and innovation: the plant has been modernised with new production, engine assembly and painting facilities specifically for the new MC20.
In fact the Nettuno, the supercar’s ground-breaking V6 power unit, is the first creation of the Maserati Engine Lab, the new engine hub recently created within the Modena site, which has also, for the first time in its history, been equipped with a state-of-the-art, environment-friendly paintshop.
MC20 is the first step in the new Era, the first model that marks out a new path to the future. The supercar’s strikingly elegant design is achieved by finely balancing a series of opposites: a blend of craftsmanship and engineering, elegance and performance, racing spirit and pleasure at the wheel. Designed by the Maserati Style Centre in Turin, MC20 is 100% developed, engineered and produced in Modena, and began to take shape in the laboratories of the Maserati Innovation Lab, the Trident brand’s engineering hub, a facility of excellence where all the Maserati models of today and tomorrow are brought to life.
The heart of MC20 is a V6 twin turbo petrol engine, entirely produced at the Modena plant, the first in over twenty years and another important Maserati patent. Located at the rear of the vehicle, in keeping with traditional racing configurations, this unique engine features Formula 1 technology, propelling the Brand toward the exciting world of racing. This historical piece of engineering is called Nettuno and compresses all the energy of 630 CV into 3000 cc of displacement. A magnificent god of the sea, brandishing a trident and out to conquer new lands, will bring that sweet Maserati sound to its maximum expression on both the open road and racing circuits.
In the Maserati Innovation Lab in Modena, digital processes support the product’s development, applying the exclusive Maserati formula which adopts an integrated approach to prioritise the human factor right from the initial phases: customer-focus is incorporated in the world of virtual simulation with an exclusive hardware-software mix. In fact, more than 90% of the MC20’s vehicle dynamics were developed with the aid of virtual models, using an innovative approach called Virtual Vehicle Dynamics Development, managed by Maserati in-house.
The Maserati Innovation Lab is therefore the perfect location for discussing the Brand’s tomorrow, and its laboratories will bring forth the Folgore and the new Grecale SUV. The future Maserati SUV called Grecale is named after the fierce north-east wind of the Mediterranean Sea, and it is destined to play a key role in the Brand’s development.
Folgore is the new strategy for electrification the Maserati way, and ignites the flame of a new energy. An energy that will project the Trident into the future. The new Maserati GranTurismo and GranCabrio will be the Brand’s first cars to adopt 100% electric solutions; they will be engineered in Modena and built at the Turin production hub. There will also be an electric version of the MC20, to be produced at the Maserati plant in Modena.
The first step in the range’s electrification is Ghibli Hybrid, launched in June. The challenge facing Maserati was to enter the world of electrification without betraying the Brand’s core philosophy and values. The result? The creation of the best possible hybrid. Keeping faith with its DNA, Maserati has chosen a hybrid solution focused primarily on improving performance, while also saving fuel and cutting emissions.
The Brand’s new era also embraces the customisation of its cars. Thanks to the new Maserati FUORISERIE programme, it will now be possible to customise every Maserati to the customer’s taste, and every purchaser is offered the opportunity of a unique experience in the new “car tailoring” shop, to be created at the Modena headquarters. To help customers to find their way around the thousands of possible combinations, we have created three basic collections as starting-points, three collections – called Corse, Unica and Futura – that express the brand’s power and represent its values, uniting breath-taking performance with elegance and innovation.
For more information on any of these exciting new models, visit your preferred Maserati dealer.
Photographs by Maserati S.p.A