Maserati MCXtrema v MC20 GT2 – sibling track weapons go head to head

There’s nothing in the footwell, just bare carbon and wires. Yet my left foot instinctively mashes against the firewall every time we get to one of Navarra’s big braking zones. The tight right-hander to start the second half of the lap is the most alarming. I peer across to read 240kph (call it 150mph) on the steering wheel as we hurtle at the corner near the top of fifth, full-bodied V6 thunder overlaid with the shriek of a racing transmission. 

We should definitely be braking by now, I think, but GT driver and coach Sean Hudspeth stays pinned right up to the entry kerb. Then bam. I’m thrown forwards, the harness digs into my chest and we’re firing down the gears. It feels like we’ll barely make the turn, but as soon as Sean hooks the apex he’s on the throttle again, dancing the car towards the exit kerb with millimetric precision. It’s like this for lap after lap until we cool down and ease into the pits. ‘Just a warm‑up,’ he shouts across to me. It’s quite an introduction to the Maserati MCXtrema.

If you’ve seven figures to spend on a weapons-grade track-only hypercar there’s already plenty of choice. Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin, Bugatti and Pagani are all well established in the game, producing everything from pseudo GT racers to derestricted Le Mans prototypes for those who look at an F80 or Valkyrie and, for whatever reason, need a bit more.

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In truth even the most extreme road cars leave something on the table when it comes to track use, and something purpose-built can open up an entirely new world of performance for customers to chip away at and enjoy at trackdays or private events. It’s a lucrative market for supercar makers to tap into.

The MCXtrema is Maserati’s entry to the club, and on the surface, it has all the key boxes ticked. It’s ultra exclusive, being limited to 62 units (all of which are sold), it costs c£1million and its carbonfibre body and wild aero package scream motorsport. 

Beneath that skin it’s based on the lovable (and flawed) MC20 road car, with extensive modifications from the carbon tub outwards derived from the MC20 GT2 race car. That means a twin-turbo Nettuno V6 with the wick turned up, plus overhauled double-wishbone suspension and all the motorsport goodies, from variable TC and ABS to switchable power-steering settings.

The MC20 road car is already a wild ride, so the prospect of something angrier and much more serious is exciting, and a little daunting. Especially when the shutters go up to reveal it in the pit box, where it looks like something from Bruce Wayne’s underground bunker. The MCXtrema is almost laughably menacing and dramatic, especially from the rear, which is largely open to help force air through and out of the bodywork. The wing extends above the roof and would make a 911 GT3 RS blush.

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In the pit box next door there’s an MC20 GT2, which Maserati has laid on for comparison – and to answer a question. The concept of screaming around on track in your own motorsport-spec hypercar sounds like a dream, but the pragmatic side of me has always wondered, why not buy an actual race car instead? 

For what you’d give up in Salon Privé kudos, you could have something you can compete in as well as use on trackdays, probably with cheaper maintenance and repair bills. Here we’ll find out whether the MCXtrema has enough special sauce to lift it above its GT2 cousin.

There’s plenty to get stuck into before that. The familiarisation laps with Sean have given a taste of what the MCXtrema can do, and now it’s my turn to swing the door up and slide into the carbon driver’s seat. Fold yourself in (making sure not to sit on the harness belts), pull the door shut, and you’re surrounded by a wonderful blend of motorsport function and finely crafted details. 

The architecture is quite unlike anything else, carbon structures cocooning you at the sides and carrying the major controls, and a dinky Formula-style wheel with a display in its centre. The engine start button should be labelled ‘detonate’ given the explosion of noise it produces behind you. It’s not the shriek of a flat-plane V8 or V12, but the gravelly note pulses through your core, helped by the fact that this MCXtrema doesn’t have optional exhaust silencers. Good choice.

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Pulling away smoothly is always the first challenge of driving a car of this kind, and while the MCXtrema’s clutch has a sharp bite, the torque from the V6 helps the initial take-off. From there everything is, well… easy. The whole car has a brutal, intimidating demeanour but actually operating it is a piece of cake. The steering is very light and precise, the engine isn’t peaky and pedal feel is superb. 

The six-speed pneumatic gearbox is shunty at very low revs but everything smooths out with speed, and then the shifts become amazingly quick and satisfying. They thunk home as fast as you can move your finger on the paddles, followed by what sounds like a klaxon horn behind your head. That’s the pneumatic system recharging for the next shift.

All this means that you can make the leap to using more throttle, braking deeper and turning harder with surprising ease, at which point the MCXtrema is rabidly intense but still approachable. Fully wound up, the engine is fierce. The same is true in the road car, but it’s taken to another level here, with uprated turbos and 730bhp – an increase of over 100bhp. 

The MCXtrema is significantly lighter too, at a claimed 1460kg with fluids (1475kg is the claim for the road car, although we’ve weighed one at 1700kg), so the gears come thick and fast as it chomps through Navarra’s straights. Approaching the fearsomely quick first corner it hits 165mph, at which point you put your faith in the downforce (c1000kg), GT2‑spec Pirelli slicks and turn in…

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You can really lean on the aero but it doesn’t dominate the experience. There isn’t an otherworldly sensation of being glued to the track through fast corners, and it takes time to build full confidence and trust in the car at these high speeds. Part of the reason is that the steering remains light and doesn’t build a great sense of load as the tyres bite into the tarmac, even in the heaviest of its four settings. It makes fast corrections easier, but a bit more reassurance would be nice. 

So rather than the fast stuff, it’s through the more technical corners of Navarra where the MCXtrema is most biddable and rewarding. You can really hustle it, using the supremely powerful and fade-free brakes to pin the weight on the nose, and attacking the throttle to feel the rear hopping and squirming on the way out, the onset of boost only just overwhelming the tyres with the TC in its lower levels. 

The electronics are a revelation, particularly the ABS. When it starts pulsing through the pedal the MCXtrema seems to haul itself back even harder, and still finds enough purchase to turn in precisely. It’s like magic.

The general impression is of a car with a wide operating window rather than the knife-edge balance of a true racer, so there’s plenty for drivers of varying skill levels to enjoy. The adjustable suspension and four-way Öhlins dampers leave a wide scope to tune the handling, and here it’s biased towards understeer, making it predictable but a little frustrating through Navarra’s longer corners.

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Even so, you can throw the MCXtrema’s weight around and use the throttle to keep it neutral. Get it right and you can hold imperceptible slides with minute tweaks of the wheel, or provoke bigger flicks of oversteer. Not the fastest way, but it’s encouraged by the V6’s low-end grunt and how readable the chassis is. It’s somehow beastly and delicate all at once.

I wonder if, after the fury and excitement of the MCXtrema, the GT2 might feel a bit flat. The visual presence of the hypercar is certainly missing, although the widened MC20 bodywork is still gorgeous to behold, and I love the worn-in feel of this example. The paint is chipped in places and you can see the weave of the carbon through it, F40 style.

It’s befitting of what is a genuine competition car. The GT2 class sits below GT3 as a series geared towards amateur drivers, with more powerful but less aero-focused cars. For €528,000 (c£455,000) you can buy an MC20 GT2 and use it for trackdays, or go racing with it in the GT2 European Series and rub doors with AMGs, Lamborghinis and Audi R8s.

Inside the GT2 it’s very much function over form, the architecture clearly adapted from the road car and without the sci-fi feel of the MCXtrema. Your eyes are immediately drawn to the acid green steering wheel (this time without a display – there’s a screen built into the dash instead) and central control panel. Firing it up is the same process, but instead of serrated thunder you get a thinner (but still very angry) V6 note.

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Some of the sensory delights of the MCXtrema are missing, then, but there’s familiarity once you get moving. An awful lot, in fact. The steering has the same light, precise feel, the brakes have the same superb response and modulation, and the gearshifts are just as satisfying, with the same transmission noise and chatter behind you. It’s no wonder, given that the two share most of their mechanicals.

One thing the GT2 doesn’t have is the full 730bhp output. Being 109bhp down it feels like it’s dropped a cylinder, hitting noticeably less hard and sounding less visceral. The engine hardware is the same and the power difference comes through mapping, so it could theoretically be turned up to MCXtrema levels. Just not if you’re going racing, as GT2 cars are at the mercy of Balance of Performance regulations, with power restrictions and added ballast.

There’s still more than enough power to keep things exciting (particularly on part-worn slicks), and the real surprise is that, dynamically, the GT2 is even more rewarding than its bigger, badder brother. From the first turn of the wheel there’s that bit more clarity and urgency to how it changes direction, and the whole car feels more settled somehow. 

Both cars are highly adjustable in terms of setup, so it’s hard to make a definitive judgement, but the GT2 feels inherently lighter on its feet and eager to turn. I later learn that in this configuration, without ballast, it’s a whole 100kg lighter than the more extravagantly finished MCXtrema, which goes some way to explaining the difference.

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There’s the same underlying friendliness as the MCXtrema, allowing you to impose yourself on the car, take liberties and drive in its wide sweet spot. The difference is that the GT2 is that bit more neutral, more obedient at the front end and calmer over bumps – and that’s despite being restricted to simpler two-way adjustable Öhlins suspension by regulation. 

The net effect is that you rotate towards the apex sooner and have the confidence to really commit over the kerbs, the chassis absorbing the impact where the MCXtrema can hop and skip. Navarra’s quick right-left chichane is a case in point. 

The GT2 is superb through it, turning in beautifully on the brakes without feeling nervous, striking the kerb with one bounce and settling quickly through the direction change. The exit feels fantastic, the car building speed through the left-hander and gently overdriving the rears all the way through second gear.

It’s less of a monster than the MCXtrema and therefore less of a thrill, but to lap all day, fine-tune my driving and eke out more from the car, the GT2 is the one I’d rather be in. By the end of my session I’ve got down to the same lap time as I did in the MCXtrema, despite the power deficit – almost certainly due to me being more in tune with the circuit, but also because the GT2 is that bit easier to draw performance from.

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Even after I’ve rolled into the pits for the final time I’m thinking about how I could carry more speed through the high-speed sections, be more effective on the brakes and perhaps dial back the TC for a bit more freedom. In other words, I’m hooked.

The elephant in the room, as my pragmatic side would say, is that the GT2 costs less than half as much as the MCXtrema while being at least as rewarding to drive, and eligible to race where the hypercar currently isn’t. But neither of these are rational purchases and they shouldn’t be viewed as such. 

Simply as an object to behold, the MCXtrema is exquisite and extreme in the best way, and the driving experience absolutely backs that up. It’s brutal, intense and challenging without actually being intimidating, which is a very hard balance to strike. Plus, word on the grapevine is that with some third-party modifications, there’s a possibility it could be converted for road use. Now that would be quite something…
 

Specs

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