I recorded this beautiful Maserati MC12 Versione Corsa during the 2020 Challenge and GT Days, a track day for Ferrari historic and modern GT/Challenge cars but also for Maserati racers, held last summer for the third time at the Red Bull Ring. The car isn’t ”just” a MC12 Corsa but it has been modified in order to make it street legal thanks to the help of German company Edo Competition.
The Versione Corsa isn’t the actual GT1 race car but still is a track-only MC12 built in just 15 examples (12 for private customers plus other 3 for testing and marketing purposes). It’s basically the Maserati ‘XX’ car if you want to make a comparison with Ferrari and their XX Programmes. Edo Competition added all those necessary stuffs and devices that are required for a sort of daily use, such has locks on the doors, extra fans for water cooling system in the front end, a lifting system for the front, a modified fuel cap in order to refuel at traditional petrol stations and, last but not the least, a valvetronic exhaust system in order to comply with noise emission limits (and believe me, in person with the valves closed it’s really quiet, as you can hear from the two start ups).
The MC12 Corsa was directly developed from the 2005 MC12 GT1 but compared to this the Ferrari 6.0-litre V12 engine on the Corsa is without intake restrictors (as instead required by the technical regulations of the FIA GT) so it can deliver more power, reaching 755 hp at 8,000 rpm, a whopping 125 hp more than the race engine, limited to 630 hp. Another big difference between the two is the gearbox: the GT1 has a 6-speed sequential gearbox, the Versione Corsa has a 6-speed “Maserati Cambiocorsa” semiautomatic transmission (that’s why it sounds so slow and in that way compared to the faster GT1 sequential). Basically the upshifts sound and the steering wheels + interiors are what allow you to distinguish the two racing variants of the MC12.
Enjoy the amazing sound of this perfect machine in action around the Austrian race track!
