The striking Maserati MC20 convertible has been teased with a folding roof
It’s been a wait, but the Maserati MC20 is now right on the cusp rightfully shaking up the underperforming Maserati range, but before we finally get our time with the exciting new supercar in the region, Italy has previewed its first derivative, a convertible version.
As with most mid-engined supercars of this type, the addition of a convertible body style is a critical factor in the fiscal success of such development-heavy models, widening the appeal in markets outside of Europe and diversifying sales away from a single body shape.
While this has often led to compromised driving experience with super sports cars in the past, the advent of carbonfibre chassis development has made huge strides in making an open-top’s extra weight and lack of rigidity less of an issue, something the new MC20 convertible should make good use of.
Maserati’s camouflage does hide away much of the MC20 Convertible’s aesthetic changes over the coupe, but thanks to a relatively segmented design on the coupe, we expect the two to be near indistinguishable, aside from the almost certain removal of the Coupe’s composite rear engine cover. Like many mid-engined open-top supercars, the roof will buck the trend back to a fabric soft top in favour of a folding composite arrangement not dissimilar to the unit found on the current Ferrari F8 Spider and forthcoming 296 Spider.
We expect that the two will feature identical powertrains too, which as a reminder is Maserati’s all-new ‘Nettuno’ V6 twin-turbo, complete with F1-derived pre-chamber combustion technology and power rated at the same 621bhp. Any powertrain changes will no doubt be reserved for Maserati’s third MC20 variant, which is set to drop the combustion powertrain all together in favour of a new electric motor and battery setup Maserati is working on for both the MC20 and forthcoming GranTurismo GT – both under the Folgore nomenclature.
This article originally appeared at evo.co.uk
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