Maserati Racecar Unveiled
The race car unveiled recently at the famous Fiorano racetrack in Modena is the kind of thing you get when you're a famous Italian car company that's looking to get some extra mileage out of a road-going sedan.
The Maserati Granturismo (also known as the MCS) is the relatively sedate looking luxury sedan that will be also be unveiled in Geneva.
According to Luca Dalmonte of Maserati's PR office, ''The two versions were produced as the result of a synergy between the Maserati engineers and the engineers from the Maserati's race department, under the technical supervision of Giorgio Ascanelli.''
The Maserati MCC is scheduled to take part in the second half of the 2004 FIA GT Championship, Dalmonte says, ''with the objective of participating to the whole season the following year.''
Dalmonte explains that the Maserati team will line up two works cars, as permitted by the current regulations, while others will be entered by private teams.
''The MCS/MCC project came together in a very short time,'' Dalmonte says, ''with preliminary work beginning in May 2002. In September of the same year, the road going car's styling buck was ready, while computer design work got underway in January 2003, taking two months to complete.''
Last September two MCS prototypes took shape. One of them began road testing in November, while the other passed the crash tests in December.
Halfway through 2004, 25 cars will be built to meet the minimum requirement for racing homologation. The first competition car was already underway in November 2003 and currently the Maserati Racing Department is building the second MCC chassis.
The MCC will meet all the preparation requirements for homologation in the GT Supercar category, Dalmonte adds, and its development will be entrusted to Andrea Bertolini, the sports test driver for the Ferrari-Maserati Group.