Maserati MC20 GT2 Stradale 2025 review – Modena's answer to the Porsche 911 GT3 RS

Right now, I’m a passenger in the GT2 Stradale. Not in the ‘I’ve hit a patch of ice, wound on the opposite lock and now might as well be holding a flag and a spatula for all the control I’ve got’ sense. Thankfully. Just a normal passenger.

It’s not a situation I find myself in very often these days, but Maserati’s launch programme dictates a sharing of cars for the journey from Marbella to the Ascari Race Resort, so I’ve hopped into the right-hand seat and it’s bringing the memories flooding back. When I joined evo 20 years ago, bright-eyed and even skinnier, I spent hour upon hour as a sack of spuds, watching the timing gear while lapping Bedford’s West Circuit or ploughing a furrow up and down the mile straight at Millbrook. It was fascinating, and by paying close attention to what John and Dickie were doing, I learned a huge amount about the cars.

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Today I’m next to James, from a rival title in yonder neighbouring county. He’s an excellent driver, so there’s no need to stamp a phantom brake pedal or say things like ‘this corner looks quite deceptive’. Instead I can soak in the fact that the GT2’s suspension seems to be sponging up the bumps with aplomb, despite having ten per cent stiffer springs than a regular MC20. There is also 5kg less carpet on the carbon tub of the cabin to act as sound-deadening, yet it’s not unduly noisy in here either, and because this car has the standard seats rather than the angular Sabelt buckets, if you closed your eyes you could well imagine you were in a normal MC20. Only the abnormal amount of lateral grip being generated by the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 Rs as we carve through the long corners on the road to Ronda is signalling that this is a slightly more serious proposition.

It’s strange because before I hopped in I had been expecting quite a different sort of experience. Not since Clark Kent popped into a phone booth has there been quite such a costume change. The base car is elegant but very clean and simple in its surfaces. The GT2’s bodywork has turned from a millpond into a wind-whipped sea with a plethora of vents, scoops and aero devices. As a whole, the car looks not only more aggressive, but also more compact. Based purely on the GT2 Stradale’s new clothes, I would have expected something more akin to the Huracán STO or 911 GT3 RS in terms of a hardcore ride and aggressive demeanour.

I’m not suggesting a good car has to have the barely disguised pent-up fury of a recently caged wild animal, but by the time we pull into a scruffy lay-by to swap seats there’s a suspicion that style might have a bit of an upper hand over substance with the Stradale.

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There’s a broad piece of stiff material with PULL stitched into it in a vaguely ’80s script to let you know the preferred method of closing the dihedral door. Push the small starter button on the slightly thicker steering wheel, hear the gruff Nettuno V6 come to life, pull the big carbon paddle through a nice amount of travel (not long-winded, but more than a mouse click) for first gear and we’re back out onto the road.

At which point everything changes. Imagine going to a silent disco and hanging out without a pair of headphones. That’s the passenger-seat experience. Now pop on the cans, suddenly soaking yourself in the sounds of Sigala, Solveig or Swedish House Mafia. Now the room comes alive and all the movement makes sense. That’s what it’s like holding the steering wheel in the GT2 Stradale.

If you’ve been on a diet of EPAS systems for a while, which is entirely possible even if you drive a lot of high-performance machinery, the hydraulically assisted rack of the Maserati is a feast for the hands. All the textural feedback from the soft, Alcantara-clad wheel as it almost trembles in your palms is a flashback to better times, with purer weighting and delicious feel. The drive to the circuit isn’t particularly quick and I don’t venture above Sport in the settings, but the whole car feels alive, engaging and fun, primarily thanks to this fabulous steering. There are plenty of questions to be answered about other aspects of the car, but it’s a good start.

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Waiting at the track is the Stradale’s inspirational cousin, the GT2 Corsa. It’s only on hand for static display duties today, but I was lucky enough to drive it last year (issue 321) and since then it has won a dozen races and both the drivers’ and teams’ titles in the Am class of the GT2 European Series. That sounds a little like I’m trying to claim some sort of reflected glory for the victories. I’m not.

Anyway, the Stradale is certainly a close aesthetic relation of the race car, only really missing a huge roof-scoop and the ability to run a taller, wider, sharper rear wing. It can’t quite generate the race car’s 1000kg of downforce, but it is a big step up from the MC20. Such is the work on the floor that even without the rear wing a Stradale almost doubles the MC20’s 145kg of downforce. Add in the rear wing and the number increases to 320kg, 420kg or 500kg depending whether you choose to (manually) set it in its low, medium or high-downforce position. In terms of aero balance, 130kg of that number is always generated by the front of the car.

Interestingly, top speed hasn’t been drastically affected, the Stradale’s 201mph all but matching the MC20’s 203mph in low-drag mode and falling only slightly to 198mph in high-downforce mode. That’s perhaps even more impressive when you consider that much of the new bodywork is also designed to gulp in air to keep both engine and brakes cool and avoid any drop-off in performance during sustained lapping.

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The GT2 race car’s influence isn’t so pronounced inside the Stradale, but the new centre console has been slimmed down (saving 2kg) and a carbon structure now hosts the gearbox buttons and the drive mode selector, the latter combining a rotating collar with a slightly unresponsive touchscreen. These controls have all been adorned with fluorescent yellow, just like the race car’s main switches, to make it easier to spot in the heat of the moment, but regardless of any practical considerations, I think it just makes what is otherwise a fairly humdrum interior (with a lot of plastic switchgear) more memorable.

The Stradale’s drive modes have apparently taken inspiration from the race car’s as well, with no less than four Corsa options to cycle through in addition to the Wet, GT and Sport modes. These essentially decrease the ESP, TC and e-diff intervention, with Corsa 1 leaving you free from stability and traction intervention entirely, ABS intervention reduced to 30 per cent and the limited-slip diff behaving as much like a passive, mechanical one as possible.

Half an hour later, after some caffeine and a briefing, I’m back in a passenger seat, this time one of the optional Sabelt buckets that has a little ‘Made in Modena’ decal visible on the outside of the shoulder bolster as you get in. Also in this car are harnesses (which require an additional bar behind the seats) and an ex-Alfa Romeo BTCC driver, although he can’t be found on the configurator.

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If you were around in the ’90s, then you would have heard Giampiero Simoni’s name ringing out on the BBC’s Grandstand programme as he and Gabriele Tarquini took the British Touring Car scene by storm in their aerodynamically eye-catching Alfa 155s. Indeed, Simone’s first question to me when I get in the car is about where I live in the UK, and when I say that I’m based near Milton Keynes he beams and proudly informs me that he lived in Banbury when he was with Prodrive. We have a chat about rallying (obviously) and he tells me that he knew Richard Burns, but that he also used to go for coffee with Sandro Munari and Piero Liatti, which sounds like it would be a fun round of espressos.

Then it’s out onto the track in the GT2 Stradale and everything is as smooth as steamed milk. Simoni’s quick, but he’s pouring the car into corners, being very patient on the throttle through Ascari’s myriad tricky turns.

As soon as I’m behind the wheel, it’s clear that this wasn’t just as a demonstration of how he’d like to be driven; it is also how the GT2 Stradale wants to be driven. As we know, the regular MC20 is bafflingly heavy for a non-hybrid, carbon-tubbed car (the UK press car with fluids and nose lift topped 1700kg), and although Maserati claims to have lopped off 60kg for the Stradale, for a supposed 1365kg dry weight if you spec it correctly (the big-ticket items are the forged-centre wheels that save 20kg and the carbon buckets for another 20kg), you still notice its weight on track.

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You want the dampers in their firmest setting to help control the mass, but nonetheless you still notice a slight reluctance through higher-speed direction changes, where you need to be patient and have smooth inputs to keep it settled. Get on the throttle too early and you’ll feel the nose start to push wide. Carry a bit too much speed on turn-in and you’ll feel the 40:60 rear-biased weight distribution start to manifest in a bit of easily caught momentum oversteer.

Even in its stiffest setting, the suspension can’t prevent the front from catching in the compression on the way through the first chicane, but the upside is that the Stradale rides all the other kerbs beautifully. The big carbon-ceramic brakes have plenty of feel, but even with ABS assistance reduced in Corsa mode and all stability assistance turned off, the hazard lights still trigger under hard braking, which feels a little silly. In some ways the V6 engine feels at its best and certainly most spectacular when it’s able to be thrashed to within an inch of its life. But such is the fury right at the top end that it often feels more natural (and quicker) to stay a gear higher than initially seems optimal and instead rely on the huge reserves of torque lower in the revs.

The Stradale is certainly enjoyable on track and, like the GT2 race car, it feels easy to get to grips with. But there isn’t the sense that it was born to attack a circuit as hard as possible like a Porsche GT3. It still feels like a road car – so heading back out of the gates onto the Andalusian asphalt seems like a good idea.

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For my road drive I pinch a car in full, motorsport-mimicking spec, so not only the bucket seats but also Blu Corse paint (a slightly glossier version of the finish the race car wears) and an ice hockey stick-shaped Tricolour stripe down the side, culminating in a big trident. It could be naff, but perhaps because the blue is actually relatively subtle I think it looks terrific.

A word of warning about the seats, because there are two versions available with different padding and you need to choose wisely. The car I drove on track felt fine, but the road car felt like a massage function had got stuck mid-kneed, with all the support in the wrong place. The buckets really help differentiate the GT2 from the MC20, with a seating position that is a bit better too (although I felt like it could go lower still), but it would be unfortunate to find yourself with a passive pummelling system built in.

Heading out of the gates, the wonderful steering makes itself felt once more. And as I settle into the first few miles I enjoy catching sight of the louvres on the arch in front of me and then glancing in the door mirror to see the huge carbon scoop on the one behind. You can choose between three damper settings independently of drive mode, and the middle, Sport setting feels like the best on the road unless you really need the extra control, though some British bumps may undo that theory in a matter of metres.

Turning off into the countryside, I decide to try Corsa on the road, and it really does deliver an intoxicating hit. The engine, with its pre-chamber combustion technology, is just wild. Made in-house in Modena, it is the same 90-degree V6 as the one in the MC20 and the GT2 race car. Maserati claims a 10bhp uplift for the Stradale and shouts less about the 7lb ft drop in torque, but I’m not sure anyone other than a human incarnation of a rolling road would be able to discern the difference between 621bhp versus 631bhp or 538lb ft and 531lb ft; My internal g-meter certainly isn’t calibrated in 1.5 per cent increments.

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All you need to know is that it has the same, shocking Jekyll and Hyde character as before, capable of cruising calmly one moment and then delivering a wild punch the next. It’s like a shark that’s swimming serenely and then with a couple of swishes becomes all teeth and savage speed.

The noise that accompanies this ferocity is interesting because the V6 is not a screamer, instead producing a more guttural roar that’s a bit dirty in its gravelly, bass-led tones. It’s not a sound that tingles my spine, but it does give the Stradale a distinctive character. If you want more, Maserati will be offering a 7kg-lighter titanium exhaust that circumvents the legal need for some of the baffling by being sold as ‘track only’, a stipulation that I’m sure owners will stick to religiously…

In charge of swapping ratios is an eight-speed DCT gearbox that has been tuned to deliver really quite pronounced thumps when it’s dialled up to the max. It’s not great for keeping the car settled on track, but I rather like it on the road. Sometimes dual-clutch gearboxes can be a little bit soulless in their perfectly smooth shifts and this has had some character dialled in, which I suspect was inspired by the sequential ’box in the GT2 race car.

The big carbon paddles add to the theatre, as do the Stradale’s shift lights, which are hidden neatly behind the lacquer in the top carbon portion of the steering wheel. There are nine little LEDs in total, the first three illuminating white, the second three blue and the final three red. Although maximum power is delivered at 7500rpm, the fact that you live in the 3000-5500rpm torque band is even more apparent on the road and as a result I found myself shifting up with the first white lights that flash up at 5500rpm.

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With dusty, slippery roads, I had thought that the GT2 Straddle might be a bit of a handful, but traction is surprisingly good, and even if you really provoke the rear with the throttle in tighter bends it doesn’t just snap (you can feel the e-diff kick in to help here). Driving quickly, I found I wanted a slightly firmer brake pedal to go with the uprated Brembo carbon-ceramics, as although there is plenty of feel deeper into the travel (and you don’t want an overly sensitive system), it sometimes felt like it took a fraction too long to get into the meat of the pressure. Some might prefer it that way.

What’s really good is that the GT2 Stradale is a car that makes you think about these nuances. It’s not perfect but it is engaging and it makes you ask questions of both it and yourself. Driving back to the circuit on wider, more flowing roads, I found myself comparing the Stradale to McLaren’s LT cars in terms of its character, skewing slightly more to road than track, more focused than outright hardcore, despite what the Stradale’s bodywork says. Perhaps the steering has something to do with the Woking association too – islands of hydraulic assistance in a sea of EPAS. Then there is the fact that despite their big names, both companies feel like smaller, almost family affairs at times.

Maserati plans to produce 914 GT2 Stradales, each one with a plaque reading 1 of 914, thereby bringing to mind the year in which the company was founded. At £273,510 before you add in the almost obligatory Performance Pack (Corsa drive modes, Cup 2 R tyres, e-diff, carbon-ceramic brakes, front arch louvres) and Sabelt bucket seats, I suspect they will be 914 quite brave customers to take the leap and choose this over the competition. However, as with the MC20, the GT2 Stradale feels like something appealingly different, something slightly left-field and rare. In other words, something very Maserati.

Maserati GT2 Stradale specs

This story was first featured in evo issue 332.