Maserati GranTurismo MC Stradale Review: Corse and effect

What we like:

The noise it makes

the way it looks

the racy interior

the racing heritage

What we dislike:

Can do with more speed

can do with a smoother gearbox

still feels like a big car

Inside, the MC Stradale is every bit as luxurious and well-appointed as the S despite the weight savings. Obviously key to the weight savings is the deletion of the rear seats. In place of the latter is a rear bulkhead with a soft padding adorned with the Trident logo in the centre trimmed in luxurious leather and Alcantara. Maserati says that Alcantara is a lightweight material in addition to looking racy and soft to touch. There is more of the material up front on the dashboard, seats, steering wheel rim, centre console as well as the roof lining.

The car in the pictures features a blue colour scheme, a shade that is incidentally a corporate colour of Maserati’s. The car also came with the optional roll cage and four-point harness. The roll cage option means that a sizable bar runs across the rear compartment and also acts as an anchor for the harnesses. The optional four-point harness though, means the car doesn’t come with conventional belts which means putting on the racy looking four-point ones a must on every drive which some might think looks daft if you’re just cruising around in town.

The front seats are manually adjustable two-piece buckets that look nothing short of fantastic thanks to the part leather part Alcantara clad cushions and bolsters while the headrests are trimmed with the Trident logo. The carbon shelled seats not only look good but also are also comfortable and supportive at the same time. Other go faster bits inside the MC Stradale include drilled alloy foot pedals, new black dials for the instruments and so on.

With the MC Stradale, Maserati has further instilled the soul and core spirit of the brand that the GranTurismo S could do with even more. The MC Stradale might still be not as blindingly quick or as agile as say, the Porsche GT3 models but the latter just doesn’t sound or look as evocative as the Maserati.

Credits: Story and photos by Raymond Lai