Maserati has never really commanded the same prestige as Ferrari or Lamborghini – but the brand is trying desperately hard to turn that around with this, the MC20. It’s an outrageous 621hp, carbon fibre-clad, mid-engined rocket ship aimed squarely at those who like their supercars unusual and extremely exclusive.

That exclusivity doesn’t come from a limited-build series, though. It comes from the fact that most people simply don’t think of Maserati when they’re shopping for a supercar. And why would they? There are loads of alternatives from more well-known manufacturers, such as the Ferrari 296 GTB, the Lamborghini Huracan and the omnipresent Porsche 911.

Despite that, Maserati has a rich motorsport heritage and a back catalogue that’s bustling with truly great cars. It certainly isn’t like the brand doesn’t know how to build a sports car. So, should you take a gamble on the MC20? Or should you stick with one its more obvious competitors? Scroll down to find out.

What’s it like inside?

Cramped but functional. The MC20 is a strict two-seater and it doesn’t have any space behind the seats for luggage like you’ll find in a Porsche 911. The space is all full of engine. However, the mid-engined layout means you get two boots, although neither are especially spacious. There’s 100 litres of space under the bonnet and just 50 litres in the rear.

The seats are carbon fibre-backed – and they’re quite race car-like in the sense they’re narrow, heavily bolstered and set very low to the floor. The upside to this is that you’re not flung around the cabin like a ragdoll when you’re driving quickly, although it does make them quite difficult to get out of if you’re large. At least they have electric adjustment.

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The rest of the cabin follows the same race car theme, with lashings of Alcantara trim, a skinny steering wheel that sits right in your chest and a pair of enormous paddle shifters that are easy to hit when you’re trying to snatch a gear on your way out of a tight corner. They feel suspiciously similar to the gorgeous aluminium paddle shifters you get in an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, which isn’t a bad thing in my book.

Quality isn’t quite as good as the equivalent Ferrari or Lamborghini and it pales in comparison to the Porsche 911. The cabin is far simpler and noticeably rattlier. The 10.25-inch infotainment screen also has quite disappointing resolution, as it’s the same display you’ll find in the £25,000 Fiat 500 Electric rather than the bespoke units you’ll find in Maserati’s supercar rivals.

Comfort

The MC20 isn’t as comfortable as a Ferrari 296 or McLaren Artura. Even with the chassis in comfort mode, there’s an underlying firmness to the damping that’ll jog you around in your seat on poorly surfaced roads. Refinement isn’t fantastic, either, as sound deadening adds weight and hurts performance. Such is the price we pay for performance.

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You can tour in the MC20, though. Stick to the major roads and it’s perfectly liveable. Wind noise is acceptable and the seats are supportive enough to not make your back give out on after two hours at the wheel. The air conditioning system is pretty powerful, too, which is something Maserati has struggled with in the past.

What’s it like to drive?

It’s a little rough around the edges, but in a way that’s incredibly likeable. It’s the lovable rogue of the supercar club, sporting the same brutish charm as an ex-police Alsatian.

Most of this character comes from the engine. Maserati’s 621hp twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre V6 is nothing like the free-revving V10 you got in the old Lamborghini Huracan or indeed the more highly strung V6 you get in the Ferrari 296 GTB. It’s all about the mid-range, here.

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Even though the MC20 will rev all the way to 8,000rpm, it does so with a whoosh rather than a shriek. There’s a massive slug of torque in the middle of the rev-counter when the turbos wake up, but it doesn’t arrive progressively. It’s old-school in its deliverance. You get nothing and then 621hp all at once, which makes it a bit spiky to drive.

Subjectively, purists might prefer the more traditional, linear engines offered up by its rivals but, objectively, this setup fires the MC20 out of corners just as effectively as any of them. I enjoyed it, but I like turbos so I’m probably not the best representative for the purity police.

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The controls are a little odd. Maserati told me the pedals were designed to mimic those of its race cars, so they’re mounted in the middle of the footwell. That allows you to have one foot on the throttle and your other on the brake without sitting sideways in your seat. You wouldn’t think it, but that takes some getting used to.

The brake pedal is heavier than your equivalent Ferrari or Lamborghini. It takes a big shove to get the pads moving, so you certainly couldn’t drive the MC20 back from the gym after a heavy leg day. My left-hand side was a bit numb by the time I handed the keys back.

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The MC20’s steering is one of the fastest on the market, though. I barely needed more than a quarter of a turn to round most corners in the backwaters of the North York Moors, which is great because it meant I wasn’t tying my arms in knots on the twisty roads. It’s also precise and incredibly tactile, communicating every crack in the surface with precision.

The chassis was a little bit out of its depth, mind. That’s not the car’s fault, though – the roads it had been parachuted onto were better suited to hot hatchbacks than bright yellow Italian cruise missiles, so it was tramlining and hunting the ever-changing camber of the road. When I did find a good stretch of tarmac, though, it was glorious.

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Body roll? None. Grip? Loads. Brakes? Immense. Engine? Unrelenting. Yes, it will bite you if you push past the limits of both your talent and the laws of physics, and it’s a little spikier at the limit than a Porsche 911. But a 911 doesn’t feel anywhere near as alive or characterful as the MC20. The 911 is a robot. The MC20 is feisty pet with a strong personality.

What models and trims are available?

The MC20 is available in a few different specifications. Confusingly, though, they all wear different badges. The drop-top model is called the MC20 Cielo and it’s the most mechanically similar to the standard car, sporting the same engine, gearbox and chassis, albeit with a few minor tweaks to accommodate the changes in structural rigidity brought on by the convertible roof.

Above that, there’s a pair of track-focused MC20s, called the GT2 Stradale and the MCExtrema. The former is a road-going yet more hardcore version of the coupe with 640hp, a firmer chassis setup, lighter bodywork and a faster 0–62mph time of 2.8 seconds.

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The MCExtrema is a track-only version of the coupe with even more aggressive aerodynamics, an even lower ride height, revised double wishbone suspension, a roll cage, racing seats and six-point harnesses. Both are immensely exclusive, too. Maserati will only build 914 examples of the former and 62 examples of the latter.

If you’d like to make your MC20 truly unique, Maserati’s personalisation scheme called Fuoriserie can help. There’s virtually no limits here, but it costs tens of thousands of pounds.