Maserati Brought the MC12 Back into the Spotlight – Next to the Car That Inherited Its Racing DNA

Putting a Maserati MC12 Versione Corse beside a modern GT2 Stradale creates a fairly obvious problem. Which one are you supposed to look at?

Maserati brought both cars to the 2026 Salone Auto Torino, which concluded on September 13, using the event to put a piece of its past directly beside one of its current performance cars.

And the old one isn’t exactly easy to ignore. The MC12 Versione Corse is among the wildest cars Maserati has ever produced. Just 13 examples were built, derived from the MC12 GT1 competition car that won the FIA GT championship in 2005.

The example shown in Turin wore Blu Victory. Beside it sat the considerably newer GT2 Stradale, finished in Digital Aurora Matte with a blue interior.

And the connection isn’t merely visual.

Maserati describes the GT2 Stradale as the road-going expression of technology developed through its GT2 racing program. The competition GT2 achieved success in the GT2 European Series during 2024 and 2025, while the Stradale brings some of that philosophy back to a car wearing number plates.

That’s essentially the same circle Maserati was exploring with the MC12 two decades earlier. Build something serious for the circuit. Learn from it. Then create something sufficiently outrageous for the road.

Of course, the MC12 took that idea much further. It remains enormous, rare and visually closer to a homologated racing machine than something designed for a normal Sunday drive.

The GT2 Stradale is more civilized. Relatively speaking.

Maserati didn’t leave the cars sitting inside an exhibition hall for the entire weekend either. The company’s presence extended to the Supercar Meeting running from Venaria Reale to Turin, where the modern lineup took to public roads.

Among the cars supplied by Maserati were an MCPURA wearing an AI Aqua Rainbow livery, a GranCabrio Modena in Blu Emozione and a GranTurismo finished in Verde Giada.

It’s an unusually colorful selection from a manufacturer that has spent much of the past few years trying to redefine what modern Maserati should represent. And that process hasn’t always been straightforward.

Luxury manufacturers now have to negotiate electrification, increasingly complex technology and customers who expect a premium car to work as an everyday vehicle.

At the same time, brands such as Maserati can’t afford to become too sensible. Nobody spends serious money on a Trident badge because they’ve calculated that it’s the most rational transportation solution available.

Cars such as the MC12 are useful reminders of that.

Maserati is celebrating 100 years of the Trident emblem in 2026, making the decision to display its racing history alongside current models particularly appropriate. The company is also taking three historic competition cars from the Panini Collection to Goodwood Revival: the A6GCS-53, Tipo 420M/58 Eldorado and Tipo 61 Birdcage.

Heritage can become lazy marketing when a manufacturer relies on old cars because the new ones aren’t interesting.

The GT2 Stradale avoids that problem. Put it beside an MC12 and the older car will probably still steal most of the photographs. But at least the modern Maserati looks like it belongs in the same conversation.