Autoblog

Click to view the Maserati MC12 Corsa in hi-res

Evey year automakers spend considerable amounts of money creating the most extreme racing cars to edge out their competition on the track. Unfortunately, lust-worthy as they are, those competition machines are rarely available to the common consumer to buy. That's where homologation regulations come into play.

The Maserati MC12 campaigns in the FIA GT Championship. In order to enter the championship, which the team took in 2005, Maserati fabricated and offered 50 vehicles to the public. But as devastatingly fast as the roadgoing MC12 was, some customers wanted more. So Modena rolled out 12 examples of the MC12 Corsa (a.k.a. Versione Corse) to satisfy the needs of its most loyal, track-obsessed clients. Based closely on the GT1 racing version, the MC12 Corsa packs a mammoth 6-liter V12 producing 744 horsepower – 121 more than the roadgoing supercar. The Versione Corse compared to the Ferrari FXX: both of them were based on the Ferrari Enzo, both were offered in limited numbers, both were maintained for their best clients by the factory, and most importantly, neither were certified for road use. However, one German customer managed to get his MC12 Corsa certified for street use, and that solitary example is now up for sale. Illustrating the point that depreciation does not apply to the top echelons of the supercar market, the minimum bid on this unique MC12 Corsa is 1.45 million euros – 45% higher than the original sale price from the factory, and it's sure to sell for more than that when the hammer finally drops.

Gallery: Maserati MC12 Versione Corse

Although it showed the first car in Madrid back in May, Maserati is finally delivering MC12 Corsas and it took the occasion of the Bologna Motor Show to unveil the first customer car. In case you don't remember, the Versione Corse takes the basic MC12 and kicks it up a notch. Maserati is only building a dozen of these Fabergé eggs for special customers on a "build to order" basis. Neither fish nor fowl, the Corsa won't go through the certification process to make it road legal, nor will it qualify for any existing racing series. Similar to Ferrari's FXX, with which it shares a lot of hardware, the Corsa will essentially be a very fast, very rare, and very expensive trackday car.

For your $1.275 million, buyers will not only get exclusive bodywork for their Enzo derivative, but many mechanical upgrades including a horsepower bump from 600 in the standard MC12 to 755. Many will make comparisons to the Bugatti Veyron because of price and performance, but the Veyron is obviously a street legal car with an emphasis on luxury, albeit, very fast luxury. Although the Bug has that wicked 1,001 hp quad-turbo W16, it also has a lot more weight to push around. We see the MC12 Corsa being more of an Italian Saleen S7 TT. The Saleen almost matches the Maser with 750 hp in standard trim (Maserati can't match the 1,000 hp available with the optional Saleen Competition Package), although it also has to carry an additional 400 pounds worth of road regulations with it. We'll try to secure one of each for a comparison. Maybe bring along the Veyron and FXX for the heck of it. Can anybody hook us up? Please.