BLOOD SPORT

No batteries, no e-motors, just engines behind you and one goal – pure driving thrills. We know the MC20 is good, but now it's got a fight on its hands...

- OLLIE MARRIAGE

You walk up to the MC20. Of course you do - you've seen it from a distance so you want a closer look. It's a rare beast, hasn't suffered Instagram overexposure, so there's lots for your eyes to dwell on. But there's a catch: next you're going to drive it.

Hardly a catch, you're thinking. But as you take in the Perspex rear screen, peer in at the dark, bare cabin, swing a door up to reveal a cutaway carbon sill, realize there's something of the Group C racer about this new Maserati, and remember the next three hours are not going to be spent spanking around Dunsfold but in crushing motorway monotony... the sparkle dulls. You think, “Well, I know what to expect: noise, vibration, road chatter, and a stiffness that'll be reflected in my skeleton when I have to get out after 150 miles as the tank will be dry.”

This, then, was the thought process I went through. With a certain trepidation I left Slough in this carbon tubbed, rear-drive, twin-turbo V6 supercar. For the first 40 miles I was too occupied to give the MC20 much thought. I was just trying to get it as I wanted, figure out the wheel, screens, those Fiat stalks, phone connectivity. It wasn't until around Swindon that it suddenly occurred to me that the MC20 wasn't making as much of a fuss as I expected.

Quite the opposite in fact. It was sauntering along, hands in pockets, whistling a merry tune. It was happy, content. And as a result, so was I. Supple suspension, calm cabin, little noise intrusion and let me just check - wow, 32mpg. Confusion reigned. What is this car with hardcore overtones that handles motorways like a skip through a summer meadow? Maybe I should have expected this. There's a softness to the shapes, especially the artful sweeps over the arches, it looks comfortable in its own skin, isn't too thrusting or forceful. It's dramatic without effort, aero, or ostentation.