Maserati, Targa FLorio, and their MC20 Prototype

Above: This Week’s Car Review – 2020 Mitsubishi ASX Exceed

On 23 May 1940, Maserati celebrated a fantastic four wins in a row at the Targa Florio. In fact, a House of Trident car was first over the finishing line of the prestigious Sicilian race for the fourth consecutive year. The driver who added his name to the winners’ board was Luigi (Gigi) Villoresi, at the wheel of the Maserati Tipo 4CL.

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of this historic victory, Maserati went back to Sicily with an MC20 prototype, and drove it over some of the roads where the history of the Targa Florio was written, such as the stretch where the famous Floriopoli stands are located.

The new supercar’s development thus proceeds with tests in different conditions of use, with the aim of gathering data and information for the final fine tuning. After the first batch of tests performed using the dynamic simulator at the Maserati Innovation Lab in Modena, the time has now come for road and circuit test drives.

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The MC20

MC20 marks the start of a new era for the Italian Brand in terms of both style and technology; it is also the first car to use the new engine, brimming with innovative technological contents, developed and built by Maserati in-house.

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Through the new MC20, to be launched in September, the Modena-based manufacturer aims to underline its sporting credentials, and to return to a leading role on the racing circuits, after the latest world championship won in 2010 with another extraordinary car, the MC12.

The 4CL Created in 1939, this single-seater was the brainchild of Ernesto Maserati, youngest of the Maserati’s founding brothers, who wanted to design a car that would be competitive in “Voiturette” class racing. The 4CL, with displacement of 1,491 cc, was built on the chassis of the 6CM but with a new four-cylinder engine with four valves per cylinder, the first in Maserati’s history. It was an extremely advanced engine for its time, with “square” internal dimensions of 78 x78mm which, with the aid of a volumetric turbocharger, developed 220 hp at 8,000 rpm.

At the car’s racing debut in Tripoli, at the 1939 Libyan Grand Prix, Gigi Villoresi took pole position with the aerodynamic version of the 4CL. Its first win came two Grand Prix later, in Naples, when it was