I woke up today, and I thought to myself, "you know what, I think I need more cars in my life". Hence, in a cold sweat I leapt from my bed to grasp my phone beneath my weary hands, perusing through my social-media at what's what. It gave me the idea to write another car post, but following yesterday's - which you all gave fantastic support, and to that, I owe you <3 - I thought that perhaps I should take a break from all the Italian-ness.
Indeed, some of my likings for cars have thus far been somewhat disproportionately - though not completely - biased towards the Italians. While I consider myself to be an Anglophile, I'm also a bit Italian in spirit. Besides, there is so much more going-on around the car world that's worthy of discussion. My OneNote is filled with bookmarks and dozens of pages, not including the cars.
But no, fate decided that today, I'm going to share more goodness from the Italian Peninsula, because while swiping through the interwebs today, I've found not one, but two Italian works of art that deserves to be shared. Hint, both of these amazing creations come from my favourite carmakers from the land of good food, wine, and espresso - Maserati, and Alfa Romeo. One presents class and romantic elegance, the other shows off emotive athleticism and charm.
Credits to: Twitter - Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN | Happy 110th Birthday, Alfa!
The God Of The Sea Returns.
Credits to: Maserati | You don't need to understand engineering, to see how gorgeous this is.
Note, I've gone this far in the post without making mentions of Ferrari, and no doubt they're everyone's default favourite. A Ferrari adorns your desktop screensaver, the poster on your wall, and some day you dream of owning one. But you don't choose a Ferrari... Ferrari chooses you! I might not be worthy of one, but I've no troubles with taking kindred relations with his two children instead. There's an intertwining history that bonds them together.
For most of the 20th-century, Maserati and Ferrari were arch-rivals. They fought tooth and nail to win trophies, and championships across the world and through many different classes in motorsports. Even away from the race-track, they were bitter enemies. When the Maserati Quattroporte-driven President of Italy came to visit Enzo at Ferrari's factory in Maranello, instead of coming to greet him - as Enzo should've done - he stood motionless, expecting the elderly Head of State to walk over to him instead.
Credits to: CarPixel - MC12 Corsa | Times are a changin'.
History would soon decide the winner, as the now-wealthy Ferrari bought out Maserati, and they'd continue to play puppet-master behind the scenes. Despite being graced with Maranello's finest engines and knowledge-sharing, Maserati was never allowed to spread its wings, for fear that it would dent Ferrari's prowess. Now that the latter has split into its own company, Maserati is now unshackled, and free to start a renaissance that the brand sorely needed.
They're starting off with this second chance of renewal with a bang - a new halo car to breathe life into the rest of the stable, and to pick up where the MC12 left off a decade ago. It will be the unrivalled flagship to carry the Trident forward, as it will also mark their return to racing, in the form of the MC20. It shall be a mid-engine supercar to compete in the big leagues, squarely against Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, Porsche, and so on.
Credits to: Autocar | Renders of the MC20, and GranTurismo's replacement.
With the Covid-19 pandemic having thrown a spanner into things, the launch of the MC20 was delayed until the 9th of September, so be sure to mark your calendars. In the meantime however, they're going to make us drool even more with some teasers here and there. Before they can build a car, they first need an engine, one worthy enough to carry the legacy of 106 years. Abiding by our wish just a few hours ago, we now have a peek.
Even for just a chunk of metal, and some lashings of carbon-fibre, this barren piece of machinery is mighty fine to just adore for hours on end. It's truly a work of art, which in itself is noteworthy, as carmakers don't often take the time to make sure their engines are presented nicely. Since their fate is to only be squeezed into a tiny compartment, there's never a focus on the finer details, even if you can't see them. For supercars though, it's that bit of theatre that adds to the drama of driving one, so it's neat to see Maserati pay mind to that.
Credits to: Maserati
We've also learned some of the nitty gritty data that powers this engine. Whether this is, or isn't an Alfa Romeo-derived engine, it remains to be seen. But contrary to what I've speculated a while ago, the displacement will be a tad smaller than 3.6-litres. It's being made in-house by Maserati, so called "100% Made In Modena", and named the Nettuno. In English, that's Neptune, the Roman God of the Sea, and from which his trident inspired Maserati for their famous logo.
This new powerplant is a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6, with some electrification expected to trickle in later on, possibly for higher performance models. This new turbo-charged V6 will also make its way in a detuned form to other Maseratis further down the food-chain, as well. In the MC20 at least, it'll output 630CV (621-horsepower), and 730Nm (538-lb-ft) of torque. Those are some fairly impressive specs for a V6 motor, and any hybridisation ought to push that figure much closer to four-digits.
Credits to: Maserati
It'll rev all the way up to 8,000RPM, which will certainly be a pleasant treat to the ears. The Nettuno will use dry-sump lubrication as opposed to wet-sump. A dry-sump allows for a larger reservoir of oil, ensuring that the engine remains lubed-up in every condition possible, where performance calls for it. It also requires a shallower oil-pan - as the reservoir can be placed anywhere - and that should let the engine be mounted lower, which entails a lower centre-of-gravity, and thus better handling.
All good stuff, not to mention some clever F1 technology that the engineers at Maserati have crammed into the Nettuno. It makes sure that this engine won't just be monstrously powerful and dependable to put a smile on your face, but also fuel-efficient, and friendlier to Mother Nature than its beating heart suggests. This all ties down to a clever ignition system called Turbulent Jet Ignition, and I'll let The Drive explain this better:
In case you're curious, Turbulent Jet Ignition is basically a tiny combustion chamber at the top of the cylinder that has its own direct injector and sparkplug. It's mostly closed off from the rest of the cylinder, but it has some tiny holes drilled into it so that hot jets of partially-ignited fuel and air can flow into the cylinder, where the turbulence caused by those holes allows the mixture to better fill the space. The result is an engine that can run much leaner with higher compression ratios for a cleaner and more efficient combustion cycle.
With The Stroke Of A Brush.
Credits to: Sauber-Alfa Romeo | Part of their #GetCloser series.
Suffice to say, this all sounds like an amazing engine, though I just hope it will actually sing a fruity, raspy note as I expect V6s to do. I'm happy to see Maserati get back in the game. But if you've made it this far past all the technical jargon, here's some more traditional form of artwork as a reward - more drawn, and not crafted. It also involves another interconnected fate with Ferrari, blood and oil.
Back in the early-20s, a young Enzo Ferrari found work with Alfa Romeo, in their racing division. Eventually becoming a driver, he made significant contributions to Alfa Romeo's history, even to the creation of the brand's now-iconic four-leaf clover - a symbol of good fortunes, and victory. The name "Scuderia Ferrari", or Team Ferrari was borne from his time at Alfa, as Enzo's racing team.
The 21st-century proved unkind to Alfa at first, relegating them to playing catch-up with rather subpar cars - albeit charismatic and beautiful - compared to the Germans. While BMWs, Audis, and Mercs were mopping up customers' cheque-books, Alfa only appealed to the enthusiast at heart, and even they were rather sceptical. Things have thankfully changed recently, and now Alfa Romeo is spending their free-time doing what they were destined to - race.
Credits to: Sauber-Alfa Romeo | Here's @galenkp's favourite stage - Melbourne. No love for Sepang, though :-(
Now under the banner of Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN, they are continuing a legacy set out by those early drivers such as Enzo Ferrari in the 1920s. With Orlen's oil money as their sponsor, and Sauber Engineering's technical expertise, Alfa Romeo is off to the races. Just to make sure they capture your hearts, as well as your support, they've made a wrath of lovely wallpapers, suitable for your phone. They each range from cute, to awe-inspiringly beautiful. I've only included my favourites here, but there are even more in those included links.
I don't know who their illustrators are, but these wonderful artworks deserve to be enjoyed, since most people haven't realised of their existence, I reckon. Most of these wallpapers show off the various stages of the F1 Grand Prix season, with the many famous circuits on show. Thus, I'm taking the opportunity to share their wonderful work with you, and full credits to them, of course. I'm thus going to end this post here, and say a lovely goodbye as you ponder on the magnificence of Italian craft. Cheers, and see you soon :-D
Credits to: Sauber-Alfa Romeo | Ran out of space, check out those links for more!
Those illustrations look really great. I first thought it was from a game. Your previous post did really great. Not surprised though, your posts are always very informative and of great quality. It really shows your passion for cars.
Cheers mate :)
Ah, cheers to that mate 🍻! I wish someone made a game like this, I just love this cartoony, drawn aesthetic to things. I was absolutely chuffed at how much support my previous post got... Pretty spectacular indeed, so that's a lot of love and thanks to all of you. I love my cars, and I'm happy to share them with you. So, here's a Han Solo salute to you...
I'm currently learning to make simple games at the moment. Once i get better at it maybe I'll give it a shot 😉.
Ooooh, that sounds like a fantastic endeavour! Keep at it, and do share with the rest of us here on the Hive. It sounds terribly exciting :-D
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Here's my Twitter #POSH link :-D
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That MC12 was a magical thing, no doubt! I think its safe to say that Maserati had somehow made it better than the Ferrari Enzo that it was based on. As I recall, it had better downforce and drag-reduction than the Enzo, albeit the MC12 has some crazy aero to it. It's too early to tell with the MC20, but I hope it's going to be a good one. So far, and I'm crossing fingers here, it looks pretty awesome.
I doubt the MC20's twin-turbo V6 is going to take your breath away like the MC12's N/A V12, but that's the way forward with new regulations and all. Aston Martin also has their own in-house turbo'd V6 coming along soon. Ferrari's also been spied testing a new turbo'd V6 in a 488 mule, and I expect McLaren and maybe even Lamborghini to follow suit.
Maserati's reputation has no doubt taken quite a hit since those glory days, and I'm certainly keen to see them back on top, just like what Alfa's somewhat done so far.