A writer recently took a 900-mile road trip in a Maserati MCPura Cielo to test its daily driving capabilities. The trip started in West London, where the writer picked up the car from Maserati’s Kensington showroom. The writer sought to determine whether a supercar like the MCPura could be a competent daily driver, despite its high price and imperfect features.
The writer’s destination was a friend’s wedding in rural Hertfordshire, which involved driving through stop-start traffic, motorway cruising, and quick stops. Along the way, the writer found the car’s everyday credentials to be mixed. The inconsistency in the brakes of this car at best takes some getting used to, and at worst feels downright disconcerting. The doors open at such a wide angle that the point of their being dihedral (beyond the theatre) rather than opening conventionally is almost moot.
The boot space was limited, with only enough room for a bag of shopping or a sizable weekend bag. However, the writer found the ride quality and clearance on the nose, even without the lift engaged, always come as a genuine pleasant surprise. The turning circle isn’t the sort of Suez crisis-inciting shocker you expect from most supercars, and the calibration of the dual-clutch ’box is spot on.
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Daily Driving Impressions
The writer continued their journey to the Borders, a 300-mile run that could be a chore in some supercars. However, the Maserati’s soft ride and decent cruising economy made the trip enjoyable. The refinement inside the car was also surprisingly good, with minimal road roar and only a bit of wind whistle from the mirrors, inlets on the side and roof rubbers.
During the long drive, the writer had time to explore the car’s cabin, which was a mixed bag. The new steering wheel was a welcome change, but the Fiat 500-derived infotainment screen and Tonka-toy drive mode selector carried over from the MC20. The drive mode controller? A different story. Here was an opportunity to create something properly crisp and tactile. Instead, it’s tinny with sloppy tolerances.
As a Cielo, the rear visibility was limited due to the letterbox hole high up between the seats. However, the writer found the car easy to place, with a good view out the sides and ahead and a good sense of its extremities. The last section of the journey was a dash across the Pennines to Alston, where the writer could stretch the Maserati’s legs and enjoy its performance capabilities.
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The writer found the MCPura to feel special even when not driving at full throttle, with a balance, steering, and damping that made it a joy to drive. The 626bhp Nettuno engine had a visceral, serrated, unsanitised energy to it, with chirrups and wheezes not alien to a Jaguar XJ220’s aural playbook. Needless to say, there are deep performance reserves to enjoy, a big belly of torque and a frantic top end.
Challenges and Quirks
The doors open at a wide angle, making parking a challenge. The dihedral doors can drag on other cars if not watched. This becomes a routine concern.
The ride quality has a downside, with a lack of vertical control. The underside of the car can make contact with the road surface on bumps. The ‘mid’ damper setting that comes when you twist the drive selector into Sport goes some way to curing this, but the full ‘Corsa’ shebang – which is quite unpleasant at anything under 40mph – is all but necessary to prevent bottoming out on a road with serious undulations.
