Maserati

[SpriteII]

Can you shed some light on this whole Maserati homologation thing.

Reading around it seems that fundamentally the car is a bit wide and a bit long.  Is that the real reason it hasn't been homologated or is that just a convenient reason and the true one is that it is not in the spirit of the regs.

Everyone seems to be talking as if the Masers will disappear off into the distance, OK those extra dimension may give them a little more aero advantage but surely the fuss people are making there has to be more to it than that.

Please enlighten me please.

[chrisbeatty]

Well I'm certainly no expert, but as far as I know the original car was too wide, but it now sits within FIA length restrictions, width wise it's still a bit too big

The main problem seems to be it's a race car with a few road models made to meet standards, whereas all the other GT cars are fundamentally road cars, add to that the fact that it's mid-engined & it begins to seem a little unfair on the opposition

Personally I think it's not helped by a little Fiat/Ferrari/Maserati arrogance that maybe stems from the current state of play in F1??

Still it doesn't matter as the DBR9 will soon be wiping the floor with the competition

[Matt Harper]

My understanding of this is simply that the MC12 is a racing car that is being entered in a class of competition that is intended for road car derived machines. It is a real stretch to convince anyone that this car is primarily a road car.

[SpriteII]

Thanks for that.

The Road / Racing car thing is normally done on production numbers, is that a feature of the current rules?

[Ron Jeremy]

FIA GT Championship

The grid should include up to five Maserati MC 12 cars, which will face strong oppostion from five Saleen S7, five Ferrari Maranello (three Prodrive-built 550 models and two 575 M cars) , one Corvette C5R, one Lister Storm and possibly a Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT.

In the GT2 category, up to eleven Porsche 996 GT3 cars are awaiting the confirmation of their traditional opposition from a Ferrari Modena; they will also be challenged by cars coming from the Group 2 category, such as the Mosler MT900.