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Small Club, Big Entry Fee
In a colliery in Ahlen, Germany, the sinister mind of Edo Karabegovic is feverishly converting a 205-mph Maserati MC12 Corse racing car into one of the fastest street-legal automobiles.
The Corse is the track-only version of the Maserati MC12. Like the Ferrari FXX, the MC12 Corse is more than a car; it's a private club in which the members pay $1.9 million to join before the real expense even starts. For this money, you get the right to drive an intensely dramatic car right at the limit in special track days organized by Maserati.
The first cars have now been delivered and this is the first chance to shoot one in the wild. Edo Karabegovic's customer, the jet-setting head of Solar Direct and owner of a fleet of Maseratis and Ferraris (including the FXX), is one of the few handpicked clients invited to apply.
So this Maserati MC12 Corse by Edo Competition is just a little bit special, unique even among the dozen Corse cars that are now part of one of the most exclusive motorsport clubs in the world.
Speed by Edo Competition
It crackles into life inside the old colliery and every nudge on the throttle sends a volley of gunfire through the cavernous hall. Finally the 6.0-liter DOHC V12 settles into a high-pitched hum while the boss slams the cockpit door repeatedly until the wafer-thin carbon-fiber bodywork finally latches (sort of). The car noses gingerly into the parking lot on a trickle of revs and finally we can get up close and personal to the machine that the man known to all as Edo assures us is better than a Ferrari FXX; "night and day," he says.
First built in 2004 to celebrate Maserati's emergence into respectability, the MC12 clothed components from the Ferrari Enzo in bodywork intended for racing. Fewer than 50 street-legal MC12s were prepared for customers, and a short run of cars converted to GT1 racing specification made an impact in sports car racing and earned Maserati the 2005 FIA GT Manufacturer's Cup.
Objections to the MC12's suspect homologation as a street car and its advantages on the racetrack led to its gradual disappearance from racing circuits. The MC12 Corse was then developed in mid-2006 for a Maserati-sponsored track-day series, and a dozen cars have reportedly been built.
That's where Edo Competition comes in. Trained in a Ferrari dealership in southern Germany, Edo Karabegovic has built Porsches and Ferraris for competition. He undertook the conversion of the Maserati MC12 into his own XX supercar, a highly tuned evolution designed to better the performance of the Ferrari FXX. With this makeover of the Maserati MC12 Corse, Edo Competition goes one step further.
A Profile in Speed
Low-slung and menacing, the MC12 has one of the most distinctive profiles in the motoring world. It's brutal and aggressive, a big slab of supercar better suited to high-speed bends and fast straights than twisting roads.
The MC12's fundamental shape came from Giugiaro's ItalDesign, while Frank Stephenson (now at Alfa Romeo) gave it style. The MC12 Corse has all the conventions of race-ready bodywork, including a ground-hugging front aero splitter with additional carbon-fiber gurney flaps. Then there's the vicious single-plane rear wing, plus a gigantic carbon diffuser with four exhaust exits you can fit your fist into.
Beneath the lightweight carbon-fiber skin lies the MC12 monocoque (derived from that of the Ferrari Enzo), fabricated from carbon fiber and Nomex honeycomb composite, while aluminum subframes locate the racing-style pushrod independent suspension at each corner. It's a big car on a 110.2-inch wheelbase, as even the original MC12 measures 202.5 inches from front to back and 82.7 inches across the fenders.
The Edo Competition Maserati weighs in at 2,535 pounds, some 880 pounds less than the MC12 street car. Edo reckons he can strip a few more pounds out of the interior and chassis, and he's already gone to work on a lightweight exhaust system.
The Maserati dry-sump 6.0-liter V12 with its gear-driven overhead cams remains largely untouched. The Edo exhaust system has 4.0-inch diameter pipes and the tips and the muffler are both made from stainless steel. An internal system of butterfly valves lets the driver determine the sound intensity. It's rated at 755 horsepower at 8,000 rpm and 546 pound-feet of torque at 5,500 rpm. As before, it matches up with a six-speed, automated sequential manual transmission with shift paddles on the steering column.
Italian Soul Combined With German Precision
Karabegovic only started in the tuning business back in 2000. He made his reputation with a Porsche 911 GT2 that set a lap record for street-legal cars at the Nürburgring with a time of 7 minutes, 15.63 seconds on the Nordschleife, beating the Porsche Carrera GT. Edo Competition now tunes Ferraris, Ford GTs and Lamborghinis as well as its customary Porsche 911 Turbo and GT2 from its facility in Ahlen, Germany, not far from Hanover.
Karabegovic also takes care of a few examples of the Ferrari FXX and Maserati MC12 that belong to his best customers. He has nothing but praise for the fundamental merit of the MC12. "This car has such downforce, it is unbelievable," he says "You can go into a corner at 186 mph and there is no problem; it is easy."
An hour chatting with Edo dispels the myth that the Ferrari FXX and MC12 Corse are essentially the same. The Maserati's engine is tuned for torque instead of high-rpm performance, while its steel brakes prove far more drivable. For the Edo Competition Maserati, Karabegovic has installed three-way adjustable dampers from KW suspension plus ceramic composite brake rotors that measure 15.6 inches in front and 14.2 inches in the rear.
This car also rides on wider, forged-aluminum BBS wheels, measuring 10.0-by-19 inches in front and 13.0-by-20 inches in the rear. Karabegovic has been working with Michelin on an appropriate tire selection for track work. "We still have wheelspin in 3rd gear at more than 100 mph," he says. "So we're working on that one now; it's fun now but not the fastest way."
Road Angel
All this is only half the story, because Karabegovic hopes to make this car street-legal. In the front light cluster there's a tiny yellow indicator light, while brake lights adorn the rear. The front suspension incorporates a remote device to increase the ride height for driveways. Big fans within the front air ducts help keep the engine cool in traffic. There's even a button in the cockpit to sound a horn.
The German TUV and the polizei will both be interested in seeing the relevant paperwork before this car can expect to fire up in anger and tear down the street, and we'll bet some mufflers the size of a garbage can will be required.
Edo has developed his own 6.3-liter version of the Maserati V12 that develops 800 hp, and it does business in the modified Edo MC12 road car that Karabegovic calls the XX. Painted in ominous black and orange, it's a $335,000 proposition for the conversion.
205-MPH Vaporware
Edo has run some numbers with his lightweight MC12 XX and claims acceleration to 100 kph (62 mph) in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 242 mph, but no performance testing has yet been accomplished for the Maserati MC12 Corse Edo Competition.
Edo's stock is rising in the tuning world, but he doesn't have a line of accessories or wheels, and he doesn't do the usual work in pimped-out interiors. If you want his work, you deal with the man himself.
You just have to crate up your Maserati MC12 Corse and send it to Ahlen, Germany. You'll get a racing car in return, only it might be one that you can drive on the street.
First Look: 2007 Maserati MC12 Corse Edo Competition
Kinda wicked if you ask me.
M
