Dubbed the Maserati MC20 Cielo, the car features a retractable roof that also becomes transparent at the touch of a button

MODENA, ITALY 

Hot on the heels of the recently-launched Maserati MC20 coupe, Maserati has wasted no time with the reveal of the next variant, the  MC20 Cielo spyder.

Essentially a drop top version of the coupe, the roadster uses the same 3.0-litre, twin-turbo V6 engine that produces 621 hp. The incredibly high power output is partially due to the engine’s twin combustion system that uses two fuel injectors and spark plugs per cylinder. The engine is paired with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission driving the rear wheels.

The MC20 Cielo has a retractable glass roof that takes 12 seconds to open or close, which Maserati says is the fastest amongst all the supercars currently in production.

Another unique feature is the roof’s electrochromic coating, which can go from clear to opaque in less than a second at the touch of a button. Made with polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) technology, this is similar to the panoramic roof in the Toyota Harrier Hybrid and allows a full view of the sky when the roof is closed. Maserati says that this is where the car’s “Cielo” name, which is the Italian word for sky, comes from. 

Francesco Tonon, head of Maserati product planning, stated, “We had focus groups in Europe and the U.S. asking customers what they were looking for in a roadster version. A British customer said he wanted a fully transparent roof to be able to see the sky even when it was raining, a common situation in London, where he is based.”

This works for tropical countries like Singapore as well, where the clear glass roof gives the drop top driving experience but with the air-conditioning still at work. 

Incredibly, at 1540kg the MC20 Cielo weighs just 65kg more than the MC20 coupe thanks to smart construction and targeted chassis bracing of the carbon fibre frame. Roadster versions of supercar coupes typically weigh around 100kg more. Maserati notes that the overall performance will be very similar to the coupe variant, with a 0 to 100km/h sprint time of 3.0 seconds and top speed of over 320km/h.

The car’s interior interface has also been tweaked from the original MC20 coupe’s, and while it still retains the minimalist yet luxurious supercar vibes the buttons that change the car’s driving modes have been removed from the centre console and replaced with a touch panel interface.

This is the Ferrari that the Maserati MC20 is up against

The brand states that it has a target to build “up to 1,500 units” of the MC20 annually at the Maserati production facilities in Modena. It revealed that since the MC20’s launch in July 2021, it has already sold 1,000 units worldwide, of which 700 have already been delivered to customers. Upon its release, Maserati expects the Cielo to form up to 40 percent of the total number of MC20 cars sold.

The release date for Singapore is expected to be in early 2023. Based on the current asking price of the MC20 coupe, you can expect the MC20 Cielo to cost around S$900k before COE and options when it arrives. 

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