Underrated: Maserati MC20

There are plenty of people in this business who reckon the Maserati MC20 isn’t up to much. They say it’s not as sharp as it should be on a track, claiming it to be too cumbersome where it counts. They also think it too ordinary to look at inside and out for a £200k mid-engined Italian supercar.

There are others who don’t get on with its brakes and gearchange and are baffled by the slightly unhinged delivery of its 3-litre twin-turbo ‘Nettuno’ V6 engine. One journalist I know whose opinion I normally respect even told me he reckons it’s a dangerous car in the wrong hands because it doesn’t behave like other supercars.

But then a pair of scissors is dangerous in the wrong hands and, in any case, should we not be rejoicing the fact that not all cars are the same, even now? Because if they were, and increasingly some of them are, I’m not sure I’d be all that interested in them any more.