Maserati’s New Nettuno Engine Uses F1 Tech

It’s not often I get to put Maserati in the title. Partly because they’re not active in the areas that I pay attention to and also because I don’t like to talk about the Levante or the Ghibli. The only two Maseratis that I hold dear are the MC12 and the fourth-gen Quattroporte. But now, this Italian carmaker is looking to make an emphatic comeback with a new engine for its new supercar.

Ever since being under Ferrari/Fiat ownership, the Maserati engine options have had to bear the joke of the borrowed engine. No more. The new Nettuno power plant that will debut in the upcoming MC20 supercar is Maserati’s own, ‘100% Made in Modena’ as they like to say. Just last week, the company revealed the technical specifications of the said engine. It is a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 (90°) that will churn out 621bhp and 730Nm of torque. That’s quite an impressive figure given its displacement (not Koenigsegg Gemera impressive of course) and it will rev to 8000rpm so it should sound decent too. For those who want to know, the Nettuno engine has a firing order of 1-6-3-4-2-5.

The star attraction of the engine is its use of F1-derived technology for three key features:

Pre-chamber — A combustion chamber set between the central electrode and traditional combustion chamber, connected by a series of ports.
Lateral sparkplug — A regular sparkplug acts as a support to ensure constant combustion when the engine is not being wrung and doesn’t need the pre-chamber to kick in.
Twin injection system — It gets both direct and indirect injection, linked to the fuel supply pressure at 350bar, the system improves NVH levels.

Of course, all of these are just letters and numbers on a page to us for now. The new Maserati MC20 supercar with the Nettuno engine is scheduled to be unveiled in early September and the first reviews will likely be out a couple of weeks after. The Italian carmaker has also stated its intent to return to racing with the MC20 and the new engine.

What do you think of the new standalone Maserati engine? Do you think its got enough bark to give the MC20 a competitive chance in the mid-engined supercar territory? Share your thoughts in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe to The Auto Loons for more cool updates from the car world.