Yahoo Autos 2023 Maserati MC20 Cielo Convertible: Roofless Ambition
Buying a convertible version of a high-performance coupe once meant accepting significant compromises in return for the breezier thrills of life without a roof. Roadsters, spiders, and spyders were invariably heavier and less structurally rigid than the cars they were based on, making them slower and sacrificing some of the handling precision cars of this ilk are meant to exemplify. Yet many buyers chose them anyway. In the case of some fashionable supercars, a clear majority went topless.
These days, the sacrifices in foregoing a fixed roof have been practically abolished, but for the inevitable need to dig deeper to afford one. The new Maserati MC20 Cielo—named after the Italian word for sky—is a claimed 143 pounds heavier than the coupe thanks to the additional mass of its folding glass hardtop. But that's pretty much it for the minus column. The Cielo uses the same carbon-fiber tub as the coupe, so structural stiffness is unchanged, and the increased weight has done almost nothing to blunt the efforts of the twin-turbocharged "Nettuno" V-6 that sits behind the passenger compartment. And, with the hardtop stowed, the Cielo looks even more stylish and desirable than its perma-roofed counterpart. What's not to love?
The hardtop's glass panel features electrochromic dimming, which is a neat feature even though the difference between its light and dark settings is not especially noticeable. The electric mechanism that motors the top beneath the rear cover operates quickly and silently, taking just 12 seconds, and can be operated at speeds of up to 31 mph. With the roof raised, the Cielo feels impressively coupelike, with snug cruising refinement, and with it lowered, buffeting is minimized by a powered glass air deflector at the back of the cockpit.
Our biggest gripe is the need to control the roof function through the cockpit's central touchscreen; you must hold the activation tab throughout the entirety of the up or down cycle. Maserati's engineering team insists that reprogramming the user interface to do this was actually more expensive than fitting a conventional switch, an admission that seems to deny any justification for not using a physical control—one which would have undoubtedly felt nicer and been possible to operate while keeping your eyes on the road.
The folding roof gives the Cielo a distinct character relative to the coupe, but the Nettuno V-6 remains the starring feature. This is the engine that features a clever motorsport-inspired pre-ignition system and uses serious boost pressures to deliver 621 horsepower from just 3.0 liters of displacement.
The Nettuno's noises are more redolent of rallying than circuit racing and are even louder than in the coupe. There's the rush of induction and wastegate flutter overlaying the rasp of the exhausts, with a high-pitched buzz audible under steady throttle. That odd sonic signature is almost diesel-like and seemingly a product of the six cylinders' dual combustion chambers, each with its own spark plug.
