In a second session just before lunch, the tyres come properly into their ideal operating window and at this point the MCXtrema is balanced and superbly easy to manhandle as you wind back the vigilance of the motorsport traction control.
It feels largely free of vices, although-and I suppose this is a race car thing – it never quite seems to hit a true flow state.
It is a binary driving experience and this leads you to the inevitable question of whether you might well be having more fun in a properly sorted, milder-mannered track-day car like, say, a little Lotus Exige.
You probably would, but that’s a bit reductionist. There is space in this world for both Exige and MCXtrema, and indeed also the three- year-old 911 Carrera Cup race car for £230,000 or so that is the most pertinent reason not to spend a million pounds on the Maserati.
If you still plumped for the MCXtrema, it would be because it is an engrossing safari into GT3 land, somehow deadly serious but also not. There will never be anything else quite like it.
MASERATI MCXTREMA
Price
£936,000
Engine
V6, 2992cc, twin-turbocharged, petrol
Power
724bhp at 7500rpm
Torque
538lb ft at 3000rpm
Gearbox
6-spd sequential, RWD
Dry weight
1300kg (approx)
0-62mph
2.9sec (est)
Top speed
200mph (est)
Economy
4 litres per minute
Rivals
Dallara EXP, McLaren 720S GT3X, Porsche 935
The inspiration: MC12 GT1
A GT3-style track-day toy is an unusual car for Maserati to make, but given the company has the iconic MC12 GT1 in its back catalogue, and a modern carbon monocoque around which it could build a tribute to that car, you can see why it was tempted.
