Frank Stephenson Explains How The Maserati MC12 Was Developed In Just Four Months

Frank Stephenson may have taken to commenting on other people’s designs, but in a recent video hosted by Jodie Kidd, he explains how he designed the Maserati MC12.

The design project was special, says Stephenson, for the way the race car and the road car were done side by side. The result of just four months of work, he calls the timeline “unheard of” for road cars, but says that racecar projects simply work that way, with the team going all out working seven days a week to meet regulations.

Accused by some of being a re-bodied Enzo, Stephenson resents that description, saying that although the engine and chassis were shared with the Ferrari, the Maserati’s wheelbase is much longer, the overhangs are extended, the interior is different, and the engine was modified.

Read Also: The Maserati MC12 Makes The Enzo Look Common By Comparison

In fact, those overhangs became an issue for the race car. Although the first 25 examples were 5m 15cm (202 inches) long, the FIA changed the regulations for the series in which the MC12 was racing, capping the overall length of the cars 5m (196-inches). As a result, both the race cars and the road cars all had to be shortened by 15cm (6-inches).

To do that, Stephenson explains that they cut the length off the front of the car: “We changed the front slightly and I think it’s very hard to see.”

One of the other design features that define the car are the aggressive strakes on the hood. Indeed, Kidd calls them one of her favorite cues. The reason for them, though, is not pure design flourish.

“The reason is, we had to make a huge hole in the bonnet,” explains Stephenson, “and there’s a restriction of how large that hole can be. And if you can fit, in the road version, a baby’s head into that hole, then you have to close it up in one way or another.”

All of his work was worth it, though, because the race car ended up being enormously successful in its day. Winning 40 of the 94 races it ever entered, it won six teams’ championships, two constructors’ championships, and six drivers’ championships.