2026 Maserati GT2 Stradale | UK Review
Maser's track-chiselled supercar finally arrives - can it really be as good we remember?
Track cars with number plates. A formula that’s rarely made objective sense, but one that has gifted us the greatest suffixes in sports and supercar history. Cup, GT3, Speciale, R26.R, Clubsport S: they’re all united in the way they turn the tension and focus required of a circuit machine into something that feels sublime in the real world of white lines, potholes and speed bumps.
No wonder Maserati wants in on the act, then. This isn’t our first go in the GT2 Stradale – big John H got there first in Spain – and nor has this car benefited from any of the sprucing up the Italians have recently applied to the rest of their range. But when the call comes offering you a morning on road and track in a vastly winged, Trident badged supercar, you don’t put the phone down. A sign they still need to shift a few of its 914-example run? Perhaps…
Cynicism isn’t easy when the sun is beaming down on Oulton Park, however. It’s a long time since I’ve driven the Cheshire circuit, and a near £350k, limited-run special wouldn’t ordinarily present itself as the most obvious device to bed yourself back into a notoriously undulating facility. The base MCPura proved a pretty friendly thing in the dry, however, and Howell raved about this GT2 spin-off in similar temperatures on the Med.
The Stradale commands a £40,000 premium over its MCPura (formerly MC20) base, the extra outlay releasing just ten additional horsepower while marginally lowering torque, the outputs of its turbocharged 3.0-litre Nettuno V6 now peaking at 640hp and 531lb ft. It’s 60 kilos lighter – the Stradale weighing 1,365kg dry – with a third of that freed by its new forged 20-inch wheels. They’re another £13,200, mind you, while you must set aside £14,200 further for the Performance Pack and its Michelin Cup 2 Rs, carbon ceramic brakes and GT2-specific setups for the electronic limited-slip differential and Corsa drive mode. Eek.
Its aggressive sports seats are mercifully standard; a comfier, though a more accommodating alternative lies on the options list, you surely want to stick with the extra focus (and blue Alcantara cushioning and evocative Sabelt branding) of the stock chairs. Fabric door pulls complete the interior makeover, though the world of Maserati’s Fuoriserie customisation programme can mould the car into just about anything you like. Whichever deep and silky paint you choose, the exterior performs a pretty convincing tribute act to the GT2 racecar the Stradale pays homage to. Any sceptics of its ginormous rear wing should be quietened by the 500kg of downforce it produces at 174mph – triple the claim of an MCPura.
Not a figure I’ll mine too deeply on my initial runs around Oulton, and yet there’s something about the GT2’s demeanour that draws you in quickly. It blares noisily into life with a push of its blue starter button, making a right old racket in its garage before idling quickly and rolling with curious serenity into the pitlane. It’s alert and precise even before its Cup 2 Rs have heat and once the engine’s up to temperature, those rear tyres – holding full responsibility for the car’s outputs, don’t forget – dig in remarkably well.
It’s the GT2’s steering which builds your confidence quickest, however, carrying surprising but welcome weight and sketching me a pretty detailed picture of what the front end’s doing. Understeer arrives only with a deliberate push and as a useful prompt. Alright, this is never the light and dainty thing a 911 GT3 can be, and there’s a subtler, ever so slightly more aloof feel to this Maserati that’s inevitable with its additional mass. Yet like a GT3, it appears to be soaking up everything I throw at it, urging me to clamber up to its level. Its aero work is tangible with greater speed and commitment and it plunges through Oulton’s rollercoaster compressions with utmost professionalism.
Should a Maserati be more extrovert, more flamboyant? It’s a thrilling ride regardless, and it’s fair to assume less warm or dry surfaces would liven up the experience for anyone who considers its near racecar-seriousness a bit too shrewd. Ultimately, there’s a latent balance and ability to it that makes it, against all odds, a wonderful thing to re-learn this circuit in. Quick, too, with the shift lights built into its carbon steering elements illuminating from 5,500rpm right through to the GT2’s 8,000rpm redline to help you kiss the limiter without distraction.
Those viewing this car as a learning curve to ascend will delight in the deeper sub-menus of its Corsa drive mode, with four numbered levels bleeding off the traction, stability and even ABS systems as you flick from 4 down to 1, where the car’s intervention is at its very minimum. Whichever you’ve chosen, however, the GT2 Stradale flashes its hazard lights under really hard braking. It feels absurd in a car that claims to be circuit-minded, and I do wonder what the Oulton marshals are making of it. Better to consider this quirk as a target to aim for; a dramatic flourish to show onlookers the lateness of your braking. As per the ‘Pura, brake pedal feel itself could be better, but you ultimately have trust in the (optional) carbon ceramics at the end of operation.
The best examples of this curious sub-genre slacken your jaw most on road, however. Alright, the GT2 doesn’t operate at 458 Speciale levels of expressiveness, but nor am I wishing for it. This is a different experience, its raw, turbocharged soundtrack and more locked-down feel making it feel pin-point accurate. Yet more crucially you don’t need to be toeing the line of its grip limits to have a good time.
While the Stradale is lower and stiffer than its base car, you still quickly reach for its oddly muscular central drive mode dial to bring more tension to the experience. The novelty of lolloping around in the relative quiet in GT mode is fun, but a car like this needs the noise and focus that comes from click-clacking through Sport or into Corsa with the shifts of its DCT ‘box particularly impressive in the latter. The toughness of the damping can be controlled independently of the powertrain, just as you’d hope.
So yes, it works fabulously on the road, though whether it hits the same highs as its very best alternatives, I’m less sure. It lacks the sonorous Speciale soundtrack, the balletic GT3 balance or the delicious rawness of a roll-caged hot hatch. It arguably exists in its own sub-niche, a beautiful object to behold that still feels hard as nails on track yet supple and joyful on road. Never operating at the nth degree of any of those facets, but surprisingly good at drawing them altogether. And until someone lends me a 250F or MC12 to more comprehensively make the claim, it’s the best Maserati I’ve yet driven.
SPECIFICATION | 2026 MASERATI GT2 STRADALE
Engine: 2992cc V6, twin-turbocharged
Transmission: 8-speed twin-clutch, rear-wheel drive
Power (hp): 640@7,500rpm
Torque (lb ft): 531@3,000rpm
0-62mph: 2.8sec
Top speed: 201mph
Weight: 1,365kg
MPG: 24.3
CO2: 265g/km
Price: from £269,082, as tested £347,370, options including Blu Glosse Corse paint (£15,845), Performance Pack Plus (Michelin Cup 2 R tyres, GT2-specific E-LSD setup and Corsa mode, carbon ceramic brakes, harness bar and fire extinguisher, £14,200), 20in Forged Monodado wheels (£13,200), interior carbon pack (£8,045), driver assistance pack (£5,880), suspension lifter (£3,135) and yellow brake calipers (£1,585).
Unless you have the agility of Tooms, pray you never need to park yours in a multi-storey.
Needs a wee aux battery for a smidge of lecky power, and an iThing app, so it can be remotely moved into and out of parking spaces.
And the person in charge of spec’ing Maser’s press fleet cars should be shot – silver wheels, please. It’s not 2010.
In Lotus and latterly Porsche parlance, you loosely had the all out GT1 Le Mans based racer, the GT2 second tier endurance racer, the GT3 club racer and the GT4 for track day enthusiasts.
Maserati have a GT2 race car based on the MC20 that races in the European GT2 series. "Stradale" is Italian for "road", so the equivalent meaning of Porsche's GT1 Straßenversion, although the MC20 isn't a homologation car.
I'll admit that until the Maser was announced, I wasn't aware that the GT2 series existed.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff