Paul Jeffrey
Premium
The third 'Ready to Race' Assetto Corsa DLC reveal is a bit of a peach... introducing the sublime Maserati MC12 from the glory days of GT racing.
Evoking memories of the legendary GTR 2 from Simbin Studios, the announcement that Kunos Simulazioni will be bringing one of the all time most beautiful GT machines ever created in the form of the Maserati MC12 has got many a sim racers pulse rate just that little bit higher than is normally healthy...
Coming to the game as a welcome playmate to the equally venerable Porsche 911 GT1, this new inclusion to the steadily growing garage of road and race machines comes from an era that many believe was the very peak of modern day sportscar racing. Making it's competitive debut in the then top tier FIA GT Championship, the MC12 has seen a big name racing stars take to the wheel of this incredibly successful GT car. Drivers of the calibre of Britain's Jonny Herbet and fellow Formula One refugees Mika Salo, Eric van de Poele and Karl Wendlinger, plus GT stalwarts Thomas Biagi and Fabio Babini, the MC12 was very much at the height of modern technology throughout the mid 2000's.
Thanks to the now legendary GTR 2 racing sim, the car also holds a special spot in the heart of sim racers the world over, with many of us having cut our teeth with this car in both the GTR and GTR games that depicted the 2003 and 2004 FIA GT Championship seasons. With the car now coming to a modern simulation in an official capacity, it will be interesting to see how sim game technology has improved the driving experience over the last 10 plus years since GTR 2 was a big deal in PC sim racing.
As part of the reveal post from Kunos, the Italian developers had the following to say of the stunning machine:
The Maserati MC12 entered production in 2004 as a base for the racing variant to compete in the GT Championship. In fact, one requirement for participation in the GT Championship was the production of at least 25 road cars; so 25 cars were produced in 2004 and another 25 in 2005.
The car was based on the Enzo Ferrari chassis and gearbox, mounting a variant of the Ferrari V12 engine.
The racing results of the racing version were magnificent. The Maserati MC12 GT1 team managed... to finish second and third in their debut race and went onto winning the next round's race. In their second year, Maserati won the Manufacturers Cup with a great point gap, and continued to compete at great level in the years which followed. In total, it participated in 94 races, winning 40 of them.
Ready to Race DLC Contents:
- Audi R8 LMS 2016
- Audi R18 e-tron Quattro
- Audi TT Cup 2016
- Audi TT RS (VLN)
- Lotus 3-Eleven
- Maserati MC12 GT1
- McLaren 570S
- McLaren P1 GTR
- Toyota Celica ST185 Turbo
- Toyota TS040 Hybrid
Alongside the new DLC pack will come the version 1.14 game update which looks set to contain a number of new and improved features. As a little teaser Kunos have revealed some of the following changes will be included in the new build release:
- Added wind algorithm
- Added AI Aggression selection
- More AI differences within a single lap to generate more battles
- Added AI wing setup variations
- New AI algorithms for understeer detection and downshifting
- Improved Downshift Protection
- Updated Steam statistic reader to synchronize steam achievement
Oh boy do we like mods! If you do too then we have you covered with our fantastic Assetto Corsa modding archive. From downloads to a place for mod discussion, we have it all for you to enjoy, check it out today! If you don't fancy trying out some of the awesome community created tracks and cars then drop in on our Assetto Corsa sub forum to chat about the game with your fellow fans. Interaction and threads make forums fun, so start one today!
We hold regular league and club racing events across a variety of content found within the game, however to celebrate this mega new inclusion to Assetto Corsa we are holding a very special on off GT1 specification race on Sunday 21st May. Sign up here and get yourself in on the action.
Looking forward to the MC12? Would you like to see other mid 2000's FIA GT Championship spec cars such as the Ferrari 550, Lister Storm, Saleen S7, Chrysler Viper etc? Let us know in the comments section below!
Last edited: