Italian cars

2021 Maserati MC20: Super car debuts, needs new name

Italian carmakers’ lyrical names define what automotive art on four wheels should be called. Is there a better-named vehicle in the supercar stratosphere than the Maserati Quattroporte Trofeo? So isn’t it ironic? The first supercar in 16 years presented by the manufacturer that began in Bologna, Italy, more than a century ago has a ho-hum name. Meet the 2021 Maserati MC20. The MC20 designation stands for Maserati Corse 2020 and celebrates the brand’s return to racing. A mid-engine supercar, the new Maserati succeeds the MC12. But the two relatives share little beyond the carmaker’s name and a mid-engine design. Maserati hasn’t debuted a new supercar since 2005, with the MC20 the fourth mid-engine production vehicle in the carmaker’s 107-year history.

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Underdog 2020 Alfa Romeo Giulia excels

Automobile manufacturers try to outmaneuver each other every year for advertising honors during the Super Bowl. Prices escalate and commercials succeed and fail with carmakers’ futures at stake in million-dollar-minute increments. Fiat Chrysler gambled a few years ago with its Alfa Romeo brand — and won. It promoted the new Giulia, showing the sports car blazing along winding country roads, past vineyards and through a tunnel with narration provided by a sultry voice. The commercial, titled “Dear Predictable,” needles Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz, the German frontrunners, while touting the Italian alternative. Alfa Romeo sales falling The second of the carmaker’s one-minute spot ends with the sports car powering toward the horizon. The moderator softly states, “You know what they

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