Maserati MC20 vs BMW M4

What's the difference?

With Ferrari leaving the Fiat-Chrysler family and becoming an independent entity in 2016, Maserati was left without a technology partner.

Suddenly, the Trident brand had to go it alone and come up with its own engines for the first time in more than 20 years. The MC20 sports-car is the result of that rebirth.

While there’s no doubt the Maserati brand has the currency to pull this off, the MC20 is also a big step outside the company’s usual grand-tourer box.

The new coupe is aimed at McLaren, Porsche and even Ferrari buyers, so can the first true Maserati sports car since the MC12 of 2004 walk the walk? And let’s not forget that the MC12 was Ferrari Enzo-based…

No-compromise cars are often the ones that impose the most compromises, and in that sense, the MC20’s shattering on-paper performance means its greatest attributes can’t be enjoyed on a public road.

That’s why this review was conducted entirely on Philip Island’s 4.4km Grand Prix layout. As a result, we can’t tell you much about parking ease or highway fuel consumption. But as for the things that give a super-sports car its identity, read on.

To say the BMW M4 CS is a hot ticket in Australia is something of an understatement.

Consider this. There is an even more expensive one, the M4 CS Edition VR46 – at a cool $346,900 – and it sold out in less than an hour. Now, granted, Australia only got four examples, but still, demand was running hot.

That car makes this one, the regular M4 CS, seem like an absolute steal. It's only $254,900 (yes, the word 'only' is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence), and it shares the same upgrades, and makes the same monstrous power, as the VR46 – for Valentino Rossi’s 46th birthday – only it does it for around $100K less.

See? A bargain. At least, that's how I'd be justifying it to myself if I had a quarter of a million burning a hole in my pocket.

So, this or a Porsche 911? Read on.