nettuno is the name given to the new 3.0 V6 biturbo from Maserati. It was unveiled recently and will equip the Italian brand's new super sports car, the MC20 — and it shouldn't just stop for this…
Advanced numbers for the combustion engine promise: 630 hp at 7500 rpm and 730 Nm from 3000 rpm. With the promise that the MC20 will also be hybrid, these numbers will only get fatter with the help of the electric machine, when we know it next September.
However, despite Maserati declaring the Nettuno to be a 100% Maserati engine, and let's assume this implies that it was developed “wire to wick” by the Italian brand, reality demonstrates another scenario.
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The truth is that Nettuno, like the 690T , the V6 of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, also part of the F154 , the Ferrari V8 that equips several models ranging from the new Roma to the SF90 Stradale.
So it's not surprising when we "discovered" that they all share the 90º between the pair of cylinder benches and, in the case of Nettuno, the diameter and stroke of their cylinders coincides to the millimeter with those of the SF90 Stradale's V8, 88 mm and 82 mm, respectively.
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Yes, Nettuno has exclusive features that we don't find in others, especially in terms of its exclusive head, which now integrates the combustion pre-chamber system, as well as two spark plugs per cylinder. Which helps justify the 11:1 compression ratio, a relatively high value for a turbo engine, and only achieved by Maserati's V6.
But when we deepen our knowledge of the Maserati V6 further it reveals its direct link to the SF90 Stradale's F154 and also to the Quadrifoglio's 690T. The maximum rev ceiling, 8000 rpm, matches that of the SF90 Stradale, and the firing order of the cylinders, 1-6-3-4-2-5, matches that of the Quadrifoglio.
And when we compare the images of the Nettuno block with those of the F154, the association between the two is immediate, revealing identical solutions and the same arrangement of various components.
Maserati Nettuno
Does it bother you that Nettuno is not, after all, a 100% Maserati engine?
Nothing at all, since the origin couldn't come from a better house and even the development reveals the influence of Maranello, even if indirectly.
We can backtrack the development of Nettuno to a 2018 patent for combustion pre-chamber technology. Behind the patent we find names such as Fabio Bedogni, who has been working for Ferrari since 2009 in engine development; or Giancula Pivetti, also an ex-Ferrari engineer, who now leads gasoline engine development at… Maserati.
What matters is that we will have an engine that has everything to be as good as its “brothers”.
Source: Road and Track.