As Maserati prepares to launch the mid-engine MC20, considered one of that automobile’s ancestors is celebrating its golden anniversary. The Maserati Bora debuted 50 years in the past because the Italian automaker’s first mid-engine street automobile.

Maserati had constructed race automobiles with the engine behind the driving force, however the Bora introduced that concept to the automaker’s road-car line when it debuted on the Geneva motor present on March 11, 1971, the automaker famous in a press launch. Maserati was taking part in catch up, because the mid-engine Lamborghini Miura had debuted, in idea kind, six years earlier.

The engine, which was mounted underneath a carpeted flooring to create baggage area, was a 4.7-liter V-8 that produced 310 hp (a 4.9-liter engine was added later). The longitudinally mounted V-8 drove the rear wheels via a 5-speed handbook transmission. Maserati quoted a high pace of 174 mph.

The Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed Bora was additionally the primary Maserati street automobile with four-wheel impartial suspension, and likewise sported disc brakes which had been nonetheless not a given on the time.

Maserati constructed 564 Boras via the tip of manufacturing in 1978. A 12 months after the Bora’s debut, Maserati launched the Merak, one other mid-engine automobile with Giugiaro-penned bodywork. Whereas it had a V-6 as an alternative of the Bora’s V-8, the Merak proved extra profitable, staying in manufacturing till the early Nineteen Eighties. Maserati would not launch one other mid-engine street automobile till the MC12 in 2005.

The automaker is now attempting once more with the MC20, which sports activities butterfly doorways, a carbon-fiber chassis and physique panels, and a claimed high pace of 202 mph. The engine is Maserati’s new Nettuno 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6, which makes use of Formula One technology to develop 621 hp and 538 pound-feet of torque. The MC20 will debut as a coupe, with spider and all-electric variations following later, Maserati stated through the automobile’s unveiling final 12 months.