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Maserati's "Nettuno" twin-turbo V-6 has some trick tech up its sleeve.

After months of teasers, Maserati finally unveiled its MC20 supercar earlier this month. At its heart sits a new twin-turbo V-6 engine dubbed the "Nettuno," which the Italian company pointed out uses a bit of Formula 1-derived tech inside the cylinder head called a "pre-chamber," meant to improve efficiency and performance. Here's how it actually works.

Road & Track contributor Jason Fenske recently published a video on his YouTube channel, Engineering Explained, breaking down the Nettuno's combustion process. Pre-chambers are exactly what they sound like: separate chambers inside the cylinder head connected to the main cylinder area. There are two types: active, and passive. Active pre-chambers contain a spark plug and fuel injector, and ignite after a lean air-fuel mixture is brought into the cylinder. Normally, this mixture wouldn't have enough fuel to ignite on its own, but the fuel from the pre-chamber is enough to create an optimal air-fuel ratio, and speeding up the combustion process, improving efficiency.

Passive pre-chambers, on the other hand, only have a spark plug in the pre-chamber, with no added fuel or air inside. When the spark plug ignites, the chamber spreads the flame over a wide area throughout the cylinder, making for an ultra-quick combustion cycle. This is the type of pre-chamber Maserati uses, and the manufacturer claims it allows for a 15-percent increase in compression ratio while still being able to pass emission laws.

Maserati's pre-chamber system uses both port and direct injection, a common upgrade for making more power efficiently. The port injection creates a better air-fuel mixture, while the direct injection cools the mixture in the cylinder, allowing for more power. The system also has a second spark plug directly inside the main chamber to stabilize combustion at low loads.

As Fenske points out, it's a fairly complex setup, so reliability could be a concern in the long term. It's also worth noting there's no fuel or air passing through the Nettuno's pre-chamber during the combustion cycle, so carbon build-up over time could also be an issue. We'll just have to wait a few years and see how things turn out.