1959 Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage

This magnificent Historic Sports Car-class racing machine which is fully documented and accepted for FIA-recognized events, has already proved itself to be extremely competitive in them and which in capable hands is an assured front-row, race-winning prop

This magnificent Historic Sports Car-class racing machine which is fully documented and accepted for FIA-recognized events, has already proved itself to be extremely competitive in them and which in capable hands is an assured front-row, race-winning proposition.

Maserati chief engineer Ing. Giulio Alfieri laid out his scheme for a new lightweight two-litre class sports-racing car during the winter of 1958-59. Above all he wanted to save weight compared to the obsolescent big-tube-chassied Tipo 200Si design, and was attracted by a monocoque structure, similar to the D-Type Jaguar’s. But since Italian industry lacked experience in stressed-skin manufacture he drew instead the most comprehensively triangulated multi-tubular spaceframe chassis the motor racing world would ever see. Its bewildering intricacy earned it the ‘Birdcage’ nickname, and both two-litre Tipo 60 and 2.9-litre – 2,890 cc – Tipo 61 models were to be produced.

These were...