MASERATI BIRDCAGE. If beauty is efficiency, the Maserati "Birdcage" was inefficient; its b
If beauty is efficiency, the Maserati "Birdcage" was inefficient; its builders worried not about aesthetics, but about creating an effective sports-racing car as inexpensively and quickly as possible. As a compromise between parts avail-ability, cost and race regulations, how-ever, it was highly ingenious, and deserved more success than it gained. Although Comm Adolfo Orsi's with-drawal of Maserati from all forms of racing at the end of 1957 was "firm and final", somehow it was impossible for a marque born and bred to the sport to keep away from it.
Already in 1958 the competition department was back at work, the important difference being that they were building and preparing cars for paying customers, rather than for Maserati's own team. With one or two Italian amateur drivers seeking new mounts for 2 litre class hill climbing in Europe, and a strongly supported 2 litre sports class in the USA, one of their projects was to build a new car for this category.
Designed by their technical chief Giulio Alfieri, with Orsi's stric-tures to avoid waste ringing in his ears, it departed refreshingly from the status quo of competition sports cars. Inhibited by the cost factor, Alfieri made ample use of redundant 250F and 300S Maserati parts, including the coil spring front suspension and de Dion back end, uniting them in a most unusual frame.
This was of space type, built from a multiplicity of thin steel tubing varying between 1 and 1.5mm (approx. 3/64 and 1/16in) in diameter, with flat pierced strips for gussetting and the lower body panels welded on for extra strength. Every member was in stress, and set so close that an unknown wag likened the frame to a birdcage—and the name stuck, even though the official designation was Tipo 60. In the words of one magazine, "With so much frame there was hardly any space for the space."
Costs of the engine had also been met already. It was the 200S twin-cam four first made in 1956 for an earlier sports-racer and for speed boats. A sturdy 92 x 75mm, 1,993cc unit, it gave 195bhp at 7,800 rpm, and was remodel-led with dry sump lubrication so that it could be installed in front at an angle of 45 degrees to secure as low a bonnet line as possible. It drove through a transverse five-speed gearbox of 250F lineage, albeit with magnesium housing, and Girling disc brakes were fitted all round.
Minimal bodywork with a very low nose and a cocked-up, stumpy tail covered the "birdcage", and the ultra-light frame and small overall dimensions, with a wheelbase of only 7ft 4in, meant a dry weight of only 1,2371b, promising exceptional performance. Emerging from official liquidation in April 1959, Maseratis celebrated by sending the Tipo 60 to Rouen, France, for the 2 litre sports car race there in July.
Stirling Moss drove it, and simply ran away with the race despite consider-able Lotus and Lola opposition. A few weeks later it won the Pontedecimo–Giovi hill climb, driven by Govoni who beat Ferrari's rival 2 litre, the V6 Dino. In the meantime the works had swiftly
The "Birdcage" x-rayed, showing its angled four-cylinder engine, gearbox in unit with the final drive, de Dion-type rear axle, and the space frame built up from innumerable small-diameter tubes welded together.
This is the first car built, with 2 litre engine developed a 2.8 litre version of the engine to contest the 3 litre class, which in 1960 was to become the top limit in American sports car racing for twin ohc engines.
Such was Maserati's reputation that they had received a dozen orders for these before 1959 was out, and more in subsequent weeks. The cylinders, opened out to their very limit, measured 100 x 92mm (2,890cc), and output at 240bhp was 45hp more than the 60. An oil cooler was fitted, and the unit, again angled at 45 degrees, fitted snugly into the same 7ft 4in chassis.
Called the Tipo 61, the car weighed only 331b more than the 2 litre. The American Lloyd Casner bought three of these for his Team Camoradi (Casner Motor Racing Divi-sion) and after one car had shown its paces at Nassau late in 1959, leading only to retire, Stirling Moss drove another to victory in the Cuban GP in Havana.
In the Argentine 1000km, one Birdcage pulled out a lead of nearly 2 minutes over the Ferraris, only to retire with gearbox trouble, a pattern that was to become all too familiar with the very fast but fragile Maserati.
At Sebring, Moss and Dan Gurney led by 2 laps when the transmission failed, and in the Targa Florio Maglioli/Vaccarella led by over 4 minutes when a flying stone emptied their fuel tank. But other Type
The 2.9 litre Type 61 Maserati in 1960 Le Mans long-tailed trim, with driver Masten Gregory peering over the Camoradi team's ingenious interpretation of the FIA's ludicrous "deep screen" rule. The "Birdcage" clocked 169.26mph —fastest of all—but did not finish
61s won at Riverside, Laguna Seca and Palm Springs in California, while the combined talents of Moss and Gurney brought victory to the Birdcage at last in a Sports Car Championship race, the Niirburgring 1000km, in Germany.
An extra Camoradi "weapon" there was the employment of Piero Taruffi as team manager, and their two cars finished first and fifth in very difficult foggy conditions. Three Camoradi Type 61s then ran at Le Mans, where the ludicrous new deep windscreen rules imposed by the FIA on sports-racing cars made the Maseratis even uglier, particularly one car which technically complied with its long "screen" extending at a shallow angle right from nose to scuttle.
This one made fastest lap in a wet race at over 123mph, but all three cars retired. Apart from US national events, where the 61s scored more wins at Riverside and Elkhart Lake, they did not reappear until 1961, by which time the works had produced a rear-engined version, the hideous and unsuccessful Tipo 63.
As for the 61, despite its high promise it continued an erratic career, its sole European success a repeat of Camoradi's 1960 Niirburgring 1000km victory, the drivers this time being Masten Gregory and the Patron himself, Lloyd Casner. In the States a Birdcage won the important Road America 500 Miles race at Elkhart Lake, but 1961 marked the virtual end for the uncomely Maserati. Call it "Birdcage", "Spaghetti special" or Tipo 61, it will long be remembered for stirring up fresh interest and excite-ment in at least two of the World Sports Car Championship series.
Why the Tipo 60 and 61 got their nickname—a glimpse of the slant-four engine of the 2.9 litre 61, surrounded by frame tubes.
Specification Engine: 4 cylinders in line; engine inclined at 45°; 100 x 92mm, 2,890cc; 2ohc operating 2 valves per cylinder; hairpin valve springs; twin Weber double-choke carburettors; dual coil ignition; 2 plugs per cylinder; 5-bearing crankshaft; 240bhp at 6,800rpm. Transmission: Multi-plate clutch and open propellor shaft to 5-speed transverse gearbox in unit with rear drive; ZF differential. Chassis: Welded multiple tubular construc-tion; independent front suspension by coil springs and wishbones with anti-roll bar; coaxial hydraulic telescopic dampers; de Dion-type rear axle with transverse leaf spring; hydraulic telescopic dampers; Girling hydraulic disc brakes. Dimensions: Wheelbase, 7ft 4in; front track, 4ft 2in; rear track, 4ft Oin; approx. dry weight, 1,2601b.
