{"id":16689,"date":"2019-07-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/maserati-tipo-60-birdcage-2\/"},"modified":"2020-10-07T08:13:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-07T08:13:54","slug":"maserati-tipo-60-birdcage-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-classics.com\/en\/maserati-tipo-60-birdcage-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Maserati Tipo 60 Birdcage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Under the direction of the Orsi family, a new racing car for the sports car class was built from 1958 onwards. The engineer Giulio Alfieri was hired as technical manager in order to search for new, innovative solutions in order to be even more competitive than before. He was given total freedom to do this. Alfieri didn’t have to take into account any familiar design similarities, nor did he have to build on an existing base. His only guidelines were the technical regulations of the motorsport authorities. Initially he thought of a monocoque structure made of steel or aluminium, but had to reject his idea ultimately because of cost issues. Instead, he discussed with his team all the possibilities of how to place a racing car that was as light as possible and at the same time had good torsional stiffness. Together they came up with the idea of a tube frame with around 200 individual tubes, each with a diameter of between just 10 and 15 millimeters.

This complex structure of special tubes is remotely reminiscent of a large birdcage and gave the new Maserati its common nickname ‘Birdcage’ even before it drove its first few meters. Alfieri and his team had planned to use a two-liter four-cylinder engine as the power source, which was mounted to the chassis behind the front axle in a mid-engine layout. In addition, it was tilted by 45\u00b0 to the side in order to lower the center of gravity and the overall height further. This helped both the aerodynamics and the agility. Originally, the engine was used in the Maserati 200S. Now it got a new cylinder head including a change of the exhaust manifold to the right side. In addition, the bore were enlarged and the stroke reduced slightly. Two Weber carburettors and a dual ignition system from Marelli provided 200 hp as power output. While the front axle was mounted on coil springs, the rear De Dion axle was mounted on transverse leaf springs. The consistent lightweight construction resulted in an curbweight of only 570 kilograms.<\/p>\n\n\n

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