Maserati Tipo 63 Birdcage V12 1961

[Sick Cylinder]

The 1961 Tipo 63 was designed by Giulio Alfieri who also designed the previous Tipo 61. It shared many components and design features. It was the first mid-engine V12 sportscar - beating the Ferrari 250P by 2 years. Three examples were entered in the 1961 Le Mans 24 hours, two by Briggs Cunningham and one by Count Volpi's Serenissima team. A speed of 193mph was achieved and the Briggs Cunningham car driven by Augie Pabst and "The Flying Dentist" Doctor Dick Thompson came 4th overall (despite the car having 3 complete plug changes during the race- that's 72 plugs!). This car has special historic significance as it was the first mid-engine V12 sports car and also gave Maserati their best ever Le Mans result.

The car was very tail heavy and had a cramped cockpit - later models had the wheelbase lengthened. Maserati operated on a relative shoestring compared with Ferrari and had no works team relying on sales to wealthy Privateers like Briggs Cunningham and Count Volpi. With a works team, bigger budget and more development the car could have gone on to great success, but was not able to match Ferrari.

Watch this video to hear the wonderful cacophony!!!



Several examples of this car exist and are available for Polyphony Digital to model - all are slightly different from each other as is normal with very low volume handbuilt racing cars. I am hoping that PD can offer a range of liveries so that I can reproduce those early Le Mans races with my online friends or via an event creator.

 

[CostasDrifter]

Just awesome...!

 

[IfAndOr]

Impressive sound - can't argue with that.
Nice car Sick.

The game needs more Maserati's of any variety.


Do you know where "birdcage" comes from? I can't see any avian themes. With that sound it would certainly scare a few off!

 

[ClydeYellow]

Do you know where "birdcage" comes from? I can't see any avian themes. With that sound it would certainly scare a few off!

It comes from the intricate tubular space frame chassis, that somewhat resembled a birdcage. The "Birdcage" Maseratis were works of art more than products of engineering, but unfortunately they were developed on a shoestring budget and suffered from reliability problems.

Of course the Tipo 63, being a Maserati (and a quite famous and fabulous one at that) has my vote!

 

[JKgo]

.............Dang it, this wasn't suggested yet?? Man I should've search for it....
Anyways, stunning car. Good work there, bud.

 

[Sick Cylinder]

Impressive sound - can't argue with that.
Nice car Sick.

The game needs more Maserati's of any variety.


Do you know where "birdcage" comes from? I can't see any avian themes. With that sound it would certainly scare a few off!

As Clydeyellow has said, plus the chassis was made of a series of small diameter tubes like a birdcage - this reached an extreme with the tipo 64 shown in this picture:

The idea is to get a stiff, but lightweight structure. The bird cage (or in the above case supercage) is a development of the spaceframe chassis. The simplest chassis form is the ladder, but that doesn't have much torsional rigidity if it is lightweight. The birdcage was eventually made obsolete by the monocoque (Malcolm Sayer of Jaguar and Colin Chapman of Lotus) where the skin is stressed and there is therefore no need for a seperate frame.

I shudder to think what would happen to the driver in the event of a crash in a birdcage Maserati - look at the myriad of tubes in this shot to cut, pierce or sever the drivers organs if they snapped or buckled: