The Maserati Birdcage 75th is a functional

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

designed and developed by a

Pininfarina Pininfarina S.p.A. (short for Carrozzeria Pininfarina) is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder, with headquarters in Cambiano, Turin, Italy. The company was founded by Battista "Pinin" Farina in 1930. On 14 December 2015, the Indian mu ...

design team led by

Lowie Vermeersch Lowie Vermeersch (born May 9, 1974) is a Flemish designer, part of the third generation of a prominent artistic family. He is the Founder & Creative Director of Granstudio in Turin, Italy. Previously, he held the position of Design Director at P ...

, including

Jason Castriota Jason Castriota is an American automobile designer born in White Plains, New York, and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. He graduated from Emerson College in Boston and attended but dropped out of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Cal ...

and Giuseppe Randazzo under the direction of

Ken Okuyama Ken Okuyama (born 1959) is a Japanese industrial designer. He is the owner of the Ken Okuyama Design company. Okuyama formerly worked for Pininfarina, designing and supervising projects such as the Enzo Ferrari and Ferrari P4/5. His given name is ...

. It was first introduced at the 2005 Geneva Auto Show. It was named to honor the classic

Maserati Birdcage The Maserati Tipo 60/61 (commonly referred to as the Maserati Birdcage) are a series of sports racing cars produced between 1959 and 1961 by Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati for privateers racing in sports car events including the 24 Hours ...

race cars of the 1960s and

's 75th

anniversary An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints ...

. The Birdcage was the result of a collaboration between Maserati, Pininfarina and Motorola to showcase their technical expertise. The car was completed in just 2 months, following a fast pace design phase using 3D renderings.

Chassis

The Birdcage 75th is built on the

carbon fiber Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

chassis of a

Maserati MC12 The Maserati MC12 (''Tipo M144S'') is a limited production two-seater sports car produced by Italian car maker Maserati to allow a racing variant to compete in the FIA GT Championship. The car entered production in 2004, with 25 cars produced. ...

GT1 race car and shares many components, most notably the engine. The Birdcage 75th is powered by the Ferrari/Maserati F140 V12 engine from the MC12 and the

Enzo Enzo is an Italian given name derivative of the German name Heinz. It can be used also as the short form for Lorenzo, Vincenzo, Innocenzo, or Fiorenzo. It is most common in the Romance-speaking world, particularly in Italy and Latin America but ...

, mid mounted at 65 degrees. The engine is rated at .

Bodywork

The car's body was designed by

to celebrate the company's 75th anniversary. The exterior is made of

carbon fibre Carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (American English), carbon-fibre-reinforced polymers (Commonwealth English), carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-fiber reinforced-thermoplastic (CFRP, CRP, CFRTP), also known as carbon fiber, carbon compo ...

with

diffuser Diffuser may refer to: Aerodynamics * Diffuser (automotive), a shaped section of a car's underbody which improves the car's aerodynamic properties * Part of a jet engine air intake, especially when operated at supersonic speeds * The channel betw ...

s at the rear and two

spoiler Spoiler is a security vulnerability on modern computer central processing units that use speculative execution. It exploits side-effects of speculative execution to improve the efficiency of Rowhammer and other related memory and cache attacks. Ac ...

s that automatically raise at speed. The windshield is made of

perspex Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

and extends almost from the front to the back of the car; this is a necessity because of the driver's low seated position—if the windscreen ended higher, they would be unable to see the oncoming road. At the front, the low nose is characterised by the large grille bearing the Trident emblem, slim LED headlights enclosing two inlets and a splitter under the single lower air-intake. At the rear, the transparent engine cover continues the glasshouse effect of the windscreen, allowing a view of the mid-mounted V12 engine. The integrated roof scoop improves cooling and removes the need for air-intakes on the body panels. The dark plexiglass becomes thinner at the back, merging with the carbon-fibre diffuser and housing two centrally positioned and vertically arranged tailpipes. Two elongated LED tail-lights enclose air outlets, and the large opening on the rear bumper improves aerodynamics. The wheels measuring 21 inches at the front and 22 inches at the rear were especially designed for the car. The Birdcage also lacks doors; instead, a

bubble canopy A bubble canopy is an aircraft canopy constructed without bracing, for the purpose of providing a wider unobstructed field of view to the pilot, often providing 360° all-round visibility. The designs of bubble canopies can drastically vary; so ...

composed of much of the front bodywork can be raised, in a similar manner to the

Bond Bug The Bond Bug is a small British two-seat, three-wheeled automobile which was designed by Tom Karen of Ogle Design for Reliant Motor Company, who built it from 1970 to 1974, initially at Bond Cars Ltd factory, but subsequently at Reliant's Tamw ...

Ferrari Modulo The Ferrari 512S Modulo is a concept sports car designed by Paolo Martin of the Italian carrozzeria Pininfarina, unveiled at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show. Description The Modulo has an extremely low and wedge-shaped body, with a canopy-style gla ...

and Saab's 2006 Aero X concept car. However, the lone demonstrator model lacks

air-conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

or any form of climate control.

Interior

The interior was designed with input from Motorola, Pininfarina's technical partner at the time. The seats which are upholstered in blue suede with three-point seatbelts are integrated into the chassis. The central tunnel has a metal gear shifter and a few buttons to control various functions of the car. The cabin has a

head up display A head-up display, or heads-up display, also known as a HUD (), is any transparent display that presents data without requiring users to look away from their usual viewpoints. The origin of the name stems from a pilot being able to view informat ...

(HUD) which is projected onto a clear panel raised in the centre of the dash. It shows information that would usually appear on dashboard instruments, including the tachometer and speedometer. Also projected is a digital image of Maserati's traditional analogue clock. The steering wheel has a centre mounted control device, similar to a cellphone. The interior features a dashboard which has a clear section to display a tubular frame design, as seen on the birdcage racing cars. The frame supports the secondary HUD screen. The car is equipped with rear view cameras instead of conventional wing mirrors.

Design

The car's exterior, according to Okuyama is intended to be smooth while showing supporting components from the outside. A feature seen on the birdcage racing cars. The car has a clear engine cover from which the engine is visible as well as a large greenhouse area on the canopy to allow for better outward visibility. The Birdcage's design, especially the canopy, was inspired by the

concept car along with the Birdcage racing cars which were known for their protruding wheel arches, unusually low body lines and tall but extremely raked windshields. The car has a

bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

headset for mobile phones designed by

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...

and several cameras so that the driver can "share is/herdriving experience with others".

Awards

The Birdcage concept won the following awards: *Louis Vuitton Classic Concept Award (2006) *Best Concept of the Geneva Motor Show (2005) *L’automobile più bella del mondo (2005)

References