{"id":3646,"date":"2018-10-21T10:01:24","date_gmt":"2018-10-21T13:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-143.com\/?page_id=3646"},"modified":"2019-12-08T22:21:02","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T01:21:02","slug":"maserati-tipo-61-birdcage-6-minichamps","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/maserati-tipo-61-birdcage-6-minichamps\/","title":{"rendered":"Maserati Tipo 61 \u201cBirdcage\u201d #6 &#8211; Minichamps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/+upload\/i-o\/maserati_tipo61_6_01.jpg\" alt=\"Tipo 61\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\"><strong>1961 Maserati Tipo 61 \u201cBirdcage\u201d #6<\/strong> <br>Pilot: Roger Penske Team: <em>Udraugh Ent. Inc.<\/em> <br>Race: 1st GC (D-Modified class) at SCCA National at Meadowdale in 1961 Minichamps - 400611206 (diecast) <\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-text-align-right has-small-font-size has-medium-gray-color\">Published 10\/21\/18<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The development of the Maserati Birdcage started in 1959. Designed by Giulio Alfieri, it was first available with a 2.0 liter (Tipo 60) and later a 2.9 liter (Tipo 61) engine. The car earned the nickname &#8220;Birdcage&#8221; because of the <a href=\"https:\/\/pictures.topspeed.com\/IMG\/jpg\/201004\/1960-maserati-birdca-8.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">intricate tubular space frame<\/a> chassis. It was made with short, narrow gauge, tubular steel sections with a diameter of 10 or 15 mm. Over 200 of these pipes were welded together, guaranteeing a stiff and very light weight car. With such a light chassis the Tipo 61 only weighed 600 kg. Interestingly, the test car had the chassis with high quality chrome steel, that made the car <em>too <\/em>stiff. This caused cracks in the welds, so Alfieri swapped the tubes with cheaper steel tubes. The more flexible steel cured the problem without compromising the handling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/+upload\/i-o\/maserati_tipo61_6_02.jpg\" alt=\"Tipo 61\"\/><figcaption>It looks delicate.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The engine of the Tipo 61 was an inline-4 with 2890 cm\u00b3 fed by two Weber 45 DCO3 carburetors. That allowed 250 hp of power, permitting a top speed of 285 km\/h. All in all Maserati produced 22 (some say 16) cars, between both Tipo 60 and 61. Today, many consider the Birdcage as one of the (if not <strong>the) <\/strong>best handling front-engined sports car ever. Roger Penske piloted #6 here to victory at the Meadowdale SCCA National Championship race of 1961.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/+upload\/i-o\/maserati_tipo61_6_03.jpg\" alt=\"Tipo 61\"\/><figcaption>Despite the delicate looks of the chassis, the overall lines of the car are beautiful.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In my eyes it was always the ultimate Maserati race car, and I had to have one. In scale it\u2019s beautiful, and even people with not-so-great tastes in cars agree it\u2019s a fantastic model. Minichamps has a knack for these old racers (the <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"300 SLR (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/mercedes-benz-300-slr-722-minichamps\/\" target=\"_blank\">300 SLR<\/a> is a perfect example) so you can almost buy &#8217;em with your eyes closed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1961 Maserati Tipo 61 \u201cBirdcage\u201d #6 Pilot: Roger Penske Team: Udraugh Ent. Inc. Race: 1st GC (D-Modified class) at SCCA National at Meadowdale in 1961 Minichamps &#8211; 400611206 (diecast) Published 10\/21\/18 The development of the Maserati Birdcage started in 1959. Designed by Giulio Alfieri, it was first available with a 2.0 liter (Tipo 60) and &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/maserati-tipo-61-birdcage-6-minichamps\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Maserati Tipo 61 \u201cBirdcage\u201d #6 &#8211; Minichamps&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3646","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3646"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8152,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3646\/revisions\/8152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}