The Forgotten Maserati Concept Car That Still Looks Futuristic Today – SlashGear

Italian design house Pininfarina started in May of 1930, and is commemorating its 93rd anniversary in 2023. Known popularly for designing the best-looking vintage and post-modern Ferraris, Pininfarina has worked with other automakers like Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Peugeot, and Maserati (per Motor Trend). It also designed concept cars for Chevy, Jaguar, Citroen, and Honda (per Goodwood). However, the Maserati Birdcage 75th is undoubtedly one of Pininfarina’s best concept cars, and it goes beyond the car’s low-slung, futuristic, and racing-inspired shape.

Designed to recreate the shapely vintage sheet metal of Maserati’s Birdcage post-war racing cars (specifically the Birdcage Tipo 60/Tipo 61), the Birdcage 75th’s most defining feature is its jet-fighter-style canopy design. According to Pininfarina, the “transparent upper part” offers a panoramic view while enabling onlookers to admire the engineering underneath. The Birdcage stands only a meter high, yet squats with aggression courtesy of its bulbous wheel arches.

Pininfarina

Best of all, the Birdcage 75th is not merely for show. It inherited most of what made the MC12 a desirable collector car and racing toy, like a carbon-fiber monocoque chassis, a mid-mounted 700-horsepower 6.0-liter V12 engine, and a six-speed manual transaxle gearbox. Motor Trend took it for a test drive (lucky bastards) in 2006, and they can’t help but marvel at the concept’s state-of-the-art interior.