Stirling Moss – The Birdcage Maserati

The historic racing scene has brought many excellent cars back to the circuits over recent years, although quite a lot of them are not very original, and many have been substantially improved. While there are some safety arguments for this, it opens the door to modifying cars with new parts, which certainly isn’t in the spirit or interest of historic racing.

Some cars are so well known that it is nearly impossible to change them without people noticing, and I think the Birdcage Maserati fits into this group. These cars actually started historic racing not many years after they retired the first time around, so the historians can keep an accurate record of them. I have spoken about the Birdcage before when talking about the best cars I have raced, and certainly the Tipo 61 was amongst the best front-engine sports cars I ever drove. Maserati produced a wide range of sports cars and some of them were very good, like the 300S, and some were pretty desperate. I had terrific success in the 300S, having started 13 races with it and won 9, so it is saying something about the Birdcage to consider it better.