Birdcage Maserati?

[Charlie Hodge]

This message from "Charlie Hodge" <cshodge@adelphia.net> brought to you by EFLIGHT!

Gilles

Please explain why you singled out this racer. According to
www.ultimatecarpage.com, "Of all post-War Maserati sports cars the
'Birdcage' was the most innovative and successful."

Is there a stigma attached to the Birdcage Maserati?

Also long retired, but still flying

Charlie

-----Original Message-----

You may be old enough to remember the "birdcage"
Maserati...



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[GILLES FIREAGLE]

This message from GILLES FIREAGLE <gfireagle@yahoo.com> brought to you by EFLIGHT!

The "birdcage" Maserati had numerous small steel
tubing bars welded together to house the engine and
transmission.

Its appeal was visceral, much like our modeling
"lightening holes" and transparent covering nowadays.

As to whether it was superior from an engineering
standpoint to the cantilever mount and the Lotus
"Chapman tub" is moot.

The birdcage Maserati had a rather short career while
the cantilever mount was used in thousands of the
Jaguar XKE series, as was the "tub" that made the XK
of much interest when a fashionable mini-skirted lady
tried egress! I should know, I had an XK Euro-4.2
litre, and my late wife would purloin the thing
whenever she could - but she always wore pants suits!


One cannot take as gospel what one reads, Mr. Hodge.
Innovative, possibly true. Successful? Certainly,
one does not see "birdcages" as common race car
construction today or even as far back as the
seventies.

Maserati went the way of Fiat. Both, the Fiat Abarth
and the Birdcage got beaten enough in racing that like
the proverbial Arabs, they folded their tents and
quietly went their way.

Last I saw a Maserati it was as a four-door passenger
sedan named the BiTurbo. Last year, I read - in the
English car press - of a test of a Maserati sports car
designed to compete with the likes of the Ferrari and
[now possibly defunct] Lamborghini. Still I see no
distribution anywhere.

Cheers!

Gilles Fireagle

--- Charlie Hodge <cshodge@adelphia.net> wrote:

> This message from "Charlie Hodge"
> <cshodge@adelphia.net> brought to you by EFLIGHT!
>
> Gilles
>
> Please explain why you singled out this racer.
> According to
> www.ultimatecarpage.com, "Of all post-War Maserati
> sports cars the
> 'Birdcage' was the most innovative and successful."
>
> Is there a stigma attached to the Birdcage Maserati?
>
> Also long retired, but still flying
>
> Charlie
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> You may be old enough to remember the "birdcage"
> Maserati...
>
>
>
> *** Any complaints or problems? Send an email to
> monitor@ezonemag.com
> *** For help with list commands go to
> http://www.ezonemag.com/pages/mailhelp.htm
> *** For the list rules go to
> http://www.ezonemag.com/pages/mailrule.htm
>





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