In 1958, the Orsi family, who owned Maserati, tasked technical director Giulio Alfieri with finding a way to make Maserati competitive again despite the company's difficult financial position. An initial idea to use a backbone chassis was set aside, and in October 1958 Alfieri's team settled on a multi-tube mesh structure: around 200 steel tubes of 10 to 15 mm diameter, welded in short segments into a cage-like formation that was simultaneously lighter and more rigid than conventional tubular frames of the period.
A compact 1,990 cc four-cylinder engine, derived from the Maserati 200S and mounted at a 45-degree angle toward the centre of the car for weight distribution, powered the Tipo 60. The engine received revised cylinder heads, twin Weber 45 DCO3 carburettors, Marelli dual ignition, and a reworked exhaust, producing 200 hp. Front suspension used spiral springs and the rear employed a De Dion axle with a transverse leaf spring. Dry weight was just 570 kg, a significant advantage over rival machinery.
By recessing the windscreen base into the bodywork, Maserati also found a way to satisfy new Le Mans rules mandating taller windscreens without incurring a major aerodynamic penalty.
The first car was completed in May 1959 and handed to Stirling Moss for testing. Early tests revealed cracks in the chassis, which were resolved by using a higher grade of steel. On 12 July 1959, the Tipo 60 won on its debut race with Moss at the wheel — an immediate validation of Alfieri's design philosophy.
The Tipo 60's success in the 2-litre class caught the attention of American racing teams competing in the 3-litre category. To meet demand, the engine was bored out to 2,890 cc, raising power by 50 hp to approximately 250 hp, though weight increased to 600 kg due to a revised driveshaft. This enlarged version was designated the Tipo 61. The Camoradi team, founded by American enthusiast "Lucky" Casner, became the primary racing customer and the public face of the Birdcage in international competition.
After promising early results, the Tipo 61's competitive trajectory was defined by a mixture of spectacular performances and persistent mechanical attrition. At the 1960 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Camoradi Tipo 61 ran with great speed, reaching 272 km/h and opening a lead of over four minutes on the Ferrari entries, before a starter motor problem dropped the car to last place. Rain and the car's impractical windshield design contributed to its eventual retirement.
Despite failing to win at Le Mans — largely due to drivetrain reliability issues — the Camoradi team won the 1000 km Nürburgring in both 1960 and 1961, the latter result confirming that in the right conditions the Birdcage could outrun anything in its class.
Alfieri designed five distinct models within the multi-tube family. The Tipo 60 and 61 were front-engined; from the Tipo 63 onward, Maserati adopted a mid-engine layout while retaining the distinctive multi-tubular chassis concept, though the rear suspension was changed to independent double wishbones.
The mid-engined cars — Tipo 63, 64, and 65 — have been described as a historian's nightmare. Maserati's financial difficulties forced Alfieri to work with whatever engines were available from the parts bin, resulting in various cars running both the four-cylinder engine similar to the Tipo 61 and a V12 sourced from the 1957 250F Grand Prix car. A Tipo 63 with the V12 engine, entered by Briggs Cunningham's team, finished fourth at the 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans.
The Tipo 64 used the same 3-litre V12 in a denser, lighter-still frame nicknamed the Supercage, with a new body by Franco Scaglione. The Tipo 65 fitted a 5-litre V8 similar to that used in the Tipo 151, delivering around 430 hp, and achieved a calculated top speed of 350 km/h; only one was built, using a modified Tipo 63 chassis.
The Birdcage is regarded as one of the most innovative chassis designs of the late 1950s and stands as Giulio Alfieri's most celebrated engineering achievement. Its construction method — traded rigidity and lightness against the conventional wisdom of simpler tube layouts — influenced thinking about chassis architecture during the transition from tubular to monocoque construction in early 1960s racing.
The concept's cultural resonance proved long-lasting. Maserati paid tribute to it with the 2004 MC 12, whose road-legal version was offered in white with blue stripes in honour of the Birdcage and the Camoradi team. In 2005, to mark both the Birdcage's legacy and Pininfarina's 75th anniversary, Maserati revealed the Birdcage 75th concept car, powered by a 700 bhp V12 — a modern interpretation of a design that had defined Maserati's last sustained assault on international sports car racing before decades of withdrawal.