Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage, Continental Divide 1960 #66

Giulio Alfieri's Tipo 61 took its nickname from its frame: around 200 small-diameter steel tubes welded into a lattice, light and stiff, wrapped around a 2.9-litre four-cylinder engine of some 250 hp. Maserati built only a couple of dozen Birdcages, Tipo 60s and 61s together, between 1959 and 1961, and in 1960 Lucky Casner's Camoradi team took one to victory in the Nürburgring 1000 km. This car, chassis 2463 according to CMC, was delivered to Dick and Jim Hall of Dallas in April 1960, and Jim raced it as number 66 at Continental Divide Raceways in Colorado that June, finishing third in the main event. Hall would go on to build his own sports-racing cars, the Chaparrals, in Midland, Texas.

CMC's model wears white with a broad blue stripe from nose to tail, blue lower flanks and 66 roundels on the sides and tail. The front bodywork hinges forward on a working lock, the doors open and the rear cover lifts off to show the spare wheel in its leather strap; beneath, the four-cylinder engine sits within the space frame with its carburettors, wiring and fuel lines. The wire wheels, with hand-laced stainless spokes, come off, the suspension works through a De Dion rear axle, and the baseplate unscrews to show the frame. Limited to 1,000 pieces, it is built by CMC at 1:18 from 1,536 parts.