The Maserati Birdcage 75th was a concept car created by automobile manufacturer Maserati

Maserati

Maserati is an Italian luxury car manufacturer established on December 1, 1914, in Bologna. The company's headquarters is now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. It has been owned by the Italian car giant Fiat S.p.A. since 1993...

 and designed by Pininfarina and the design team, including Jason Castriota under the guidance of Ken Okuyama

Ken Okuyama

Ken Okuyama is an automobile designer who worked for Pininfarina designing or supervising projects such as the Enzo Ferrari and Ferrari P4/5. His given name is Kiyoyuki Okuyama but goes by Ken Okuyama outside Japan...

 at Pininfarina

Pininfarina

Pininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy.Founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina, Pininfarina has been employed by a wide variety of high-end automobile manufacturers,...

. It was first introduced at the 2005 Geneva Auto Show. It was named to honor the classic Maserati Birdcages of the 1960s and Pininfarina

Pininfarina

Pininfarina S.p.A. is an Italian car design firm and coachbuilder in Cambiano, Italy.Founded as Società anonima Carrozzeria Pinin Farina in 1930 by automobile designer and builder Battista "Pinin" Farina, Pininfarina has been employed by a wide variety of high-end automobile manufacturers,...

's 75th anniversary

Anniversary

An anniversary is a day that commemorates or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event. For example, the first event is the initial occurrence or, if planned, the inaugural of the event. One year later would be the first anniversary of that event...

. The original car intent was discussed and pursued originally by Paolo Pininfarina, Pininfarina S.p.A, Franco Lodato and Peter Aloumanis, from Motorola during a business gathering in September 2004 at Pebble Beach, California

Chassis

The Birdcage 75th is built on the carbonfibre chassis of a Maserati MC12

Maserati MC12

The Maserati MC12 is a two-seater sports car produced by Italian car maker Maserati to allow a racing variant to compete in the FIA GT Championship. The car entered production in 2004 with 30 cars produced...

 GT1 race car and shares many components, most notably the engine. The Birdcage 75th is powered by the Ferrari Dino F140 V12

V12 engine

A V12 engine is a V engine with 12 cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of six cylinders, usually but not always at a 60° angle to each other, with all 12 pistons driving a common crankshaft....

 engine of the MC12 and the Enzo Ferrari

Enzo Ferrari (car)

The Enzo Ferrari is a 12 cylinder mid-engine berlinetta named after the company's founder, Enzo Ferrari. It was built in 2002 using Formula One technology, such as a carbon-fibre body, F1-style electrohydraulic shift transmission, and Carbon fibre-reinforced Silicon Carbide ceramic composite...

 mid mounted at 65°th's engine has been tuned for racing and as a result produces around 700 brake horsepower.

Bodywork

The car's body was designed by Pininfarina to celebrate the company's 75th anniversary. A documentary called "Sleek Dreams" was filmed about the six-month design process.
The exterior is made of carbon fiber with diffuser

Diffuser (automotive)

A diffuser, in an automotive context, is a shaped section of the car underbody which improves the car's aerodynamic properties by enhancing the transition between the high-velocity airflow underneath the car and the much slower freestream airflow of the ambient atmosphere...

s at the rear and 2 spoiler

Spoiler (automotive)

A spoiler is an automotive aerodynamic device whose intended design function is to 'spoil' unfavorable air movement across a body of a vehicle in motion. Spoilers on the front of a vehicle are often called air dams, because in addition to directing air flow they also reduce the amount of air...

s that automatically raise at speed. The windshield is made of perspex and extends almost from the front to the back of the car; this is a necessity because of the driver's low seated position - if the windscreen ended higher, they would be unable to see the oncoming road. This visibility problem is compounded by typical concept-car omissions like wing mirrors.

The Birdcage also lacks doors; instead, a bubble canopy

Vehicle canopy

A vehicle canopy is a rarely used type of door for cars. It has no official name so it is also known as an articulated canopy, bubble canopy, cockpit canopy, canopy door, or simply a canopy. A canopy is a type of door which sits on top of a car and lifts up in some way, to provide access for...

 composed of much of the front bodywork can be raised, in a similar manner to the Bond Bug

Bond Bug

The Bond Bug was a small British two seat, three wheeled sports car of the 1970s. Following the purchase of Bond Cars Limited, Reliant commissioned Tom Karen of Ogle Design to design a fun car. It was a wedge-shaped microcar, with a lift-up canopy and side screens instead of conventional doors...

, Ferrari Modulo

Ferrari Modulo

The Ferrari 512 S Modulo is a concept car designed by coach maker Pininfarina, unveiled at the 1970 Geneva Motor Show.By January 1970, Ferrari had built a series of twenty-five Ferrari 512 S racing cars for homologation purposes, just like Porsche had done in 1969 with the Porsche 917. This meant...

 and Saab's 2006 Aero X

Saab Aero-X

Saab Aero-X is a concept car by Saab unveiled at the 2006 Salon International de l'Auto. It is powered by a 2.8 L twin-turbocharged V6 running on pure ethanol that produces . 0 to is predicted to be 4.9 s and top speed is limited to . It has a 7-speed manual transmission controlled by paddles on...

 concept car. However, since the lone demonstrator model lacks air-conditioning or any form of climate control, and the bubble provides substantial 'glasshouse effect', journalists (including evo Magazine's Harry Metcalfe) driving the vehicle were reportedly forced to keep the bubble slightly open on hot days to cool the car's interior.

Interior

The cabin has a Head-Up Display (HUD) which is projected on to a clear panel raised in the centre of the dash. It shows information that would usually appear on dashboard instruments, including the tachometer

Tachometer

A tachometer is an instrument measuring the rotation speed of a shaft or disk, as in a motor or other machine. The device usually displays the revolutions per minute on a calibrated analogue dial, but digital displays are increasingly common...

 and speedometer. Also projected is a digital image of Maserati's traditional analogue clock.

Design

According to designer Ken Okuyama

Ken Okuyama

Ken Okuyama is an automobile designer who worked for Pininfarina designing or supervising projects such as the Enzo Ferrari and Ferrari P4/5. His given name is Kiyoyuki Okuyama but goes by Ken Okuyama outside Japan...

 the theme of the car is connectivity and "the centre of the steering wheel is a control device that is very similar to a cellphone". The car has a bluetooth

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks with high levels of security...

 headset for mobile phones designed by Motorola

Motorola

Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

and several cameras so that the driver can "share [his/her] driving experience with others".