I was semireclined, not unlike the driving position in an F1 car, as electric motors whirred and the Birdcage 75's giant glass canopy closed down over me. Although I couldn't see any of the car's corners, the view was otherwise as panoramic as an F-16's cockpit. So this is what it's like to be inside a flying saucer.
The breathtaking standout of last year's Geneva auto show, the Birdcage is Pininfarina's way of celebrating its own 75th birthday as one of Italy's premier design houses and coachbuilders. Why not a Ferrari, with whom Pininfarina is most often identified? "We did a Ferrari concept a few years ago," notes passionately well-spoken Paolo Pininfarina, president and CEO and a member of the family's third generation. "We are currently working on an entirely new model range for Maserati, so we thought, 'Why not them?' More correctly, the 75 is the result of a three-way partnership between us, Maserati, and Motorola, who provided the communications and driver-interface technology."...
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