Maserati Birdcage 75 Concept

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."

While the rearview-mirror cameras, advanced cellular systems, and projected head-up information displays are state of the art, other of the 75's aspects recall the past. This radical concept car is based on the carbon-fiber monocoque of the racing version of the Maserati MC12, though its instrument panel is held in place by a "birdcage"-style structure of welded up tubing, paying homage to the great Maserati Birdcage racers of old. The Birdcage 75 also borrows the MC12 competizione's powerplant, a 6.0-liter V-12 good for more than 700 horsepower. It uses a manual six-speed transaxle, managed via a racing sequential shift mechanism, but with a conventional clutch.

Once the canopy is closed, all is quiet--until the V-12 resting just aft of my left elbow lights up. The screen on the steering wheel sparkles with information; the digital tach flashes numbers as the revs rise and fall. My pilot, a Maserati factory driver, is willing to push this turntable fantasy only so far, but the fact that it even runs and moves is impressive. He short-shifts it at around 4500 rpm, but it's clear this 3300-pound tanning bed would be crazy fast if he could let it loose. The rearview cameras work well even in bright light, and the driver-interface gizmos Motorola dreamed up are right out of Flash Gordon.