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"This car, a beautifully built/restored/replicated (you'll have to decide which) Maserati Tipo 61/60 'Birdcage', a type of one of the most sought-after collector cars in the world, has been deemed a fake by experts, despite claims to the contrary. Its owner, who remains anonymous, claims this car is a restoration of chassis #2459--a car experts say has no connection at all due to total destruction in a racing crash.
The story really begins in 1962 at Daytona International Speedway. Augie Pabst, heir to the beer brewing fortune of the same name, climbs into the Tippo 61 Maserati to practice for the famed 24 Hour Endurance race. The car is prepared by Briggs Cunningham, owner of the American Cunningham Team which has become legend in sports car circles--and whose remaining cars have become highly collectible. The track is a combination of road course and high banking and for more than 50 years has provided an incredible challenge to world class drivers and manufacturers who enter the 24 Hour classic. As Pabst exits the road course portion and takes to the high speed banking--something goes terribly wrong. The Maserati’s engine blows under stress, locking the rear wheels at 170mph. The beautiful Birdcage--garnering its nickname from the welded small diameter steel tubes that make up the frame--lurches right. A huge impact with the guard rails sends the car into a series of end-over-end flips. Pabst’s seat-belts fail and he is thrown from the wreck as it summersaults down the banking. Augie survives, but suffers fractured ribs, cuts, spinal and internal injuries. He will be hospitalized for 2 months and faced with a long recovery--which would come by the following year’s Times Grand Prix at Riverside. Augie Pabst would continue racing cars well into his 80’s and remains on the Board of Directors at Elkhart Lake’s Road America. But as for Chassis #2459, there was nothing left as the car was literally balled up and burned on that section of Daytona banking. Any pieces that were salvageable--which were few--were distributed to existing Birdcage owners for spares."
Starting Price
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