Those who doubt that cars should ever be described as works of art have probably never seen one of Maserati’s Tipo 60/61 racers built from 1959 to ’61.

By then the Trident marque had abandoned its own grand prix racing programme and shifted focus to building cars for privateer use – but, in order to be competitive, its products needed to be technologically ahead of the game.

It was with that aim that chief designer Giulio Alfieri came up with the idea of creating a light but strong spaceframe using a carefully calculated arrangement of 200 small-diameter steel tubes welded together.

The resulting structure’s criss-cross of pipework earned the nickname ‘Birdcage’ and ensured the complete car weighed little more than 570kg which, with the 200bhp engine from the 200S fitted, made for a healthy power-to weight ratio of 350bhp per tonne and a maximum speed that was in the region of 170mph.

The Tipo 60 quickly proved its worth with a maiden outing victory at the 1959 Rouen Grand Prix in the hands of Stirling Moss, who defeated two works Lotus 15s. This aroused interest from US buyers, who fancied the car’s chances in the 3-litre class.

Maserati obliged by increasing the cylinder capacity to 2890cc which, while other necessary engine mods added 29kg in weight, also endowed the car with an extra 50bhp.

The first example of the new Tipo 61 went to Lloyd ‘Lucky’ Casner in the US for his Camoradi team, with Moss taking the chequered flag at the 1960 Cuban GP in one of the three other Tipo 61s that Casner subsequently bought.

The Birdcage concept proved itself in numerous events, leading to the design being adapted to a mid-engined configuration in the Tipo 63, 64 and 65 models – yet the Tipo 61 remains the quintessential version.

But with 60 and 61s having been built in just 22 examples between them, originals are rare and seldom on the open market, which is why the celebrated historic car engineering duo of Dick Crosthwaite and John Gardiner – makers of more than half a dozen replica Auto Union Type Ds for Audi – embarked on a project in 1989 to build a run of three exact ‘toolroom copies’ of a Tipo 61.

The example offered by William I’Anson on behalf of its owner is the third and final of those, having been completed in 2004 to the order of the late competition car collector Rodney Smith, who recruited Mark Gillies to race it in VSCC and HGPCA series.

After Smith’s death the car was bought by US enthusiast Paddins Dowling before being acquired around five years ago by the current owner, who has used it at the GRRC Sprint and at RAC concours events.

Being sold with current FIA HTP papers and a useful spares package, it represents a decidedly rare chance to experience a Tipo 61 that could fairly be described as being just how the originals were when they left the Maserati factory almost 75 years ago.

And although William I’Anson prefers to reveal the price only ‘on application’, we can tell you that it’s a good deal less money than you might expect.

2004 Maserati Tipo 61 Toolroom copy

For sale with William I’Anson, Cirencester, £POA. williamianson.com

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Superswede’s March is a Monza legend

• The last time March saw victory in F1 was at Monza in 1976 with this 761, inset right, now on sale at speedmaster in Wetherby. It was driven by Ronnie Peterson for his first GP win in two years; in fact Superswede solely raced Chassis 6 before his manager Staffan Svenby took ownership. Rebuilt, it’s now ready for dozens of historic events. £POA.

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• As it’s the centenary of the Le Mans 24 Hours, perhaps owning a bona fide bruiser from La Sarthe is timely. This Riley & Scott Mark IIIC, below, was placed seventh on the grid at Le Mans 2003 by Marc Goossens and was raced in the Sebring 12 Hours in ’04. More recently it won last year’s Endurance Racing Legends title. It’s on sale, £POA, at Ascott Collection in France.
  

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• Nigel Mansell’s Jersey dealership The Mansell Collection is now a two-wheeled only endeavour. It has closed its Mitsubishi and Hyundai departments and will concentrate on bikes. “We’ll be expanding and improving everything from motorcycle servicing to bringing in new brands,” said the company website.

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• Grim news for hard-up Londoners set to be hit by the ULEZ zone expansion this summer. Auto Trader reports there are just 5150 ULEZ-compliant cars below £5000 on sale in the capital; Transport for London estimates 200,000 drivers will be affected.

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• DVLA has announced its banned list of ’23 registrations. Among the usual pulled profanity-laden sequences are politically sensitive messages. Out go RU23 UKR, YE23 WAR and EU23 BAD. Senior DVLA members meet twice a year to ditch offensive plates. LG