Before we get started, here’s a quick note on the current state of the collector car market from blue-chip Porsche specialist Lee Maxted-Page: “Over the past year, the market has shown that it’s driven by cars that are termed ‘the best of the best’, particularly those which are new to the market. Anything else has to be priced realistically to attract any interest.
While a total of 1.08bn US dollars’ worth of cars — 111.91m dollars of which is in the top 10 cars — is still very impressive, don’t get us wrong, overall sales numbers are on the decline for the third year in the row now. And with this, new market trends are emerging and some surprising cars have cracked the top 10 list.
Video: Tom Gidden for Girardo & Co.
The story of the Maserati ‘Birdcage’, particularly the later rear-engined cars, is one shrouded in mystery — not least because of Maserati’s financial woes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, which led to a particularly, shall we say, haphazardly run racing department. As you’d expect, parts bins were emptied, chassis numbers were swapped, and certain cars (quite obviously, we might add) masqueraded as others.