But what is it?
For those who like to mingle among the most exclusive cars in the world, the Concours d’Elegance at Villa d’Este on Lake Como in Italy is one of the highlights of the year. There, designer Ken Okuyama presented his most recent creation last weekend: the Birdcage Kode61. The Japanese intends to build a number of copies. But what exactly is it?
In any case, it is clear where the name of the Birdcage Kode61 comes from. ‘Birdcage’ refers to the nickname of the Maserati Tipo 61, a racer from the early 1960s. And then you immediately know what ‘Kode61’ refers to. Japanese designer Ken Okuyama is the father of the creation that bears the name, unveiled at the Concours d’Elegance of Villa d’Este last weekend.
birdcage
It’s not the first of his designs to reference the Birdcage racer. In 2005 – then active as creative head of design house Pininfarina – he drew study model Pininfarina Birdcage, in honor of 75 years Pininfarina. Whether the Kode61 also sees the light of day for a festive reason remains unclear. In fact, we actually know very little about the model.
On his website, Okuyama indicates that he wants to build a number of copies of the car in Japan, and it doesn’t get more concrete than that. The motorization of the Birdcage Kode61 also remains a guess. So much so that we dare not say with certainty whether its engine is in front of or behind the occupants. The block does sound – yes, it is an internal combustion engine – in a video on Okuyama’s Instagram page like a six-cylinder. It may be the engine from the Maserati MC20, because the Japanese also borrowed the wheels from that car.
We also see a six-speed manual transmission, the three typical Maserati ‘grates’ on the sides and two centrally placed exhaust pipes. Also striking: in the moving images that exist of the car – in which he rolls down the red carpet of Villa d’Este – Okuyama raises the speedster-like ‘windshields’ briefly, so that the occupants are more protected from the wind .
Other projects
One of the last signs of life we ​​saw from Ken Okuyama was the Kode 57 Enji. That too was a two-seater ‘speedster’ with Italian influences. Not surprising, because the Japanese was the head of Pininfarina in Italy for a while. There he had a big finger in the pie in the creation of, among other things, the Ferrari Enzo and other Ferrari models from the mid-00s. Last decade, he was mainly concerned with less exclusive stuff and he designed trains for the Japanese railways.
Hopefully more images of the Birdcage Kode61 will follow soon.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl