10% off your first order — create a free account

Create free account
✓ 14-day returns ✓ Hand-checked before dispatch ✓ Secure checkout
My account

Maserati Tipo 61 #53 B. Krause Los Angeles Times Grand Prix Winner 1960 Minichamps 1:18

Maserati Tipo 61 #53 B. Krause Los Angeles Times Grand Prix Winner 1960 Minichamps 1:18 100601253 Diecast
1 / 8
Minichamps' 1:18 diecast Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage reproduces car #53, driven by B. Krause to victory at the 1960 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix, built around the tubular spaceframe chassis that gave the model its nickname. The opening bonnet reveals engine bay detail, while the open cockpit shows off the seating position and roll hoop without any additional panels needed. A documented-provenance centrepiece for a 1960s sports racing collection.
Maserati Tipo 61 #53 B. Krause Los Angeles Times Grand Prix Winner 1960 Minichamps 1:18
Current price: £237.50
Last one in stock
Estimated delivery: 05-07.10.2026
Delivery from £11.00 Tracked & insured
10% off your first order — create a free account
Pay securely with
Specifications
Car Brand
Maserati
Model Manufacturer
Minichamps
Scale
1:18
Material
Diecast
Model Condition
Used Model
SKU
100601253
Genuine articles
5-layer carton Foam-filled interior
Hassle-free returns 14-day no-quibble returns
Secure payment Bank-level encryption

About the Maserati Tipo 61 #53 B. Krause Los Angeles Times Grand Prix Winner 1960 Minichamps 1:18

TL;DR: Minichamps' 1:18 diecast Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage reproduces car #53, driven by B. Krause to victory at the 1960 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix, built around the tubular spaceframe chassis that gave the Tipo 61 its nickname. The opening bonnet reveals engine detail beneath a body defined by open-cockpit racing proportions.

Giulio Alfieri built the Tipo 61's chassis from more than two hundred small-diameter steel tubes welded into a frame so light and rigid that mechanics nicknamed it the birdcage, and the name stuck for the whole model line. B. Krause drove car #53 to victory at the 1960 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix, and Minichamps casts that exact winning car in 1:18.

The Birdcage Chassis and Tipo 61's Racing Pedigree

The Tipo 61 earned its nickname honestly. Alfieri's chassis design used a dense lattice of small steel tubes rather than the larger, fewer-tube frames most contemporary sports racers relied on, spreading loads across the structure in a way that saved weight without sacrificing torsional stiffness. That construction let Maserati build a car light enough to compete against far larger-engined rivals using little more than a four-cylinder engine, relying on chassis agility and low weight rather than outright power. Privateer teams and Maserati-backed entries campaigned the Tipo 61 across sports car racing's most demanding events in the early 1960s, and this particular car, running as #53 with B. Krause at the wheel, took victory at the Los Angeles Times Grand Prix in 1960, one of the period's significant American sports car races. That win places this specific chassis within a documented result rather than a generic period livery, which matters to anyone assembling a historic racing collection around actual race outcomes rather than approximate liveries. The birdcage construction that made the win possible also makes the Tipo 61 a genuinely different engineering story from its contemporaries, closer to aircraft-influenced thinking than to conventional automotive chassis design of its era.

Minichamps' Tipo 61 Open-Cockpit Diecast and Livery Detail

A 1960s open-cockpit prototype racer has no doors to worry about, but the bonnet still opens on this diecast, lifting to reveal the engine bay detail beneath, an area that matters enormously on a car whose entire competitive advantage came from what its chassis and drivetrain were doing rather than its bodywork alone. With the cockpit open by design on the real car, the model's seating position, dashboard and roll hoop detailing sit fully visible from above without needing any additional opening panels to access them, which is unusual among Minichamps' broader racing catalogue and specific to this style of period prototype. The #53 racing number and B. Krause's period livery are reproduced through tampo printing rather than decals, holding sharp edges around the car's rounded, low-slung bodywork where a lesser process would show the number distorting across the curved surfaces. Under direct light, the paint reveals the kind of subtle, slightly matte period finish that separates a well-researched historic livery from a generic bright racing colour applied without reference to the actual car.

A Prototype Racer's Place in a Historic Grid

Sports car racing in 1960 pitted the Tipo 61 against rivals from Porsche, Ferrari and other European constructors, each pursuing a different balance of weight, power and aerodynamics within broadly similar regulations. Within that field, the birdcage's tubular construction represented one of the more radical engineering approaches of the period, competing on chassis cleverness against opponents who often had more raw horsepower available. In the diecast segment specifically, historic prototype racers like this one occupy a different collecting category from modern GT3 or DTM subjects: they depend far more heavily on documented provenance, since the value of the model rests on accurately representing a specific chassis, driver and result rather than a recognisable modern livery most buyers already know from television coverage. This casting's tie to a verified 1960 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix win puts it solidly in that documented-provenance category.

Displaying a Documented 1960s Winner

At 1:18, the Tipo 61's compact prototype proportions bring it in noticeably smaller than a 1960s road car at the same scale, closer in footprint to a modern GT3 racer despite the six-decade gap between them. The open cockpit design means lighting from directly above shows off the cabin detail better than an angled beam would, since there's no roof or door structure to cast a shadow across the seating position. Displayed alongside other early 1960s sports racers, this Maserati's birdcage chassis and documented race win give it a stronger anchor point than a generic period liveried alternative on any shelf built around the era's most inventive engineering.

Same marque, same scale

Collectors also bought

Browse all 1:18

10% off your first order

Create a free account and claim 10% off your first order — from hundreds of collectible 1:18, 1:43 and 1:12 models by Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and more.

Create free account Browse the collection
Collectible 1:18 scale Porsche model on a clean studio backdrop — Models118 first-order offer
£237.50
£237.50
0