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Maserati Tipo 61 #98 C. Shelby Times Mirror Grand Prix for Sportscars 1960 Minichamps 1:18

Maserati Tipo 61 #98 C. Shelby Times Mirror Grand Prix for Sportscars 1960 Minichamps 1:18 100601298 Diecast
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Minichamps' 1:18 diecast Maserati Tipo 61 reproduces the #98 Camoradi-liveried Birdcage Carroll Shelby raced at Riverside's 1960 Times Mirror Grand Prix for Sportscars, before a heart condition ended his driving career. The doors and bonnet open on this casting, exposing the same welded tubular space-frame chassis found across the Tipo 61 range.
Maserati Tipo 61 #98 C. Shelby Times Mirror Grand Prix for Sportscars 1960 Minichamps 1:18
Current price: £237.50
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Estimated delivery: 05-07.10.2026
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Specifications
Car Brand
Maserati
Model Manufacturer
Minichamps
Scale
1:18
Material
Diecast
Model Condition
Used Model
SKU
100601298
Genuine articles
5-layer carton Foam-filled interior
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About the Maserati Tipo 61 #98 C. Shelby Times Mirror Grand Prix for Sportscars 1960 Minichamps 1:18

TL;DR: Minichamps' 1:18 diecast reproduces #98, the Maserati Tipo 61 Birdcage Carroll Shelby raced at the 1960 Times Mirror Grand Prix for Sportscars at Riverside, in the years before Shelby became a constructor himself. The doors and bonnet open on this casting, showing the welded tubular space-frame beneath.

Before Carroll Shelby built the Cobra and won Le Mans as a constructor, he raced as a professional driver, and this Tipo 61 entry at Riverside's Times Mirror Grand Prix belongs to that earlier chapter. Minichamps casts the #98 Camoradi-liveried Birdcage with the same opening bodywork used across the Tipo 61 range, exposing the space-frame that made the car so light.

Shelby's Driving Career Before Cobra and GT40

Carroll Shelby's name is now inseparable from the Cobra and Ford's GT40 programme, but a decade before either existed he was one of the most respected sports car drivers racing in America, taking outright wins in a range of machinery from Aston Martin to Maserati. A diagnosed heart condition forced his retirement from competitive driving in 1960, the same year this Tipo 61 entry took place, making races like this one among the final events of his own driving career before he turned to building cars rather than racing them himself. Riverside International Raceway, host of the Times Mirror Grand Prix for Sportscars, was one of the premier American road racing venues of the period, drawing entries from European manufacturers and privateer teams eager to test themselves against a strong domestic field on a demanding, undulating circuit unlike anything in Europe. Shelby's #98 Tipo 61 carried Camoradi's team colours, the same outfit that had taken outright wins in Europe that season, giving American audiences a chance to see the same cars and team that had beaten Ferrari and Porsche on their own continent.

The Same Birdcage Engineering, an American Circuit

Riverside's layout differed sharply from the European circuits where the Tipo 61 had already proven itself, with long uphill sections and a famously tricky, blind Turn 9 that punished any car lacking genuine chassis balance. The birdcage space-frame that gave this model its opening bodywork purpose delivered exactly that balance, its lattice of small welded tubes providing torsional stiffness that let Alfieri's design handle a circuit nothing like the Nürburgring or Le Mans it was originally developed against. Minichamps' opening doors and bonnet on this casting reveal that same structure regardless of which livery or race the specific model commemorates, since the birdcage chassis was the Tipo 61's defining feature wherever it raced. Lifting the bonnet shows the front-mounted 2.9-litre inline-four, unusual then for a car in this class and still one of the more distinctive engineering choices of the period. Diecast construction carries the weight appropriate to a subject built from welded steel tubing, and the panel gaps around the opening bodywork mirror the thin, non-structural aluminium skin the real car wore over its frame.

American Sports Car Racing's European Imports

American road racing in 1960 leaned heavily on European machinery, since domestic manufacturers hadn't yet built purpose-designed sports racers to compete at this level, and events like the Times Mirror Grand Prix gave American fans direct exposure to cars like the Tipo 61 that had already made their names on European circuits. Camoradi's decision to campaign cars on both continents reflected how seriously competitive road racing had become in the United States by the start of the 1960s. Shelby's presence in the #98 car added genuine star power to the entry list, a recognisable American name driving a European car against a field that mixed local talent with visiting teams. For a collector, this livery and number combination offers something the more famous Nürburgring winner doesn't: a connection to American motorsport history and to Shelby's own career arc, rather than purely European endurance racing pedigree.

A Different Angle on the Same Birdcage Story

Paired with a European-liveried Tipo 61 from the same season, this Shelby car adds an American chapter to what's otherwise a European racing story, broadening a Birdcage collection beyond Le Mans and the Nürburgring. Diecast build and the same opening bodywork found across the range keep this model at a comparable premium tier to other Tipo 61 castings, with the value here resting on the specific driver and venue rather than a different level of construction. For collectors drawn to Shelby's career as much as to Maserati's engineering, this represents a genuinely different collecting angle from the more commonly reproduced European race winners, and it sits comfortably as a companion piece rather than a replacement for the more famous winning liveries.

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