Ken Okuyama is an accomplished industrial designer with a resumé that includes working on the Ferrari Enzo, 599 GTB, and 612 Scaglietti during his time at Pininfarina. Now, he operates Ken Okuyama Cars that creates beautiful, small-run machines. He debuted the new Kode61 Birdcage at this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este.
The Kode61 Birdcage has a design that mixes retro and modern styling elements. The front comes to a sharp point, and skinny headlights incorporate into the edge. The grille features an asymmetrical layout.
The hood features exposed sections near the inner portions of the raised fenders. It appears these openings might let onlookers get a glimpse of the mechanical parts underneath.
The sides have sharp creases, but the fenders have flowing arches. The tiny doors look neat. However, the high sills make it look difficult to step into the vehicle.
The rear deck features a pointed shape that is similar to the nose. There are gills on the inner section of each fender. A pair of exhausts exit out of the tip of the tail.
The Kode61 Birdcage and its styling take inspiration from the Maserati Tipo 61. It went by the nickname “Birdcage” because of the partially exposed spaceframe chassis.
The interior features a central spine that separates the occupants. Both seats have separate, rounded windshields. The driver looks at two, large analog gauges. The gearshift is a gated manual with a semi-exposed linkage. The key goes into the middle of the center stack, and there are switches beneath it. The passenger looks at a digital display.
Okuyama makes no mention of the Kode61 Birdcage’s powertrain. You can hear the combustion engine in the video above. We reached out to Ken Okuyama Design for more details.
The Kode61 Birdcage marked the first time for a Japanese coachbuilder to earn a nomination in the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este concept car category.
While the Kode61 Birdcage is a unique vehicle at the moment. Ken Okuyama Cars plans to make a limited-run production version that the company would build in Japan. There are no details available yet about how many the automaker would build or how much each one would cost.
Okuyama also made the Kode 0 that debuted during Monterey Car Week in 2017. It featured an ultra-angular design and a 6.5-liter V12 making 690 hp and 507 lb-ft. He built the vehicle as a one-off commission for a price of around $1.5 million.
