Willem Oosthoek–Author, Maserati Club Historian

VR: How did you first get started with cars?

WO: I guess it was around 1959, when I was at the age of 12, I became aware that there was such a thing as motor racing and almost immediately, Stirling Moss became my hero. He was the underdog with that little Walker Cooper in which he won at Monza in ’59, thrashing the Ferrari team. I was born and raised in Holland, and there was very little information on motorsport at the time. Whatever I could pick up was from Dutch car magazines. I used to buy second-hand car magazines at local flea markets with my hard earned pocket money. But also, in 1959, for my birthday, I asked for a book that really opened me up to the world of motor racing and cars in general, The World’s Racing Cars and Sports Cars. It was a relatively small one by today’s standards, but it was really a nifty book because it covered all the 1957 Formula One and Formula Two cars, the sports racers and the grand touring cars. The cars that got my real attention were the Maseratis, the 250F, the 450S and the new 3500 GT. The book came with technical details and things like that; in spite of the fact that I just started to learn English, it was always a treasure and I still have it.