This impressive book tells the whole story.  Every detail of the histories of each of these fascinating cars and the drivers who made history with them can be found here.  Oosthoek and Bollée's new book supercedes Joel Finn's fine (in its day) work from 1980, as "updates, corrections, and further elaboration" are available now, 29 years later.

Since this website is West Coast-centric our readers will be most interested in learning about the California cars.  In Southern California, the story of Bill Krause's Birdcage rides in #2469 and #2452 is unraveled once and for all, as is the earlier history of #2452 in its Joe Lubin/Bob Drake/Stan Sugarman/Jim Connor days.

Up in Northern California, we learn everything about Chuck Sargent's very successful campaigns with the ex-Bill Krause #2469; Chuck Parsons' victories in the ex-Jim Hall #2463, and how Dan Prades, who bought #2463 from Parsons, departed on an extended world sailboat cruise and left the car behind for his mother to sell.  The previously obscure history of the 2-liter Tipo 60, #2462, owned and driven in NorCal by Dan von Hermann, then Jay Naismuth, then Ron Dykes, is told here in detail for the first time. 

And that level of scrutiny applies to all the cars: Everywhere. 

Curious about CAMORADI's efforts in Europe and major events elsewhere?  How about the East Coast cars, including the Cunningham team?  The Midwestern cars?  The many cars raced/based in Texas?  New to me and fascinating was the full story of the Italian Tipo 60s, the most successful of all the Birdcages.  They competed in European and Italian hillclimb championships and were unbeatable in 1960-61 and contenders in the Italian events as late as 1967.

It's all in Oosthoek and Bollée's enormous book, and there's much more.  "Part 1 of the book covers each individual year, divided in segments on World Championship, North American and European events.  Part 2 portrays the individual race history of each chassis number, as well as the owner sequence over the years.  At the end of the book each driver is linked to the specific chassis number[s] of the Birdcages in which he competed".

The book is essential to serious students of sports car racing in the early 1960s and is a worthy addition to the collection of any enthusiast.

From the author:  "If U.S. buyers are interested in obtaining an autographed copy at the same price, please contact Willem Oosthoek at willemoosthoek@aol.com."