Glory Days: When Horsepower and Passion Ruled Detroit

by Jim Wangers, Paul Zazarine

Glory Days conjures up images of cruise nights, impromptu drag races, and genuine American fun. It is the story of the GTO, Tigers and Monkees, of Royal Pontiac, drag racing, corporate politics, and personal allegiances. Glory Days illuminates anera when Detroit's Woodward Avenue fairly rumbled with V-8 power, as young people slowly cruised the wide boulevard. Glory Days is also an American success story, giving an insiders view of what it took then, and what it will take in the future, to keep alive America's passion for the automobile. In Glory Days, Jim Wangers uses his 45-year career in Detroit as the basis for explaioning successful brand marketing for Why brand management for cars differs from other branded products How to position a model for the best possible tie-in promotion--and how not to What it takes to establish and evolve a brand image Wangers knows what he is talking about, for he was part of the most successful brand marketing campaign to ever come out of Detroit. At a time when such automotive legends as Bunkie Knudsen, Pete Estes, and John DeLorean hald sway in the Motor City, Jim Wangers created and defined the American muslecar image, devising savvy brand marketing strategies to promote the car that started it all and went on to become a cultural the Pontiac GTO.

309 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1998

Reviews

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jim Wangers is not only a incredible PR Man but a Gearhead as well and a Great Pontiac Enthusiast.In Glory Days:When Horsepower and Passion Ruled Detroit Which despite the Beautiful Pontiac GTO On the cover covers Pontiac and Beyond, His Early days in Advertising and How he wanted to get close to The Automotive Industry and succeeded in other ways by becoming involved in another side of the business but just as essential in order to sell the product.His closeness and Defense Of John Delorean,His Work With Royal Pontiac and The Bobcats,His work with Bunkie/Ed Cole Before that and so much more. And the book Which I have is a Softcover, Does indeed have the amount of pages amazon describes but since the pictures in the book are NOT Numbered,the pages of the pictures are not numbered so it seems as if the book has 300some pages instead of the listed 350 pages. The Book does in fact have 350pages,and the pictures/illustrations/art and ads inside are wonderful.Not Just for fans of Pontiac and The Great One but for GM Enthusiasts,I Love the Story of the Corvette Street Race.The Book is a must read for anyone interested in the Automotive industry.

[Revo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of hype, some funny bluster, a dose of name-dropping dirt and whole heaping bunch of truth from the semi-mythical muscle car era. In the book you will find:
-Pete Estes, not John DeLorean or Wangers was the actual catalyst of the GTO's birth. It was he who told DeLorean while the 1964 Tempest was on a lift, "You know John, I can have a 389 in this thing in about an hour."
-A funny pre-Playboy reference involving Hugh Hefner, as told my the guy who shared his office at Esquire.
-The truth behind the ringer GTO's tested by Car and Driver.
-When, where and how Pontiac lost its way.
-The sad story of Hurst.
-The truth of running a car dealership.
-Jaded insight into the 70's and early 80's 'ash-tray grand prix' era of 'performance' car advertising.
There's tons more info for the history loving gear head. This is one of the great collections of before, during and after the wacky muscle Glory Days. The only knock is it came out just as the performance rebirth was under way.

[Andrew P · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book all the way back in 1998 when it was first released and it still resides on my book shelf. This was an interesting read, especially if you are interested in classic muscle cars of the 1960s.