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The Art of Mopar: Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth Muscle Cars
The Art of Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth Muscle Cars is the ultimate portrayal of history's ultimate muscle cars. This is the ultimate visual history of greatest muscle cars.
The history of Chrysler Corporation is, in many ways, a history of a company floundering from one financial crisis to the next. While that has given shareholders fits for nearly a century , it has also motivated the Pentastar company to create some of the most outrageous, and collectible, cars ever built in the United States.
From the moment Chrysler unleashed the Firepower hemi V-8 engine on the world for the 1951 model year, they had been cranking out the most powerful engines on the market . Because the company pioneered the use of lightweight unibody technology, it had the stiffest, lightest bodies in which to put those most powerful engines, and that is the basic muscle-car add one powerful engine to one light car .
When the muscle car era exploded onto the scene, Chrysler unleashed the mighty Mopar muscle cars , the Dodges and Plymouths that defined the era . Fabled nameplates like Charger , Road Runner , Super Bee , 'Cuda , and Challenger defined the era and rank among the most valuable collector cars ever produced by an American automaker.
The history of Chrysler Corporation is, in many ways, a history of a company floundering from one financial crisis to the next. While that has given shareholders fits for nearly a century , it has also motivated the Pentastar company to create some of the most outrageous, and collectible, cars ever built in the United States.
From the moment Chrysler unleashed the Firepower hemi V-8 engine on the world for the 1951 model year, they had been cranking out the most powerful engines on the market . Because the company pioneered the use of lightweight unibody technology, it had the stiffest, lightest bodies in which to put those most powerful engines, and that is the basic muscle-car add one powerful engine to one light car .
When the muscle car era exploded onto the scene, Chrysler unleashed the mighty Mopar muscle cars , the Dodges and Plymouths that defined the era . Fabled nameplates like Charger , Road Runner , Super Bee , 'Cuda , and Challenger defined the era and rank among the most valuable collector cars ever produced by an American automaker.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published August 8, 2017
2 people are currently reading
232 people want to read
About the author
Tom Glatch
10 books6 followersI was 4 years old when my late brother Ray bought a new 1960 Oldsmobile 98 convertible (he was 13 years older), and I was hooked! Top down on a warm summer night, listening to "Fun, Fun, Fun" on the radio (with added reverb unit), that was heaven. At other times Ray owned a 1966 Austin Healey 3000, a 1953 Studebaker Starliner, and later an MG Midget. My father owned a 1959 Pontiac Catalina at the time, a powerful black beauty with a silver metallic interior. Throughout the Sixties Dad bought used Buick Wildcats. These powerful, stylish cars spawned my interest in all things automotive. My first car was a wickedly fast 1970 Plymouth Duster 340, followed by a 1969 BMW 2002 and later a 1967 Plymouth Satellite convertible. While I have never been a "collector", we purchased a 30,400 mile 1993 40th Anniversary Corvette convertible in January 2022, our dream car ever since we borrowed one from Chevrolet in 1993 for a travel story on Asheville, North Carolina.
I began photographing landscapes, auto racing, and architecture in 1976, first with a Canon AE-1, then, wanting ever more detail and control, an Ikeda 4x5 Field View. In April 1983 I decided to combine my photographic skills with my love of writing. Reading Road & Track magazine in my youth I was struck by the work of John Lamm, a gifted author and photographer who used both talents to create something very special. Then when I was 10 years old our local public library obtained a copy of "The Golden Age of the American Racing Car" by Griffith Borgeson, and I wore out this monumental work, which showed me literary beauty and academic research can coexist. More then anyone, Mr. Lamm and Mr. Borgeson inspired me to write about and photograph automobiles. I am also inspired by photographers O. Winston Link, Walker Evans, Balthazar Korab, Mickey McGuire and Harry de Zitter, while authors Laura Hillenbrand and Thomas Merton define what the written word is capable of.
My first story, on the Sesco Suzuki engine for Midget race cars, was published in Petersen's Circle Track magazine in one of their first issues. I did a number of vintage race car stories for them, then in 1986 also began photographing for Collectible Automobile magazine. I started contributing to Dobbs Publishing's magazines when they bought Corvette Fever in 1989, then followed friend and editor Paul Zazarine to the first internet magazine, corvettemagazine.com, in 1999. Paul then moved to Pontiac Enthusiast magazine a few years later, and I contributed to those titles until they folded during the Great Recession. On the recommendation of Mike Yager of Mid America Motorworks, I began writing auction analysis for Sports Car Market and their sister publications in 2007, and they are still a top client. In 2015 Motorbooks, the world's largest automotive book publisher, offered me a book, "The Complete Book of American Muscle Supercars", which lead to three other coffee table books with them. I have been blessed with working with some of the best automotive publications in the business over the past 39 years!
I met my wife Kelly in 1992 when I hired her to help me photograph a 1958 Corvette for Corvette Fever magazine, my top client throughout the 1990s. Three months later we were engaged, and we were married in September 1993. Kelly is a fine photographer, too, toting her red Nikon D5500, and she shares my enthusiasm for vehicles that look good and perform well. Automotive history has been our primary focus, but we've done biography, travel, and hagiography, too.
We are lifelong residents of the Upper Midwest of the United States.
I began photographing landscapes, auto racing, and architecture in 1976, first with a Canon AE-1, then, wanting ever more detail and control, an Ikeda 4x5 Field View. In April 1983 I decided to combine my photographic skills with my love of writing. Reading Road & Track magazine in my youth I was struck by the work of John Lamm, a gifted author and photographer who used both talents to create something very special. Then when I was 10 years old our local public library obtained a copy of "The Golden Age of the American Racing Car" by Griffith Borgeson, and I wore out this monumental work, which showed me literary beauty and academic research can coexist. More then anyone, Mr. Lamm and Mr. Borgeson inspired me to write about and photograph automobiles. I am also inspired by photographers O. Winston Link, Walker Evans, Balthazar Korab, Mickey McGuire and Harry de Zitter, while authors Laura Hillenbrand and Thomas Merton define what the written word is capable of.
My first story, on the Sesco Suzuki engine for Midget race cars, was published in Petersen's Circle Track magazine in one of their first issues. I did a number of vintage race car stories for them, then in 1986 also began photographing for Collectible Automobile magazine. I started contributing to Dobbs Publishing's magazines when they bought Corvette Fever in 1989, then followed friend and editor Paul Zazarine to the first internet magazine, corvettemagazine.com, in 1999. Paul then moved to Pontiac Enthusiast magazine a few years later, and I contributed to those titles until they folded during the Great Recession. On the recommendation of Mike Yager of Mid America Motorworks, I began writing auction analysis for Sports Car Market and their sister publications in 2007, and they are still a top client. In 2015 Motorbooks, the world's largest automotive book publisher, offered me a book, "The Complete Book of American Muscle Supercars", which lead to three other coffee table books with them. I have been blessed with working with some of the best automotive publications in the business over the past 39 years!
I met my wife Kelly in 1992 when I hired her to help me photograph a 1958 Corvette for Corvette Fever magazine, my top client throughout the 1990s. Three months later we were engaged, and we were married in September 1993. Kelly is a fine photographer, too, toting her red Nikon D5500, and she shares my enthusiasm for vehicles that look good and perform well. Automotive history has been our primary focus, but we've done biography, travel, and hagiography, too.
We are lifelong residents of the Upper Midwest of the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 18, 2018
I love mopar's and this book done by Tom Glatch and Tom Loeser is fantastic I love the photo's and cars I like the engines and interiors plus the overall information on all 25 cars in the book I like the quality and they appearance of the book I am tempted to buy a second copy from Genuine Hotrod Hardware . Art Of The Mopar is the perfect reference book for the Mopar fan and enthuist interested in high performance Mopar Muscle this book covers from the 1963 Plymouth sport fury to the new 2015 dodge challenger hellcat if your interested in the history of the greatest mopars to ever come down the assembly line than Tom Glatch and Tom Loeser Art Of The Mopar is the ideal mopar book to have in your mopar library this book will give you the over sight on the car you like and help you make a purchase descion on that dream mopar wether you use it for car shows or for the drag strip . I do want to mention one thing about Art Of The Mopar on the cover it Chrysler,Dodge,Plymouth muscle cars but there are no Chrysler muscle cars in the book other than dodge and Plymouth muscle cars I was expecting to see the Chrysler letter series cars from 1955-1957 and later plus newer hemi muscle cars like the new dodge charger hellcat and challenger srt demon however maybe in an updated reprint Tom Glatch and Tom Loeser will put more modern mopars in it and get those letter series cars as well.
Want to read
October 26, 2017this book is great for all motorheads. the pictures are crisp and the text informative. I highly recommend this book.
January 3, 2019
Features a selection of Chrysler products selected as touchstone vehicles. Ones that appear are beautifully photographed, profiled, and statistics shared. Insightful.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews