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The All-American Muscle Car: The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Detroit's Greatest Performance Cars - Revised & Updated
The All-American Muscle Car provides the ultimate hands-on history of the American Muscle car and where it is now -- Mustangs, Camaros, 'Cudas, Challengers, you name it.
When John Z. DeLorean and his cadre of enthusiastic rule benders took it upon themselves to bolt Pontiac's hottest engine into a mid-sized Tempest, disobeying orders from the top of General Motors food chain, they created something that should not have been, and will never be the muscle car. The resulting GTO spearheaded a new breed of performance car aimed at a new breed of the baby boom generation, tens of millions of young customers entering the market each year.
The All-American Muscle The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Detroit's Greatest Performance Cars tells the story of these brutal performance machines through the words of muscle-car icons like Jim Wangers , the man who marketed DeLorean's thuggish invention, Joe Oldham , a legendary automotive journalist who tested these cars when they first came off the production line, often via illegal street racing, and classic-car broker Colin Comer , who has been instrumental in restoring some of the most iconic (and valuable) muscle cars.
Top muscle car experts like Randy Leffingwell and David Newhardt tell other facets of the muscle-car story, like the pony-car wars between the Mustang , Camaro , 'Cuda , and Challenger ; the ultra-high performance dealer specials; and the rebirth of the modern muscle car. All told, this book provides the ultimate hands-on history of these most American of cars.
When John Z. DeLorean and his cadre of enthusiastic rule benders took it upon themselves to bolt Pontiac's hottest engine into a mid-sized Tempest, disobeying orders from the top of General Motors food chain, they created something that should not have been, and will never be the muscle car. The resulting GTO spearheaded a new breed of performance car aimed at a new breed of the baby boom generation, tens of millions of young customers entering the market each year.
The All-American Muscle The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of Detroit's Greatest Performance Cars tells the story of these brutal performance machines through the words of muscle-car icons like Jim Wangers , the man who marketed DeLorean's thuggish invention, Joe Oldham , a legendary automotive journalist who tested these cars when they first came off the production line, often via illegal street racing, and classic-car broker Colin Comer , who has been instrumental in restoring some of the most iconic (and valuable) muscle cars.
Top muscle car experts like Randy Leffingwell and David Newhardt tell other facets of the muscle-car story, like the pony-car wars between the Mustang , Camaro , 'Cuda , and Challenger ; the ultra-high performance dealer specials; and the rebirth of the modern muscle car. All told, this book provides the ultimate hands-on history of these most American of cars.
- GenresCars
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
587 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 11, 2023
With an all-star subject — the American Muscle cars of the 60s and early 70s, fantastic photos, great reprints of the Advertisements of the day, all you need is a Dream-Team Author lineup to make this perfect for the genre, and … this book has it !
Plenty of insights, plenty of goods, bads, ups and downs for the cars and their manufacturers, a great feeling for the muscle car era.
Here’s a quick bio on their credits. Wangers and Oldham have since passed away since the publishing of this book, which makes their contributions all the more a treasure.
Jim Wangers - Pontiac adman for the GTO era, “Godfather” of the GTO, creator of the Monkeemobile
Joe Oldham - wrote car reviews for several mags of the era, and drove about every muscle car possible
Colin Comer - author of ‘Complete book of Shelby Automobiles”, writer for various car mags
Randy Leffingwell - over 30 books on transportation as photographer and author
Read this book from the library, but will look to own a copy.
Plenty of insights, plenty of goods, bads, ups and downs for the cars and their manufacturers, a great feeling for the muscle car era.
Here’s a quick bio on their credits. Wangers and Oldham have since passed away since the publishing of this book, which makes their contributions all the more a treasure.
Jim Wangers - Pontiac adman for the GTO era, “Godfather” of the GTO, creator of the Monkeemobile
Joe Oldham - wrote car reviews for several mags of the era, and drove about every muscle car possible
Colin Comer - author of ‘Complete book of Shelby Automobiles”, writer for various car mags
Randy Leffingwell - over 30 books on transportation as photographer and author
Read this book from the library, but will look to own a copy.
April 25, 2013
I was so fortunate to win the gorgeous book in the giveaways. This book is a keeper. a beautiful tribute to the era of muscle cars, from the mid 60's to the mid 70's, when horsepower and image were so important in the cars we were driving. This book is authored by 5 people who have very strong credentials in this subject, and each has authored one segment of the book full of fabulous photos and behind the scenes information that is concise and easy to absorb. It brings back so many memories to me, since I started driving in 1967 and was lucky enough to have a best friend who owned a light blue Mustang convertible that she would let me drive on occasion. Most of the photos were taken by one of the authors, who is a would famous auto photographer, and the pictures alone are worth the price of this book. I am considering sending this book to my brother, since he owned a 1969 Camaro and he will love to see it, but he's better send it back. Great Book!
January 10, 2021
The All-American Muscle Car: The Rise,Fall and Resurrection Of Detroit's Greatest Performance Cars-2017-softcover-Revised and Updated
With Contributions by Darwin Holmstrom,Joel Oldham,Jim Wangers,Colin Comer,David Newhardt,And Randy Leffingwell.
This book is a great read along with beautiful layout and graphics and period ads,divided into sections by each of the above mentioned corresponding veteran Automotive Historians/Writers/Photographers. Touching on topics as diverse as Hemi's and how at the time they were not the best made cars despite the Million Dollar plus prices some of the rarest ones claim today to Camaros,Mustangs,Firebirds(Ponycars). to Period tests of the vehicles and color photography in the modern day of these beautiful brutes.Fascinating History and some funny anctedotes.I highyl enjoyed reading and looking at these books.If I had anything to complain about it is the assertion(wrongfully) that muscle cars were a middlefinger to the system.They were not they were just cars for power-hungry folks irrespective of politics.Also The word "Suits" who runs corporations guys in T-shirts?Even today it seems unprofessional attire and the mention of The Vietnam war was not needed.(Antiwar bias) and The foul Language sprinkled here and there was not needed.However, The authors/contributors to this otherwise excellent compilation of Cars from General Motors(My personal Favorite-No Corvette,but should be included does feature magazine cover/and mention),Ford,Mopar(Dodge/Plymouth,Chrylser) and American Motors and even the current(Thank God) Reincarnation of Muscle Car Madness(although nothing like the originals themselves) make this book a Plus that belongs on my shelf with other books on the topic.Highly Recommended Reading!
With Contributions by Darwin Holmstrom,Joel Oldham,Jim Wangers,Colin Comer,David Newhardt,And Randy Leffingwell.
This book is a great read along with beautiful layout and graphics and period ads,divided into sections by each of the above mentioned corresponding veteran Automotive Historians/Writers/Photographers. Touching on topics as diverse as Hemi's and how at the time they were not the best made cars despite the Million Dollar plus prices some of the rarest ones claim today to Camaros,Mustangs,Firebirds(Ponycars). to Period tests of the vehicles and color photography in the modern day of these beautiful brutes.Fascinating History and some funny anctedotes.I highyl enjoyed reading and looking at these books.If I had anything to complain about it is the assertion(wrongfully) that muscle cars were a middlefinger to the system.They were not they were just cars for power-hungry folks irrespective of politics.Also The word "Suits" who runs corporations guys in T-shirts?Even today it seems unprofessional attire and the mention of The Vietnam war was not needed.(Antiwar bias) and The foul Language sprinkled here and there was not needed.However, The authors/contributors to this otherwise excellent compilation of Cars from General Motors(My personal Favorite-No Corvette,but should be included does feature magazine cover/and mention),Ford,Mopar(Dodge/Plymouth,Chrylser) and American Motors and even the current(Thank God) Reincarnation of Muscle Car Madness(although nothing like the originals themselves) make this book a Plus that belongs on my shelf with other books on the topic.Highly Recommended Reading!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews