The All-American Muscle Car: The Birth, Death and Resurrection of Detroit's Greatest Performance Cars

 

The birth of the muscle car, mid-sized cars with big engines making big horsepower, marked not only a revolution in performance—but also a revolution in marketing. For the first time ever, car manufacturers tailored their product to a youth audience. The genre thrived in the 60s and early 70s and was reborn in the 21st century. The All-American Muscle Car celebrates the fifty-year history of the breed through stunning modern and archival photography, and brilliant essays from today’s top muscle-car writers. Organized by themes, its chapters cover the introduction and early years of muscle; the cultural trends that made muscle cars so wildly popular; the pop culture that surrounded the cars in music, film, and television; and racing, both legal and illegal. Great rivalries are detailed—Camaro versus Mustang versus Firebird versus Challenger versus ‘Cuda, GTO versus Road Runner versus Super Bee versus Chevelle SS versus Buick Gran Sport versus Oldsmobile 4-4-2, and the like. The book also explores the illogical extremes at the end of the classic era, the Plymouth Superbirds, GTOJudges, LS6 Chevelles, Hemi ‘Cudas, W-30 Oldsmobiles, Ram Air IV Pontiacs, Stage I GSX Buicks, and 440/6 Road Runners; the dark years and the death of performance; the rebirth of the muscle car; and the modern interpretations of the breed including the new Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger.

 

Jim Wangers, the man behind Pontiac's GTO, earned a reputation for high-profile marketing campaigns, placing products on television programs like The Monkees and using rock groups in advertising campaigns. Wangers also raced a Pontiac Catalina, earning Pontiac its first-ever NHRA National drag-racing title in 1960. He is the author of Glory Days, the story of the birth of the muscle car. Jim lives in Oceanside, California.

COLIN COMER is a respected authority on collector cars and a noted champion for the cars, people, and history of Shelby American. Comer's writing is well known from his many years as editor-at-large for Sports Car Market and American Car Collector magazines, an editor for Hagerty magazine, and a contributing editor for Road & Track magazine. Comer has appeared in such diverse publications as the New York Times, Business Week, and USA Today among others. He is the author of the critically acclaimed books Million Dollar Muscle Cars, The Complete Book of Shelby Automobiles, and Shelby Cobra Fifty Years and co-author of The All-American Muscle Car. When not writing about cars, Comer enjoys maintaining his own eclectic collection of vintage cars and is an accomplished racer and pilot. He and his family live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or, in Comer's words, "fifty-two miles from Road America."

Randy Leffingwell wrote his first book, American Muscle, while still on staff at the Los Angeles Times. The book examined Times' publisher Otis Chandler's growing collection of muscle cars. American Muscle, published in September 1990, jump-started a love of book creation that ultimately led Leffingwell to leave the Times in 1995. By then, he and Motorbooks had published Porsche Legends and six other books. Since 1990, Leffingwell has authored more than 60 titles, most of them automotive-oriented. Over 30-plus years, these include a dozen Porsche titles ranging from general overviews―Porsche 75 Years: Expect the Unexpected, and The Complete Book of Porsche 911―to deeper explorations in Porsche Turbo and Porsche 911: 50 Years. During this time, he has regularly traveled to Germany to continue his research regarding Porsche's history. To date, Leffingwell has interviewed more than 200 Porsche engineers, stylists, model makers, racers, and managers. While he has tackled other subjects, including John Deere tractors, Harley-Davidson motorcycles, and West Coast lighthouses, Leffingwell admits he is almost addicted to the Porsche story. In addition to his book work, he is historical editor for 000 magazine and PorschePanorama. And for the past decade, he has been researching and writing an encyclopedic history of Porsche's motorsports endeavors. Leffingwell lives near Santa Barbara, California.

The author of several books on muscle cars, Joe Oldham began his career in journalism in 1964 as a writer/editor for Magnum-Royal Publications, where he road-tested every muscle car for magazines such as Hi-Performance Cars, Speed & Supercar and Supercars Annual until 1976. He then spent the next thirty-two years at The Hearst Corporation, the last nineteen as editor-in-chief of Popular Mechanics. He currently resides in La Quinta, California, with his wife, Nina.

David Newhardt has been photographing vehicles for more than three decades, including a stint at Motor Trend, authoring 17 automotive books, and supplying images to scores of books and magazines. Currently Chief Photographer at Mecum Auctions, David continues to photograph and write about everything automotive. He is a graduate of Southern Illinois University, and he served eight years on nuclear submarines. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he currently lives in the Nashville, Tennessee area.