Top Collector Muscle Car

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 again: the muscle car. The resulting GTO spearheaded a new breed of performance car aimed at a new breed of buyer: the baby boom generation, tens of millions of young customers entering the market each year. The All-American Muscle Car: 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.

“Just what is a Muscle Car?” Road Test magazine asked in June 1967. The answer: “Exactly what the name implies. It is a product of the American car industry adhering to the hot rodder’s philosophy of taking a small car and putting a BIG engine in it. . . . The Muscle Car is Charles Atlas kicking sand in the face of the 98 horsepower weakling.” Unconcerned with such trivial details as comfort and handling, the vintage American muscle car was built for straight-line speed and quickly became the ride of choice for power-hungry racers and serious gearheads. In a country where performance was measured in brute force, a quarter mile at a time, the muscle car was the perfect machine. In the intervening years, these down-and-dirty, high-performing beauties have earned their place in the automotive pantheon. As prized by collectors and aficionados as they are by denizens of garages and drag strips, classic muscle cars now fetch upwards of a million dollars at auctions and feature in any story of America’s automotive glory days. The icons of muscle car art—including Camaro and Chevelle SS, the Hemi and 440-6 ’Cuda, Challenger, Roadrunner, Super Bee, GTX, Super Bird, Daytona Charger, Super Cobra Jet and Boss Mustang, Talladega Torino, Buick GSX and W30 Oldsmobile 442, and AMX Javelin—are all here, on full display in this lavishly illustrated volume, each described in a detailed essay followed by a gallery of portraits and special gatefold presentations that capture the art of the muscle car at its finest.

American Muscle Cars features stunning historic and contemporary photography and offers a thorough chronology of this classic car's evolution from the 1960s to the present.

“Just what is a Muscle Car?” Road Test magazine asked in June 1967. The answer: “Exactly what the name implies. It is a product of the American car industry adhering to the hot rodder’s philosophy of taking a small car and putting a BIG engine in it. . . . The Muscle Car is Charles Atlas kicking sand in the face of the 98 horsepower weakling.” Unconcerned with such trivial details as comfort and handling, the vintage American muscle car was built for straight-line speed and quickly became the ride of choice for power-hungry racers and serious gearheads. In a country where performance was measured in brute force, a quarter mile at a time, the muscle car was the perfect machine. In the intervening years, these down-and-dirty, high-performing beauties have earned their place in the automotive pantheon. As prized by collectors and aficionados as they are by denizens of garages and drag strips, classic muscle cars now fetch upwards of a million dollars at auctions and feature in any story of America’s automotive glory days. The icons of muscle car art—including Camaro and Chevelle SS, the Hemi and 440-6 ’Cuda, Challenger, Roadrunner, Super Bee, GTX, Super Bird, Daytona Charger, Super Cobra Jet and Boss Mustang, Talladega Torino, Buick GSX and W30 Oldsmobile 442, and AMX Javelin—are all here, on full display in this lavishly illustrated volume, each described in a detailed essay followed by a gallery of portraits and special gatefold presentations that capture the art of the muscle car at its finest.

"Darwin Holmstrom's Top Muscle is a look at over two dozen of the rarest one-offs and production vehicles from the muscle-car era of the late 60s and early 70s. Featuring new and original photography of every car, this book chronicles the biggest and baddest in the heyday of American muscle"--

About the book: In the 1960s and 1970s American automakers produced millions of muscle cars: high-performance cars more adept at competition than transportation. The baby boom generation snapped up these cars and proceeded to use them as intended, drag and street racing the cars until there was nothing left of them. No longer minimum-wage high schoolers, today's boomers enjoy more disposable income than any generation in history. And many of them are spending that income on highly collectible muscle cars. Because so few muscle cars survived the abuse of young drivers back in the day, muscle car prices have skyrocketed, with mundane muscle cars commanding six-figure prices and the most significant muscle cars surpassing the million-dollar mark. Respected muscle car expert Colin Comer and top photographer David Newhardt tell the story of each of these rarest of rare cars in Million-Dollar Muscle Cars, the only book dedicated to these top-flight cars. Table of Contents: Introduction: Big-Money Muscle Section 1: Million-Dollar Cars Chapter One: 1970-1971 'Cuda & Challenger Hemi Convertibles Chapter Two: 1965 Shelby GT350 R Models Chapter Three: 1965 Hurst GeeTO Tiger Chapter Four: 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake Chapter Five: 1968 Camaro Z/28 Convertible Chapter Six: 1969 Trans Am Convertibles Chapter Seven: 1969 ZL1 Camaros Chapter Eight: 1971 Sox & Martin Stock Hemi 'Cuda Car Section 2: Six Figures and Rising Chapter Nine: 1965 Hurst Motor Trend GTO Riverside 500 Pace Car Chapter Ten: 1965-1966 Shelby GT350 Factory Drag Cars Chapter Eleven: 1968 Mr. Norm's GSS 440 Dart Chapter Twelve: 1969 Yenko 427 Nova Chapter Thirteen: 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona Hemi Chapter Fourteen: 1969-1971 Pontiac GTO Judge Round-Port Convertibles Chapter Fifteen: 1970 Chevelle L56 Convertible Appendices Appendix A: Alternatives to Million-Dollar Muscle Appendix B: A Real-World Buyer's Guide See Motorbooks author Colin Comer interviewed by Jay Leno on JayLenosGarage.com: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/jays-book-club-lee-klancher/1211582/

Explains what a muscle car is, and provides a history of the cars and introduces the culture that surrounds them.

Since their introduction in 1964, American muscle cars have been closely associated with masculinity. In the 21st century, women have been a growing presence in the muscle car world, exhibiting classic cars at automotive events and rumbling to work in modern Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers. Informed by the experiences of 88 female auto enthusiasts, this book highlights women's admiration and passion for American muscle, and reveals how restoring, showing and driving classic and modern cars provides a means to challenge longstanding perceptions of women drivers and advance ideas of identity and gender equality.