A Must Read! American Muscle Cars: A Full-Throttle History

This is the muscle car history to own -- a richly illustrated chronicle of America's greatest high-performance cars, told from their 1960s beginning through the present day!

When Ford got serious about its Total Performance program, it provided drag racers with a hot 406-cubic-inch V-8 to power its Galaxie 500 XL.

In1963 the top G-code version of the engine put out 405 horsepower.

Photo by Tom Glatch.

In the 1960s, three incendiary ingredients--developing V-8 engine technology, a culture consumed by the need for speed, and 75 million baby boomers entering the auto market--exploded in the form of the factory muscle car. The resulting vehicles, brutal machines unlike any the world had seen before or will ever see again, defined the sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll generation.

The home-built hot rod was the first distinctly American expression of a performance automobile.

Archives/TEN: The Enthusiast Network Magazines, LLC.

American Muscle Cars chronicles this tumultuous period of American history through the primary tool Americans use to define themselves: their automobiles. From the street-racing hotrod culture that emerged following World War II through the new breed of muscle cars still emerging from Detroit today, this book brings to life the history of the American muscle car.

Not wanting to produce a Camaro clone, Pontiac took extra time to design its version of GM’s F-body platform.

When Pontiac's chief engineer, John Z. DeLorean, and his team bolted a big-inch engine into the division’s intermediate chassis, they immediately invented the classic muscle car. In those 20minutes it took Bill Collins and Russ Gee to bolt a 389 ci V-8 engine into a Tempest chassis they created the prototype for Pontiac's GTO--and changed the course of automotive history. From that moment on, American performance cars would never be the same.

The top of the Camaro line in 1967 was the SS396, though that was introduced several months after the original launch.

Photo by Tom Glatch.

American Muscle Cars tells the story of the most desirable cars ever to come out of Detroit. It’s a story of flat-out insanity told at full throttle and illustrated with beautiful photography.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND PHOTOGRAPHER

Darwin Holmstrom has written, co-written, or contributed to over thirty books on subjects ranging from motorcycles and muscle cars to Gibson Les Paul guitars, including Indian Motorcycles, GTO: Fifty Years, Let's Ride: Sonny Barger's Guide to Motorcyclying, Top Muscle: The Rarest Cars from America's Fastest Decade, BMW Motorcycles, The Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Archive Collection, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Motorcycles. Darwin is the senior editor for Motorbooks. Prior to that he served as Midwestern editor for Motorcyclist magazine.

Since 1983, Tom Glatch has contributed hundreds of stories and photographs to major collector, Corvette, Mustang, muscle car, and Mopar magazines. Tom grew up during the muscle car era, and his first car was a very quick 1970 Plymouth Duster 340. Tom and his wife Kelly have contributed photographs to books by other Motorbooks authors, as well as Motorbooks' Corvette calendars. When not pursuing old muscle cars, Tom works for a Fortune 500 corporation as a data and systems analyst and developer. He lives in southeastern Wisconsin with his wife and two children, daughter Keara and son Sean.

Format: Hardcover, 224 Pages

ISBN: 9780760350133

Illustrations: 260 color & 55 b/w photos

Size: 9.75 in x 12 in

Published: Mar. 15, 2016

MSRP: $50

Book Available at QuartoKnows.com and anywhere fine books are sold.