Customer Reviews

Factory Lightweights: Detroit's Drag Racing Specials of the '60s

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hey--this is a can't miss book on the history of Detroit's involvement in the golden days of drag racing. I met Charles Morris at Beaver Springs Dragway and rate his book as the best ever written on this subject.

If you want to recapture the great days of the Z-11, The Ramchargers Dodges, all those great 427 Fords, Ken Montgomery, Dyno Don, Hayden Proffitt, Malcolm Durham and all the rest, order this book today. You won't be disappointed.
I was there when Ronnie Sox in his Z-11 came from three down to beat the Ramchargers at Vineland Speedway back in 1963 in a best of 7 match.

That special era is all here in this well written book for those who either experienced, or would like to, the factory battle years and the precursor to the great Funny Cars that these cars evolved into, which is also covered in detail.

I thought I knew a good bit about these cars, but this book was reading new chapters on all the cars. If you're into these cars, you need this book. It was also good to see pictures of the cars taken in their era taken by a good friend. It was also nice to see pictures taken at the Don Snyder collection which we have visited twice.

Charles does a wonderful job of capturing the essence of 60's Light Weight Race cars. Lots of never seen before photos and information about factory involvement as well as privately campaigned cars.

This is a very good, comprehensive history of an era of racing that set the benchmarks for factory sponsored racing. Lots of pictures and informative data. A very good read!! I highly recommend it.

The "characters" almost seem to be talking right to you from the pages of
this book. It's as if Mr. Morris was right there at each and every track,
office, factory, etc. He must have been a fly on the walls at some of the
meetings. Also, the humor mixed with facts kept me from putting this book
down very often. I can't wait for the next book from Mr. Morris.

The book almost biassed by the other books i've read is alltogrther great!The one with a personal view and photo's are the best in my opinion.

Just when I thought I knew most of the answers about those wonderful days when drag racing really was about buying on monday what we saw racing on the weekend, here comes a book that brings back all of those cars I loved to watch, that later inspired me to race both my '69 Mustang as well as my '71 Ranchero. To top it all off there was info new to me too. Great book.

I have several of Charlie Morris' books and find that this one every bit as good as the others. Charlie does his homework when researching the subject matter. I recommend all of his books including "Total Performers, Ford Drag Racing in the Sixties".

R.L. "Pete" Garramone

A must buy for anyone's automotive library. I greatly enjoyed the book. By the author interviewing many of the people that where there and in the know made the book that much more interesting. The author made the book as close as he could to what really happened behind the scenes. You found out that unless you where close to the factory or had a friend that worked in key departments including the fabrication shop, etc. you wouldn't know about many of the one off parts done for "freinds". This gave some racers a little more advantage then the other guy with the same brand car. One point of correction is that the '62 and '63 Pontiac SD cars did NOT come delivered on used tires as one West Coast expert claimed. Several of the factories would deliver cars in what they called "IN WHITE" for the racers that got their order in by April. These were the pilot cars that where built to test the production line and not meant for public consumption.

This is a nicely done book - make no mistake. However, it is a pretty "Ford - history - revisionist" tome if you'll allow that term. Were it marketed as a Ford book, it would be great, but I feel it really misses the mark as an overview of the factory lightweight era. Granted I was young, but I was around during the period, and the Mopars made the most, and the most of, the lightweight programs by far. This book would not lead one to believe that.
If you are a Ford fan who has an interest in the era, jump up and purchase this paperback. If you're looking for loads of history and a little tech on the cars, with an emphasis on Chrysler and GM, which WERE most of the cars actually being raced by regular folk, go ahead and get it for the photos, but be ready for a whole lotta Ford...