Muscle: America's Legendary Performance Cars [Paperback]

Randy Leffingwell (Author), Darwin Holmstrom (Author), David Newhardt (Photographer), Jim Wangers (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 15, 2008

In the 1960s three incendiary ingredients--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 likely ever see again, defined the sex-drugs-and-rock-and-roll generation.

A chronicle of this tumultuous period of American history through its signature automobiles, Muscle: America’s Legendary Performance Cars brings to life the history of American muscle, from the street-racing hot rod culture that emerged after World War II through the new breed of muscle cars coming out of Detroit today. Featuring exquisite photography by top photographer David Newhardt and a text that pulls no punches, Muscle: America’s Legendary Performance Cars is the definitive muscle car history.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Randy Leffingwell and Darwin Holmstrom teamed up a couple of years back on Muscle: America’s Legendary Performance Cars, and it became an instant classic. Not just for David Newhardt’s museum-quality photography, but for the stories behind each car (and type of car) portrayed.” - Scott Ross, Blogs.Corvettefever.com

Book Description

A chronicle of the tumultuous Sixties through its signature automobiles, Muscle: America’s Legendary Performance Cars brings to life the history of American muscle, from the street-racing hot rod culture that emerged after World War II through the new breed of muscle cars coming out of Detroit today. Featuring exquisite photography by top photographer David Newhardt and a text that pulls no punches, Muscle: America’s Legendary Performance Cars is the definitive muscle car history.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Motorbooks; 1st edition (April 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 076033305X
• ISBN-13: 978-0760333051
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #472,314 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Muscle Car Book Ever, April 6, 2006

By 

Darryl Holmgren "Tex" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Muscle: America's Legendary Performance Cars (Hardcover)

I've bought all of Randy Leffingwell's muscle car books. The first muscle car book I ever bought was his "American Muscle," which was also one of the best. I even bought his recent book "Porsche 911: Perfection By Design," even though I am not that interested in foriegn cars. It's a great story, with great photography.

But this is Leffingwell's best book yet, which is saying a lot. It's also the best work to date by Leffingwell's long-time photography partner David Newhardt, and again, that is high praise, since Newhardt is one of the best photographers in America. I've read a couple of essays by Darwin Holmstrom in "Harley-Davidson Century," and while they were very good, this book is even better.

I usually try to find a fault with a book to keep the authors' heads from getting too big, but it's hard in the case of "Muscle" (although the word "acknowledgements" is spelled wrong on the table of contents). The book makes me want to do something really stupid like go out and buy an old muscle car.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Muscle Car Culture, August 25, 2007

By 

J. Hulstrand "Eclectic Dude-Jake" (Twin Cities, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Muscle: America's Legendary Performance Cars (Hardcover)

It cannot be overemphasized that this book is different from all the Auto books that have come before. It doesn't only talk about the cars, but puts it in the context of the popular culture of the times. But you can't just flip the pages, you have to dig right in, and start reading to realize this. You can read the whole book, or upon seeing a muscle car you like, just start reading anywhere.

This book is FUN! This book will help you to relive memories. This book will take you back, in a good way. You remember the 60's and 70's, the heady joyful times they were in terms of cars. It tells the big stories of the GTO, Mustang, Charger, Camaro-Firebird , and `Cuda-Challenger. Less popular cars are covered, not in depth-i. e. Ford Falcon, Dodge Coronet, and Chevy Nova.

When reading, I remember what I knew about the cars at the time, but I am given new behind the scenes information. It is like going back to an old hobby, and finding out secrets you never knew. It takes me back to my youth, my teens and twenties, and it's not that easy to get there anymore.

One disagreement I have is the term 'wretched excess'. I don't think we thought of it as wretched excess at the time, we were just having fun. As far as free love, drugs, and of rock'n'roll partying without much limit-it was only later that we learned the consequences, through bitter experience. Yet in a way we knew, but didn't want to know. Isn't that's what late adolescence is all about?

So maybe now we can call it wretched excess, but it is like a married man looking back at his crazy college years. We didn't really know much about the environment, cocaine, marijuana, or STD's then. You have to remember, there weren't any pollution controls on cars in the 60's, and it wasn't really until the 80's they started to get controls that worked without draining the engine.

A guy commented that Ford is under-represented. Even if that is true, the Mustang is over-represented. Yet that is true to the time. Back in the day Ford WAS the rock and roll Mustang. Everything else was your parent's car. All other muscle cars have bit the dust-Mustang the sole survivor, is maybe even better today. My only disappointment, Mercury Cougar isn't covered.

This book is unlike any car book you have read before, it is breaking new ground. It is a good read. It isn't just specs and numbers, this book has heart. You will feel you are getting to know the movers and shakers of the automotive world of the time, as well as getting the popular view.

I thought `if there is one thing I don`t need it`s another muscle-car book`, now it is my favorite.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm a bit prejudiced but...., May 16, 2006

By 

Randy Leffingwell (Southern California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Muscle: America's Legendary Performance Cars (Hardcover)

When my editor and friend Darwin Holmstrom proposed this title, I jumped on the assignment. Several years ago he and I had discussed the idea of looking at the auto business from the perspective of how each car maker motivated the other. It's not exactly copycat engineering. Our book dug deeply into the stories behind the products and the motivation behind Detroit's anxious and enthusiastic adoption of what had been the chief influence of hot rodders: the unfulfilled need for affordable speed. Detroit found it could make the cars, market them, warrantee them, sell them, and reap the profits from them, and for several years - and again now - we all enjoyed a Golden Age. This book puts this particular niche of high-performance, no-compromise automaking into the context of the times and the competitors. Darwin and I worked our photographer friends David Newhardt and Mike Mueller (and there even are a few of my images in there,) to exhaustion finding and shooting rare, significant machines in interesting locations.