Today, a 1970 Hemi Cuda can change hands for as much as a quarter of a million dollars. But when it was introduced, the Barracuda was just a car, and it was Joe Oldhams job to beat the daylights out of it. A tell-all from the man who tested the best, this book delves into the notes Oldham made on the cars he vetted for some of the top car magazines.
Here are the photos (including outtakes) and the hard cold facts on muscle cars from the 1964 GTO to the 1976 Trans Am 455 HO--twenty-four in all. The 1970 Buick Gran Sport GSX, Oldham notes, was "the best handling muscle car we ever tested." The 1968 Plymouth Road Runner, on the other hand, was "just a car that didnt run very well"--despite its 426 Hemi.
Today, people might know the articles Oldham wrote, and they might know the performance numbers he got. But how he did those things was an untold story. This behind-the-scenes book is a close-up look at what it was like to live in the muscle car era and to help create the myth that still lives on today.
The list of reviewed cars includes:
1962 421 Super Duty Pontiac Catalina
1963 409 Chevrolet Biscayne
1968 Pontiac Firebird Sprint Turismo
1969 Baldwin-Motion SS-427 Camaro
1969 440 Plymouth Barracuda
1969 Firebird 400 Ram Air IV
1969 426 Hemi Road Runner
1969 440 Plymouth GTX
1969 440 6-BBL Plymouth Road Runner
1969 Pontiac GTO Judge
1969 428 Cobra Jet Mustang Mach 1
1970 426 Hemi Barracuda Convertible
1970 Buick GSX 455 Stage 1
1970 Pontiac GTO Ram Air IV
1971 429SCJ Ford Torino Cobra
1971 American Motors 401 AMX
1972 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 W-30
1973 Chevrolet Camaro Z28
1976 455 Pontiac Trans Am
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Editorial Reviews
Review
The New York Times, Dec. 16, 2007
“Book that keeps burning rubber right to the end.”
Super Chevy, November 2007
“It’s worth the price of admission just for his tales about hard-core New York street racing. You’ll read it over and over again.”
Hemmings Muscle Machines, May 2007
Classic & Sports Car (UK), July 2007
“The text is light-hearted, the layouts lavish yet logical and the pictures are good … Recommended to any muscle fan.”
Camaro Performers, August 2007
“Joe Oldham takes readers on the ride of their lives, recounting what really happened behind the scenes … A must-have for any automotive enthusiast who wants to know the truth about muscle cars.”
Crash.net, Oct. 22, 2007
“For fans of this particular branch of motoring history Muscle Car Confidential is a fascinating insight into the industry and its product from a highly qualified and adept storyteller. Likewise, for novices who are interested in discovering what was happening overseas while the majority of us were pootling around in Austin Maxis and settling down to the decade of Maggie, it’s an educational read.”
Virginian Pilot, Dec. 14, 2007
“A look back at life as an auto journalist during the muscle car era of the late 1960s and early '70s. Author Joe Oldham brings a refreshing honesty to a chapter in automotive history that lacks it.”
Book Description
A tell-all from the man who tested the best of the muscle cars, this book delves into the notes that Joe Oldham made on the cars he vetted for some of the top car magazines. Here are the photos (including outtakes) and the hard cold facts on muscle cars from the 1964 GTO to the 1976 Trans Am 455 HO--twenty-four in all. A behind-the-scenes look at how these cars earned their performance numbers, this book gives a firsthand sense of what it was like to live in the muscle car era, and to help create the myth that lives on today.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
EXCEPTIONAL! A+,
By popular culture lover (Travelers Rest, SC United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Muscle Car Confidential: Confessions of a Muscle Car Test Driver (Hardcover)
I was one of those guys who devoured all the Magnum-Royal car magazines back in the day. Titles like Super Stock & FX, CARS, and Rodder & Super Stock. And the high point of any M-R mag was Joe Oldham. He had a unique style, with absolutely no BS. He genuinely told it like it was. The West Coast mags (Hot Rod, Car Craft, etc) were fine but there was always a "wall" between writer and reader; very subtle but always there. Joe's articles were like listening to his stories in person.
This book contains a lot of information about the cars Joe tested back then. If you're a muscle car freak, you'll be in heaven. But it's more than that. It really gives you the feel of being there. I remember reading the original articles about these cars. They spared no sacred cow - if the car was crap, Joe said so. If it was a stone, he let us know even if it made the factories mad. He and his band of Merry Pranksters flogged those cars unmercifully and gave us the straight skinny. Time hasn't dimmed Joe's writing ability. When I read the first page, it was like he'd never left. I was 18 again, scoring a copy of Speed and Supercar at the newsstand. I read a lot.....reading's my hobby. And this is the best book I've read in ages. Get it.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wow,I was born too late!,
By
This review is from: Muscle Car Confidential: Confessions of a Muscle Car Test Driver (Hardcover)
This book was great.I'm a Mopar guy,I liked it. My friend Pat liked it,he likes Pontiacs.It's one of those books you can read,then pull it out a while later and read it again!All your gearhead buddies will dig it too.A very good addition to my automotive library!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
For once, someone gets it right,
By
This review is from: Muscle Car Confidential: Confessions of a Muscle Car Test Driver (Hardcover)
All too often, musclecar books come out with glaring mistakes or are just rehashes of the same old same-old.
This one is different. The author used to edit and/or write for one of the East Coast mags in the heyday of the musclecar. They had dirt under the fingernails in ways that the West Coast magazines did not, which makes for interesting reading (not to say that Hot Rod or Dalquist was lame back then, FWIW). Hi-Performance Cars and others that shared the same publisher were more seedy than other magazines. They perfectly captured the street scene, which had the pulse of what really was going on and which influenced what Detroit was producing (like the A12 Mopars). Plus, being from NY, there was that shadiness that doesn't exist in other places. Oldham gets it wrong sometimes with the facts sometimes, and some of the cars and stories mentioned have been run ad nauseum in issues of Musclecars, High Performance Mopar, and High Performance Pontiac, but he comes from a good place where facts and figures aren't printed (like the other books) but instead tells us about his reminisces with his version of the brutal truth (so, in other words, Mopar guys may not be so happy with him, but get over yourselves, okay?). That alone makes it worth it.
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street hemi, other muscle cars, fleet garage, trap speed, power front disc brakes, muscle car era, handling loop, test car, street racing, automotive journalist, street tires, rear axle ratio, street racer, hood scoop Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Raceway Park, Ram Air, New York, New Jersey, The Judge, Road Runner, Connecting Highway, American Motors, Rich Napp, Rally Sport, Marty Schorr, Chrysler Corporation, Cross Bay Boulevard, White Castle, Cliff Gromer, Los Angeles, Super Duty, General Motors, Torino Cobra, Cobra Jet, Jim Wangers, Goodyear Polyglas, Tom Goad, Turbo Hydra-Matic, Rockville Centre Dodge Browse Sample Pages:
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