Glory Days: When Horsepower and Passion Ruled Detroit (Pontiac) (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

A genuine inside story well told is always welcome. Which is why I had a great time reading "Glory Days" by Jim Wangers.

Wangers was the man who gave us the Pontiac GTO, the Judge, and marketed horsepower unashamedly. He craved the action of the auto industry, yearned to sell cars, create mad desire in the consumer heart. And Wangers was also a bit of a scalawag who was not above switching engines - or whole cars, for that matter - to win a race and get a leg up on the competition.

Wangers offers insight into where Detroit went wrong with passionless interchangeable executives running the business. And perhaps intentionally, perhaps not, Wangers also gives us insight into what goes wrong when the marketing whizzes have it all their way.

He spent 45 years in the business and had a pretty good time, it would seem. You can relive it in a couple of hours and have a pretty good read. -- John R. White - Boston Globe, November 21, 1998

If you read stories in The [Shreveport] Times, USA Today, or many national publications about GM, periodically you're gong to run into Wangers' name and quotes. The reason is simple: He is one of the most respected automotive marketing professionals in the country. If you are looking for a good read or . . . interested in either marketing or the automotive industry, this just might be your gift. -- The Shreveport Times, 11-29-98

This book has received the prestigious MOTO award presented by the International Automotive Media conference for the Automotive Book of the Year (1998). Perhaps never was a copywriter more born to write about the topic he ended up with than Wangers . . . This book is filled with fascinating portraits of a variety of personalities [and] fascinating trivia . . . It is filled with the wisdom of someone who knows the game better than most. -- Northwest Motor Magazine, January 1999

To some of us, there was only one GTO built in the '60s. Others acknowledge that Pontiac built a car called by the same name. To that second group of enthusiasts, the name Jim Wangers is well known. His work as an advertising executive at Pontiac spanned the "glory days" of the '60s when horsepower numbers went up as quickly as the quarter-mile times came down. Glory Days is an interesting chronicle of Wanger's involvement with and passion for automobiles while employed at Kaiser-Frazer, Chevrolet, and Pontiac. Wangers takes us inside the boardroom, to the dragstrip, and to the marketplace in a way that few auto books ever have. It's almost required reading for any student of the domestic muscle car market in the '60s and interesting reading even for those of us who don't often put Pontiac and GTO in the same sentence. -- Sports Car Market - March 1999

Within the pages of Glory Days is an extraordinary account of an individual at the executive level who helped reshape the American automobile of the late '50s, '60s, and '70s as well as a look into GM's top management - its successes and failures . . . interesting reading for any automotive enthusiast." -- High Performance Pontiac - February 1999

Product Description

Glory Days conjures up images of cruise nights, impromptu drag races, and genuine American fun. It is the story of the GTO, Tigers and Monkees, of Royal Pontiac, drag racing, corporate politics, and personal allegiances. Glory Days illuminates anera when Detroit's Woodward Avenue fairly rumbled with V-8 power, as young people slowly cruised the wide boulevard. Glory Days is also an American success story, giving an insiders view of what it took then, and what it will take in the future, to keep alive America's passion for the automobile. In Glory Days, Jim Wangers uses his 45-year career in Detroit as the basis for explaioning successful brand marketing for automobiles:

Why brand management for cars differs from other branded products

How to position a model for the best possible tie-in promotion--and how not to

What it takes to establish and evolve a brand image Wangers knows what he is talking about, for he was part of the most successful brand marketing campaign to ever come out of Detroit. At a time when such automotive legends as Bunkie Knudsen, Pete Estes, and John DeLorean hald sway in the Motor City, Jim Wangers created and defined the American muslecar image, devising savvy brand marketing strategies to promote the car that started it all and went on to become a cultural icon: the Pontiac GTO. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Bentley Publishers (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0837602084
• ISBN-13: 978-0837602080
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #625,975 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Man and Car Culture, February 6, 2001

By	Lawrence H. Necheles (Pontiac IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A fascinating read. I could not put this book down. A well-written insider perspective on the automobile industry and American car culture. In a nutshell, Mr. Wangers is a car marketing maven. The question is, did car culture influence Mr. Wangers or did Mr. Wangers influence car culture? Did Mr. Wangers influence mass American culture? This book "asks" many questions and raises interesting points. What are the constraints in designing, marketing and engineering an automobile? What role should the govenment take? On the one hand, Mr. Wangers is lightly critical of the federal government regarding emissions and safety issues. On the other hand, he views govt. regulation as a challenge that fosters creativity and engineering prowess. Certainly, the government saved the car industry by forcing it to develop emissions and safety devices. This is a well rounded book for the Sociologist, the historian, and anybody who might enjoy a great read on the automibile industry. Nicely illustrated. There was one glaring omission: Did Wangers maintain his relationship with John DeLorean during his Cocaine distribution trial?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A view from the inside, January 12, 2000

By	Bob Davis (Jacksonville Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Glory Days: When Horsepower and Passion Ruled Detroit (Hardcover)

This book takes you back and gives you a private look at the planning and development of the car that started the whole Muscle Car Craze. From figuring out how to get this car built around GM's policies on horsepower to weight ratio, to fighting off the compitition in 1969 with the introduction of "The Judge"! How they developed the Royal Pontiac cars, and how they had to fight every step of the way with the EPA, and other government agencies! Lots of photos, and history here!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting perspective but not the definitive on super duty, December 31, 1998

By	[e-mail] (kalamaoo,mi usa) - See all my reviews

Mr Wanger's book is an interesting historical perspective on the development of the muscle car era at the Pontiac division. It seems to be a very complete history of the development of the GTO with details that can only be known by a industy insider.My only critisim is that that while he alludes to the real bad boy Super Duties in several places he never really spells out what they were "bad to the bone dual quad, 12to1 compression ratio 421's" These were truly Pontiac's finest hour. He also does not do justice to the great Malcom MacKeller whos genious was reponsible for the development of a whole series of camshafts used at Pontiac includ- ing the Super Duties. Wangers remembers lots of racing in the book and the cheating that often took place;he does not recount the night that after bragging that he had the fastest" GTO on Woodward " he ran a race against a 1962 white Catalina with a real 421 Super Duty not a consumer version with three two's. The outcome of that encounter very well could be be deeply reperessed as the Catalina led him by a football field at a 110 mph. This encounter happened in 1967 and it might be called Wolf in Sheep's Clothing or The Night Encouner with Super Duty #3 vin#16373. All in all I would recommend this book to anyone in Pontiac history but its not the last word on on the subject.