American Muscle Supercars: Ultimate Street Performance from Shelby, Baldwin-Motion, Mr. Norm and Other Legendary Tuners - Hardcover

Newhardt, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0760332940 ISBN 13: 9780760332948

Publisher: Motorbooks, 2008

Synopsis

The American muscle car began, not in the factories of the Big Three automakers, but in the garages and dealerships of a Detroit subculture bent on making the hottest, highest-performance cars on the street.American Muscle Supercars tells the story of these tuner/builders and the supercars they unleashed on the American scene. It all begins with Michigan’s Royal Pontiac dealership, and the souped-up Royal Pontiac Bobcats they built and sold to drag racers, starting a thrill that’s never faded.From those Royal Pontiac tuner cars to the new Boss 302 Mustang built by Steve Saleen, this gorgeously illustrated book chronicles the outsize contribution of the tuner/builder to American automotive history.

Author-photographer David Newhardt profiles the tuner/builders who have dominated American performance--names like Mr. Norm’s Grand Spaulding Dodge, Nickey Chevrolet, Don Yenko, Carroll Shelby, George Hurst, and Baldwin-Motion.And he focuses on the tuners who continue to lead the way, builders such as Steve Saleen, Calloway, and SLP, whose vehicles are the fastest ever built.From the oldest of these muscle tuners, commanding top dollar at today’s classic-car auctions, to the latest attempts by Ford and Chrysler to get into the game with their SVT and SRT divisions, this book gives readers a full and fascinating look at American high-performance in its purest form.

About this title

About the Author

David Newhardt is one of the best automobile photographers working today and has provided photography for best-selling Motorbooks titles Muscle: America's Legendary Performance Cars, Corvette: Fifty Years, Mustang: Forty Years, Mopar Muscle: Fifty Years, and Shelby Mustang: Racer for the Street.

From the Back Cover

Even during the halcyon days of the muscle car boom, there was a small group of dealers and tuners for whom even the massive horsepower available from the factories was just not enough. These innovators took matters into their own hands by modifying brand new cars to produce ridiculous amounts of power. While some dabbled only in carburetor tuning and ignition timing, others went well and truly off the deep end with the installation of insane big blocks, the likes of which had never before been seen.

Inside is the story of eleven legendary tuners who left an indelible mark on the history of the American muscle car. Included, too, are their modern-day counterparts, who continue the tradition of modifying today s muscle cars to ultimate levels of horsepower and tire-melting torque.

From the Inside Flap

Well before American automakers hatched the muscle car, enterprising racers were building and selling super-high-performance American cars. Known today as tuner builders, this enterprise had its origins in auto dealerships like Michigan's Royal Pontiac, which built and sold Super Duty Pontiacs directly to drag racers. Tuner cars like those from Royal dominated the early days of American super stock drag racing.

It didn t take long for other dealers and high-performance tuners to catch on. Soon names like Mr. Norm's Grand Spaulding Dodge, Nickey Chevrolet, Don Yenko, Carroll Shelby, George Hurst, and Baldwin-Motion were duking it out regularly on the nations s drag strips. Today, their rare, purpose-built performance cars are among the most valuable American collector cars.

The tuner tradition continues to this day. Cars built by Steve Saleen, Callaway, and Berger are among today s fastest vehicles. Period. No other automobile holds as much street cred as an American Muscle Supercar.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

As the American public started flipping calendar pages in the early 1960s, the automotive landscape was undergoing a radical change. Those on the leading edge of the Baby Boomer Generation were starting to make their disposable income felt in the market place. Their interests were many and varied, yet near the top of their list was having a fast car. Detroit responded by creating brutally fast automobiles, plus an extensive parts system that allowed owners to extract even more performance from their cars.

Auto dealerships across the country responded to this growing trend in a variety of ways, with a wide range of success. Many dealers entered cars in various types of competition, following the mantra "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday." But like so many things in life, it wasn't that easy. Running a competition car on a track to get the dealer's name in front of the public had the potential to bring in buyers, but only if a dealer played his cards right. Parking a race car on a showroom floor was interesting, but rarely resulted in sales. The dealers who successfully emphasized performance had to approach the market from a number of fronts, including but not limited to service, parts, marketing, and the vehicles themselves. These dealerships never lost sight that priority number one was the selling of cars. Everything else had to play a supporting role.

It's been said that if something is easy, everyone would be doing it. Selling performance cars was a specialized skill, and the dealers who did it well could make it look easy. But a peek behind the curtain revealed an incredible amount of hard work, ambition, vision and luck. There was no single formula for success in selling hot cars. But one constant thread ran through all the dealerships; love of performance. Without the efforts of the eleven dealerships and tuners profiled in this book, the muscle car landscape would have looked far different.

Edition details

• Publisher: Motorbooks
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0760332940
• ISBN 13: 9780760332948
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192