America's Wildest Show Rods of the 1960s and 1970s: Analysis and Opinions from George Barris, Darryl Starbird, Candy Joe Bailon, and Others

The 1960s and 1970s were a time of artistic excess. Crazy outfits, new-found freedoms of the boomer generation, and the hippie movement, all created an explosion of style completely unique to the period and generation. The 1960s and 1970s were also a time of intense automotive enthusiasm. New car launches every September were greeted with anticipation, muscle cars with excessive horsepower were the norm, and the average Joe was rodding and racing every weekend.

When these two forces came together, the results were unforgettable. A new breed of car was developed-the Show Rod. These creations were never intended for use on the streets, and many of them were never intended for any use at all. Customizers designed and built them to attract huge crowds to the big car show circuit that was travelling the country at the time, and in that they certainly succeeded.

What began as visions of futuristic cars eventually morphed into cartoon-like representations of cars. Things got wilder when the model car industry got involved, and then television shows and pop music acts jumped in too. Icons like Barris and Roth, household names even to fringe car guys, made their name in this era, as did others like Gene Winfield, Dean Jeffries, Candy Joe Bailon, Bob Reisner, Darryl Starbird and Tom Daniel, all important characters in promoting, designing and building this insane pieces of rolling artwork. This completely unique book is a round-table discussion featuring all of these great customizers discussing the era, their builds, and each others rods as well.

Scotty Gosson worked his way from wrecking yards to rod and custom shops as a mechanic and fabricator. His involvement in drag racing and landspeed racing led to a successful career in the print industry, where he is a popular magazine feature freelancer. His work has appeared in Drag Racing USA, Hot Rod, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, Hot Rod Deluxe, and Goodguys Gazette. Other CarTech books by Scotty Gosson include America's Coolest Station Wagons; Rat Rods--Rodding's Imperfect Stepchildren; and America's Wildest Show Rods of the 1960s & 1970s.