Wide-Open Muscle: The Rarest Muscle Car Convertibles

Climb inside these stunning muscle car drop-tops, straight from the classic era of American high-performance cars!

Today's rarest, priciest, and most highly sought-after muscle cars are also the least practical. These are the striking convertibles of the 1960s and 1970s that were optioned out for drag racing. Wide-Open Muscle showcases these rare cars and proves that sometimes it pays to throw practicality out the window in order to make something purely cool and fun to drive.

At the peak of drag racing popularity, it was common knowledge that racers needed the lightest, most rigid-framed cars available. Convertibles represent the exact opposite of that description, so it's amazing that these drop tops ever emerged amid the circle of full-throttle dragsters. While typical convertible drivers cruised around listening to the latest Lovin' Spoonful release in the eight-track tape deck, these muscle-car convertibles were equipped for rock 'n' roll speed. These topless muscle cars are so rare because few people had the dedication (or money) to buy a vehicle this impractical. They're valuable because they represent the absolute extreme of the entire muscle-car genre.

All the cars in Wide-Open Muscle are shot in similar fashion, studio-style with a black background using a process known as light painting. It is the ultimate portrayal of the ultimate muscle cars.

Randy Leffingwell wrote his first book, American Muscle, while on staff at the Los Angeles Times. The book examined Times’ publisher Otis Chandler’s muscle car collection. American Muscle, published in September 1990, jump-started a love of book creation that led Leffingwell to leave the Times in 1995. By then, he had authored Porsche Legends and six other books.

To date, Leffingwell has authored more than 60 titles. These include a dozen Porsche titles ranging from general overviews—Porsche 75 Years: Expect the Unexpected, and The Complete Book of Porsche 911—to deeper explorations in Porsche Turbo and Porsche 911: 50 Years. He regularly travels to Germany to continue his Porsche-history research, and he has interviewed more than 200 Porsche engineers, stylists, model makers, racers, and managers.

While Leffingwell has tackled other subjects, including John Deere tractors, Harley-Davidson, and West Coast lighthouses, he admits he is almost addicted to Porsche’s story. In addition to his book work, he is historical editor for 000 magazine and Porsche Panorama. And for the past decade, he has been researching and writing an encyclopedic history of Porsche’s motorsports endeavors.

Leffingwell lives near Santa Barbara, California.

Tom Loeser has worked as a Firefighter for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (now known as CAL Fire), as a graphic designer and photographer, and as chief photographer for the Long Beach Grand Prix. Since 2012 he has worked full-time as a book photographer provided images for Motorbooks titles Art of the Corvette, Art of the Mustang, Wide-Open Muscle, and Classic Motorcycles: Art of the Speed. His next book, The Art of Mopar: Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth Muscle Cars, is in production.