Ebook: American Muscle Cars: A Full-Throttle History

This is the muscle car history to own--a richly illustrated chronicle of Americas greatest high-performance cars, told from their 1960s beginning through the present day! In the 1960s, three incendiary ingredients--developing V-8 engine technology, a culture consumed by the need for speed, and 75 million baby boomers entering the auto market--exploded in the form of the factory muscle car. The resulting vehicles, brutal machines unlike any the world had seen before or will ever see again, defined the sex, drugs, and rock n roll generation. American Muscle Cars chronicles this tumultuous period of American history through the primary tool Americans use to define themselves: their automobiles. From the street-racing hot rod culture that emerged following World War II through the new breed of muscle cars still emerging from Detroit today, this book brings to life the history of the American muscle car. When Pontiacs chief engineer, John Z. DeLorean, and his team bolted a big-inch engine into the divisions intermediate chassis, they immediately invented the classic muscle car. In those 20 minutes it took Bill Collins and Russ Gee to bolt a 389 ci V-8 engine into a Tempest chassis they created the prototype for Pontiacs GTO--and changed the course of automotive history. From that moment on, American performance cars would never be the same. American Muscle Cars tells the story of the most desirable cars ever to come out of Detroit. Its a story of flat-out insanity told at full throttle and illustrated with beautiful photography.

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A muscle car symbolizes freedom. It was freedom that brought the muscle car into existence ─ the freedom of cheap gas and open roads, the freedom offered by the postwar American dream, the freedom to go just about anywhere and do just about anything. When Pontiac marketed its GTO to the baby-boom generation, the cars, the people who drove them, and the times in which the two came together led to one of the greatest stories in automotive history. When those first lucky buyers cranked up the 360-horsepower Tri-Power 389 engines and drove their GTOs off dealer lots, those cars took their owners toward adventure, romance, success, the future. American Muscle Cars tells the story of the most amazing and desirable cars ever to come out of Detroit. It's a story of flat-out performance told at full-throttle, illustrated with beautiful modern and historical photography.