Darwin Holmstrom 
American Muscle Cars 
A Full-Throttle History

This is the muscle car history to own—a richly illustrated chronicle of America’s 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 Pontiac’s chief engineer,
John Z. De Lorean , and his team installed a big-inch engine into the division’s 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
Pontiac’s GTO —and changed the course of automotive history. From that moment on, American performance cars would never be the same.



Featured cars represent
all American automakers of the time—
Chrysler ,
Ford ,
General Motors , and
AMC —as well as landmark models like the
Challenger ,
Charger ,
Road Runner ,
Super Bee ,
Super Bird ,
‘Cuda ,
Camaro ,
Chevelle SS ,
442 ,
Boss Mustang ,
GTX ,
Javelin ,
AMX , and much more.




American Muscle Cars tells the story of the most desirable cars ever to come out of Detroit. It’s a story of flat-out insanity told at full throttle and illustrated with beautiful photography.

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Since 1983, Tom Glatch has contributed hundreds of stories and photographs to major collector, Corvette, Mustang, muscle car, and Mopar magazines. Tom grew up during the muscle car era, and his first car was a very quick 1970 Plymouth Duster 340. Tom and his wife, Kelly, have contributed photographs to books by other Motorbooks authors, as well as Motorbooks’ Corvette calendars. When not pursuing old muscle cars, Tom is a writer and researcher for Hagerty Marketplace. He lives in southeastern Wisconsin.