Description
Author: Darwin Holmstrom, Photography by Randy Leffingwell, ISBN: 9780760345146, 224 pages, Hardback, colour illustrations.
There will never be another time like the heyday of American automotive muscle, which stretched from 1963 to 1974. When John Z. DeLorean and his cadre of enthusiastic miscreants took it upon themselves to bolt Pontiac division's hottest engine into a midsize chassis, disobeying orders from the top of General Motors' food chain, they created something that should never have been and will never be again: the muscle car.
The classic muscle-car era itself, which began when the first Pontiac buyer checked the "GTO" box on the Pontiac Tempest option list and ended when the last Super Duty 455 Firebird rolled off Pontiac's assembly line in 1974, really was something that should have never been. Who can legitimately argue that giving teenage boys lightweight cars stuffed full of big-block V-8 power, crude handling abilities, and virtually no braking power to bring the festivities to a halt once everything went south—which it did more often than not—was a good idea? Still, those of us who love these beasts are damned glad they existed. Top Muscle celebrates the best of the best of the breed. Photographer Randy Leffingwell employs a technique called light painting, in which he makes multiple versions of each image under different lighting, resulting in stunning, multi-dimensional images, each one a work of art. Author Darwin Holmstrom has worked to capture not just the history of these cars, but to paint a written portrait of each machine that is worthy of the incredible photography.
What more do you need?
Synopsis
They're all here: one-off and production vehicles as rare as they are beautiful. The most revered names and brands from across muscle-car history reside in these pages—see the Shelby Mustang, Yenko Camaro, GTO, Trans Am, Charger Daytona, Hemi Challenger, Boss 429, Superbird, Mustang, Cougar, LS6 Chevelle, and 440-6 Roadrunner as you've never seen them before. Photographer Randy Leffingwell was granted full access to the private Brothers Collection, one of the premier muscle-car collections in the world. Top Muscle offers over 150 beautiful, commissioned portraits alongside tech specs and Darwin Holmstrom's authoritative history for each vehicle. This is the ultimate review of the cars that ruled the street in the performance era of the 1960s and 1970s.
