Muscle Car Confidential: Confessions of a Muscle Car Test Driver

Author: Joe Oldham

Review: Joe Oldham experienced the rise and fall of American muscle from the driverÍs seat. The future editor of Popular Mechanics, Mr. Oldham broke into publishing in 1965 as a columnist for Hi-Performance Cars magazine. By day, he made timed runs at drag strips. By night, he raced muscle-car owners on the streets of New York. With the perspective of three decades since insurance surcharges and ñsmog motorsî combined to render these brutal beasts extinct, Mr. Oldham revisits 20 performance packages offered by the Big Four from 1962 through 1976, illustrated by his own photographs. What you wonÍt find in old magazine articles are the confessions to faking quarter-mile times under deadline pressure (ñdesk testingî), allowing special tuning by dealership mechanics and barely averting a a tragedy involving a kid in a go-kart. Another picture of the authorÍs early adulthood is painted by someone who could barely see over the dash of a Hemi Road Runner. In the foreword, Scott Oldham, the authorÍs son and second-generation journalist, describes a ñdriveway packed with five, six, even nine cars at a time. . . . Our house was easily identified by all the burnout marks in the street.î If that sounds like an ideal childhood, youÍre sure to enjoy a book that keeps burning rubber right to the end. - The New York Times

About the book: Today, a 1970 Hemi Cuda can change hands for as much as a quarter of a million dollars. But when it was introduced, the Barracuda was just a car, and it was Joe Oldhams job to beat the daylights out of it. A tell-all from the man who tested the best, this book delves into the notes Oldham made on the cars he vetted for some of the top car magazines. Here are the photos (including outtakes) and the hard cold facts on muscle cars from the 1964 GTO to the 1976 Trans Am 455 HO--twenty-four in all. The 1970 Buick Gran Sport GSX, Oldham notes, was "the best handling muscle car we ever tested." The 1968 Plymouth Road Runner, on the other hand, was "just a car that didnt run very well"--despite its 426 Hemi. Today, people might know the articles Oldham wrote, and they might know the performance numbers he got. But how he did those things was an untold story. This behind-the-scenes book is a close-up look at what it was like to live in the muscle car era and to help create the myth that still lives on today.

The list of reviewed cars includes:

• 1962 421 Super Duty Pontiac Catalina
• 1963 409 Chevrolet Biscayne
• 1968 Pontiac Firebird Sprint Turismo
• 1969 Baldwin-Motion SS-427 Camaro
• 1969 440 Plymouth Barracuda
• 1969 Firebird 400 Ram Air IV
• 1969 426 Hemi Road Runner
• 1969 440 Plymouth GTX
• 1969 440 6-BBL Plymouth Road Runner
• 1969 Pontiac GTO Judge
• 1969 428 Cobra Jet Mustang Mach 1
• 1970 426 Hemi Barracuda Convertible
• 1970 Buick GSX 455 Stage 1
• 1970 Pontiac GTO Ram Air IV
• 1971 429SCJ Ford Torino Cobra
• 1971 American Motors 401 AMX
• 1972 Oldsmobile 4-4-2 W-30
• 1973 Chevrolet Camaro Z28
• 1976 455 Pontiac Trans Am

Hardback, 176 pages with 49 Colour & 251 b/w Photos, Length: 9.25w x 10.875h