The results are certainly worth it. You could probably spend a week doing nothing but studying the photos. But inevitably curiosity prevails and we're led along through these builders' motivations, their raison d'tre.
Bobby Alloway explains why and how he achieves his trademark stance. By way of plotting the transition his family's business made from collision repair to exotic car restoration, Steve Moal reveals the European-inspired theme that threads its way through the cars he builds. After reading this, it should be no surprise that a historian and purist hot rod restorer like Dave Crouse got his start restoring Model T Fords.
With its subjects, its exquisite photography, and stories that put us right there in the conversation, Art of the Hot Rod represents a hat trick in one package. And when you're done reading it, you can show it off to your friends--provided you don't read it again.
How to find it:
Motorbooks ISBN-13: 978-0-7603-2282-6
What it's called:
Corvette, America's Sports Car--Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Who done it: Jerry Burton
What it's about:It's a comprehensive history and a cultural analysis of the Corvette.
Notes:
In light of the incredible praise heaped on the Corvette, we'll spare you the hyperbole about the car. Instead, we'd like to take this opportunity to heap praise on what's probably the most impressive thing ever published about it.
It's Jerry Burton's Corvette, America's Sports Car. If you're a Corvette buff, the name should sound familiar; he's the founding editor of Corvette Quarterly magazine. In Corvette, he weaves a tapestry of the car not too different from the glass-fiber cloth that makes its body, exploring the folklore that defines the Corvette as America's most famous escape capsule.
First off, like its namesake, the sucker just screams impressive just sitting there. It measures 11 inches wide, 14 inches tall, and an inch and a half thick. Its padded-and-grained Torch Red cover, complete with its own Corvette badge, beckons you to pick it up. And when you do, you'll labor under its seven-pound girth. It's a GM-licensed product, so you know the guy ain't foolin' around.
Burton breaks down the car's evolution into chapters, including a pre-historical rundown of the events that transpired to create the car. Rather than assign the car's genesis to the Motorama Dream Car era, he goes back easily 30 years to tell the stories of the car's creators.
Burton assigns a chapter to each generation of the car. Each begins with a brief summary of the cultural landscape during the car's development. Though very history heavy, Corvette is very accessible, due in part to numerous subchapters and sidebars. Naturally he pays particular deference to the personalities behind the car, but his deference to Zora Arkus Duntov is palpable. After all, Burton wrote the guy's award-winning biography.
Both the quality and quantity of photography, both vintage and original, reveal that this is no ordinary book. Credits include the General Motors Media Archive and Design Studio, Peter Brock, the Duntov collection, Rich Chenet, Ron Kimball, Peter Linney, Richard Prince, and Randy Riggs just to name a few. The photos tell a story in themselves, but probably the most impressive use of the photographs are the groups of spreads at each chapter's end.
These are giant images of cars and their parts in their most flattering light and from their most flattering angles, and after an entire chapter relating to the car's under-skin development and behind-the-scenes politicking, they're refreshing. At the very least you'll achieve an entirely different perspective of what went behind everything from a badge to a body line. But if you're a healthy human being they'll drive you to check the want ads for an example of your very own.