A fun filled book on the sport of drag racing. If you are a fan of this sport, you will love this book! ( )

For full disclosure, I received this book as part of a LibraryThing Early Reviewers offer. Not that I have that out of the way, this is a fairly amazing book that did much to put some pieces of a personal puzzle together for me. I grew up in the South in what you might think of as small town America - we didn't have a lot of opportunity to go to races in my semi-rural community - about the closest we got was when we took our 60's pony cars out into the back-roads and raced a bit, which is a lot more dangerous than it sounds - I think we were fortunate not to become era-statistics, and I don't recommend or condone this behavior to anyone else. But we were 60's and 70's kids with little regard to our own mortality - we thought ourselves invulnerable.

Besides having some familiarity with the famous cars of that era, there was a multitude of model-kits from Revell, Aurora and others to spark our imaginations. It was from that, an occasional TV program relating to the quarter mile drags, and of course magazines like Hot Rod and others that kept the fires loaded, if not burning hotly. Later in life I was once again intrigued while living in Gainsville, FL by the Gator Nationals and became a regular visitor to the strip nearby. It didn't have quite the same nostalgia that I was seeking but was exciting nonetheless - nothing quite like the roar of 1000+ HP engines echoing down the track!

Doug Boyce, in this volume "Drag Racing's Quarter-Mile Warriors" did much to tie my early-childhood nostalgia to what I witnessed at the track as an adult. This book contains so much information that I'm not sure where to begin. At minimum, it's an excellent primer in understanding the history of the sport, the cars and drivers that created the scene, and the modifications tried that were successful or failures to mold and produce the current drag strip as we know it today. The chapters are well organized, with many era photos in B&W and color to enhance the narrative. I enjoyed this quite a bit and spent a lot of time reading it.

If you're into drag-racing and had questions about things you've heard but not understood, this is a fine example of historical causal explanation. Rejoice in the examples and stories of gassers, factory mods and altered fuel cars described in all their glory in this volume. This one is well worth having in your library.

(review also posted to Amazon) ( )

Living around the block from a drag-racing strip while growing up did not prepare me for the wealth of knowledge that I gained from reading this book. Fascinating reading if you are at all interested in drag-strips and fast cars.

My husband looked at this book when I first received it and exclaimed that he "knew"" one of the cover cars. Apparently a neighbor of his had the car and raced. He was thrilled to read this book. ( )

Another beautiful book from CarTech Publishing. Anyone with a love for cars and racing will truly appreciate this edition carefully written by Doug Boyce. Wonderfully illustrated and complete with facts and history about a great sport and pastime. I cannot imagine this sport being presented any better than this. Highly recommended. ( )