Chevy Drag Racing 1955-1980: A Celebration of Bowtie's Success at the Drag Strip

When Zora Arkus Duntov petitioned Chevrolet management to make available performance parts for its new generation of V8 engines to compete with Ford and Chrysler he set in motion a critical mass revolution that led to an explosion of racing activity for Chevrolet owners. In short order, Chevrolet cars and V8 engines began dominating the nation's drag strips in an unprecedented movement largely dominated by amateur racers and weekend warriors. Celebrated author and historian Doug Boyce has accurately and succinctly portrayed the incredible momentum of this movement which, in many ways, fostered the emergence of a multi-billion dollar aftermarket parts industry to further support their efforts. While Chevrolet launched the revolution with basic performance parts, they also counted on the innovation of amateur racers to develop and campaign the packages that ran roughshod over the competition. In large measure Chevrolet V8s lent themselves handily to performance modifications, and the small blocks in particular were lightweight, high revving and easy to build. Ford and Chrysler countered with Hemis and performance built big blocks, but the ease of modifying Chevrolet V8's became an insurmountable obstacle. Boyce details the rise of drag racing legends such as Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins "Sneaky Pete" Robinson, Dick Harrell, Dave Strickler and thousands more.

In his typically thorough fashion, Boyce reacquaints the reader with the actual racers in the trenches who drove this relentless march of Chevrolet performance. These competitors bred the massive fields of of Stock, Super Stock and Modified Eliminator cars that formed the "little guy" backbone of drag racing from 1955 through 1980 and all the way to present day. With a fabulous display of color and B&W photos. He introduces you to racers you may have long forgotten and reminds you of all their remarkable contributions to the sport we all know and love. And all of it brought to us by the extraordinarily simple and easy to modify architecture of small and big block Chevrolet engines and, of course, the W engines as well. This book is not a picture skimmer as the text and captions draw you in to learn more about all the fantastic cars you will see. You "will" read the whole thing and return again and again to enjoy the powerful and colorful images and history of Chevrolet drag racing. Another great presentation by one of drag racing's best historians.

"If you're into the subject matter, you have to buy this book. It's that simple."

"If you love drag racing, you'll love this book."