Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84612 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Review

“As you read the book it becomes evident that the author isn’t just a reporter – he is also a racer. His years of drag racing experience combined with his own eyewitness accounts of the postwar drag racing boom lends credence to an already well-written book. If you are a drag racer, this is a must-read. If you are a street-machine enthusiast, it might make you a drag racer.”

“Fuel & Guts tells the intimate stories that take you back in time and show you how it all started.”
                                                                                                                     

Hemmings Motor News, December 2007

“It’s comprehensive, anecdotal and occasionally profane, very much in keeping with the outrageous subject matter.”

"Must have for anyone interested in the history of Drag Racing.”
                     
DragRaceCentral.com, Dec. 12, 2007

“This book is wonderful from start to finish and it will make a great addition to any drag racing fans collection.”

From the Inside Flap
Top Fuel drivers are the rock stars of drag racing, the acts that put the fans in the seats. Spectators slip out to grab hot dogs and beer during the support classes, but when they hear the Top Fuel engines roar to life, they rush back to their seats.

In Top Fuel's early days, when a nitro-burning monster motor sat in front of the driver's face, pushing a car to its limit and beyond was called "lighting the 1000-foot fuse." In other words, if the engine didn't explode within the strip's first 1000 feet, then odds were good you'd manage the final 320 feet without meeting your maker. The front-engine, Top Fuel dragster and its West Coast driver defined the evolution of drag racing in the period through the early 1970s.

It was a simpler time, not just for drag racing, but for California life in general. Factory support wasn't controlled by accountants, but by builders and engineers with a genuine interest in the sport. Sponsorship came from companies just starting to scratch out names for themselves, not from giant corporations more concerned with image than winning. Of course, with success came greater expectations. This is the story of what it was like to race in a more innocent time, and what it was like to see that innocence slip away.

Fuel and Guts: The Birth of Top Fuel Drag Racing is the story of how Top Fuel drag racing started in California, told through the words of the men and women who lived it. Since the sport's beginning, author Tom Madigan has collected recorded interviews with luminaries such as Mickey Thompson, the late Tony Nancy, Tommy Ivo, and Tom McEwen, to name just a few. In addition, he has maintained contact with men like engine builder Ed Pink, chassis builder Kent Fuller, and racer Don Prudhomme. Add Madigan's personal knowledge of the events, and Fuel and Guts gives readers a real sense of what it was like to be part of Top Fuel drag racing in California during the 1950s and 1960s.

From the Back Cover
Until 1949, there was no such thing as drag racing. There were road races, oval races, dry lakes time trials, even boardtrack races, but nobody had considered sanctioning an event that simply put two cars head to head and sent them down a straight stretch of pavement to see who got to the end first.

Luckily, a confluence of events and circumstances combined to create what is arguably the most exciting form of motorsport on the planet today. Young men and women came home from World War II with pockets full of money--and heads full of technical knowledge, which they quickly applied to their cars. Southern California's mild climate provided them a year-around laboratory in which to experiment. And most importantly, a handful of devoted kids turned what was once an innocent, back streets pastime into today's multi-billion-dollar drag racing industry. This is their story, and best of all, it's told in their own words.

Customer Reviews

Straight from the racer's mouth
While the book is not written in a chronological format, it does give a truly unique observation of the beginnings and growth of the sport. By using interviews from the men that were there from the beginning,from the legend of the first drag race with Vic Edelbrock Snr. and Tom Cobb. To the shared memories of such luminaries as Don Garlits, Tom McEwen, Don Prudhomme, Tommy Ivo, Ed Pink, the elusive Floyd Lippencotte Jr,Ed "the Camfather" Iskenderian, and a host of others. You are told of the dangers and developments made in the quest to go faster and quicker down the quarter mile. The photography in itself is a treasure trove for any enthusiast of the sixties era.This book rates as one of the best books ever written on the subject. It is a must have in any drag racing fans collection.

Gets your juices flowing!
This is a great book for anyone interested in the history of drag racing. Great stories, pictures and technical information. Brings you back to when drag racing was raw and gutsy. Makes you want to get out on the track (again?). Good for the novice and the old timers!

a great read for racing fans
I got this book for my husband for xmas. He reads it almost nightly and is always reading me exerpts from the true stories of drag racing's legends. The pictures are awesome too.THANKS FOR A GREAT BOOK. HE LOVES IT!!!