Fuel and Guts

The Birth of Top Fuel Drag Racing

Fuel and Guts
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Author:

Tom Madigan

Foreword by:

Dave McClelland

Format: Hardcover, 240 Pages
Item: 144188
ISBN: 9780760326978
Publisher: Motorbooks
Specs
Illustrations: 66 color & 176 B&W Photos
Size: 9 x 12 x .5
Weight: 3.563 lb.
Edition: First
Published: August 15th 2007
DC: AP
Price: $50.00
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DescriptionThe AuthorsReviewsReader ReviewsTOC
This is the story of how Top Fuel drag racing started, told by those who lived it. An insider from the beginning, author Tom Madigan draws on interviews with builders and racers like Mickey Thompson, Tony Nancy, Tommy Ivo, and Tom McEwen, to name just a few. Their words, and those of others such as engine builder Ed Pink and chassis builder Kent Fuller, give readers a real sense of a lost, and truly thrilling, world.

This is Top Fuel drag racing of California in the 50s and 60s, and these are the racers who made its name. Fuel and Guts recreates a time of passion and pure adrenaline--a time before accountants and corporations saw a winner in drag racing. In sidebars, drivers like Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney tell what it was like to leave home and try to make it on the Californians home turf. You werent really a winner until you beat the guys who started it all. And in this book, readers meet these winners and feel once more an excitement now gone forever.

Tom Madigan has been part of California car culture since the 1950s. He not only competed against drag racing's pioneers, he has been writing about them since the 1960s as a contributor for Popular Hot Rodding, Car Craft, Road & Track and Vintage Motorsport. He also was the long time editor of Off –Road. In 2005 Madigan won the prestigious Dean Batchelor Award for his book Edelbrock: Made in USA. He has also authored Boss: The Bill Stroppe Story, and The Loner: the Story of a Drag Racer. Tom and his wife, Darlene, reside in Sonora, California.

Road & Track, November 2007

“If you want an insider’s view with detailed, first-person accounts from the independent-thinking, innovative mechanical wizards who turned drag racing into an extreme sport, reading this book is pure heaven. You can almost smell the nitro.”

   
Car Craft, December 2007

“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.”


                                                                                                                                                

Drag News Magazine, September 2007

“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.”

 

Nitrogeezers.com, September 2007

"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.”

 

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Foreword (by Dave McClellan)

Introduction

Chapter One                The fuse is lit… How did it all start?

Chapter Two                Late 1950s to Early 1960s

Chapter Three              Mid 1960s

Chapter Four               The California Gang Goes on Tour

Chapter Five                Getting Serious about Going Fast

Chapter Six                  The Late 1960s

Chapter Seven              The Late 1960s to Early 1970s

Chapter Eight                The Last Winning One-Man Team

Epilogue

Motorsports / Auto Racing / Drag Racing
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