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Million-Dollar Muscle Cars

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"By definition, a muscle car is a huge engine stuffed into an intermediate body… the 1971 Hemi 'Cuda followed that formula to the letter."

NOW WE'RE REALLY TALKING: Open the pages of Million-Dollar Muscle Cars: The Rarest and Most Collectible Cars of the Performance Era, by Colin Comer, and you'll see what we mean. 'Mean' being the operative word!

On the front cover is the fabulous 1971 Hemi Barracuda convertible that first broke the 'two-comma' barrier — just a taste of what's in store.
All the cars are a work of art and stunningly photographed by David Newhardt.

In the 1960s and 1970s American auto manufacturers produced millions of muscle cars — ultra-high-performance cars more adept at competit-ion than for transportation that became the baby-boomers first cars. Made to race, that is exactly what they did with them; driving their Corvettes and 'Cudas, their Mustangs and Trans Ams, for all they were worth.

Ford piled on the pressure for GM and Chrysler when they introduced the Mustang as the latter was selling like hot cakes — with not enough time enough to cool down. But it wasn't a real muscle car and Ford wanted to seduce the sports car market: enter Carroll Shelby of Cobra fame. Check out the 1965 Shelby GT350 Factory Competition model.

The muscle car business was in full swing by the time the 1969 Yenko 427 Nova arrived. Don Yenko used his distinctive arrow on the hood of his best creations — imagine casting your eyes across the hood, along to the horizon, pressing your foot down and…

Now these muscle cars of the Sixties and Seventies are the stuff of legends… and nostalgia. Any of the rare models that survived in good shape are a collector's dream, easily commanding six-figure prices and often passing the million dollar mark.

Million-Dollar Muscle Cars is dedicated to enthusiasts of the last true era of collectible cars to ever leave Detroit. The book provides a beautiful, illustrated history of these rarest of rare cars; from the high performance fantasies of yesterday to the high finance wheeling and dealing of today. In full colour pictures and detailed text, it tells the stories of the most important (and valuable) muscle cars.

Author and top muscle expert Colin Comer explains what makes the world's most valuable muscle cars tick, providing insightful discussions of each cars, such as: 1970-71 Hemi 'Cuda Convertible; 1965 Shelby GT350 R Model, 1967 Shelby GT500 Super Snake; 1968 Camaro Z/28 convertible; 1969 Trans Am Convertible; 1969 ZL1 Camaro and 1971 Sox & Martin Pro Stock Hemi 'Cuda.

There are fifteen chapters containing a wealth of information and comprehensive photography along with two Appendices: Alternatives to Million-Dollar Muscle Cars and A Real-World Buyers' Guide.

Owning one of these cars from new meant you used it for everyday transport or just picking your friends up to cruise. You'd be more reluctant to use the car too regularly at the prices they command today! If you missed the experience of seeing these cars in the flesh for the first time as they rolled off the production line, this book gives you an insight to the way it was then: the gutsy excitement, the wonder and the thrill of muscle cars.

• Million-Dollar Muscle Cars by Colin Comer, with photography by David Newhardt, is out now in hardback from Motorbooks and is available from all good bookshops at an RRP of £25.00. ISBN-13: 978-7603-2952-8.

Colin Comer is owner and proprietor of Colin's Classic Cars, celebrated as the world's premier muscle car dealer and broker. Most of the muscle cars that have broken the one-million-dollar mark (the 'two-comma' barrier, as Colin calls it) have been either sold by him or sold in a deal brokered by him. He owns at least four such examples in his personal collection.

David Newhardt is one of the best automobile photographers working today. He is the author of such best-selling books as Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and has provided photography for MBI's best-selling titles Muscle: America's Legendary Performance Cars, Corvette Fifty Years, Mustang Forty Years, Mopar Muscle and Shelby Mustang: Racer for the Street.

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