America's Wildest Show Rods of the 1960s and 1970s: Analysis and Opinions from George Barris, Darryl Starbird, Candy Joe Bailon, and Others Paperback – June 10, 2013

Board Of Royal Experts....a B.O.R.E. And experts they are. It's a super great book. The pictures of the cars are fantastic. I don't understand why more diecast model makers aren't producing more of these cars. The bubbletops are awesome and this book captures their images perfectly.The "experts" have plenty to say about the cars that they have commented on and it's very enjoyable reading. All of these cars need to be assembled for nation wide touring. There are some great motor cities in this country that have plenty of draw and a book like this gets the show attendance juices flowing. This book did a nice job in paying tribute to "Big Daddy". Roth, Barris, Starbird, Ohrberg, Reisner, Peterson and the many others who designed and built their custom rod fantasies are well portrayed in this excellent work. The layout of the book is nicely done. It's attractive. Thank you Scotty Gosson and all the BORE'd for a truly great piece of work....nay.....art!

This book is filled with colorful pictures of those wild custom show cars from years gone by. Some of the cars are simply stunning, others, well, what were they thinking? Regardless, this book showcases all the work and creativity these master car builders put into custom rods. This book is a must-have if you collect and build show rod model kits. i believe it's out of print, so get one while you can.

This book has some good photos and interesting coverage of selected cars, however coverage is limited to one or maybe two pages per car. There's not enough detail in the pictures of cars you would want to see as a show rod fan and write ups that mostly include info that is widely known. There are a very few exceptions to this in the coverage and only for this small reason could this book be desirable as a bookshelf addition to those interested in these unusual cars. Sadly this books also has a big overtone of the author's presence, which should be felt only in the detail, accuracy, and extent of topic coverage. Writing about famous people and subjects doesn't raise you to their level as an author, nor is your personal opinion on the same level, journalism 101. Instead of detail there is a lot of wasted space dedicated to the authors' flights of fancy for labeling, chapter titles and creating hipster structures to fill the book vs missing meaningful content. Further evidence of this is shown by the interspersed small side comments from the show car builders which would be interesting if interviews with these important figures had been done in an in-depth, insightful manner instead of these little side bar comments that don't reveal much. In addition, for his own reasons the author has decided that only certain cars are deserving of coverage in this book making the subject coverage very inconsistent under the title, with cars that clearly should not have been covered included, and sadly many deserving cars left out. Beyond that, way too much space is dedicated to restorations, clones, and features on much lesser show cars than those represented by the real masters of show car building. For the price and the very few unusual color photos from limited coverage of the real historic show cars, not too bad. As a work covering the history and detail concerning the cars and the builders, a big lack of content.

Interesting book. I do wish that all concerned had taken a bit more time in the editing process — there were some typo's, duplicated photo captions, captions on some pages that should have been paired with photos on other pages. One hopes that these problems will be corrected in future editions. Book showed up by the time promised. Unfortunately it was shipped in a soft manilla bubble envelope, which allowed the postman to fold the softbound book up to shove it in the post box. Now the front cover has a minor, but quite noticeable crease down the middle. Oh well. Still, an interesting read. Thanks.

Was warned that this book was not very well done. Should have heeded the warning. The photos are very good. The text is sophomoric after being mostly written by a nearly 60 year old man. Some of the team of critics appear to be almost lucid while one in particular is just a moron. Many of the cars are totally forgotten and should be. Clones are just that clones and while may show the talent of the builder they don't show any true creativity. Non-running trailer queens were and still are a sham. Many, many more interesting and creative builds were overlooked in this drivel. Don't waste your money. Go to the library and see if they have it. If not go on to something else.

I had low expectations for this book and I was really surprised at how good it turned out to be. The pictures made you drool, and the "insider" comments from the guys that were there building these cars in the shops was great reading. It made me want to start a project car every time I picked the book up. If you were around in the sixty's and seventy's and went to car shows you will really connect with this book. And if you don't, well, you're just not a REAL gearhead....Purple in Phoenix

A great reference on all the cars I loved as a kid and still love. Great pictures of all of them. The one thing I didn't like was finding out how many of these cars were not driveable. You can't really blame the book for that.The book also has a chapter on modern show rods, including the Roswell Rod.

I am very pleased with the presentation of these works of art. And that is the only way to describe these cars. It awes me that these people are able to picture the cars before hand and then build them without any guide but the one in their mind. Excellent book for the coffee table.

Some of my happiest childhood memories are of me standing in a cramped corner of Grants model shop (remember model shops?) in Charminster road, Bournemouth where the car models were kept, looking up and down the rows of kits wondering what I could afford with the £1.50 I had saved from my paper round for the last three weeks. This was a a time when the likes of Airfix were offering such exotic kits as a Vauxhall Victor estates and Morris Marina's, and yet AMT , Revell and Monogram were offering bizzarre hot rodded things like Bath tubs , Milk floats and funeral wagons, with big engines, slick tyres and plenty of chrome .No competition....Guess what I bought.This book is a great way to (almost) relive those years and actually has a section dedicated to Showcars that were made into model kits. Even some (the Red Baron for instance) that were built because the kit was so successful.It's a very well illustrated book using old and new photo's and tracing , as far as possible, what happened to some of these rolling legends. Using the comments from a panel of experts that were (mostly) around the business at the time is also a good move as the background details add to your enjoyment of the cars story. I was also amazed to find out how many of them were actually driveable! Although I don't think I would like to risk the M25 In a supercharged Coke vending machine.....If you have any interest in Custom or Hot Rod cars I guarantee you will find this book a worthwhile buy.

I have already got books on individual Show Rod builders, so found many I had already seen in them. Nice 'Where are they now' photos showing what condition they are in, and if any clones have been built. Follows up at the end with Modern Bubble Tops built the same way.

wonderful

I ordered this book for my dad. When it came in, I couldn't help but glance through it. It was such a neat book with all the photos and details of the cars/vehicles that I was really tempted to buy one for myself. My dad thoroughly enjoyed it and said it was better than even he had expected.

C'est ce que voulais, un beau livre avec plein de photos en couleur.Les voitures sont incroyables.Mon fils, deux ans, l'adore.