Crazy (Car), Man!

 Today I'm going to feature a book that I've had a long time and is almost really cool...but not quite. 

In the late 60s and early 70s, car culture was everywhere. The wild custom "show car" craze was born on the west coast and spread over the entire U.S. By 1973, government regulations had put a huge dent in the muscle car industry, but the show cars were still going strong. It was at this moment that "The One and Only Crazy Car Book" by Sloan Walker was published.

I picked this up at a garage sale years ago, and assumed it was a Scholastic book. (I used to love those order forms that would be handed out at school every so often- and waiting for your order to come back was heaven!) However, upon closer indpection, I see it's a Young Reader's Press book. Anyway, let's take a quick look, shall we?

Upon opening, we find...

They feature the most popular show rods, plus a few lessor known builds such as the Anycar...

Both of these (and many others in the book) were plastic models. Oh, and don't read the text. You might lose a couple IQ points. I know it was written for kids, but still...yeeesh!

Zingers are kinds cool. The idea is simple; make the engine look huge by scaling down the car. By the way, I once read that an owner of a real Zinger said that while they do run, they are NOT fun to drive!

The Boothill Express is probably one of the most famous show cars ever.

I remember the Blue Flame as a kid. This was back when land speed records made national news!

Of course...

I thought it was interesting to see what the brand new presidential limo looked like in 1973.

And I really don't think "NASA specs" had much to do with this show car...

So there you have it! There are other cars that I didn't show, but you get the idea.

Now I said this book was not quite really cool. Why? Well, first the text really talks down to kids, I think, and second is that they cheaped out and printed it in black and white. One of the main attractions of these cars is their fantastic paint jobs! In this book, you would never know that.

Still the book sits in my book shelf as a testiment to a time when the crazier the cars got, the better we kids loved them!

Until next time, keep searching for treasure!