Reviews

Matthew Bourne's Car Man is a simply brilliant redo of the classic opera of the (more or less) same name. The wonderful music is all there, the plot shifted to a western US auto repair shop (from cigars to auto parts, hmmm), and as with all ballet, no spoken dialogue. But I found it simply wonderful to watch, the dancers erotic without a doubt but in a highly entertaining way. If you like the music, or if you like dance, and especially if you like both, give this a try.....

Okay, so this is a ballet, not a black-and-white noir with Robert Mitchum or Burt Lancaster. And the title is, in my opinion, too clever for its own good. Yes, choreographer Matthew Bourne uses great chunks of Bizet's throbbing, tempestuous music, but the story has little to do with Carmen. The Car Man is based on The Postman Always Rings Twice. It's as horny, bloody, brutal and melodramatic as the Garfield-Turner movie or the book, and with an added erotic twist. In other words, it's a great noir story which has been turned into a great noir dance production. When the tough drifter Luca (Alan Vincent) wanders into the mid-Western town of Harmony, population 375, he winds up at Dino's Diner and Garage. Dino (Scott Ambler) is an overweight, uncouth guy with a younger sex-pot of a wife, Lana (Saranne Curtin). She and her sister, Rita (Etta Murfitt) run the diner. Dino's mechanics in his garage are all small-town bullies and blusterers. They torment a young guy, Angelo (Will Kemp), with sexual innuendo; that Angelo is the boyfriend of Lana's sister makes no difference. He's not tough enough to stand up to them, and that makes him fair game. Luca quickly establishes who is the top guy and intervenes to stop the bullying of Angelo. And when Luca and Lana spot each other, we know nothing good is going to happen. Then Dino has to be away for a night. The two would-be lovers are just about to consummate their lust when Dino unexpectedly returns. Luca barely escapes with his shoes...and uses the opportunity to finish off things with Angelo. Luca is just as happy to use male or female as long he's the one in charge. It's not long before Luca and Lana are discovered...and Dino has his head smashed in by a heavy wrench, first swung by Lana and then, with Lana urging him on, by Luca. They set things up so that Angelo takes the fall. While they spend Dino's money drinking and gambling, Angelo is assaulted in prison, but escapes with a guard's gun. He and Luca and Lana are going to meet again in front of the garage. Luca may be having a crisis of conscience, maybe even Lana, too. Is it going to do them any good? There are two things that make this ballet work. First, course, is Matthew Bourne's originality and choreography. The dance set pieces are vigorous and to the point, and when they need to show longing or lust, they do. Bourne often drives traditional ballet mavens up the wall. He is no traditionalist and he doesn't hesitate to use whatever dance styles do the job. He also loves to give traditional stories a twist, often but not always with an erotic element that has homo-erotic themes as well as hetero-erotic. When Luca and Lana first show their explicit lust for each other in front of the garage after Dino leaves, they are joined by the mechanics and their girlfriends. These are guys where "love" means their girl friends put out and then, afterwards, "Get me a beer." Bourne and his TV director Ross MacGibbon create a dark, hot dance where the sex is almost explicit in the cutting and becomes part of the dance. Toward the end there is a long duet between Luca and the bloody corpse of Dino which Lucas' conscience brought to the surface. The two dancers, Vincent and Ambler, create a stumbling, terrible vision of retribution on its way. Later, when Luca faces off with Angelo and meets his fate, there is a bloody, explicit kiss which really is shocking. The second thing that makes The Car Man work is the dancers. The women all look sexy and petulant. Lana has a figure that would make the real Lana Turner envious. Even more necessary for this ballet to work, Luca and the mechanics are genuinely tough-looking guys. They are highly skilled dancers but no one breaks the image, by either facial expression or movement, of being small-town, ignorant bullies. Scott Ambler, with a realistically padded stomach, plays Dino with as much acting skill as dancing skill. There also is no attempt to disguise unshaved underarms or hide the sweat the dancers generate dancing. The weather in Harmony is hot and humid. The place looks like it reeks of beer, sex and sweat. So do the dancers. While Bourne created The Car Man as a theater piece, he and MacGibbon have shot and edited it to be a cinematic experience. Traditionalists who want a camera positioned in front of the stage and then switched to automatic pilot will be displeased. Quick cutting at times, close-ups of glances, camera angles that give us far more immediacy than a theater seat would, and a tour-de-force of cutting, camera smears and sound that create the illusion of cars racing, all add up to a dynamic viewing experience. It really works in terms of dramatic tension and movement, and it obviously is exactly what Matthew Bourne wanted. For those who might be interested in Bourne's other work on DVD, try his great take on Swan Lake and his innocently naughty version of Nutcracker. His last major theater ballet to date is based on Edward Scissorhands. It finished its American tour a couple of months ago to terrific reviews. I hope the DVD is on the way soon. The DVD of The Car Man, by the way, has a great transfer. So can a ballet be considered a noir? When it's based on The Postman Always Rings Twice it can, especially when its as sexy, brutal and hopeless as Bourne makes it. Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (Matthew Bourne) Tchaikovsky - Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! / Matthew Bourne, Anthony Ward

Matthew Bourne takes one of the most performed, most beloved (and cliched) operas and turns it in to a dynamic modern dance tour de force. Transforming the story from 19th century Spain to mid-20th century America brilliantly invigorates the story with new life. Adding cinematic touches of film noir and Alfred Hitchcock add suspense. Turning the traditional love triangle into a bisexual one further activates the plot. The quick cutting and constant camera movement, while supporting the suspense/film noir aspects, mar the superb dancing. When filmming dance the camera should hold on long shots that show the bodies and feet of the dancers. Perhaps more split screen or picture in picture could have been used innovatively to show both the dancers faces in close up and still maintain the view of the dance. Perhaps this DVD is too cinematic for hardcore dance aficionadoes, but for most people who love musicals, this is another wonderful work by Matthew Bourne.

I agree with some of the previous reviewers: this is Matthew Bourne at his best: he's a genius of a story-teller and choreographer. His Swan Lake has become a top notch variation on a classic ballet and his recent Nutcracker is bound to become the same. For those of us who have no chance of ever seeing this production staged in a theater, this DVD is not to be missed. I find watching it arousing (in the full meaning of the word), emotionally shattering, and ultimately cleansing in the manner of a classic tragedy. I agree with others of the previous reviewers: the nervous, MTV style camera work distracts from the dancing and the overall composition of this brilliant theater piece. In his commentary Bourne offers a sort of reasoning for the hyperactive cutting back and forth but it comes across as an after-the-fact attempt to save the integrity of his own work. There are indeed too many close-ups that prevent the viewer from seeing the dancers dance, and just as the eye settles on a movement the camera shifts. BUT I found that on second viewing I could watch sections of the DVD in slow motion without the sound track and could see and appreciate a lot more of Bourne's remarkable sense of pattern and movement and the terrific discipline and energy of the dancers. I give this DVD five stars because this is the only version I am ever likely to see and even with its directorial flaws it conveys the high artistry and erotic energy of not only Bourne's reworking of Bizet's Carmen but also the essence of the original opera. I think Bourne's work has staying power and that we will treasure his productions over the years, above all perhaps the magnificent Swan Lake. But where is the DVD of his Cinderella set in WWII London?

This is NOT your traditional ballet. It is, however, gripping and entrancing. The dancers are good, and the choreography imaginative. Our attention never wandered. The plot of this "auto-erotic" dance thriller is not totally linear, but it is clearly drawn. We are interested in the characters and their interactions. We find considerable beauty as well. My only quarrel with this presentation is the rapid cutting. I wish the camera had been able to linger longer without all the constant motion.

Reviews

If you like trial movies you will like this. Gene Hackman plays the part well.

This is a really well done movie - not great perhaps, but very good. The plot is realistic, actors are top notch and the story moves at a nice pace. It is one of those movies that you catch something new and different every time you watch it. Highly recommend.

This is a very good film, but it is fatally flawed from a realism standpoint. The gimmick of this film, of course, is the notion that opposing lead counsel on two sides of a huge civil litigation case would ever pit father against daughter. No client would stand for it, and this film shows why they should not. The ending is unrealistic, and while it may comport with Hollywood's notion of justice and doing the right thing, any lawyer has to be aghast as to this conclusion. The sappy family angle in this film detracted from what could have been a better film. What saves this one from a three-star rating is the first rate portrayal of courtroom tactics and the discovery battles between the law firms. Both are startlingly accurate (in total contrast with the ending--no spoilers here) and I enjoyed this part of the film immensely. RJB.

I had this movie on tape and wore it out. I was so happy to see that it was available on DVD. It has some really GREAT acting, has some funny and sad moments and a really great ending.

There are no murders or car chases in CLASS ACTION (1991), directed by Michael Apted, but this is certainly one of the best courtroom dramas that I've ever seen. The key characters, played by Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, are not only father and daughter, but they are also opposing counsel in a multi-million dollar class action lawsuit against an automobile manufacturer. Gene has a small law firm that has a sterling reputation for winning "David and Goliath" litigations, and Mary Elizabeth works for a major San Francisco law firm that doesn't always play by the rules. Father and daughter don't really get along, primarily because she resents that fact that he used to cheat on her mother. Mom has long ago forgiven her husband, but when she dies suddenly, there is no longer anybody to intercede between the two. Then, Mary Elizabeth's bosses start cheating during the trial, destroying documents to which Hackman's side is entitled, and she must decide which side she is really on. Hackman and Mastrantonio are superb. © Michael B. Druxman

Reviews

I loved this movie as kid! I watch it every year now at Thanksgiving time. Fast shipping and high qaulity dvd with case.

Loved this movie. It's funny and touching. I watch it every Thanksgiving, but it's great any time of the year.

This is a movie you'll laugh about whenever you even hear the word Dutch after you seen it. It is a great story and comedy.

So glad I found it here on DVD when we saw his tape beginning to degrade.

"Dutch" is one of my favorite John Hughes films. It pretty much follows Hughes's pattern of conflict established early on, struggles to resolve the conflict, and a feel-good ending. I'm a sucker for happy endings. This is a good movie to show to a preteen who is disrespectful to his parents and other adults. It often opens his eyes to his bad behavior.

Reviews

Matthew Bourne's Car Man is a simply brilliant redo of the classic opera of the (more or less) same name. The wonderful music is all there, the plot shifted to a western US auto repair shop (from cigars to auto parts, hmmm), and as with all ballet, no spoken dialogue. But I found it simply wonderful to watch, the dancers erotic without a doubt but in a highly entertaining way. If you like the music, or if you like dance, and especially if you like both, give this a try.....

Okay, so this is a ballet, not a black-and-white noir with Robert Mitchum or Burt Lancaster. And the title is, in my opinion, too clever for its own good. Yes, choreographer Matthew Bourne uses great chunks of Bizet's throbbing, tempestuous music, but the story has little to do with Carmen. The Car Man is based on The Postman Always Rings Twice. It's as horny, bloody, brutal and melodramatic as the Garfield-Turner movie or the book, and with an added erotic twist. In other words, it's a great noir story which has been turned into a great noir dance production. When the tough drifter Luca (Alan Vincent) wanders into the mid-Western town of Harmony, population 375, he winds up at Dino's Diner and Garage. Dino (Scott Ambler) is an overweight, uncouth guy with a younger sex-pot of a wife, Lana (Saranne Curtin). She and her sister, Rita (Etta Murfitt) run the diner. Dino's mechanics in his garage are all small-town bullies and blusterers. They torment a young guy, Angelo (Will Kemp), with sexual innuendo; that Angelo is the boyfriend of Lana's sister makes no difference. He's not tough enough to stand up to them, and that makes him fair game. Luca quickly establishes who is the top guy and intervenes to stop the bullying of Angelo. And when Luca and Lana spot each other, we know nothing good is going to happen. Then Dino has to be away for a night. The two would-be lovers are just about to consummate their lust when Dino unexpectedly returns. Luca barely escapes with his shoes...and uses the opportunity to finish off things with Angelo. Luca is just as happy to use male or female as long he's the one in charge. It's not long before Luca and Lana are discovered...and Dino has his head smashed in by a heavy wrench, first swung by Lana and then, with Lana urging him on, by Luca. They set things up so that Angelo takes the fall. While they spend Dino's money drinking and gambling, Angelo is assaulted in prison, but escapes with a guard's gun. He and Luca and Lana are going to meet again in front of the garage. Luca may be having a crisis of conscience, maybe even Lana, too. Is it going to do them any good? There are two things that make this ballet work. First, course, is Matthew Bourne's originality and choreography. The dance set pieces are vigorous and to the point, and when they need to show longing or lust, they do. Bourne often drives traditional ballet mavens up the wall. He is no traditionalist and he doesn't hesitate to use whatever dance styles do the job. He also loves to give traditional stories a twist, often but not always with an erotic element that has homo-erotic themes as well as hetero-erotic. When Luca and Lana first show their explicit lust for each other in front of the garage after Dino leaves, they are joined by the mechanics and their girlfriends. These are guys where "love" means their girl friends put out and then, afterwards, "Get me a beer." Bourne and his TV director Ross MacGibbon create a dark, hot dance where the sex is almost explicit in the cutting and becomes part of the dance. Toward the end there is a long duet between Luca and the bloody corpse of Dino which Lucas' conscience brought to the surface. The two dancers, Vincent and Ambler, create a stumbling, terrible vision of retribution on its way. Later, when Luca faces off with Angelo and meets his fate, there is a bloody, explicit kiss which really is shocking. The second thing that makes The Car Man work is the dancers. The women all look sexy and petulant. Lana has a figure that would make the real Lana Turner envious. Even more necessary for this ballet to work, Luca and the mechanics are genuinely tough-looking guys. They are highly skilled dancers but no one breaks the image, by either facial expression or movement, of being small-town, ignorant bullies. Scott Ambler, with a realistically padded stomach, plays Dino with as much acting skill as dancing skill. There also is no attempt to disguise unshaved underarms or hide the sweat the dancers generate dancing. The weather in Harmony is hot and humid. The place looks like it reeks of beer, sex and sweat. So do the dancers. While Bourne created The Car Man as a theater piece, he and MacGibbon have shot and edited it to be a cinematic experience. Traditionalists who want a camera positioned in front of the stage and then switched to automatic pilot will be displeased. Quick cutting at times, close-ups of glances, camera angles that give us far more immediacy than a theater seat would, and a tour-de-force of cutting, camera smears and sound that create the illusion of cars racing, all add up to a dynamic viewing experience. It really works in terms of dramatic tension and movement, and it obviously is exactly what Matthew Bourne wanted. For those who might be interested in Bourne's other work on DVD, try his great take on Swan Lake and his innocently naughty version of Nutcracker. His last major theater ballet to date is based on Edward Scissorhands. It finished its American tour a couple of months ago to terrific reviews. I hope the DVD is on the way soon. The DVD of The Car Man, by the way, has a great transfer. So can a ballet be considered a noir? When it's based on The Postman Always Rings Twice it can, especially when its as sexy, brutal and hopeless as Bourne makes it. Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake (Matthew Bourne) Tchaikovsky - Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! / Matthew Bourne, Anthony Ward

Matthew Bourne takes one of the most performed, most beloved (and cliched) operas and turns it in to a dynamic modern dance tour de force. Transforming the story from 19th century Spain to mid-20th century America brilliantly invigorates the story with new life. Adding cinematic touches of film noir and Alfred Hitchcock add suspense. Turning the traditional love triangle into a bisexual one further activates the plot. The quick cutting and constant camera movement, while supporting the suspense/film noir aspects, mar the superb dancing. When filmming dance the camera should hold on long shots that show the bodies and feet of the dancers. Perhaps more split screen or picture in picture could have been used innovatively to show both the dancers faces in close up and still maintain the view of the dance. Perhaps this DVD is too cinematic for hardcore dance aficionadoes, but for most people who love musicals, this is another wonderful work by Matthew Bourne.

I agree with some of the previous reviewers: this is Matthew Bourne at his best: he's a genius of a story-teller and choreographer. His Swan Lake has become a top notch variation on a classic ballet and his recent Nutcracker is bound to become the same. For those of us who have no chance of ever seeing this production staged in a theater, this DVD is not to be missed. I find watching it arousing (in the full meaning of the word), emotionally shattering, and ultimately cleansing in the manner of a classic tragedy. I agree with others of the previous reviewers: the nervous, MTV style camera work distracts from the dancing and the overall composition of this brilliant theater piece. In his commentary Bourne offers a sort of reasoning for the hyperactive cutting back and forth but it comes across as an after-the-fact attempt to save the integrity of his own work. There are indeed too many close-ups that prevent the viewer from seeing the dancers dance, and just as the eye settles on a movement the camera shifts. BUT I found that on second viewing I could watch sections of the DVD in slow motion without the sound track and could see and appreciate a lot more of Bourne's remarkable sense of pattern and movement and the terrific discipline and energy of the dancers. I give this DVD five stars because this is the only version I am ever likely to see and even with its directorial flaws it conveys the high artistry and erotic energy of not only Bourne's reworking of Bizet's Carmen but also the essence of the original opera. I think Bourne's work has staying power and that we will treasure his productions over the years, above all perhaps the magnificent Swan Lake. But where is the DVD of his Cinderella set in WWII London?

This is NOT your traditional ballet. It is, however, gripping and entrancing. The dancers are good, and the choreography imaginative. Our attention never wandered. The plot of this "auto-erotic" dance thriller is not totally linear, but it is clearly drawn. We are interested in the characters and their interactions. We find considerable beauty as well. My only quarrel with this presentation is the rapid cutting. I wish the camera had been able to linger longer without all the constant motion.

Reviews

I love this book! When I first thumbed through it, I noticed the captions. They are like little mini stories of each photo. This is a well written book that has heart, humor and honesty. I have never actually found a car book, until now, that appealed to me. Most car books are nuts and bolts, facts, and boring tech stuff. Not this one. You will love it, too. I have learned a lot while enjoying lovely photos and wonderfully told stories. A great coffee table book, to be sure.

This book is such a great automobile enthusiast book. If you are a fan of Shelby you will love this book. There is not many books out there that have as much information as this book does. I collect many of the Mustang and Shelby books, but by far this is my most favorite. As a fellow Shelby enthusiasts I strongly recommend this book to everyone. I think Colin Comer did a great job putting this book together and look forward to much more of his work. Hope everyone enjoys it.

I always take a book called "The Complete Book of..." with a grain of salt. I have never seen a book that really was complete. Until now, that is. This book is unbelievable. Either Mr. Comer has a crack team of researchers in his employment, or else the man possesses a freakish amount of knowledge about Shelby automobiles. Either way, the end result is the first "Complete Book of..." that really is the complete book on the subject. But the stellar quality of this book doesn't end with it's completeness. Normally I'd expect a book like this to read like an entertaining encyclopedia, and I wouldn't be disappointed with that. What I got instead was an extremely well-written--gripping, even--narrative that was as much fun to read as it was to look at, if not more so. It certainly functions as the repository of information that I expected (more-so, actually, since, for once, it really was complete, as advertised), but it also tells a hellaciously good story. As a whole package, this book is absolutely astounding.

This is the best book on the complete subject I have read. Highly recommended for the Shelby owner, admirer, or collector of authenic automobilia.

This is a book about Carroll Shelby and his cars. The author does a fantastic job writing about the Shelby legend of cars during the 1960's. There is not much about Mr. Shelby's racing world but the book focuses mostly on the 1963 to 1970's Shelby cars. I did not know much about Mr. Shelby before reading this book and now have a greater understanding of what he went through in building his cars. But, wanting to know all I could about Mr. Shelby and having the book titled, "Shelby", I was left wondering what happened to Mr. Shelby and his car company during the period of 1970 to 1980's. This book will not give you that information. I was left with lots of questions as to how his business ventured from 1970 to the early 1980's. How did he end up in Las Vegas? These answers are not in this book. Even though I loved reading the book and would recommend it easily, I was left at the end of the book with some disappointment. It seems the author ran out of paper to write what happened after 1970. I know Shelby Automotive is still operating in Las Vegas, but not much is said, in relative comparison with the first 2/3's of the book, about what happened after 1970. The author seems like he was rushing to get it over with. It is a very positive and glowing report of Mr. Shelby and his cars up to 1970's. Sure there are chapters about the 1980's to present but they felt rushed and incomplete.

Reviews

Great book, great guy. But... and there's always one of those, when Shel began racing he, like others, was an unknown and had to climb the ladder. When he arrived in England in 54 with a US Backed DB3S he arrived at Aston Martin in Feltam seeking help/support. It was here he met a young lady Doreen Sherwood (later to become Doreen Green), John Wyres Secretary. Doreen soon had Carroll sorted out, tell him racing here in England & in Eurpoe is far different than in America. Doreen took care of getting Carroll entered, start money & prize money. On the weekends when the Works cars werent racing Dickie Green would take off with Shel to keep the DB3S running... AT LeMans in 54 Carroll put the 3S in the sandbank and had to dig it out! To see this pic, [...] I first met Carroll at the Los Angeles Times GP at Riverside in 1958, i was only weeks old! The stories I've heard! WHat Carroll has now Carroll earned, every inch of it! Michael Green

First off, this book contains some great info about the man and the cars, as well as some good quotes. What bugged me was two things. One; the book is filled with grammatical errors and feels like its written in the style of a middle school research paper. ("In march, shelby placed in third place at such and such racetrack. In june, he won first place at this other racetrack. In august...") Secondly, the author CONSTANTLY cites other books written on Shelby. On the one hand, it's good that the author did his homework. But the sources are cited so often, you might as well just buy the other Shelby books. On a scale of pass, borrow, or buy, I would say borrow if you want to know everything about shelby, but if you're just a car fanatic like myself, there are plenty other (and better written) books about the topic, making this one an easy "pass".

While first reading this book I became horrified as I found errors in grammar, syntax, tense, spelling, you name it. It reads like a first draft that was never proofread. The most annoying aspect of the book is the "good 'ol boy" style of writing with repeated use of "Texan" sayings throughout, beginning on page one: "Carroll Shelby was born in 1923, in Leesburg, Texas, a town what folks down there in East Texas call a 'wide spot in the road.'" After about the 25th such "Texism," this one referring to a "skilletful of rattlesnakes," I was well and truly annoyed, and I'm a Texan. What's more, chapter nine is devoid of this writing style. It's more erudite and articulate, with no "Texisms." It's as if it were written by a different author. If you can get past these things, the book is actually a delight to read, giving the general reader an engaging, accessible overview of Shelby's life, his campaigns with the Cobras and Ford GT's, the building of the Shelby Mustangs, his dealings with Ford, life after Ford, the Shelby Series One, his battles with the Cobra clones, and his current adventures. I have read very many books and articles on Shelby and FIA racing in the 60s, and I am reasonably well informed on the subject. I found that the book covered the life and times of Shelby and his cars with general information that can be found in other books; but every once in a while I would uncover facts, events, and anecdotes that I had not read about before, giving me leads to research further and thereby adding to my knowledge base. For example, there is a reference to a one-off Cobra Coupe built by the A.C. factory for LeMans 1964 with a body very different from Shelby's coupes. There is also a brief mention of the Lone Star/Cobra III coupe, a one-off that was to be the successor to the Cobra. There are very few photos in the book,and none regarding these two cars, but with Google you can find photos and further information regarding the A.C. Cobra coupe and Lone Star as well as anything else mentioned in the book. If you can accept with good humor the writing and editing quirks, then you will enjoy this story, told in an informal, down-to-earth manner. For the general Shelby enthusiast, this book is entertaining and informative. The well-informed Shelby enthusiast will also find it a worthwhile read and hopefully unearth some new insights into Shelby's life, his times, and his cars.

One of the aspects that makes this book intriguing, is that it covers the time span from just before Shelby started racing, up to the point when the new GT500's started production. The book attempts to span roughly 60 years of Shelby's life - trying to cover them in just chapters or a condensed book naturally won't cover his entire history in depth. However an admirable attempt is made. Where this book falls short, & there is a huge weakness here, is it's quality - spelling, grammar, repeated words, use of both a current & past tense next to each other like he couldn't decide which one to use & forgot to go back & delete one of them, as well as historical & technical errors. If any book has ever called out for an editor & proofreading, this one is it! It would make the basis of a good first draft, if he had only had a proofreader or editor go over it & make the numerous corrections first. If one can look past the poor quality & errors, it makes for some interesting reading, as long as one doesn't attempt to take it as ultimate source for Shelby info.

I bought this book for my husband, a car fanatic. He was very disappointed. He said it was poorly written, not proofread at all, and he does not recommend it. We are avid readers, owning several hundred books, and he did not like this one at all. Get it if you are interested in Shelby but don't be disappointed by the poor quality of the writing.

Reviews

I thought they did a good job with this book. Lots of good pictures. I don't remember seeing another book that just covers the specialty dealers. They even have a few ads from the magazines from back then. I put 4 star because of price. Maybe it is still high because it is a newer book?

This is A Awesome book, I am not crazy about the $35.00 MSRP. but I did get it for a little cheaper($29). It should had more pages(160).. but its a nice hardcover. It features Corvettes As Well..Because Despite different opinions they should be included. Other than in the beginning of the book a mention about castro becoming "premier"? in 59'(the correct term would be dictator) other than that the book is flawless. sadly, focuses on 11 tuners. but nonetheless, Legendary : Yenko, Baldwin-Motion, Berger,Etc. The book represents all of Detroit (amc too). when cars were cars not wimpy PC Hybrids.When you can actually hear the engine,exhausts,etc. Great Cover, and Great cars, Including Modern: Saleen S7,Modern last gen Camaro, etc. Featuring the Greats, Corvette,Nova,Chevelle,Camaro,Firebird Blackbird,so much. Great Book. The best Muscle Car book In my belief Up unto now.

This is the best compilation of info on the Supercar dealers of the muscle car era. Very good on the dealer info, and, incredible photography.

I think the focus on dealer-prepped cars is good and a subject that was long overdue, but there are some mistakes that detract from the overall enjoyment of the book. I was surprised to learn that 1968 1/2 Cobra Jet Mustangs were available only as fastbacks, for example. I also felt there was too much emphasis on the newer incarnations of these cars. While seeing Berger's late-model Camaro creations is nice, they offered too many pages on this stuff.