MARC record from Internet Archive

LEADER: 06066cam 2200829 a 4500
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003 OCoLC
005 20101011142712.0
008 930514s1994 mdua b 001 0 eng
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050 00 $aGV1029$b.P675 1994
082 00 $a796.7/2$220
100 1 $aPost, Robert C.
245 10 $aHigh performance :$bthe culture and technology of drag racing, 1950-1990 /$cRobert C. Post.
260 $aBaltimore :$bJohns Hopkins University Press,$cc1994.
300 $axxiii, 416 p. :$bill. ;$c27 cm.
440 0 $aJohns Hopkins studies in the history of technology ;$v[new ser., no. 16]
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [349]-398) and index.
520 $aDragsters are the fastest race cars on earth, capable of reaching 300 miles an hour in a quarter-mile sprint. With 5,000-horsepower engines that use a thunderous blend of nitro fuel, they accelerate in an awesome fury of smoke and flame. For those who love high drama and high-powered machinery, there is nothing to top big-time drag racing. Millions of fans flock to speedways in Pomona, Indianapolis, and other cities each year.
520 8 $aAnd though the rewards the winners reap seem paltry compared to the financial and physical risks they must run, top competitors often speak of drag racing as an addiction - getting hooked on "the sound of those engines and all that technology.".
520 8 $aHigh Performance is a dramatic, first-hand history of this daring sport, from the earliest "legal" drags run on rural airfields to the spectacular - and sometimes tragic - careers of drag racing's boldest innovators. Post, a former racer himself, was an eyewitness to many of the episodes he describes.
520 8 $aHe has interviewed most of drag racing's legends and superstars, such as "Pappy" Hart, who opened the first commercial strip in Santa Ana, California, in 1950, and Florida's "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, the first person to define himself as a professional drag racer. Post looks at all aspects of drag racing: the sport, the business, the means of personal affirmation.
520 8 $aBut most of all he explores it as an example of technological enthusiasm, tracking the innovations that permitted racers to disprove on pavement the "laws of physics" that experts had laid out on paper.
520 8 $aWhat emerges is a compelling look at the men and women who have devoted their lives to this extraordinary pursuit and a sensitive exploration of their motivations.
520 8 $aFrom Garlits, who served as role model and "top gun" to generations of racers, to Shirley Muldowney, who was nearly killed in a 250-MPH crash and returned to the cockpit two years later with the simple explanation, "It's what I do." From Richard Tharp, who wryly summed up dragging's notoriously small financial rewards this way: "Racin' may not be much, but workin' is nuthin'," to Mike Snively, who committed suicide at 31 with only one thing in his pocket: a handwritten list of his major wins.
520 8 $a"Drag racing is an activity with a history so brief that people still around were there at the start," writes Post. "They can recall how it began as a hobby among young men infatuated with speed and power - 'hot rodders,' they were called. They have seen it become a compelling spectacle with a complex web of commercial relationships. And they have seen women impelled into mainstream roles to a degree far beyond what prevails in most similar activities."
650 0 $aDrag racing$zUnited States$xHistory.
650 0 $aDrag racing$xSocial aspects$zUnited States.
653 0 $aRacing cars$aRacing$aHistory
653 0 $aUnited States
650 07 $aAutomobilsport$2swd
650 07 $aGeschichte 1950-1990.$2swd
651 7 $aUSA$2swd
776 08 $iOnline version:$aPost, Robert C.$tHigh performance.$dBaltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, c1994$w(OCoLC)622634319
856 42 $3Contributor biographical information$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/bios/jhu051/93004845.html
856 42 $3Publisher description$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/description/jhu051/93004845.html
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