Dragster Genesis: The formative years of fearsome acceleration

This is the story of drag racing's formative years, told through the feats of the people and cars involved. The simple format on a dragstrip was, and remains, two cars lining up in separate lanes to race over a straight course stretching a quarter of a mile, with the first to the other end declared the winner. The first drag racers, in 1949, were hot rodders in California whose early exploits led relentlessly to the development of the loudest and most powerful cars on earth, competing all over America and beyond. Little could those youthful tearaways have imagined that eventually cars with power outputs of 11,000 horsepower from V8 automobile engines would accelerate to over 300mph in under four seconds. Packed with authoritative information and high-quality illustration, this wonderful book explores the sport's evolution with insight and character, guaranteeing to captivate all motorsport fans.

* All the star performers of drag racing - Don Garlits, Don Prudhomme, Shirley Muldowney and Chris Karamesines - feature in the book, along with unsung heroes.
* From the innovative and influential to the offbeat and sometimes bizarre, dragsters in their bewildering variety are fully described and depicted in beautiful profile drawings.
* Flamboyant drivers with legendary nicknames: Dale 'The Snail' Emery, Don 'Big Daddy' Garlits, Chris 'The Greek' Karamesines, 'Jungle Jim' Liberman, Tom 'The Mongoose' McEwen, 'Slam'n Sammy' Miller, Don 'The Snake' Prudhomme, 'Sneaky Pete' Robinson and many more.
* Charismatic cars with renowned titles: 'Swamp Rat', 'The Blue Max', 'Freight Train', 'The World's Wildest Willys', 'Pure Hell', 'The Chizler' and 'The High & Mighty', to name just a few.
* Women drivers are included in the roll of honour: the best competed on equal terms with men and convincingly won at the highest level, with Brittany Force currently holding the world record for top speed and elapsed time in Top Fuel.

Hardback | 192 pages | Published February 2026