Factory Lightweights

Detroits Drag Racing Specials of the 60s. Among racers it has never been a secret that a lighter car is a faster car—particularly in drag racing. When Detroit’s automakers got involved in organized drag racing, they paid heed to this principle, issuing a series of rare race-only cars that became legends in their own time. Unbound by warranty and durability concerns, these wild cars featured lightweight additions such as fiberglass and aluminum body parts, Plexiglas windows, and many more weight-saving tricks. Under their hoods were wicked, raucous engines that only felt at home on the quarter mile. Factory Lightweights: Detroit’s Drag Racing Specials of the ‘60s chronicles these rare cars that still inspire admirers and imitators today. Cars like the Ford Fairlane 427 Thunderbolt, Pontiac’s Super Duty Catalina, Dyno Don Nicholson’s Chevy II Wagon, and a whole assortment of Hemi-powered Mopars, sit at the top of the heap when you’re talking about the fastest American muscle cars produced during the 1960s. Limited numbers of these cars were produced and very few still survive today. Charles R. Morris tells the complete story of these remarkable drag racing specials. The book explains how the Big Three came to build these insane cars and describes, in detail, the cars and engines that helped make the 1960s such a unique era in drag racing history. A huge collection of period photographs, many previously unpublished, captures the spirit of the times and shows readers how these cars looked as they ran—particularly important, given that so many of them have been lost to history.