Chrysler’s true golden age of racing and performance came during the 1960s and early 1970s. This week’s literary selection, Proving Ground: A History of Dodge, Chrysler, and Plymouth Racing, looks not only at that era, but the years before it and all the way up to today. If you bleed B5 Blue, you need this book.
As the title suggests, this book is totally Mopar-centric. The history of the brands’ in NASCAR, drag racing, road racing, land speed racing, and other smaller genres are well covered. NASCAR history is the most well documented with great inside stories and history that you are not going to find in more broadly based books.
As drag fiends we kept an eagle eye out for the straightline stuff and we were not disappointed. Many pages are devoted to Mopar’s efforts in the Stock and Super Stock ranks and we found the most interesting section to be the extensive information on Chrysler’s devotion to Pro Stock and developing its technology to keep the teams it supported at the forefront of the class during the 1960s and 1970s. The work done with the Motown Missile as a development mule was very cool to read about.
If your automotive interests have nothing to do with Chrysler products, this book is not one for you. However, if you are like us and can appreciate great domestic performance history, you will get a lot of information and enjoyment out of this book. It is not a typical love fest on the wing cars or a book that devotes the entire drag race section to the Hemi ‘Cudas and Darts. Instead it is a very measured look at a company who epitomized “Maximum Performance” for several decades of American motoring.
This book can be found at Motorbooks and at your local booksellers.
