As a child growing up at Fremont Drag Strip, the romanticism of drag cars of all kinds was huge to my little mind. Thinking back to those days makes you feel like the Funny Cars and Top Fuel Dragsters of the day were epic machines that were larger than life. That’s what “Saturday Forever” by Liam Garritty is all about. There are no words to read, just emotions to feel from looking at all these cool cars. We “know” they didn’t really look this extreme. But we sure “felt” like they did back then. The images in this book are beautiful examples of what we would have drawn if we had an ounce of artistic ability. The cars in this book are bitchin, and no surprise given the cool photos that Liam always takes at the March Meet and California Hot Rod Reunion. His photos are shot with pure art in mind, and we love it.

In fact, Liam sent us a bonus gallery of photos from the March Meet for you to enjoy. Click the link below to look at all of them.

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With this Corvette flopper, I would gladly go to hell and back.

When we asked Liam how he he actually created the book’s images, this is what he told us. “I do a basic sketch of the car with larger tires, blowers, spoilers, headers–basically, I make a caricature of the original car. Then I scan in my drawing and from there I use the original photo to get all of the colors, backgrounds to get the overall vintage feel.  From there I digitally paint over the original paint jobs and put in my own names, as well as changing the colors on some cars and adding or subtracting embellishments like flames. The end result is a tribute to the original car if you will. The icing on the cake is the ’70s looking graphic borders, like what you would have seen on T-Shirts, posters, bubble gum cards, and other art from that era. I finish it off with distressing, scratches and textures to really give it that vintage, beat up magazine look and feel.”

By true scale those tires have to be 40 inches tall. We don’t care, we love the look.

When I asked my 13 year old Cole what he thought of the book, his eyes got wide, and he asked “Is that what the Funny Cars really looked like back then? The Nostalgia Funny Cars now don’t look that crazy!” I of course laughed. And that response from him is exactly what I think Liam was going for in this book of images.

Can’t you see this on a hero card in 1978?

It’s a what if. It’s the romantic version of the cars we grew up loving. They are photographic cartoons that remind us of Zingers in a big big way.

When I got the book it came in a plastic sleeve, like a comic book would have come in, so that it’s protected and nice. It’s a book I’ll keep on the shelf and take care of because it is so cool. And looking at this book I can tell you that folks with little kids would most certainly want the coloring book version. Every other page being an outline of the car on the opposite page, would be an awesome thing that kids would love I think. They could become the next Liam Garritty and make up their own names for these mythical machines. After all, they have to look at John Force’s Castrol Mustang and think it looks like something beyond their wildest dreams, just like we did with Snake and Mongoose.

Big thanks to Liam for including BangShift.com on the back cover. We enjoy his work, and his photos, and want all of you to get online and order your copy of Saturday Forever.

If you want your own copy of Liam’s book “Saturday Forever”, you are in luck because Liam is selling them on his website, and you can check them out and pick one up at the link below. These would be a perfect birthday or Christmas gift, so grab yours now while the limited first run is still in stock.

FOR MORE OF LIAM’S GREAT PHOTOS, FOLLOW HIM ON FACEBOOK BY USING THE LINK BELOW.