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"Factory Lightweights"- The Book

Our good friend, Charles Morris, has written one of the most interesting and compelling books ever written about the sport of Drag Racing. We are fortunate to own and even offer some of the cars described in Charlie's book. Anyone who loves the "Golden Age of Drag Racing" needs to own the book "Factory Lightweights". We also suggest Charlie's new book "Ford Drag Team", which goes in depth to document the careers and cars of some of the sports greatest heroes and most colorful personalities. Morris's latest endevor is "Thunderbolt" which documents the story of what was arguably Fords' most successful drag race car. And his book "Total Performance" has been a staple for years as it documents the history of Ford's rise to great racing success in the early and mid sixties.

Order direct from Charles R. Morris @ 732-830-0636 or Email him @ CharlieMorris406@AOL.COM

"Factory Lightweights"

For a special time during the 1960's, competition between Detroit's car manufacturers extended to the drag strips of America, as the Big Three (plus AMC) did everything within the limits of the rules - and, sometimes, beyond-to outperform each other in the hope that racing success would lead to showroom sales. For some, a properly completed option sheet was all that was needed to score a fire breathing, fiberglass-skinned quarter mile beast. Other factory-sourced lightweights were provided secretively to select racers, sometimes through a middleman in order to maintain "deniability" for the manufacturer. It was never a secret, however, that factory lightweight cars were fast, as elapsed times dropped and mile-per-hour figures rose weekend after weekend, year after year.

In Factory Lightweights: Detroit's Drag Racing Specials of the 60's, author Charles R. Morris revisits the era's fast times and fascinating cars, providing extensive descriptions of the exclusive parts that made these cars so unique- and so quick. He colors his text with insight into the interesting personalities of the sport and tells stories that will make you feel like you are in the staging lanes with the racers and cars that made the 60's the most fondly remembered era of drag racing.

"Ford Drag Team"

Ford expert and veteran drag-racing author Charles R. Morris has written the definitive book covering the members of the Ford Drag Council and Drag Team of the 1960's, perhaps the most important decade in Ford performance history.

In writing Ford Drag Team, Morris performed candid, one-on-one interviews with Ford drag racing legends like our deceased heros Phil Bonner, Hubert Platt, and Bill Lawton. Other famous team members Al Joniec, Ed Terry and Randy Payne were also interviewed. Of Course, Drag Team captain Dick Brannon provided great insight into Fords racing program. Morris also collected factory documents and race reports and scoured the earth for photos and statistics to document the full story of the drag racing pioneers.

Ford Drag Team is your opportunity to get the true story, directly from those who made the history from behind the wheel and behind the scenes. You'll learn how this talented group of individuals from diverse backgrounds came together to make motorsports history that should never be forgotten.

"Total Performers"

The 1960s was arguably the most important decade for drag racing. It had exciting cars, thrilling races and most importantly, factory participation. Among the best high-performance cars and engines were those coming from Dearborn, Michigan. Ford Motor Company's "Total Performance Years" saw a breakthrough as drag racing helped the younger, performance- and style-conscious consumer to begin receiving some recognition. Factory participation in drag racing pushed the envelope for high performance developments. Ford's FE-series engine, Police Interceptor, GT 390, Single Overhead Cam, Cobra Jet, and Boss 429 are all covered in detail. See the cars and the drivers that made them famous - Dick Brannan's Goldfinger, Bill Lawton's Mystery Mustang. "Dyno Don" Nicholson's Eliminator Comet. Gas Ronda's stretched Mustang, Al Joniec's Batcar and more. Accomplished Journalist and life-long Ford aficianado Charles Morris takes you back to the Total Performance Years through first-hand accounts as well as over 400 rare photographs. A drag racer since 1966 Morris has run cars in both Stock and Super Stock classes. He is currently the owner of the original Norristown Ford 1963 lightweight Galaxie and races the car in Nostaglia Super Stock as part of the 422 Motorsports Drag Team. This book is a must read for all drag racing fans, not just Ford enthusiasts.

"THUNDERBOLT"

Ford's Fairlane 427, affectionately known as the "Thunderbolt," effectively announced Ford's arrival as a serious player on the stock drag racing scene in 1964. Whereas Ford had enjoyed some success with far heavier full-sized cars and ambitious private competitors like Dick Brannan, with the Thunderbolt the Blue Oval brought Brannan into the fold and made a concerted effort to rule the quarter mile with a purpose-built, factory-supported racecar. This book tells the whole story of this landmark car.

The Thunderbolt combined Ford’s mid-size chassis with its powerful big-block engine to become Ford’s most successful drag racer. The momentum gained with the Thunderbolt project established Ford’s drag racing pedigree, which it soon applied to its new Mustang. While the Mustang has carried Ford’s performance reputation forward to today, true Ford fans fondly remember the Thunderbolt and a time 50 years ago when it dominated drag strips from coast to coast.

DETROIT MUSCLE

The muscle car era, and the era that immediately preceded it, are a unique window in time; it is one that we will not likely see again. Post-war USA was a place where people wanted to move on from the horrors of conflict, to embrace an era of peace, and to pursue, well, all sorts of things. A whole generation was entering a new prosperity, with home ownership on the rise, gainful employment increasing, the building of suburbs, and a new interstate system connecting everyone. That all helped increase our dependence upon, and in turn, deepen our love affair with the automobile.

It started in the 1950s, when automakers realized that if they made their cars more powerful than brand X and won races on the weekends as well, sales would follow those victories into the dealership. Not everybody was enamored with all this new-found performance, however, and throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s, a struggle developed between building faster automobiles and appearing responsible and promoting the cause of safety. This led to racing participation on an all-out corporate level, followed by voluntary self-imposed and publicized bans, back-door cheating on said bans, and then investing in performance again.

A byproduct of all this activity was some really fascinating and exciting cars. It began with standard-chassis cars growing bigger and including more powerful engines. Then they graduated to being lighter, putting big engines into mid-size chassis (muscle cars), and building race cars that barely resembled anything on the street. Detroit Muscle: Factory Lightweights and Purpose-Built Muscle Cars follows the evolution of the fastest, most powerful, and exciting vehicles of the era, in both drag racing and NASCAR. From early Hudson Hornets, to the birth of the Hemi, to aluminum and fiberglass panel sedans, to lightweight special-order muscle cars ready to race from the factory.

Newest addition to the Charles Morris collection.

Charlie Morris has been a die-hard Ford fan from the day he watched the 1960 Daytona 500 and decided it was the Blue Oval for him. A long-time fan of any style of racing that Ford products participated in, his personal experiences have been in drag racing. He has raced a 1954 Ford in M/Stock and a Super Stock 1962 Ford, crewed an Alcohol Funny Car and a Pro-Stock Ford Thunderbird, and was the engine builder/crew chief for a championship-winning 1963 1/2 Nostalgia Super Stock Galaxie. He is the author of three previous books focusing on drag-racing Fords. Charlie resides in Normandy Beach, NJ, with his wife, Gale.

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