High Performance: The Culture and Technology of Drag Racing, 1950-1990 (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)

This text traces the history of drag racing from the earliest "legal" drag runs in rural airfields to the spectacular - and sometimes tragic - careers of drag racing's boldest innovators. The author has interviewed most of drag racing's legends and superstars such as "Pappy" Hart, who opened the first commercial strip in Santa Ana, California; Florida's "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, the first person to define himself as a professional drag racer; and Shirley Muldowney, who was nearly killed in a 250 MPH crash and returned to the cockpit two years later with the explanation, "It's what I do". The book covers all aspects of drag racing: the sport, the business and the means of personal affirmation. Most of all, the author explores it as an example of technological enthusiasm, tracking the innovation that permitted racers to disprove on pavement the "laws of physics" that experts laid out on paper.