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Snake vs Mongoose
by Tom Madigan
ABOUT THE BOOK
Don "The Snake" Prudhomme in his Barracuda. Tom 'The Mongoose" McEwen in his
Duster. The "Snake vs.
Mongoose" racing feud had been making headlines long before they got their
Funny Cars, but it wasn't until they made
a deal with Mattei that drag racing became the multimillion-dollar business
that it is today. Happily co-opted by Mattei,
the rivalry described in Snake VS. Mongoose was nonetheless real. Author Tom
Madigan tells the story from the
beginning, when engine builder Ed Donovan, with a nod to "The Jungle Book,"
dubbed his driver "The Mongoose"--the
one creature who could strike faster than a Snake. The book chronicles the
bad press, the toe-to-toe standoffs, and
some of the best races in drag racing history. And within that story,
Madigan captures the transformation of drag
racing from the gritty, gut-driven sport of the 60s into the full-fledged
money-making machine of our day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Madigan has been part of the California motorsport culture since the
beginning. He not only competed against
drag racing's pioneers, he has been writing about motorsports since the
1960s as a contributor for Motorcade
magazine, a feature editor for Popular Hot Rodding magazine and the author
of several books, including Fuel and
Guts: The Birth of Top Fuel Drag Racing and Edelbrock: Made in the USA.
MY COMMENTS
There has been so much written about
these two that one don't think he can find out anything new and then along
comes Tom Madigan's account and lots of new facts are brought to light. I
thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, as I have all the others that Tom has
written and the photography is second to none. I lost count but there are
hundreds of both color and black and white photos a lot of which have rarely
if ever been seen before by some of the best lensmen to ever visit a
dragstrip.
These two most certainly changed drag racing forever by getting the large
corporations involved, but according to your point of view it is a question
of whether they should be credited with it or blamed with it. At any rate
this is a book you should own and read. I recommend and endorse it and
congratulate Motorbooks for their continued effort to help record the
history of drag racing and motorsports in general.
George D. Crittenden
Nitrogeezers.com
ABOUT MOTORBOOKS AND QUAYSIDE
PUBLISHING GROUP
Motorbooks, an imprint of Quayside Publishing Group, is the world's leading
publisher of automotive, motorcycle and
motorsport books for enthusiasts. For over 40 years, Motorbooks has
published award-winning books by the world's most talented authors and
photographers in the subject category.
Motorbooks
A division of Quayside Publishing Group
400 First Avenue North, Suite 300
Minneapolis, MN 55401
www.motorbooks.com
Order yours today from Motorbooks or
Amazon.com
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