If you’re a fan of automotive photography, Art of the Muscle Car by David Newhardt and Peter Harholdt is a nice addition to any muscle car fan’s book collection, if not coffee table. If you’re looking for facts and figures, however, you can find other books that are more accurate.

Brock Yates introduces the book, using nostalgia to imply that the greatness of the muscle car era ended when, “Ralph Nader and his merry band of buffoons were in full cry, and federal restrictions were being enacted against automakers.”

However, something must have happened between the book’s completion and editing because there are some glaring inaccuracies. For example, there’s a ’66 El Camino being touted as a ’69. A ’70 Javelin Trans Am is touted as an AMX. A ’72 Javelin represented as a ’71. And a ’70 Olds 4-4-2 appears as a ’71. We know enough to identify these mistakes, but will someone else?

No new ground is broken with the copy either. In fact, maybe you’ll be surprised to learn that the 1969 Shelby GT-500 was a 17-second car. Or that the ’65 “Z16” Chevelle Super Sport came with the L78 motor (it’s a unique L37 motor).

Art of the Muscle Car‘s saving grace is the photography. All the featured cars were taken in a photo studio, and all cars are prime specimens of the major players in the evolution of the muscle car: ’64 GTO, Z16 Chevelle, HEMI Mopars, Shelby Mustang, COPO Camaro, Talladega and Cyclone Spoiler II, Charger Daytona, LS6, HEMI ‘Cuda, and Super Duty Trans Am, among others.

Notable cars like Max Wedges and 409s are noticeably absent, which may irk some although we suspect the plan was to show the evolution of the muscle car beginning with Pontiac (1964 GTO) and ending with Pontiac (1974 Super Duty).

All told, there are 47 cars featured, and they are nicely divided into three parts:

– The Innocent Years
– The Excessive Years
– The Declining Years

We believe many of the cars to be from Tim and Pam Wellborn’s Wellborn Musclecar Museum in Alabama, which is renown for their assortment of ’71 HEMI Chargers. If Art of the Muscle Car is based solely on his collection, the book is worth it on that alone. As a picture book, it’s also a great addition to the library. If you’re a quasi-historian like me, focus on the photos and you’ll be a much happier enthusiast.