The Shelby American (Winter 2016)

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The SHELBY AMERICAN Winter 2016 20
FORD TOTAL PERFORMANCE -
Ford’s Legendary High-Performance
Street and Race Cars by Martyn L.
Schorr. Hard-bound; 9 1/2 ̋x 11 ̋, 208
pages; 199 b&w photos, 136 color. Pub-
lished by MBI Publishing Co., Min-
neapolis, MN $45.00.
To understand the significance of
this book a little background is in
order. In the 1960s and 1970s, there
were three basic groups of automobile
magazines: the Big Boys ( Car and
Driver, Road & Track, Motor Trend,
Sports Car Graphic, Motorcade) which
tended to spotlight new cars, automo-
tive trends and sports car racing; the
west coast hot rodding magazines ( Hot
Rod, Car Craft, Rod & Custom, Speed
& Custom, Popular Hot Rodding); and
the east coast muscle car magazines
( Cars, Hi-Performance Cars, Speed &
Supercar, Super Stock & FX, SS &
Drag Illustrated). There was, of
course, some overlap but generally if
you knew the magazine’s title, you
knew its editorial viewpoint and the
content they provided.
The west coast hot rod magazines
were on the upscale side: slick layout,
sharp photos (initially printed in pale
green ink because it was cheaper),
good quality paper and first-rate writ-
ing for a bunch of “car guys.” The east
coast muscle car magazines were,
maybe, a half-step behind. They were
printed on rougher paper with a little
more grain in the pictures (most were
initially black-and-white) and the
writing, while literate, was more
straightforward.
Marty Schorr was always a car
guy but instead of burying himself
under the hood like his pals, he took a
liking to the printed word. In 1955 he
was the publicity director for a car
club in Yonkers, New York called the
Draggin’ Wheels. This was back when
hot rodders were trying to break out of
the stigma of being considered outlaws
and hooligans who raced at night on
the streets. That was mainly because
they raced at night on the streets.
Members of the Draggin Wheels
had a number of serious hot rods and
dragsters...but nowhere to race them.
The only place was on the streets. He
had a small Brownie camera and took
some pictures and sent them in with a
short article to Custom Rodder maga-
zine. They paid him $25 (over $200 in
today’s dollars) and that’s where his
writing career began. Soon he was
hired as the magazine’s editor for $100
a week. He attended college at night
studying English, writing, advertising
and public relations and during a
short stint in the army in 1959, he was
assigned to a photography lab where
his experience increased.
By 1961 Schorr was the editor of
Custom Rodder, Car,and Speed and
Style magazines. Instead of writing
puff pieces to satisfy advertisers of the
performance cars he was testing, he
adopted a brash, “tell-it-like-it-is”
style. Readership subsequently in-
creased and he soon found himself ed-
itorial director and then vice president
of the publishing company’s automo-
tive group. By the early 1960s Schorr
had created additional magazines and
eventually had titles aimed squarely
at Ford, Corvette, Mopar and Chevy
enthusiasts.
Marty Schorr has fifty years worth
of experience with performance cars.
He also has fifty years worth of photo-
graphs he took during that time. He
shares them in this book – some which
have been used before and others
which have not. For detail freaks it is
a treasure trove. The chapters are or-
dered by year, starting in 1961 and
running through 1971.
The time frame of this book is ba-
sically a historical look at Ford’s “Total
Performance” program, using some of
the most well-known cars as exam-
ples. However, included are photos and
details of some of the lesser-known
cars from this era. This book is like a
textbook of Ford’s Total Performance
campaign. The format allows a lot of
the photos to be reproduced in large
size making intricate period details
more visible.
There have been a lot of books
written about performance Fords. We
know, because we have a wall full of
book shelves filled with them. We are
happy to add Marty Schorr’s book to
our shelf. If you’re reading this review,
you will be, too.
The Antique Automobile Club of
America (AACA) has been holding
their annual fall meet in Hershey,
Pennsylvania since 1955. That first
year they had 400 entries for judging
and seven swap meet vendors – or
“Parts Peddlers” as they were called.
Today Hershey’s Fall Meet attracts
over judged 2,500 show cars and the
swap meet includes over than 10,000
vendors. There was a time, back in the
1960s, when Hershey’s cut-off was
1948. They didn’t even allow parts in
the swap meet newer than. As the cars
of the 1950s and 1960s increased in
popularity, Hershey’s exclusivity
spawned the Carlisle Swap Meet
which welcomed all parts. Hershey
blinked, and began allowing newer
and newer parts. Today they are using
a ‘70 Shelby on their 2015 event logo.
Wonder what those old-timers would
think?