If you’re a devoted Mopar enthusiast or simply a fan of the muscle car era, you won’t want to miss Geoff Stunkard’s beefy new volume,  Hemi : A History of Chrysler’s Iconic V-8 in Competition. Here’s MCG’s review. 

Geoff Stunkard is a hardcore Chrysler enthusiast, it goes without saying. Few can match his knowledge of or his passion for the Mopar muscle car era. And with decades of experience as an automotive writer and photographer, including a run as editor of Mopar Muscle magazine, Geoff was the guy to write this book, a definitive history of the Chrysler 426 Hemi V8.

Hemi: A History of Chrysler’s Iconic V-8 in Competition, produced by automotive publishing house CarTech, Inc., features 192 pages and more than 370 illustrations of solid 426 Chrysler Hemi history and lore, all presented in the familiar 8.5 x 11-inch CarTech format. At this point, a number of you gearheads have heard enough and you are already placing your orders.

Sample chapter page 

But before you go, we want you to know there’s a much more to this book. Because the author lives and breathes this stuff, you’ll find information and insights here you’re not going to find anywhere else. For instance: Geoff has tracked down all the rare factory parts and pieces from the Hemi years, the stuff that exists in legend as much as reality, and has included his own photos and notes on these special components, from cylinder head castings to ignition amplifiers. That’s devotion to his field, that’s genuine expertise, and he’s sharing it here.

And we are treated to amazing stories and anecdotes, from production secrets to never-before-shared bench racing tales—the real inside dish from Chrysler luminaries Tom Hoover, Herb McCandless, Don Garlits, and others. One way to evaluate an automotive book, especially if you read a lot of them like MCG does, is to make note of the number of times per chapter you find yourself thinking, “Wow, I didn’t know that.” On that basis, Hemi: A History of Chrysler’s Iconic V-8 in Competition has more than earned its place on the car enthusiast’s bookshelf.