Book Titles
 

How to Build Max Performance Pontiac V-8s (Jim Hand)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg

How to Build Max-Performance Pontiac V-8s (Rocky Rotella)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA300_.jpg

An added hyphen between "Max" and "Performance", and some differences in upper-case vs. lower case. A little lacking in the selection of title. At least one is red and the other is blue. S-A Design is apparently run by morons.




S-A Design also wants to charge "Printed in USA" prices for "Printed in China" merchandise.

Glad to have the information, glad to have Pontiac get some ink...but S-A Design must have incredible profit margins.

The blue version from Rocky looks different then the one I got, did they change the cover already? Or am I trippin, I am not by my books.
Also don't know about the profits, but how many of those books do they sell? Not like Chevy guys are buying them.

Are you thinking of his REBUILD book?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg

SA Design seems to have two levels of pricing:

The $10 Chinese books with about 140-150 pages retail for $25.

The $12 "Pro line, 175 page" Chinese books retail for $30.

The Amazon "discount" pricing is still no bargain.

Yes I am but it still looks different. How long has the max performance by Rocky been out?

I've heard that the new "How to build Max-Performance Pontiac V-8's" by Rocky Rotella is an updated revised version of Jim Hand's book. Not to be confused with the "How to Rebuild Pontiac V-8's by Rock Rotella."

This would make sense, Jim made a public announcement earlier this year that he was done giving technical advice.

more details
 

till you specified this "Not to be confused with the "How to Rebuild Pontiac V-8's by Rock Rotella."
i was thinking of Rocky's this bookhttp://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg



being the same as the new one then...

Thanks for posting this, Shurkey. It gives me a chance to explain/clarify what’s going on.

As we know, Jim Hand authored How To Build Max Performance Pontiac V-8 and it was released in 2004. About 4 years back, CarTech approached Jim and explained that they wanted to update the book to their current standards, which included full color photos and revising the text adding popular aftermarket parts that had been introduced since its debut.

When Jim took his photos, he set the camera to the black & white mode to provide maximum clarity in print (various colors can affect the contrast), so he didn’t have the any color photos. CarTech asked if he could reshoot all the photos, but because of his age and condition at the time, he wasn’t interested and suggested that CarTech contact me.

They explained to me that they wanted to include the popular aftermarket parts, but couldn’t increase page count. They told me to work with Jim to determine what existing content could be deleted to make room for the new content. Jim really didn’t want to do that because it might alter the original intent of his book, and ultimately declined the update. CarTech told Jim that it would force them to create a new Max Performance book down the road and Jim understood what that meant. Basically his book would go away.

CarTech asked me if I’d be interested in taking that project on. They felt Jim’s book still had some shelf life left and saw the need for a basic Rebuild book for Pontiac’s so they asked that I first author How To Rebuild Pontiac V-8s and then follow that up with Max Perf.

HTR Pontiac V-8s was introduced in April 2011. It originally had a yellow cover but shortly after the release they revised the cover to make it more appealing. I was able to make a few changes internally, but the content of the old and new print books are practically identical. The changes were mostly grammatical.

HTB Max Performance Pontiac V-8s was completed a couple of months ago and it’s expected to hit bookshelves October 15, 2012. I don’t know how long they plan to keep Jim Hand’s book available, but the new Max Performance print is quite a bit different than Jim’s original version as it follows CarTech’s current presentation approach.

Hope that helps!

Mark,

It's best to say that the new Max Performance book is completely different than Jim's version.

It does include every cylinder head casting readily available today (or at least at the time of writing!), as well as aftermarket blocks, rotating assemblies, valvetrain, intake/carbs, etc.

Not that Jim's book is incorrect by any means, but mine includes an approach that's popular today. Basically, you'll see the components commonly used in today's performance builds, some of which weren't necessarily available when Jim was writing his.

Amazon shows Jim's book as out of stock.
(though some can be bought through 3rd party sources, one being $999!)
:eek:

Amazon has Rocky's book as being available in Oct (as said)

How To Build Max Performance Pontiacs

:)

Hopefully it'll be a good read.

:)

Let's not overlook Don Keefe's new GTO Resto book!

http://www.amazon.com/Restore-Pontia.../dp/1934709697

Do the aftermarket suppliers provide incentives to be included?

Not unless you consider it a lighter wallet when shipping the parts back!

Hi Rocky,

Sorry if I am being dense....I just want to clarify. Does this new book only focus on the new aftermarket parts, or does it contain new technical info that is not it Jim's original book and not in your rebuilding book?

Thanks

I have Jim's Max Performance book, and Rocky's HTR book already. Sounds like I should get Rocky's new one, too. I'll see if I can do a pre-order from Amazon.

Michael,

No problem clarifying it further for you.

While there may be some similarities, I think you’ll find it quite a bit different than Jim’s book or my Rebuild book.

The material I prepared follows the new direction CarTech is going with its How-To books. That doesn’t suggest Jim’s book is incorrect or outdated. Times have changed since Jim wrote his book and there’s been a huge surge of aftermarket Pontiac parts that are commonplace in modern builds, so we covered those as well as the factory parts that are suitable for high performance use.

Each chapter is dedicated to a specific area of the engine. There was a complete step-by-step assembly procedure but it was edited out due to space constraints. There are a number of very high performance engine build recipes in it too.

Oh hey... a complete step-by-step assembly procedure would be great for a guy like me... Who owns the rights to those?

The book pictured here:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...SH20_OU01_.jpg

Thanks Rocky, sounds like another book I will need to add to my library!