From about 1980-2005, my dad had subs to various car magazines. The only consistent sub was Autoweek, the rest cycled between C&D, R&T, and Automobile.
When I asked why he did this, the response was basically that Autoweek was for following races and the classified ads. The others were for actually reading.
I believe Crain still owns Autoweek. If/when the agreement with Hearst ends, I wonder if they’ll do anything with the name.
I know this space fairly well; you probably do, too (if you still read WIRED).
There is no reason to pay - outside of optics - when you can just steal it and (maybe) pay a fine later. It’s not as if the knowledge of all of Autoweek’s archives could be unscrambled from the egg that tomorrow’s ChatGPT could represent. Too late.
I remember the anti prole sentiment at Car&Driver, where they advocated for higher taxes on the common motorists, I don’t think I renewed my subscription after that editorial. I think that writers like Patrick Bedard, once gone were what killed print magazines, Bedard was exceptional, Yates was not, I don’t remember liking Dutch, I remember Autoweek going downhill, really sad that we can’t have objective writing about cars and drivers, given the very diverse nature of the subject. Riverside Green and this substack are the exception in this game.
Brock Yates made me angry at least half the time he wrote something.
He was also probably my favorite autojournalist until Jack came along. He was who he was, and wrote whatever he wanted to write (or at least that's how it appeared to a smart-mouthed kid from flyover country). He was something of a hero to me, in the sense that he apologized to no one. I took inspiration that a man could find his way through life saying what he thought and letting the chips fall where they would.
I LIKED Peter Egan (and his spiritual successor, Sam Smith), but I found myself reading and rereading the stuff Yates and the rest of that collection of C&D writers in the Csaba Csere-era C&D put out, when it truly was the irreverent, seemingly independent bad-boy of the car rag world.
He's in Hagerty, I believe, having returned there on a sort of freelance basis. There was an opportunity at "The Intercooler" that a few people wanted me to do but I think the ownership liked Sam better -- who can blame them? -- so he is also part-timing there.
Sam and Zach Bowman are both in the running for Egan's chair. But Bowman is doing Dirt Hammer now (SxS classifieds) since he did an editing gig at a SxS magazine for a while. Hopefully it's because he wants to and he's got a vintage Jeep affliction to feed in addition to a fam.
I wish they would both write long form stuff and put it anywhere but a mag masthead. They're both nice IRL.
I wanted to like Zach Bowman, but then his year-long "camping in a truck trailer" kinda' petered out without so much as a whimper.
There was waaaay too much navel-gazing about his marriage (which he seemed intent to destroy), and nowhere near enough getting stuck 47 miles (as the crow flies) from civilization. In the end, it felt like a way to get other people to pay for a kind of boy/man catharsis cum road-trip.
I was hoping for so very much more, and then it was done.
With non-fic writing there's no way to separate the writer from the writing. So, if you don't like a guy then you don't want to read him. I've had certain auto writers wag a finger at me for being here and taking part in Jack's stuff.
For all I know David Freiburger is a wife beating, alcoholic, drag queen whose stage name is Jungle Pam. I don't care. A lot of people would be heartbroken or just the opposite, but that's parasocial relationships for you.
I'm just saying Zach is a good writer up there with Egan. What I would add to that is we're now coming out of the other side of the squeaky clean TV entertainment tunnel where mag writers turned hosts were groomed to be these cardboard standup "media personalities." And now everyone has a boring podcast. Maybe there's room, now that MT and others have gone tits up, for the guys who didn't make the cut for the Beverly Hills ad agencies that managed "The Company" in its various iterations like Ten or Primedia, or whatever. And now maybe we can get stuff by real guys who have fucked up and, like Brock, say "Hey, this is who I am. Take it or leave it."
If readers have the balls to buy content from real people, like our host here, then Zach probably fits nicely in there. Especially now that he's older and wiser. Maybe that whole crowd like him, Sam, Jack, etc. would make a nice bullpen for a *real* car mag the likes of which we haven't seen since the dopey chopper craze hit and reality TV weaseled its way in to everything.
I probably meet 10 or more successful novelists a year who are half as good at writing as Zach.
I was just downstairs working on my car, so I might have mild CO poisoning. So, I hope this makes sense. I'm not saying you're right or wrong. Obviously you have a right to your own opinion and feelings about it.
I was bummed when you left R&T, happy when I found you had started at Hagerty, then double happy when you got Sam over there as well. Basically never went to R&T again after that, now I don't visit either.
Csere's first column as Editor of C&D mentioned the pronunciation of his name like this: (pronounced Csere) and I can remember having hope that C&D was in good hands.
Brock un-kicked me out of One Lap after his weird porno-stache son kicked me out. I liked him. He spoke his mind. He was perhaps too transparent about his desire to be a New York Literary Someone, but I can't hold that against him.
That makes me glad to hear (that he wasn't a closet narcissist or drama-queen). He wrote in a very straight-up, "everybody's entitled to my own opinion" style, which I appreciated as a kid who thought everybody should care to hear the echo of each random thought passing through my head
.. and yes -- I'd suppose the David E. Davis syndrome was pretty thick back in the day. Now THERE'S a guy who is revered, whom I never cared for. He was too smug by half.
We have been in the Eddie era since he became EIC. He micromanages the magazine behind the scenes and to my knowledge has made each and every decision of even minor significance to the present day.
As someone who reads the chattering class media and listens to the important podcasts* - to your chagrin - I have a reasonable understanding of how Condé Nast and Hearst operate and what their respective corporate goals are.
In my belief the ONLY reason that R&T and C&D exist today - AT ALL - is as part of the sales funnel for BaT. Motor Trend is now part of that grouping too. Why not sell off some of those dead if not valueless brands?
*Ex-Hearst Troy Young’s “People vs Algorithms” podcast is excellent!
"Why not sell off some of those dead if not valueless brands?"
Because someone else would revive them and use them to fill THEIR funnels, obviously. I remain fascinated by the utterly pathetic travel packages they offer. Just fifteen grand to drive around behind Daniel Pund!
I think that beginning in the late 80’s, there was a coordinated effort by multiple groups to push sustainability, the magazines all started pushing for mass transit and egalitarian policies to push people out of their cars, while not successful, that was the push.
For the most part, they were college graduates educated in leftist politics and economics, if they could write about automotive, they could write about just about anything.
The argument was that if we had higher cost per gallon, e.g. europe, then people would choose to drive more fuel efficient cars (if they needed them), and thus CAFE could be abandoned.
I could get behind this. Why should a little old lady who only drives 5 miles to church on sunday be forced to (over-)pay for all kinds of expensive fuel saving technologies that will never pay themselves back?
"a bizarre rant about how fat and stupid Americans are"
i feel like these tend to originate from people who have never encountered anyone else on more than a surface level. its grating
"a two-page “Father’s Day Gift Guide” full of worthless garbage"
arent they all though
"No, this isn’t Tuscany"
BE IN AWE OF HOW WORLDY AND CULTURED I AM
"It’s even worse when you consider that your humble author is 6’2″ and 230 pounds, certainly no lightweight himself and perhaps not ideally suited to make fun of other fat people"
but youre not anymore which means you can
"The car culture of the United States is equal to, or superior to, that of any country in the world, and we have the racetracks, the autocross courses, and the vintage festivals to prove it"
Height and weight make for crap measurements of physical fitness, I gotta say. Schwarzenegger was an inch shorter and five pounds heavier at the Olympia. Wasn't nobody calling that dude fat.
The irony of Labor Day is not lost on any union working man in the skilled trades.
It is one of the Big 6: NYD, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The common thread of those holidays is that while the journeymen and apprentices take the day off, they do so without pay.
Please allow the irony of that to sink in. Union workers are forced to take a day off without pay... to celebrate union labor.
I've never had a paid day off in 45 years of working or in 62 years of living, but as the owner of the shop-- I give my guys 8 hrs pay for Labor Day (as well as 2- 3 weeks of PTO) because it seems like the right thing to do.
I always wanted to get paid to go to Europe, drive cars too fast, and come home and write about it. I'll content myself with going to Portugal in 6 days, paying for it myself, and resting secure in the knowledge that the guys I give more to than their collective bargaining agreement says I must will be taking care of my business while I'm gone.
The street runs both ways, gentlemen. Happy Labor Day.
Ive never been to europe and i dont feel like i am missing much. One day we will go but in the meantime i will enjoy driving my family all over the USA to places we havent seen yet. Heck, maybe even go back to the country that banned jack baruth.
I dont want to put 4 kids under six on a 12 hour flight. We mostly stick the the midwest and west. Havent been to florida in a bit. Sadly i agreed to disney next year
I just got back from a road trip to the Gilmore Car Museum which is just outside of Kalamazoo, a mere 3 hours from you. I don’t think your girls would be interested in it, but maybe there’s a lake resort nearby that the kids would enjoy while Dad is at the museum.
It’s a fantastic museum. There’s so many cool cars there that I experienced automotive sensory overload for the first few hours I was there. I’m definitely going back.
I timed my trip to be there for one of their outdoor events, in this case an orphan car show. I heard that their Wednesday night cruise-ins get hundreds of cars.
The French are generally extremely polite, save in Paris (and maybe some tourist hot spots on the south coast). But they will think you rude if you don't greet everyone with a definite "Bonjour!"
I’ve been 3 times (France/Spain, France, and Italy), and I think you are missing out. I like to make fun of the lazy smelly Euros too, but you owe it to yourself to see how others live. They have the right idea in a number of ways.
But leave your crotch goblins at home. Mine haven’t been yet. If I can find a spare $15-20k I may bring them next year. We’ll see.
It is beyond amusing to me that you guys work yourselves into a frenzy about my personal life, something to which I rarely if ever make reference (one way or another).
Great call. I was struck last time I was there that they’re all proud of their countries, yet they all willingly gave up their sovereignty to the EU. And they didn’t realize the obvious contradiction.
We’re pipefitters (Steamfitters 353), but we’re in the commercial refrigeration service business— supermarket cases and cold storage warehouses. We do just enough commercial HVAC to be happy it’s not the main line of business.
Hey, Jack, out of a clear blue sky and because I may not remember this again, ever, I want to share with you my only automotive world celebrity sighting. It was Gentleman Jim Kimberly and the occasion was the set of a 50's TV show entitled You Asked For It. I was there because of a nominal involvement in an activity of no great significance and he was there because of his prominence in motor racing. He was a great looking guy, thin with silver hair and handsome features. He was also very wealthy, his family controlled Kimberly-Clark the manufacturers of Kleenex.
Autoweek back in the 60's and 70's was fuel for dreams. I wanted to buy or at least sit in every old racecar in the classified section. That and the JC Whitney catalogs. My father wouldn't spring for the dune buggy exhaust on his Beetle.
JC Whitney accessories live on at Porsche. Every time I see the latest 911 “limited edition”, all the exterior doodads Porsche plasters on their cars to make them “special” just reminds me of JC Whitney catalog add-ons. I’m just waiting for Porsche to slap some chrome ventiports on their front fenders.
My grandparents had the bobble head dog and the plastic seat covers with the little triangles. Also the beanbag ashtray and of course the praying hands.
I subscribed to R&T, C&D, and Autoweek back in the day.
It was always fun to read the classifieds and see “Corvette Vicki” in the back.
I can’t remember what year they went to shit, but I remember Autoweek turning to shit overnight.
When they no longer published weekly, that’s when I finally stopped subscribing.
I haven’t subscribed to any of the “Buff Books” for years.
I was very pleased to discover you, Jack, online somewhere. I couldn’t believe it, here was a guy who really knows how to write, and whose opinions seem to mirror mine. I was thrilled.
I then actively sought out your writing, and then lost track of you, and then somehow discovered this forum and your writing again.
Oh, happy day!
Thanks for this blast from the past and the insight into Autoweek.
“Breakfast shifting, not double clutching like you should. Now me and the mad lasagna have to rip apart the block and replace the pepperoni rolls you just fried”
As a weekly broadsheet Autoweek couldn't be beat for up to date F1 and IndyCar racing along with automotive stories on par with the monthlies and columnists I always looked forward to reading. Leon Mandel had a walk on role in my favorite Paul Newman movie
https://youtu.be/kidFHfSJhd4?si=DUg9-icnOkkXBnQg and the Grande Dame of automotive journalism published the only collection of columns that-even though I have a wide variety which include among others Peter Egan, DED Jr, Sam Smith, PJ O'Rourke and an utterly forgettable compilation Never Stop Driving-I still regularly pull from it's bookcase and revisit. Matter of fact in memorium I'll be heading up to grab that now and put on some Dave Brubeck for accompaniment (even though I suspect she fucked Miles).
....his eyes look like a two-player game of “Marble Madness”...
Nice reference. I really liked that game. At our local bowling alley, I spent many of my mom's quarters having my marble dissolve in acid on the second maze. Either that or it got eaten by the worm.
I met Sig in Chicago in 2019 or so. He was in town to promote his latest coffee table tome, and he expected each of the three standout private cigar clubs in the city to (1) host him, (2) hold an event in his honor, and (3) provide him with plenty of free cigars for his troubles.
So: On one beautiful autumn Saturday in Chicago, I found myself sitting in a four person seating area with my extremely rotund trustafarian friend taking up one seat, and his various accoutrements taking up another.
Sig joined us, uninvited. He was wearing a voluminous suit and the Lanvin sneakers that were hip at the time in NYC media circles. He was in the midst of his book signing “event,” and it appeared that the cigar club had not done any work to promote his presence, given ZERO people had shown up to shake his hand, take a selfie, or buy a $1,000+ coffee table book. This was deeply embarrassing to him. He passed the time by talking down to us (we were about 30 at the time).
At one point, he bemoaned the cost of living in New York and said “Wow, Chicago is so much cheaper than New York. You guys have it so easy! New York is tough. I mean, I have friends who are millionaires, and they still struggle.”
Immediate, involuntary eye contact between two thirds of the table.
The trustafarian - who, despite the fact that he transgressed his way through boarding school (at his father’s undergraduate alma mater: they told him not to bother applying for college) and attended “some college” at several different institutions of higher learning, including an open enrollment school at one point, before dropping out to live off his father’s wealth - is clever and well spoken, which is one reason we are good friends. He cleared his throat and said:
“That statement implies that you are NOT a millionaire.”
*Awkward silence*
“You may not know this, but you are sitting in a space that was once a private club for millionaires. It was called ‘The Millionaires’ Club.’ I’d like to ask you to leave our table, if not the Club entirely, since you are rude, discourteous, and … broke.”
Sig got up in a huff and complained to the owner. Something along the lines of: “I bullied my way into hosting an event in your store, and then no one showed up to buy my book, which is YOUR fault. Anyway, I made a fool of myself in front of two of your members who spend a fortune in your store every year, and I’m embarrassed. Also, they’re half my age. I’d like you to take this issue up with them.”
———————————————————————————
Anyway:
Sig and Dutch like to hang out in South Carolina together. Dutch will secure a luxury car from - e.g., Bentley - and then Dutch (or another photographer?) will take artistic beauty shots of Sig holding an unlit cigar in someone else’s car for his Instagram.
Your caustic comments about "Goldens" vanish like morning fog beneath the light of this simple fact: they are GREAT value. You get a shoe made in Italy to at least Bottega standards for the price of Portugese Lanvins!
I don’t have an issue with paying for quality, I was just a little taken aback by that price tag. I bought a pair of suede Puma sneakers very similar to the Lanvins almost twenty years ago, and they’re still in great shape. I often get compliments on them. I spent maybe a buck fifty which admittedly was not cheap at the time, but worth every penny in the long haul.
I’m not. I do like those shoes (I like hair on hide rugs, furniture, etc.), but I learned a long time ago that something that loud (or precious) won’t get worn more than a few times a year.
All you need is a pair of Nike Air Max 90s. Bona fide design classic. It’s the only sneaker I’ll wear. It’s also the only sneaker that doesn’t trigger cramp in my cramp prone feet but that’s beside the point.
This is worse than the $300 cashmere socks from that luxury wool brand you like. What kind of strange human buys a $600 pair of shoes and they not be custom-made for your specific feet? At least those cashmere socks will be soft as a newborn's cheeks and breathe like rarefied Himalyan mountain air!
I don't know what *bespoke* shoes cost, but aren't Alan Edmonds' custom-made shoes $600? Cap-toe oxfords in normal calf leather are $600 there, per my 3 minutes of clicking around in their shoe customizer.
You need bespoke shoes to have a last that is “custom-made for your specific feet.”
A “MTM” service just means that you can select your size and have AE make them uglier, as Jack likes to do. Why have a tasteful brown leather shoe when you can have a purple and green spectator with yellow laces? 😉
Speaking of bad journalism, you failed to name Dutch’s dad, the great Leon Mandel.
I mentioned him twice.
Everyone knows it’s three times or it doesnt count!
"Biblical" is always good.
saintjean
From about 1980-2005, my dad had subs to various car magazines. The only consistent sub was Autoweek, the rest cycled between C&D, R&T, and Automobile.
When I asked why he did this, the response was basically that Autoweek was for following races and the classified ads. The others were for actually reading.
I believe Crain still owns Autoweek. If/when the agreement with Hearst ends, I wonder if they’ll do anything with the name.
sell it to a private equity firm, which will shamelessly sell everything for parts, including the archive
Value added! At least to some rich schmucks bank account
they'll sell it to OpenAI or another AI firm. they've been buying access to archives like that.
To think it can actually get worse than being trained on reddit
They don’t need to pay for it when they can just get it for free
News Corp and other news orgs are licensing their content to OpenAi and other AI companies, and I've read that Google is pursuing licensing deals.
I know this space fairly well; you probably do, too (if you still read WIRED).
There is no reason to pay - outside of optics - when you can just steal it and (maybe) pay a fine later. It’s not as if the knowledge of all of Autoweek’s archives could be unscrambled from the egg that tomorrow’s ChatGPT could represent. Too late.
Hell yeah, brother
I remember the anti prole sentiment at Car&Driver, where they advocated for higher taxes on the common motorists, I don’t think I renewed my subscription after that editorial. I think that writers like Patrick Bedard, once gone were what killed print magazines, Bedard was exceptional, Yates was not, I don’t remember liking Dutch, I remember Autoweek going downhill, really sad that we can’t have objective writing about cars and drivers, given the very diverse nature of the subject. Riverside Green and this substack are the exception in this game.
Brock Yates made me angry at least half the time he wrote something.
He was also probably my favorite autojournalist until Jack came along. He was who he was, and wrote whatever he wanted to write (or at least that's how it appeared to a smart-mouthed kid from flyover country). He was something of a hero to me, in the sense that he apologized to no one. I took inspiration that a man could find his way through life saying what he thought and letting the chips fall where they would.
I LIKED Peter Egan (and his spiritual successor, Sam Smith), but I found myself reading and rereading the stuff Yates and the rest of that collection of C&D writers in the Csaba Csere-era C&D put out, when it truly was the irreverent, seemingly independent bad-boy of the car rag world.
Fair enough, liked Egan, and Csere, but you could see C&D losing it’s status as one of the greatest franchises.
Who the hell did Angus MacKenzie write for? Cause he was Eurotrash enough to be the villain in an action movie.
CAR, then MotorTrend.
I met him in the hotel bar at Car Design Event last year and slightly drunkenly asked him to tell me about Bulgin.
He sucks but somehow Ed Loh is worse.
Saw Angus in a recent article in Car. He’s baaack
Shouldn't he be on a beach somewhere, earning 20%?
The "g" is silent.
Sam Smith is a great writer imo
I like him too. I really hope he's half as good a guy as he seems in his writing. I do think he's Egan's spiritual heir.
The Sam you get in real life is essentially similar to the authorial Sam. He's a nice person and great fun to hang around.
Where does Sam write or appear these days?
He's in Hagerty, I believe, having returned there on a sort of freelance basis. There was an opportunity at "The Intercooler" that a few people wanted me to do but I think the ownership liked Sam better -- who can blame them? -- so he is also part-timing there.
Sam and Zach Bowman are both in the running for Egan's chair. But Bowman is doing Dirt Hammer now (SxS classifieds) since he did an editing gig at a SxS magazine for a while. Hopefully it's because he wants to and he's got a vintage Jeep affliction to feed in addition to a fam.
I wish they would both write long form stuff and put it anywhere but a mag masthead. They're both nice IRL.
I wanted to like Zach Bowman, but then his year-long "camping in a truck trailer" kinda' petered out without so much as a whimper.
There was waaaay too much navel-gazing about his marriage (which he seemed intent to destroy), and nowhere near enough getting stuck 47 miles (as the crow flies) from civilization. In the end, it felt like a way to get other people to pay for a kind of boy/man catharsis cum road-trip.
I was hoping for so very much more, and then it was done.
I can see that.
I followed his trip closely too.
With non-fic writing there's no way to separate the writer from the writing. So, if you don't like a guy then you don't want to read him. I've had certain auto writers wag a finger at me for being here and taking part in Jack's stuff.
For all I know David Freiburger is a wife beating, alcoholic, drag queen whose stage name is Jungle Pam. I don't care. A lot of people would be heartbroken or just the opposite, but that's parasocial relationships for you.
I'm just saying Zach is a good writer up there with Egan. What I would add to that is we're now coming out of the other side of the squeaky clean TV entertainment tunnel where mag writers turned hosts were groomed to be these cardboard standup "media personalities." And now everyone has a boring podcast. Maybe there's room, now that MT and others have gone tits up, for the guys who didn't make the cut for the Beverly Hills ad agencies that managed "The Company" in its various iterations like Ten or Primedia, or whatever. And now maybe we can get stuff by real guys who have fucked up and, like Brock, say "Hey, this is who I am. Take it or leave it."
If readers have the balls to buy content from real people, like our host here, then Zach probably fits nicely in there. Especially now that he's older and wiser. Maybe that whole crowd like him, Sam, Jack, etc. would make a nice bullpen for a *real* car mag the likes of which we haven't seen since the dopey chopper craze hit and reality TV weaseled its way in to everything.
I probably meet 10 or more successful novelists a year who are half as good at writing as Zach.
I was just downstairs working on my car, so I might have mild CO poisoning. So, I hope this makes sense. I'm not saying you're right or wrong. Obviously you have a right to your own opinion and feelings about it.
I can't follow him. Always seems like informal rambling.
I always liked working with Sam because we were so different as writers and people, I figured that together we covered most of the audience.
I was bummed when you left R&T, happy when I found you had started at Hagerty, then double happy when you got Sam over there as well. Basically never went to R&T again after that, now I don't visit either.
thats the best part
Csere's first column as Editor of C&D mentioned the pronunciation of his name like this: (pronounced Csere) and I can remember having hope that C&D was in good hands.
Brock un-kicked me out of One Lap after his weird porno-stache son kicked me out. I liked him. He spoke his mind. He was perhaps too transparent about his desire to be a New York Literary Someone, but I can't hold that against him.
That makes me glad to hear (that he wasn't a closet narcissist or drama-queen). He wrote in a very straight-up, "everybody's entitled to my own opinion" style, which I appreciated as a kid who thought everybody should care to hear the echo of each random thought passing through my head
.. and yes -- I'd suppose the David E. Davis syndrome was pretty thick back in the day. Now THERE'S a guy who is revered, whom I never cared for. He was too smug by half.
C/D was purged of irreverent takes just about when they started to officially label themselves "irreverent"
Yeah, in Eddie Alterman's deeply cucked and incompetent era. They claimed to be irreverent but they were actually irrelevant.
That was better than the Tony Quiroga era.
We have been in the Eddie era since he became EIC. He micromanages the magazine behind the scenes and to my knowledge has made each and every decision of even minor significance to the present day.
As someone who reads the chattering class media and listens to the important podcasts* - to your chagrin - I have a reasonable understanding of how Condé Nast and Hearst operate and what their respective corporate goals are.
In my belief the ONLY reason that R&T and C&D exist today - AT ALL - is as part of the sales funnel for BaT. Motor Trend is now part of that grouping too. Why not sell off some of those dead if not valueless brands?
*Ex-Hearst Troy Young’s “People vs Algorithms” podcast is excellent!
TROY YOUNG.
The things people said about him in the Tower.
"Why not sell off some of those dead if not valueless brands?"
Because someone else would revive them and use them to fill THEIR funnels, obviously. I remain fascinated by the utterly pathetic travel packages they offer. Just fifteen grand to drive around behind Daniel Pund!
If he put Sharon Silke Carty in the big chair, he should he hanged by the neck 'til dead.
As bad as Eddie was (and he was bad), he was a freaking wordsmith and idiot savant compared to Sharon Silke Carty.
That's when I realized one didn't even have to like cars to be a car rag editor for Hearst.
If quality's on the label, it ain't in the product.
Motortrend in the 2000s was frequently advocating for higher gas taxes. Naive junior high me was convinced.
I think that beginning in the late 80’s, there was a coordinated effort by multiple groups to push sustainability, the magazines all started pushing for mass transit and egalitarian policies to push people out of their cars, while not successful, that was the push.
It's been truly odd to me that car rags were staffed by people who don't like cars.
For the most part, they were college graduates educated in leftist politics and economics, if they could write about automotive, they could write about just about anything.
Eh I would consider myself center-left and I try and write well about cars because I love them.
I never said that they didn’t love cars, what I was implying is, that they were pushing a narrative.
They are just imitating the Lizard People who run the car companies.
They could get more trips with more shrimp that way!!
The argument was that if we had higher cost per gallon, e.g. europe, then people would choose to drive more fuel efficient cars (if they needed them), and thus CAFE could be abandoned.
I could get behind this. Why should a little old lady who only drives 5 miles to church on sunday be forced to (over-)pay for all kinds of expensive fuel saving technologies that will never pay themselves back?
Why force anything on anyone once we put catalytic converters on cars.
"a bizarre rant about how fat and stupid Americans are"
i feel like these tend to originate from people who have never encountered anyone else on more than a surface level. its grating
"a two-page “Father’s Day Gift Guide” full of worthless garbage"
arent they all though
"No, this isn’t Tuscany"
BE IN AWE OF HOW WORLDY AND CULTURED I AM
"It’s even worse when you consider that your humble author is 6’2″ and 230 pounds, certainly no lightweight himself and perhaps not ideally suited to make fun of other fat people"
but youre not anymore which means you can
"The car culture of the United States is equal to, or superior to, that of any country in the world, and we have the racetracks, the autocross courses, and the vintage festivals to prove it"
REAL
Height and weight make for crap measurements of physical fitness, I gotta say. Schwarzenegger was an inch shorter and five pounds heavier at the Olympia. Wasn't nobody calling that dude fat.
bf% can be great when you combine it with those prior measurements too
That would probably fix it, yeah
Americans could lose a fre lbs. but so could the british
True! (says the Brit). Scary specimens now abound.
BMI as well (which I believe is different, but may not be).
You're well aware that ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ ꜱᴘᴇᴀᴋꜱ ɪɴ ꜱᴍᴀʟʟ ᴄᴀᴘꜱ.
The irony of Labor Day is not lost on any union working man in the skilled trades.
It is one of the Big 6: NYD, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The common thread of those holidays is that while the journeymen and apprentices take the day off, they do so without pay.
Please allow the irony of that to sink in. Union workers are forced to take a day off without pay... to celebrate union labor.
I've never had a paid day off in 45 years of working or in 62 years of living, but as the owner of the shop-- I give my guys 8 hrs pay for Labor Day (as well as 2- 3 weeks of PTO) because it seems like the right thing to do.
I always wanted to get paid to go to Europe, drive cars too fast, and come home and write about it. I'll content myself with going to Portugal in 6 days, paying for it myself, and resting secure in the knowledge that the guys I give more to than their collective bargaining agreement says I must will be taking care of my business while I'm gone.
The street runs both ways, gentlemen. Happy Labor Day.
Ive never been to europe and i dont feel like i am missing much. One day we will go but in the meantime i will enjoy driving my family all over the USA to places we havent seen yet. Heck, maybe even go back to the country that banned jack baruth.
Europe is cheaper than spending 2 weeks in Florida, and easily twice as cool, assuming art and history interest you at all.
The snottiness of the people (France included) is WAY overstated.
I dont want to put 4 kids under six on a 12 hour flight. We mostly stick the the midwest and west. Havent been to florida in a bit. Sadly i agreed to disney next year
All our kids are long grown, Scott. We took zero vacations when they were that age — my hat’s off to you for even trying.
Disney is next-level crazy money. Well done (I think).
Itll be 10k. Ugh. Id rather have another motorcycle
Take them to Cedar Point. They will have more fun for a tenth of the cost.
I just got back from a road trip to the Gilmore Car Museum which is just outside of Kalamazoo, a mere 3 hours from you. I don’t think your girls would be interested in it, but maybe there’s a lake resort nearby that the kids would enjoy while Dad is at the museum.
It’s a fantastic museum. There’s so many cool cars there that I experienced automotive sensory overload for the first few hours I was there. I’m definitely going back.
That's about an hour away from my parents lake house
I timed my trip to be there for one of their outdoor events, in this case an orphan car show. I heard that their Wednesday night cruise-ins get hundreds of cars.
The French are generally extremely polite, save in Paris (and maybe some tourist hot spots on the south coast). But they will think you rude if you don't greet everyone with a definite "Bonjour!"
I found the French were polite -- even in Paris.
A taxi driver told me that since the covid, they realized that they needed us (our money actually) more than they thought.
But you're right; you should always say Bonjour as soon as your foot crosses the threshold. If you can do that, they're a lot nicer to you.
When a simple “Bonjour” doesn’t work:
"Bonjour, singes mangeurs de fromage et lâches !"
That'll do it!
I’ve been 3 times (France/Spain, France, and Italy), and I think you are missing out. I like to make fun of the lazy smelly Euros too, but you owe it to yourself to see how others live. They have the right idea in a number of ways.
But leave your crotch goblins at home. Mine haven’t been yet. If I can find a spare $15-20k I may bring them next year. We’ll see.
You want to watch the kids for aweek? Thats the limiting factor
“Ive never been to europe”
Not surprised!
You have never had sex with a woman
It is beyond amusing to me that you guys work yourselves into a frenzy about my personal life, something to which I rarely if ever make reference (one way or another).
We are making fun of you because you are a dork. You pick at me for being a nepo baby. I pick at your for being a 5’8” virgin
Europe is a museum. You go there to see the history of western civilization and where we came from.
However, once you've been there you realize that Europe is the past and America is the future.
Even the Dutch refer to us (the UK) as "Museum Island."
Great call. I was struck last time I was there that they’re all proud of their countries, yet they all willingly gave up their sovereignty to the EU. And they didn’t realize the obvious contradiction.
Well, I never been to Spain
But I kinda like the music…
What line of work are you in?
We’re pipefitters (Steamfitters 353), but we’re in the commercial refrigeration service business— supermarket cases and cold storage warehouses. We do just enough commercial HVAC to be happy it’s not the main line of business.
True American badasses; the men who keep my Guinness cold. I salute ye.
"Real American Heroes..."
An italian drinking irish beer. Guiness is garbage! Says the irishman. I drink it once a year. I guess it’s ok
Who in hell's the Italian?
Landini! You're not italian?
Good for you. My dad was a pipefitter, Local 636 in Detroit.
"That's why you pay me a hundred grand a year."
"I pay you FIFTY as far as the IRS is concerned. Why do you think you get half your pay in cash?"
Hey, Jack, out of a clear blue sky and because I may not remember this again, ever, I want to share with you my only automotive world celebrity sighting. It was Gentleman Jim Kimberly and the occasion was the set of a 50's TV show entitled You Asked For It. I was there because of a nominal involvement in an activity of no great significance and he was there because of his prominence in motor racing. He was a great looking guy, thin with silver hair and handsome features. He was also very wealthy, his family controlled Kimberly-Clark the manufacturers of Kleenex.
Autoweek back in the 60's and 70's was fuel for dreams. I wanted to buy or at least sit in every old racecar in the classified section. That and the JC Whitney catalogs. My father wouldn't spring for the dune buggy exhaust on his Beetle.
Loved the JC Whitney catalog!
You couldn't grow up in the '70s without loving it. Something for everybody.
Then I discovered Summit Racing, and it was over for me.
I even lusted after stuff I would never have a real use for and sometimes didn’t even know what they were!
JC Whitney accessories live on at Porsche. Every time I see the latest 911 “limited edition”, all the exterior doodads Porsche plasters on their cars to make them “special” just reminds me of JC Whitney catalog add-ons. I’m just waiting for Porsche to slap some chrome ventiports on their front fenders.
Looking forward to them offering Winky The Cat
https://blog.consumerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/02/Screen-shot-2015-02-26-at-10.48.15-AM.png
I want one!
My grandparents had the bobble head dog and the plastic seat covers with the little triangles. Also the beanbag ashtray and of course the praying hands.
We need grandparents like that today!
JC Whitney! Yes!
Gee according to Linked-In your topic of conversation was an Editor at Auto Week for 40 years…. That is government employee type of longevity…
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dutch-mandel-b4586473
His father ran the place.
Oh that explains it…
I subscribed to R&T, C&D, and Autoweek back in the day.
It was always fun to read the classifieds and see “Corvette Vicki” in the back.
I can’t remember what year they went to shit, but I remember Autoweek turning to shit overnight.
When they no longer published weekly, that’s when I finally stopped subscribing.
I haven’t subscribed to any of the “Buff Books” for years.
I was very pleased to discover you, Jack, online somewhere. I couldn’t believe it, here was a guy who really knows how to write, and whose opinions seem to mirror mine. I was thrilled.
I then actively sought out your writing, and then lost track of you, and then somehow discovered this forum and your writing again.
Oh, happy day!
Thanks for this blast from the past and the insight into Autoweek.
“Breakfast shifting, not double clutching like you should. Now me and the mad lasagna have to rip apart the block and replace the pepperoni rolls you just fried”
Wait wut?
2fat2manycalories
"From a distance, he appears to be a confused hippopotamus that has wandered into a pinstriped tent and is struggling desperately to escape."
God-DAMN!
Jack, you just bought yourself another year of my subscription dollars!
Well said.
As a weekly broadsheet Autoweek couldn't be beat for up to date F1 and IndyCar racing along with automotive stories on par with the monthlies and columnists I always looked forward to reading. Leon Mandel had a walk on role in my favorite Paul Newman movie
https://youtu.be/kidFHfSJhd4?si=DUg9-icnOkkXBnQg and the Grande Dame of automotive journalism published the only collection of columns that-even though I have a wide variety which include among others Peter Egan, DED Jr, Sam Smith, PJ O'Rourke and an utterly forgettable compilation Never Stop Driving-I still regularly pull from it's bookcase and revisit. Matter of fact in memorium I'll be heading up to grab that now and put on some Dave Brubeck for accompaniment (even though I suspect she fucked Miles).
https://www.abebooks.com/Brooks-Broad-LeapingSelections-Autoweek-McCluggage-Denise/32254083961/bd
....his eyes look like a two-player game of “Marble Madness”...
Nice reference. I really liked that game. At our local bowling alley, I spent many of my mom's quarters having my marble dissolve in acid on the second maze. Either that or it got eaten by the worm.
That stupid WORM! It never looked like it could cause real trouble, it moved so slowly, but it DID!
Dutch has a friend named Aaron Sigmond, who is sort of the “Dutch Mandel” of the cigar world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Sigmond
https://www.instagram.com/sigcigar/?hl=en
I met Sig in Chicago in 2019 or so. He was in town to promote his latest coffee table tome, and he expected each of the three standout private cigar clubs in the city to (1) host him, (2) hold an event in his honor, and (3) provide him with plenty of free cigars for his troubles.
So: On one beautiful autumn Saturday in Chicago, I found myself sitting in a four person seating area with my extremely rotund trustafarian friend taking up one seat, and his various accoutrements taking up another.
Sig joined us, uninvited. He was wearing a voluminous suit and the Lanvin sneakers that were hip at the time in NYC media circles. He was in the midst of his book signing “event,” and it appeared that the cigar club had not done any work to promote his presence, given ZERO people had shown up to shake his hand, take a selfie, or buy a $1,000+ coffee table book. This was deeply embarrassing to him. He passed the time by talking down to us (we were about 30 at the time).
At one point, he bemoaned the cost of living in New York and said “Wow, Chicago is so much cheaper than New York. You guys have it so easy! New York is tough. I mean, I have friends who are millionaires, and they still struggle.”
Immediate, involuntary eye contact between two thirds of the table.
The trustafarian - who, despite the fact that he transgressed his way through boarding school (at his father’s undergraduate alma mater: they told him not to bother applying for college) and attended “some college” at several different institutions of higher learning, including an open enrollment school at one point, before dropping out to live off his father’s wealth - is clever and well spoken, which is one reason we are good friends. He cleared his throat and said:
“That statement implies that you are NOT a millionaire.”
*Awkward silence*
“You may not know this, but you are sitting in a space that was once a private club for millionaires. It was called ‘The Millionaires’ Club.’ I’d like to ask you to leave our table, if not the Club entirely, since you are rude, discourteous, and … broke.”
Sig got up in a huff and complained to the owner. Something along the lines of: “I bullied my way into hosting an event in your store, and then no one showed up to buy my book, which is YOUR fault. Anyway, I made a fool of myself in front of two of your members who spend a fortune in your store every year, and I’m embarrassed. Also, they’re half my age. I’d like you to take this issue up with them.”
———————————————————————————
Anyway:
Sig and Dutch like to hang out in South Carolina together. Dutch will secure a luxury car from - e.g., Bentley - and then Dutch (or another photographer?) will take artistic beauty shots of Sig holding an unlit cigar in someone else’s car for his Instagram.
lanvin sneakers look like the worst skate shoes the early 2000s had to offer and he ought to be embarrassed to be seen in them
"“That statement implies that you are NOT a millionaire.”"
lmao get absolutely shit on
https://us.lanvin.com/products/dbb1-sneakers-in-suede-and-patent-leather-fm-skdbb1-vbal-p15281
These sneakers (the DBB1 Converse knock-offs).
There was a scene about them in the first season of Succession.
bourgeoisies converse
pretty dorky and still look awful with a suit
Five hundred and ninety fucking dollars?
That’s cheap, really.
Lanvin is not owned by LVMH or Kering so they can’t really push pricing as high as the big boys.
A typical luxury “fashion sneaker” today is $900-$1,100 plus tax.
I actually really like those from Bottega:
https://www.bottegaveneta.com/en-us/orbit-sneaker-jaguar-807008V4U002729.html
Your caustic comments about "Goldens" vanish like morning fog beneath the light of this simple fact: they are GREAT value. You get a shoe made in Italy to at least Bottega standards for the price of Portugese Lanvins!
What could loafers possibly cost michael? $1,800
You can get sneakers made to LVMH and Kering standards from a lot of Italian factories.
Te problem about your Dirty Birds is that they’re, well, dusty (as people in the know would say): Cool 10 years ago, now lame as hell.
I don’t have an issue with paying for quality, I was just a little taken aback by that price tag. I bought a pair of suede Puma sneakers very similar to the Lanvins almost twenty years ago, and they’re still in great shape. I often get compliments on them. I spent maybe a buck fifty which admittedly was not cheap at the time, but worth every penny in the long haul.
Now you’re just winding us up.
I’m not. I do like those shoes (I like hair on hide rugs, furniture, etc.), but I learned a long time ago that something that loud (or precious) won’t get worn more than a few times a year.
$590 for sneakers. I'm too cheap to be rich.
All you need is a pair of Nike Air Max 90s. Bona fide design classic. It’s the only sneaker I’ll wear. It’s also the only sneaker that doesn’t trigger cramp in my cramp prone feet but that’s beside the point.
This is worse than the $300 cashmere socks from that luxury wool brand you like. What kind of strange human buys a $600 pair of shoes and they not be custom-made for your specific feet? At least those cashmere socks will be soft as a newborn's cheeks and breathe like rarefied Himalyan mountain air!
Where can you get a bespoke shoe for $600? It’s more like $6,000, and there is hardly any margin in it for the cordwainer!
I don't know what *bespoke* shoes cost, but aren't Alan Edmonds' custom-made shoes $600? Cap-toe oxfords in normal calf leather are $600 there, per my 3 minutes of clicking around in their shoe customizer.
You need bespoke shoes to have a last that is “custom-made for your specific feet.”
A “MTM” service just means that you can select your size and have AE make them uglier, as Jack likes to do. Why have a tasteful brown leather shoe when you can have a purple and green spectator with yellow laces? 😉
The loafers and point-toe brogues are among the most hideous shoes I have ever seen. Crime against humanity tier
I loathe shoe shopping because 99% of them are stunningly ugly.
I usually just go to Dillards or Von Maur every 2-3 years and get a new pair of Topsiders...
Hilarious!