David E. Davis’ two tenures (1963-1967; 1976-1985) at the helm of Car and Driver are as legendary and controversial as the man himself. He was complicated, difficult and would turn on his friends, but he left a huge legacy in terms of a decidedly fresh (and increasingly self-conscious) style to automotive magazine writing. I stumbled upon his first column as the Editor, from December 1963, where he lays out his vision for Car and Driver.
He refers to himself in the first person, plural (the royal we); how David E. Davis. This article is one of the few things he wrote, that I have read, where he does not go on at length about all the wonderful things he owns – cars, shotguns, clothing, dogs, etc.
I did like Car & Driver under his tenure but the man himself did indeed seem very “self-conscious.” Or was it self-absorbed?
It’s the editorial we.
I grew up with David E Davis, and I practically worshiped the guy when I was a kid. He just seemed so cool to a teenager, a classy looking dude with a cool mustache. Looking back, yes, he was rather full of himself, but I think he was trying to exude an image that Car and Driver was a classy act, like Road & Track did.
It also seemed that under his tenure, Car and Driver was at least slightly critical of the cars it “reviewed.”
Classy like Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazine – this is what the ‘cool’ guy wears, shoots, drinks, drives? In Texas we are fond of drinking, shooting, and driving all at the same time. (joking of course)
But I will be fair. Davis would take the gloves off when making his analysis of automobiles or anything else. He certainly wasn’t afraid to be honest and I appreciate that.
Since you mentioned Road & Track I’ll offer that, IMO, Henry N. Manney III and Peter Egan gave that publication a large dose of class.
On being critical, it really depended. Davis tended to give his favorites (e.g., BMW) the kid-gloves treatment; stuff with which he was less smitten would sometimes get slapped around more than it necessarily deserved. (The infamous Opel wagon review is a prime example of the latter.)
His style of writing seems so foreign now. One gets the sense of Archie Leach becoming Cary Grant and ready to pass on his secrets to teenage boys. It is interesting how writing today at first comes across as more inclusive, but the reality is that it is much more segmented.
From the late 70s to tbe early 80s, I considered Car and Driver THE source of wisdom regarding new cars.
Was it Davis or my teens? I still have them.
+1.
I prefer the style of Mr. Niedermeyer and Michael Lamm as well as Brock Yates, myself. PJ O’Rourke too.
“…for the sophisticated swinging kind of car enthusiast” ? Ugh. Still pretentious 50 years later.
The reason I stopped reading the car rags: the writers write to impress each other, not to impart knowledge of automobiles.
Automobile is the worst in this respect and it’s clone Motor Trend is not far off. Can’t tell the ads from the articles any longer, it appears, having recently picked one up at the tire store while I was waiting for service.
Long Live CC.
I still have a lot of affection for ’60s C/D, although my favorite of the American magazines of that period is Car Life during the period when it was a sister publication of Road & Track. Car Life had the sort of engineering analysis as the aforementioned C/D “Road Research Reports” — generally a little more rigorous and notably less credulous than some rivals — combined with an almost British dry wit. They weren’t afraid to be critical of domestic cars, but there was very little of the upturned nose that typically accompanied Road & Track‘s occasional glances at Detroit products.
Car Life also wasn’t trying to be Playboy, so it was free of the bon vivant posturing that sometimes makes me roll my eyes at Davis-era Car and Driver. For my money, the only C/D correspondent who could consistently make that stuff work was Jean Shepherd, who was just precisely tongue-in-cheek enough to take the wind out of it without reducing it to complete self-parody. (Brock Yates had his moments, it should be said — his “Viewpoint” on the ’70s Thunderbird is brilliant, although some of the most trenchant observations in it came from Shepherd.)
I have the Yates’ story on the Thunderbird – I believe it was the 1972 model – in a Brooklands publication. It is effective…and brutal.
The denouement of that piece (with the Diner’s Club card) was genius. It’s very Shepherd (I think the article presents it as his idea), but no less glorious for that.
I think that needs to be the next review posted.
It’s stited, but David E. put his money where his mouth was, first at C/D and then with Automobile, which i loved in its early years. There was an interesting mix of cars covered, and the columists added real dimension with their coverage of the industry and design. C/D continued to have its moments, but all too often it felt like a tired echo.
Have to say I let both my subscriptions lapse within the last year. The coverage was frequently the same in both month-to-month, and I’d much rather read about the cars most of us drive than supercar X, Y, and Z. Maybe I grew out of their demographic, but it sure feels like their editorial direction changed more than i did.
Maybe it’s age…but these earlier magazines seemed so well researched and written. Maybe it was the resources avaliable to them to spend the time. In the UK from circa 1975 we had ‘Classic and Throughbred Car’ – the early editions (first 10 years) are beautifully done. Well worth a look if you come across them.
Car and Driver is a vital part of my evolution as a car enthusiast. My first ever C/D issue was June 1983, with the Mustang GT vs Camaro Z28 comparison. The next one was July 1983 and that featured what is to me one of the best examples of the C/D philosophy: The “Escape from Baja” story. That one right there made me a C/D fan! So many memories! Such good writing! I recently found a batch of six perfectly preserved, late sixties C/D issues in a classic car meet. Purchased them on the spot. The NY era of C/D was awesome! So cool. Finally, I was able to meet the great David E Davis in person at the 2000 Ault Park Concourse d’Elegance in Cincinnati, where he was a guest speaker and I was a humble volunteer. To me that was like meeting the Pope!
I always felt that Davis largely influenced the high quality of writing that appeared in Car and Driver. While some might say that he was pretentious, others might attribute his penchant for quality to years spent working on Madison Avenue, his education and a characteristic we used to proudly refer to as “breeding.”
Along with Road & Track, I rarely noticed grammatical or punctuation errors in these two magazines, and the writing often included phrasing, references and allusions that would not be out of place in The New Yorker.
To this day, when I teach communication to adults in a corporate setting, I give Davis credit for instilling in me a desire to read well-crafted writing, and my interests in writing and grammar.
Never was a big Davis fan, but in the 70s and 80s C/D was THE car mag.
The only reason I kept my R&T subscription as long as I did was for Peter Egan.
I read CD the most during that era, although I switched to Autoweek in the 80’s. Occasionally, I read “Rodentrack” and Motor Trend even less. MT had a heavily Detroit bias and RT European. CD was more balanced in coverage.