If you want a good yuk, get the October edition of Car and Driver (sorry GRM staff) and read the article on teaching the staffers' mothers-in-law performance driving. Some of the comments will make you pee your pants. I'm trying to picture my mom (80) or my mother-in-law (77) doing the same things !!!
In reply to DeadSkunk:
I haven't laughed "with" the C and D staff for years; but I've frequently laughed "at" the Cand D staff. I'll look forward to it -- maybe they're coming back around as a magazine.
They do produce a good article from time to time. The magazine just isn't aimed at the kind of people that enjoy GRM. Different niche.
I stopped subscribing a year or two ago after many years. I don't know what their problem is, but maybe with Chubba Chedda gone they've made some positive changes?
My epiphany happened years back. The mailbox contained C&D and GRM on the exact same day. I found that I read the entire GRM before I even opened C&D. Once I did open it I was left empty by C&D.
The GRM was filled with what I did/could do and C&D was filled with what I would likely not do (buy a supercar, a new super sedan or Nascar/Indy racing)
C&D becomes fantasy land.
GRM becomes a road map to automotive enjoyment.
C&D isn't even that good a fantasy land. If I want to read about cars I can't afford, I will read EVO.
Car & Driver used to be good when they did things similar to what GRM does today. Now they just do comparisons on expensive cars.
One memorable C&D story was around the re-introduction of VW diesels. With the high mpg and a fuel cell fitted in the trunk, they bet that they could drive coast to coast w/o ever getting out of the car.
Backseat removed and port-a-potty in place, they taped the doors shut to prove they had not gotten out. Driver changes were done within the car, often with the car moving. Of the two guys one was in comfy clothes and on a liquid diet, the other in jeans and junk food. It did result in some funny reading.
That was a long time ago.
Gee, maybe we should install a "got to have it" category in our comparison tests........
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q3/yo_mama_can_t_drive-feature
The niche CD caters to is a tough one for GRM to pull off.
It's the "I want to believe every model BMW produces is superior in every way to every competitor" segment.
jrw1621 wrote: One memorable C&D story was around the re-introduction of VW diesels. With the high mpg and a fuel cell fitted in the trunk, they bet that they could drive coast to coast w/o ever getting out of the car.
IIRC, they made it to Chicago on one tank of gas. Good times.
Wanna Laugh? C&D, snick-snick, twisty-bits, is still in business.
Thanks for posting the link MTN. Now everyone go read it and see if it isn't funny !
In reply to captain_napalm:
I think that is the original ad for the diesel that you are thinking of... new york to chicago on a single tank.
In the article they went from LA to NYC I believe. they dinged the car up a bit somewhere in the cornbelt when one of the drivers fell asleep at the wheel and ended up in a cornfield. But they made it across the whole country without ever getting out of the car or refueling.
I seem to remember the article went something like this...
East to West they got caught in some bad snow and the highway was closed in Montana or similar mountain state, trip aborted.
They continued to drive to leisurely to California where they refueled and re taped the doors shut. It was on this West to East run where they were successful.
The thing about C&D is that it's (I believe) the top selling car magazine in the world. The supercars pull in the kids, the minivan tests pull in the moms and the big numbers pull in the advertisers. The guys writing for it are car guys just like we are. The problem is that their target market isn't us, because us is a minority. Larry Webster (no longer with C&D) is a pretty good driver and would fit right in with a bunch of GRMers - he drives high-zoot supercars for work, and has a supercharged 1990 Miata in his garage at home. He calls me for tech support when he's doing stuff like changing his own clutch, and he races Spec Miata.
Actually, they're not all necessarily car guys like us. I once attended a "track day" put on by name removed to protect the innocent for their staff. They wanted everyone to have some experience. They had the track to themselves with just a couple of guys from FM (with the Westfield, pre-turbo) kicking around. The pit lane was full of shiny borrowed Porsches, an Exige S, an Audi supersaloon, a Corvette and the like. The eye-opening thing wasn't that they didn't require helmets, but that helmets were actively discouraged. Seriously. Jean Jennings explained that it was to keep anyone from driving too hard. Suffice it to say that nobody from FM went out without a lid. At least the guys I've met from C&D are smart enough to wear helmets on track.
That day I learned how much self-restraint I have, as I stood beside an Exige S in pit lane with an open track, no minders and the keys in the ignition.
By the way, I think C&D should have brought a couple of high school kids right off getting their licenses out for the same experiment as the mother in laws.
Okay, I've read the article -- and it shows promise. Maybe there is a change afoot.
Kind of reminds me of the first season of Top Gear when they taught the Grannies to do doughnuts in the S2000 and Blues Brothers park the MINI...
I started reading C&D back when it was Sports Car Illustrated. And I really enjoyed it in the early C&D days.
They used to have some great comparison tests. I remember reading that famous Ferrari GTO vs Pontiac GTO comparison that they did. And a test that included "factory stock" mid-size sporty cars (like the Olds 442, Ford Fairlane, etc). Turned out all the "stock" cars had trick engines, tweaked suspension, etc. The Ford had a Bud Moore engine. Other magazines didn't catch this nonsense but they did. And boy did they do a real tell-all in that article.
They did one comparison test at Bridgehampton and just for kicks, they threw in a Brockway tractor trailer rig. Their test driver turned some pretty fast laps with it too.
One time they pulled the engine out of a new XKE and swapped in a Pontiac OHC six (remember those?). They said the GM motor was much better.
Former writers included Dick Smothers, Jean Shepard, P.J. O'Rourke, Warren Weith.....all great but all very different. Also Brock Yates and David Davis. (both overrated in my view).
In later years, I saw them race the famous "00" showroom stock cars at Lime Rock....great fun.
But very quickly, the magazine suddenly got very "corporate" and lost it's fun, irreverant tone. I cancelled my subscription. These days, it seems like a lesser-brother of R&T without the nerdy tech stuff (or Egan). And the post-Bond R&T isn't as good as it used to be either.
Now I enjoy GRM, Classic Motorsports, MotorSport (since 1924!.....and writer Bill Boddy has been a contributor since 1930!) and Practical Classics. Also some online car sites (like the Top Gear vids).
I will say that the old C&D has a neat irreverant style that I haven't really seen anywhere else (at least in car mags). I do miss that.
I think the last time C&D gave me an honest bellylaugh (intentionally) was a P. J. O'Rourke article on the Ferrari 308. He drove it from Atlanta to Birmingham down I-20 on a beautiful October Saturday when the University of Georgia was to play football with Alabama. He was ogled by coeds and toasted by male drivers.
The quote that sticks with me refers to how wonderful a day it was... "the only way I could have had more fun is if I had a sackful of Iranian radicals to drag behind the car."
Yeah, it was that long ago.
I read GRM, who encourages my Craigslist fueled lust for cars that C&D reviewed twenty years ago and I now have a hope of affording. It's far more enjoyable than yet another $60k touring car comparo.
I've been reading C&D for over a decade and I have loved their irreverent writing style. I went to their 50th anniversary party weekend in Indy back in '05. Met most of the staff, and they were all great guys. Aaron Robinson even handed me a pass to the VIP hospitality suite. I was standing at the wall of the drag strip when they were filming an episode of PINKS chatting with this guy wearing purple Hennessey Performance t-shirt, when Larry Webster came up and started chatting with us. That's when I realized it was John Hennessey I had been talking to. Great weekend, but this year I have found the mag lacking. What with Webster and Chedda leaving and Bedard retiring, but David Davis has returned as a regular contributor. I used to read it cover to cover the day it showed up in the mail box. Now it may take a week for me to even start reading it. GRM gets read as soon as I see it. Hopefully, I'll still have some enjoyment reading C&D by the time my sub runs out in a couple years.
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