Fifty Years with Car and Driver

Book excerpt: "50 Years with Car and Driver commemorates the golden anniversary of the most popular car magazine on the planet. But more than that, 50 Years with Car and Driver tells the story of the American automobile and how the editors of the magazine witnessed that history and reported on it, firsthand. A look at how Car and Driver evolved from its beginnings as Sports Cars Illustrated, in the able hands of great automotive journalists such as Ken Purdy and John Christy, and then came into it own as the musclecar era of the Sixties dawned. Writers such as David E. Davis, Jr., Brock Yates and Patrick Bedard helped to craft a literary car magazine that drew as much inspiration from Tom Wolfe's writing as it did from the great cars of the day." "Through the Seventies the magazine's reputation solidified as the technical authority on new cars, and the literary tradition continued with such writers as Don Sherman and author P.J. O'Rourke." "Throughout the Eighties, the magazine prospered even when its writers went off the deep end - literally, getting stranded in Mexico during a Baja comparison test. Car and Driver watched over the virtual rebirth of the American car during that decade, with the renaissance at Ford through the Taurus and the revival of the Corvette, while keeping its lock on the strongest feature writing in the auto magazines with stories like Brock Yates's thirty-years-past observance of the death of James Dean." "The Nineties saw Car and Driver continue its leadership as the world's largest-selling automotive magazine. From the introduction of the Acura NSX and the Mazda Miata to the brand-new Mustangs and Corvettes that have come in just the past years, Car and Driver has been the authority that readers trust when it comes to 0-60 times, road tests and reviews." "Fifty Years with Car and Driver combines classic stories from the magazine, commentary by former staffers including the author, vintage and modern photos of the hottest and most important cars reviewed by the magazines, as well as stories from behind the scenes - with all the attitude, expertise and visual excitement readers have come to expect from the magazine itself."--BOOK JACKET.