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David E. Davis, Jr., the founder of modern automotive journalism, is dead. He was 80.

Regular readers of TireKicker know how much I admired David. One of my life's regrets will be that we never met.  There's a lot to say about David and I think it's said best by Car and Driver's Eddie Alterman. Please click here.

UPDATE:

A few hours later, and there are more things about David E. I think are worth reading.  Autoweek's Steven Cole Smith does a good warts-and-all look at Davis, including a reference to a video you can watch here on TireKicker, where David told of the dream he had involving once-protege' Jean Jennings and a piano falling from a passing jet.

There's Jean Jennings herself, who wrote what at the time wasn't an obit for the just-out 25th anniversary issue of Automobile about her career with and after DED, Jr...and her side of the shift in power at that magazine that led to David's piano dream.

And there's Peter DeLorenzo in a two-days early update of Autoextremist, who paints the bigger picture and makes it starkly clear that, despite the talents of Eddie Alterman and many others, with the passing of David E., the days of the American car magazine as we know it are numbered and the digits are few.

Finally, let's remember the man through his own work and words. His defining moment...the 1968 review of the BMW 2002, which changed automotive journalism from analytics to advocacy and in which David threw down the gauntlet, demanding to know why America couldn't build a sedan like this (he was only a decade ahead of the hipsters and two ahead of the rest of the car-buying public).

And, from 15 years later, the marvelous lunacy that happened on his watch (complete with sidebar by DED, Jr. himself)...as most of his writing staff take 8 loaned press vehicles south of the border for sun, fun, dysentery, public urination, bribery, floods and one dead cow. It took 26 years for Top Gear and its Defense Department-sized budget to finally topple this as my favorite piece of automotive journalism.

It was one hell of a ride. Thanks, David. Rest well.

Car and Driver's David E. Davis, Jr., guesting on Autoline After Hours, tells the story of his departure from Automobile, the magazine he founded in 1986 with Rupert Murdoch.

It involves allegations of treachery, which inspires DED, Jr. to dream of a piano falling from an airplane and onto former protege' (now Automobile Editor-In-Chief )Jean Jennings. Scroll in to 14:55 and let it roll for a minute until the host and other guests start squirming.

Also: Davis' story of his 1968 firing from C/D (about 10:30), and what inspired his 1985 resignation from his second tour at the magazine (11:43).



And if you have the time, what follows is a very good discussion about Cash For Clunkers, the state of the automotive industry, Cerberus and more between David, host John McElroy, Autoextremist.com's Peter DeLorenzo and BusinessWeek's David Welch.

Patrick Bedard just announced (in print, in the August issue of Car and Driver) that he's retiring. August is his last column.

Damn.

In 41 years at C/D, Bedard could be counted on to tell it straight...even (make that especially) the stuff you didn't want to hear. Like how the automotive air bag is the first "safety device" in history to have a warning label saying that properly used, the device can cause death.

He called BS on a number of things that needed it...shortened yellow light times that started showing up when red light cameras did...incessant and insane attempts at regulation...I'd need a while to fill out the list. Simply put, if it deserved calling out, Bedard did it.

And he knew of what he spoke...not because he was a journalist (see David E. Davis' August column for the best line about journalism in a while), but because he was an engineer. He not only knew about cars...he knew how to (and not to) design and build them.

After 41 years, I can't begrudge Bedard his retirement. But I'll miss him...and coming at a time when C/D appears to be heading to new heights, I'll always wonder how much better it would be had he stuck around.

P.J. O'Rourke is a former National Lampoon editor and writer who branched out into automotive journalism at Car And Driver (another example of why David E. Davis Jr. is the father of modern automotive journalism) in 1977, following NatLamp's publication of his hysterical (if vulgar, sexist and, in those days, borderline obscene) piece "How To Drive Fast On Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed And Not Spill Your Drink".

Over the years, that particular gem has been reprinted in at least one of O'Rourke's books...but with a few of the words changed. Now, P.J. has put out a compilation of his car pieces for Car and Driver, Automobile and other magazines, Driving Like Crazy. And once again, he's editing himself. Jean Jennings mentions it gently in her column in the July Automobile.

O'Rourke himself cops to it in the book...arguing that he's now a better writer, so changing is improving. I disagree. P.J.'s pieces are better the first time (so much so that I think I'd like to read the first drafts).

Evidence of how good P.J. is when he's not overthinking it is found in this past Saturday's Wall Street Journal, where he gives us "The End of Our Love Affair With Cars". It's classic, yet mature P.J. Go read. Then hit your local used bookstore and see if you can find the original back issues of Car and Driver and Automobile to see P.J.'s work the way it was originally written.

Car and Driver's new editor-in-chief Eddie Alterman is on issue number two of his tenure...and he's continuing to hit all the right notes.

At his invitation, David E. Davis, Jr., who held that office twice in the 60s, 70s and 80s (both tenures widely considered to be the golden years of C/D) has returned as a columnist.

Davis is the father of modern automotive journalism, a true giant whose talents and instincts not only propelled Car and Driver to the top while he was at the helm, but provided sufficient momentum to keep C/D there for the 23 years since his departure to launch Automobile. His most recent venture was the online magazine Winding Road.

If you took everything Davis ever wrote in his life and put it in one volume, I'd read it all (most of it for the second or third time) and then urge you to do the same.

Davis says he's rejoining Car and Driver because it is the one car magazine with the ingredients needed to succeed.

Alterman's second issue (July, 2009) is yet another big step forward in putting Car and Driver back in gear, from a thought-provoking editor's column, to continued refinements in content and artwork (including the cleanest-looking cover in years).

Last month's appearance by former editor-in-chief Csaba Csere, kicking off a series on Certified Pre-Owned vehicles, appears to have been a one-shot...Tony Swan writes installment number two (on Porsche 911's)

DED, Jr.'s first column is in there, too...a brilliant piece on former General Motors chief Rick Wagoner and what might soon be the former General Motors. Go buy a copy. Then subscribe. This is going to be very good...at a time when we car folks need it most.

Car and Driver May 1964 (Vol 9 No 11)
Automobile, December 1988, Vol. 3, No. 9.