Who else remembers "Uncle Tom"?

[pwd72s]

No, not the political/racism meaning, but Tom McCahill of MI...the pioneer of car testers? We also knew him as "Uncle Tom". He not only tested cars, he amused with his use of metaphores.

Here's a piece on him:

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/tom-mccahill?irclickid=Rnhwz9QgGxyPUBwUSpyk1UidUkHwu21 8Exjrw80&irgwc=1

A teaser from the piece:

"McCahill was not afraid to use the pages of MI as a bully pulpit to advance the cause of the car. He rode American carmakers for their "Jello suspensions" that provided a soft ride, but which did little to help handling, and believed that better brakes and handling were keys to automotive safety. He tested foreign cars, too, praising their build quality while butting heads with Walter Reuther of the UAW over American cars' lack thereof. Yet McCahill also proposed that, in lieu of war reparations, car imports cease immediately and England and France instead receive boatloads of used American cars to stimulate the U.S. economy. He also claimed that the new 1960 Corvair he tested handled better than the '59 Porsche he tried previously."

I feel blessed to be of an age that allowed me to read him...

[Scott Douglas]

I remember him but never really paid much attention to his writings nor did I read them very often. I think he was on the cover of MI a lot of times to help sell the magazine, but it never swayed me to buy them. I was more into Motor Trend, Sports Car Graphic and then CD and RT.

[Bill Douglas]

And another writer, Mr L. J. K. Setright.

[Zeke]

I might have read him but you bringing him up doesn't stir up any memories. I did read your link and it's obvious that MaCahill set the tone of auto journalists to this day. It's almost like reading Dan Neal of the Wall Street Journal who started at the LA Times.

I really miss the print version of Autoweek, especially the earlier years. How many great writers passed through those doors.

[Scott Douglas]

L.J.K. was always fun to read.

[URY914]

I remember Dan Gurney having a Q&A piece in Popular Mechanics.

[herr_oberst]

Tom McCahill was the prototype for David E. Davis. Pretty knowledgeable, knew lots of people and came across as pretty much unwilling to or incapable of 'suffering fools gladly'.

I own a copy of MI from 02/1959. He heaps praise on the Studebaker Lark in this issue. It's funny that for someone as influential as he was he really couldn't get Americans into smaller, better handling and more efficient cars in numbers that made much difference. I guess all the gilt and flash slathered onto luxury barges in the Harley Earl or Virgil Exner mold was too much of an attraction for too many people flush with cash in a roaring economy seeking the latest bigger and better.
Funny how little things have changed.

[maxnine11]

Someone dropped off a couple boxes of old Mechanix Illustrated magazines at our farm house when i was about 10 years old. They were from the early to late 60s, so lots of reviews on the muscle cars and European sports cars of the era. I mainly remember the somewhat scantilly clad (for the day) girls in the car reviews; and how the clothing got smaller and smaller as the decade progressed.
Hey, I was ten! LoL