Gone

I so much as post a cogent comment by Csaba Csere (“CHUBB-uh CHEDD-uh”), and the very next day a new Car & Driver magazine appears with a strident letter from the President and CEO of Hachette Filipacchi Media that Csere is leaving.
Csere is (was) the head honcho at Car & Driver magazine.
I’m not surprised. The periodical biz is like that.
Production of a magazine, newspaper, whatever is a HUGE undertaking.
You’re trying to output an attractive and knowledgeable product, and in doing so you’re herding cats.
Production of the mighty Mezz was like that.
Divergent copy was assembled into a package, and had to meet a production deadline.
Mere assembly of the product was a hairball, and could drive an editor crazy.
I can imagine production of Car & Driver magazine being the same way, although it’s a monthly publication instead of daily.
Deadlines are always staring you in the face.
Meeting those deadlines can compromise intent — and content.
The Messenger always had mistakes and production errors galore caused by meeting deadlines.
A periodical was always a bucking bronco, which seemed to take on a life of its own.
I can imagine Car & Driver being the same way.
The direction of the ship was set years ago, and changing it was trying to resteer an aircraft carrier.
And production deadlines seem to outweigh everything.
Everything has to be reconfigured to meet the design parameters.
And copy may need to be edited to meet the intent; often just to fit.
Stringers at the Mezz would file utterly droll copy, and an editor had to jazz it up.
Production becomes a drag on creative juices; I can see Csere getting bogged down in detail.
The bucking bronco becomes tiring — I can imagine Csere fagging out.
I also can imagine Csera trying to keep peace with his contributors — and not lose advertisers.
Reliable as it may be, Car & Driver is subject to the same advertising whims as other car mags: namely that an advertiser will pull the plug if its car gets panned.
I’ve been a subscriber to Can & Driver since college; that’s over 40 years.
My first was a find in the college laundromat — a discard.
It was much better than my Hot Rod magazine; much better written.
The head-honcho at that time was David E. Davis, and Car & Driver was an effort to put Road & Track magazine on-the-trailer.
The magazine started in 1955 as Sports Cars Illustrated, but that was failing.
So a new name and configuration was chosen, and that included American cars.
Their angle was wacko enthusiasm, and I guess they got all in the elitist sportscar community nattering by reporting the Pontiac G-T-O was a better car than the Ferrari G-T-O.
Which I guess it was; sort of......... For American roads.
But the Pontiac was a ringer; a car with a 421 cubic-inch engine — the size in full-size Pontiacs. (The G-T-O was smaller; “mid-size.”)
The bigger engine gave it an edge in acceleration tests.
More than anything, that comparison test set the tone of the magazine; an eagerness to step on toes, and willingness to pillory storied icons.
Like Ferrari.
My first issue — the discard — was after the comparison test, but not by much.
I was somewhat like-minded. The Chevrolet Small-Block V8 wasn’t European, but it was a fabulous motor.
Detroit had gotten much better. They had been building cars that were overweight turkeys, compared to foreign cars, especially sportscars.
But the Chevrolet Small-Block V8 changed that. Here, at last, was a motor that could compare with anything European; and even sounded European — it wound to the stratosphere.
Not long after I graduated college, Chevrolet started putting the Small-Block in their Camaro — their Mustang competitor.
And before that they had been building the Corvair; very much a different car, and much like a Porsche.
Soon Car & Driver was constructing a concept Camaro; much like the Camaro Roger Penske (“PENN-skee”) and Mark Donohue were racing in SCCA’s Trans-Am series for ponycars (e.g. the Mustang and the Camaro).
It was even painted the Penske blue color.
Over the years I learned to take Car & Driver’s praise with a grain of salt.
When General Motors introduced its X-car (the Chevrolet Citation, etc.), C&D said it was sensational.
Years later the badmouthing began: the X-car was horrible.
Sensational it was, sorta...... It was revolutionary, for General Motors, but hardly cutting-edge. The motor was half the Small-Block; an antique compared to the competition.
It also was rather unpredictable under braking — the rear would lock up and slide.
BMW can thank Car & Driver for making it the marketing sensation it currently is. C&D said the BMW 2002 was extraordinary when it was introduced in 1968; comparable to the Alfa Romeo Giulia Coupe, a really great car.
Ho-hum; how many really great cars fell by the wayside for lack of ink?
The lowly BMW woulda crashed mightily in flames, but C&D made the world of it.
BMW has since gone on to develop even better cars, and now is a premier megabuck goal — a goal for car-enthusiasts.
Comparable to Mercedes — and Audi (“OW-dee”), another megabuck German carmaker made the world of by C&D.
A slew of head-honchos have come-and-gone since David E. Davis; but C&D has remained true to its goal of quality writing, and auto enthusiasm.
It’s fairly reliable, and factors into my car purchases. I had an ‘83 Volkswagen GTI they thought the world of. That GTI was purchased mainly on their recommendation, and after a roadtest (which confirmed their recommendation).
Their most recent head-honcho was Csere — unlike Davis, but very much a car-enthusiast. So much so he flipped a Pontiac Firebird trying to do 200 mph — I think it was him.
He and his staff also had a habit of blowing up special high-output cars: Corvettes and the like by non-Detroit modifiers powered by supercharged mega horsepower motors.
It’s called testing in the real world. 89 bazilyun horsepower blows up in the real world. Use a supercar in the real world, and it blows up.
The others car-mags would bow and fawn; but C&D was testing for the real world. They’d drive the modifiers up-the-wall making them fix things — the things that cripple a car.
89 bazilyun horsepower is no good dead on the shoulder. Ya don’t get from pillar-to-post always tinkering.
So now the question is can Hachette Filipacchi find a replacement for Csere. Csere was okay, but not the shining star Davis was. (Hachette Filipacchi is also not the original owner of Car & Driver magazine; that was Ziff-Davis. [I think even CBS owned it once.])
Although a shining-star ain’t as relevant as Csere was.
My own car-purchases have gone beyond the enthusiasm of C&D. I need to transport a dog, and I can’t do so in the new Mustang, or a Corvette.
And I ain’t about to spend megabucks. Lexus (thought the world of in C&D) wants $105,000 for one model. For heaven sake! Are they kidding?
The Bathtub cost me $30,000; but is the best van I’ve ever owned.
It’s purchase wasn’t recommended by C&D — but I’ll keep subscribing to C&D if it remains a good read.

The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over three years ago. Best job I ever had.

A “Stringer” is a reporter not in the office. The Messenger covered a wide area, so had many stringers.

“Road & Track” magazine was (is) a long-established sportscar magazine based in Los Angeles. I subscribed to it for years, and even sold them some racing photos, but now only subscribe to C&D.

“On-the-trailer” is an old drag-racing term. —Drag-racing is standing-start to finish over a straight and level quarter-mile, between two cars. First car to the finish-line wins, and the losing car gets put “on-the-trailer” that towed it to the track. Racers are now getting over 300 mph at the finish-line.

The Chevrolet “Small-Block” V8 was introduced at 265 cubic-inches displacement in the 1955 model-year. It continued production for years, first at 283 cubic inches, then 327, then 350. Other displacements were also manufactured. The Chevrolet “Big-Block” V8 was introduced in the 1965 model-year at 396 cubic-inches, and was unrelated to the Small-Block. It was made in various larger displacements: 402, 427 and 454 cubic inches. It’s still made as a truck-motor, but not installed in cars any more; although you can get it as a crate-motor, for self-installation.

RE: “Wound to the stratosphere” is high revolutions-per-minute (RPM). —A good Small-Block could rev to 5-7,000 rpm; very high for a V8 at that time.

“SCCA” is Sports Car Club of America. In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, it held a racing series called the “Trans-Am,” for Mustangs, Camaros, etc. During the first years the series was won by the Camaro entered by Roger Penske and driven by Mark Donohue. (Both went on later to race the AMC Javelin.) —The Trans-Am was a premier racing series, and garnered factory participation. I attended many.

“C&D” is of course Car & Driver.

“For lack of ink” means for lack of publicity.

The “Bathtub” is our 2005 Toyota Sienna van; called that because it’s white and like sitting in a bathtub.