mudbone

Many of the younger folks here won't have any idea who David E. Davis is, but guys (and car-girls) my age will surely understand how much was lost by his death some weeks ago. I found this link after reading an excerpt from this piece in a retrospective in the June 2011 issue of Car and Driver. Since I was only 10 when this trip was made, please forgive my missing it the first time around. None the less, it's a fun and short read.

http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezfl...84e42b5bc7.pdf

Pentatonic

I have no idea who David E. Davis is, but that sounds like a cool story! That must have been a hell of a road trip.

FiefSS

Cool article thanks for sharing! Must have been special taking one of the first Z/28's out for that LONG of a drive!

350TPI

I have the first issue of Autmobile magazine that he started with the MR2 vs Ferrari 308.I was saddened to hear of his passing.

falchulk

Never liked they guy. He put too much left wing political sneak jabs to the middle\right in his writting. His son on the other hand, also a writer, is fantastic.

R377

Yeah, I can appreciate what he did for the profession, but after a while I just got tired of reading him. Same with Brock Yates, especially when he got old and just re-told old stories from the past.

LeadSled1

I did a cross country trip in a 70 Z28/RS back in 1993 all by myself. I only had a few days to make it (on leave) and it was crazy the stuff I ran in to. I had just bought the car in San Diego and drove it back to the east coast for storage before I went over seas. Rear trans seal went on the highway, then I got run off the road in a freak snow storm. The car had no heat, all I had was shorts/t shirts so I bought a blanket to wrap around me during the drive. The windshield wiper motor eventually died in PA from the ice build up. I'll never forget that trip, it was before cell phones were really around.

I haven't been able to pull the link up at work. I'll try it when I get home.

jg95z28

Interesting he wrote "first of 1100" Z/28s. I guess GM had planned on a lot more than they made.

guionM

David E Davis is something of an automotive writer icon. Been around since at least the 60s. More recently he's been the 2 time top dog at Car and Driver, and he also started Automotive Magazine with Jean Jennings (back before she got married it was Jean Lindamood if I recall). He could also launch car writer careers, and he did more than a few times.

He's pretty much the only automotive editor in, say, the past few decades that could call any car company CEO and likely get his call patched through or returned a short time later.

He could be a bit uppity, and by all accounts he could be a pain to work for. But I pretty much started reading car magazines as a youngster in the 70s with his writeups at Car & Driver (along with Brock Yates...the writer that suggested the idea of the Plymouth Roadrunner to Chrysler and invented and helped organize the original Cannonball Run!), and got an immediate suscription to Automobile when he started that mag (I also still have the 1st edition... actually, the entire 1st year!).

The automotive writing (and reading) world and those of us who got our toes wet in the business, as well as most long time car enthusiasts will miss him.

bossco

You are correct. I beleive her column in the back of Automobile was called Vile Gossip (gonna go google that now).

They have a local car show at the Williamsburg Winery called Ferrari's on the Vine, last year, David E. was one of the featured guest and I had hoped he would have been here this year but I suppose at the time his health might have been failing??? Was still good since the theme this year was Ferrari vs. Ford and a few of the Holoman & Moody GT40s were there along with a nice saphire w/white stripes Ford GT was there.

Eric77TA

Jennings and Davis had a severe falling out at Automobile (Davis had recently returned as a columnist for Car and Driver for just a handful of issues prior to his death).

This was Davis' last quote on Jennings:

"I sometimes dream of a FedEx flight on its way to Memphis flying over Parma where she lives and a grand piano falling out of the airplane and whistling down through the air, this enormous object, and lands on her and makes the damnedest chord anybody has ever heard; this sound of music that has never been heard by the human ear. And the next morning all they can find . . . [are] some shards of wood and a grease spot and no other trace of Mrs. Jennings."

mudbone

I missed something. Who is Mrs. Jennings?

bossco

Heh, thats why I liked David E.

I'm starting to really like Jim Farely for the same reasons

guionM

Yep... that sounds like him.

Was a writer and one of the editors of Car and Driver in the old Davis & Yates (when he felt like contributing) days of the later 70s and most of the 80s.

When Davis jumped ship and started his own magazine (or more correctly, started a new magazine for someone else), he dragged Jean Lindamood (nee: Jennings) with him as the magazine's number 2 in charge.

Go to your local magazine store, drug store, or 7-11.

Pick up a copy of Automobile Magazine (doesn't matter what month...or year).

Go to the very last page.

That's Jennings.

She runs Automobile Magazine.

President as well as Editor in Chief.