Never Stop Driving #126: Favorites of the Year
Happy Holidays! I hope you and your family enjoy this time to connect, relax, and perhaps exchange a few gifts. If someone hands me the keys to this clean, four-speed 1977 Corvette, which is on Hagerty Marketplace, I will have a merry Christmas indeed. The auction ends in just a few days and as I write this, the high bid is only $7750.
For a lot of us, the end of December is a break from the daily madness, an opportunity to climb out of our foxholes and reflect on the year. With that in mind, I’m sharing some of my favorite things Hagerty Media produced in 2024. I hope this list brings you joy this holiday season. We have a huge library of articles and videos that are available—for free —year-round. Be sure to like and follow our social pages and YouTube channel and sign up for our free newsletters. Okay, here goes.
Hagerty’s first Road of the Year is California Route 33. Our precious cars are useless without roads, which is why we started this new editorial franchise to highlight some of our favorites and encourage readers to drive their collector cars farther than their local ice cream shop. This route out of the picturesque resort town of Ojai is an incredible stretch of tarmac, seemingly designed just for the joy of driving. I’m plotting a trip this winter just to drive it again.
Tom Cotter, Hagerty’s Barn Find Hunter, had a fantastic year unearthing the forgotten and misplaced. His exploration of a secret stash of cars in Detroit was the most viewed of any video we produced in 2024—nearly seven million people have watched.
Our audience surprises us all the time. The most popular article on our website was a fascinating story about a cave in Kansas that Ford has used for decades to store unsold vehicles, including a colorful collection of early 1970s Ford Mavericks.
That story was prompted by a photo of the Mavericks we published in the magazine. In this digital age, we’re still big believers in highly curated and crafted printed publications, as are many of the Hagerty Drivers Club members who get our magazine every other month (join here). In surveys, members invariably respond that the quality of the writing and photography induces them to read about things they didn’t know they were interested in. That makes my heart sing since we spend so much time choosing interesting topics and executing stories about them.
We spent a year planning one major 2024 editorial experiment, an entire issue dedicated to the do-it-yourself ethos. I’m a huge believer in self-reliance and the benefits of working with your hands. I fully understand that I have the luxury of romanticizing the topic since I pound a keyboard all day. That said, in our DIY special we expressed the satisfaction of getting your hands dirty with crisp, insightful writing and emotional imagery. I think the cover, shot in staff editor Chris Stark’s suburban Detroit driveway, speaks volumes.
Since we’re storytellers, it’s heartening that even in this era of 10-second social media reels, people still appreciate a deeply researched and crisply presented tale. Back in May, Jason Cammisa and crew tackled the enigmatic scion of the Porsche family, Ferdinand Piëch, with this documentary. The connections and facts Jason presents are simply fascinating. The video has been viewed 1.2 million times and there are some 3500 comments.
When did we become obsessed with horsepower? For me that started in the womb. For America, one could argue that the postwar period combined with the Ford Flathead V-8 started us on the path that led to the upcoming 1064-horsepower Corvette. We investigated that question with this wonderful deep dive.
Is horsepower just a number or does the way an engine delivers the power matter? Aaron Robinson tackled the topic by driving two distinctly different cars, the Lamborghini Miura and the Ford Mustang GT500, that produce about the same amount of power. It’s one of the best magazine stories we’ve run this year: lyrical, illuminating, fascinating, and focusing on two cars of eternal interest to even the most casual automotive enthusiast. The writing is fit for The New Yorker.
Maybe you’ve guessed that I read a lot. My favorite book this year was The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World’s Fastest-Growing Sport. Authors Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg, Wall Street Journal reporters who enjoyed incredible access to F1 insiders during their research, were guests on the latest episode of my Never Stop Driving Podcast. Listen on Apple and Spotify.
About six years ago we started profiling Hagerty Drivers Club members and every issue we marvel at the tales they’ve shared. Car people are the best people. Here’s a page with all of them.
This year we got an exclusive opportunity I dared never to dream about: The designer of the McLaren F1, Gordon Murray, asked if we’d like to compare that legendary 1990s supercar with his latest project, the GMA T:50. These are two of the most focused driver’s cars ever made (the F1 is worth more than $20 million nowadays), and of course we’re all about preserving the art of driving. A match made in heaven. Watch Henry Catchpole’s comparison drive here.
I know I’m going long, but just a few more:
• A profile of the man who made NASCAR safer.
• A touching piece about a family bonding over a vintage Buick Wildcat.
• Our gift to the car world this year is another time-lapse engine rebuild video that just launched.
I am so grateful to connect with you every week. Thank you for reading.
Have a great holiday,
Larry
P.S.: Your feedback and comments are welcome.
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I’m Canadian and your site won’t let ne subscribe because it will not accept my address and equivalent zip code……….Can you fix pls ?????
As a father of girls and a grandfather of even more girls, I was delighted to see your story on Victoria Bruno. She is an amazing example of how classic and vintage cars are for everyone, not just male gearheads like us. It will be appropriate to check in with Victoria in five or ten years to see how she’s doing and where she is working. She is an inspiration to anyone who enjoys seeing women thrive, and especially if they are doing well in the automotive world.
As a long term Hagerty insured party on several of my vehicles I was initially skeptical of Hagerty’s ambitions with the print publication. That said, I have hence become a decided fan of the bi-monthly magazine and applaud Mr. Webster’s guidance and journalistic expertise as the publication has earned a high rank in my mind. As a gentleman of some age, I much prefer print media in order to read sans screens and concerns of remaining battery life, yet I eagerly read through the Hagerty emails. Rob Seigal’s “Hack Mechanic” pieces always delight, since wrenching on my own modest fleet through the years makes me appreciate the frustration and elation inherent in fixing stuff. Kudos to all involved in the production of a well written photographed and engaging publication.