Only In A Jeep
By the time you read this letter, fall and the end of the driving season will be approaching. For me, though, this is a good thing, because fall is my favorite time to drive my old cars. Both the engine and the driver run nice and cool.
I think you’ll find this to be a particularly amusing issue. We continue to be blessed with the work of one of America’s greatest living humorists — and a genuine car guy — in P.J. O’Rourke. Here he explores the history and irresistibility of the Jeep. The location of the photo shoot will look familiar to M*A*S*H fans — it’s Malibu Creek State Park, a former 20th Century Fox film ranch where both the movie and TV series were shot. Recently I was lucky enough to visit the old location where a period ambulance remains as a reminder.
The Seattle Metropolitan Police Museum maintains a heritage fleet of vintage cop cars. Even more interestingly, the Seattle Police Department has used them on patrol. Writer Karen McGeorge Sanders examines the history of police cars, with some great classic cruisers from TV and real life.
If you’ve ever wondered about the origins of the wings and spoilers that now seem to adorn every slammed Honda Civic, Executive Editor Jonathan A. Stein takes us back to the late 1960s and the “sell on Monday
to win on Sunday” mandate from motorsports rule makers that resulted in cars like the Plymouth Superbird and BMW 3.0CSL.
We’re also pleased to debut new automotive fiction in this issue. It’s been on our to-do list for a while now, and we hope you enjoy Stefan Lombard’s story of a man and his unusual inheritance. Finally, our Web Editorial and Digital Media Manager, Claire Walters, continues to earn her nickname, “ClaireDevil” — this time by going up in the aerobatic Breitling stunt plane. Claire goes up, but you have to read the story to see if her lunch stays down.
