Never Stop Driving #79: Year in Review

As we barrel toward year’s end, we have so much to be thankful for here at Hagerty Media. I consider myself extraordinarily lucky to share my automotive passion with you every week. To that end, here are some of my favorite things we produced in 2023, a rich mixture of material that will get you through any dull patches over the holidays. (This newsletter returns January 5, 2024.) Thank you, a million times, for reading. Okay, let’s roll.

Since I’m a novice mechanic who fantasizes about turning pro, I loved watching Redline Rebuild host Davin Reckow struggle to resuscitate a long-sleeping Ford V-8. Sometimes the established repair playbook is useless, Reckow points out, and a mechanic must rely on pluck and creativity to solve problems. Reckow’s a master at under-the-hood improvisation. Later, we watched the damaged engine machined back to health.

The V-8 engine came from a De Tomaso Pantera that Tom Cotter uncovered in an episode of Barn Find Hunter, one of our longest-running and most popular series. Another episode from two weeks ago already has two millions views and this emotional episode documents a dirt-track car we restored and delivered back to the owner’s family.

Some 2.3 million folks followed Larry Chen to Tokyo to witness the city’s vibrant car scene. I personally loved when Chen went to Ireland to visit a dealer that specializes in vintage rally cars.

Don’t miss our first feature-length film, narrated by Patrick Dempsey, which documented Porsche’s early racing efforts.

If you haven’t already, take some down time to binge the Jason Cammisa canon. In 2023, he covered two cars that are close to my heart, the Mazda Miata and Ferrari Dino.  My own Dino, by the way, is now in its third year of a largely DIY restoration. It’s not going well. Catch up on the madness here.

We produced over 2500 written articles in 2023, many of which you can get delivered daily and/or weekly for free. Sign up for our newsletters if you haven’t already and definitely bookmark the Hagerty Media homepage. Some of my favorites:

• Grace Houghton brought us another side of the fascinating John DeLorean saga with a profile of his daughter, Kat.
• If you love the artistry—and of course the rumble—of hot rods as much as I do, check out Brandan Gillogly’s dreamy photos and writeup of this killer custom Ford.
• I like to say that nearly everything can be a good story, you just have to ask the right questions. Cameron Neveu certainly proved my point with his piece on a Pennsylvania truck-stop town.
• Steven Cole Smith profiled this young woman who built a business restoring carburetors and has kept it going despite enrolling in college.
• Our readers’ overwhelming 2023 favorite is a tale you have to read to believe: The delightfully crazy folks who, more than 70 years ago, drove a Cadillac NONSTOP for over 6000 miles.
• Do you like tools? Who doesn’t? Another hugely popular 2023 story is Kyle Smith’s list of tools that are now rarely used.

We also produce a printed magazine six times a year and it’s one of many benefits of being a Hagerty Drivers Club member (join here). Most of the articles eventually migrate to the website but for the full lean-back, rich reading experience, you need the printed version.

This past year, we devoted an entire edition of HDC Magazine to driver-quality cars, calling it The Patina Issue. Since perfectly preserved and obsessively waxed cars usually win all the attention, we wanted to celebrate cars that get driven. There’s character and history in bumps and bruises as Aaron Robinson artful explained in the lead essay. We also profiled a group of Detroiters who own cars that proudly wear worn paint and since there are different opinions on every topic, Dave Kinney explained why perfect cars are just fine with him. Hey, I always enjoy a good debate.

In every issue of HDC Magazine, we profile members and their cars. The stories are fantastic, like the one Jody Reeme submitted about driving 2000 miles in her 1924 Dodge or the classic Cadillacs owned by former fashion model Maurice Moore. We’ve published hundreds of Member Stories over the years, and invariably they all demonstrate that we’re all part of a huge community where we have more shared qualities than differences. That’s easy to forget these days.

Don’t forget to try the podcast version of this newsletter. It’s on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.

Happy Holidays to you and your family. See you in 2024!

Larry

P.S.: Your feedback is very welcome. Comment below!

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