This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2018) |
Categories | Automobile |
---|---|
Frequency | Monthly |
Total circulation (2022) | 687,235 [1] |
First issue | July 1955 (as Sports Cars Illustrated) |
Company | Hearst Communications |
Country | United States, Switzerland, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Spain |
Based in | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
Language | English (US, Middle East), Chinese (China), Portuguese (Brazil), Greek (Greece) and Spanish (Spain) |
Website | www |
ISSN | 0008-6002 |
Car and Driver (CD or C/D) is an American automotive enthusiast magazine first published in 1955. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. [2] It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased it from its prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011. It was founded as Sports Cars Illustrated. [3] The magazine is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. [4]
Issues | Owner |
---|---|
Jul 1955 – Feb 1956 | Motor Publications |
Mar 1956 – Apr 1985 | Ziff Davis |
May 1985 – Dec 1987 | CBS Magazines |
Jan 1988 – Apr 1988 | Diamandis Communications |
Apr 1988 – May 2011 | Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. |
May 2011 – Present | Hearst Communications |
Car and Driver was founded as Sports Cars Illustrated in 1955. [5] In its early years, the magazine focused primarily on small, imported sports cars. In 1961, editor Karl Ludvigsen renamed the magazine Car and Driver to show a more general automotive focus. [6]
Car and Driver once featured Bruce McCall, [7] Jean Shepherd, [8] and Brock Yates [9] as columnists, and P. J. O'Rourke as a frequent contributor. [10] Former editors include William Jeanes and David E. Davis, Jr., the latter of whom led some employees to defect in 1985 to create Automobile .
When CBS acquired Ziff Davis' consumer magazines in 1985, [11] the company decided to keep both Car and Driver and existing CBS automobile magazine, Road & Track . Successive owners keep this arrangement.
Rather than electing a Car of the Year, Car and Driver publishes its top ten picks each year in its Car and Driver 10Best.
Car and Driver is home to the John Lingenfelter Memorial Trophy. This award is given annually at their Supercar Challenge.
Currently,[ when? ]Car and Driver is also published in Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Spain. The Spanish version just makes use of the Car and Driver name; no editorial direction is shared. China had an edition called 名车志 Car and Driver (transl. Quality Automotive Magazine "Car and Driver"). [12] The Middle Eastern edition is issued by ITP Publishing based in Dubai.
Issues | Editor |
---|---|
Jul 1955 – Nov 1955 | George Parks |
Dec 1955 – Feb 1956 | Arthur Kramer |
Mar 1956 – Dec 1956 | Ken Purdy |
Jan 1957 – Nov 1959 | John Christy |
Dec 1959 – Jan 1962 | Karl Ludvigsen |
Feb 1962 – Feb 1963 | William Pain |
Mar 1963 – Jan 1966 | David E. Davis, Jr. |
Feb 1966 – Oct 1966 | Brock Yates |
Nov 1966 – Jan 1968 | Steve Smith |
Feb 1968 – Dec 1969 | Leon Mandel |
Jan 1970 – Mar 1971 | Gordon Jennings |
Apr 1971 – Nov 1974 | Bob Brown |
Dec 1974 – Sep 1976 | Stephan Wilkinson |
Oct 1976 – Oct 1985 | David E. Davis, Jr. |
Nov 1985 – Feb 1988 | Don Sherman |
Mar 1988 – May 1993 | William Jeanes |
Jun 1993 – Dec 2008 | Csaba Csere |
Mar 2009 – April 2019 | Eddie Alterman |
April 2019 – Jan 2022 | Sharon Silke Carty |
Feb 2022 – | Tony Quiroga |
The magazine is notable for its irreverent tone and habit of "telling it like it is," especially with regard to underperforming automobiles ("Saturn folks like to point out that the L200 has little in common with the Opel Vectra from which it borrows some platform architecture, and we have to wonder why. Could the Opel be worse?"—Feb 2003). The magazine also frequently delves into controversial issues, especially in regard to politics. The editorial slant of the magazine is decidedly pro-automobile. However, the intrusion of politics into editorial columns rarely intrudes into reviews of cars themselves or feature articles. For example, the columnists have been highly critical of SUVs on the basis that minivans or car-based utes are almost always better, more drivable choices.
The magazine was one of the first to be unabashedly critical of the American automakers. However, it has been quick to praise noteworthy efforts like the Ford Focus and Chevrolet Corvette.
The magazine has been at the center of a few controversies based on this editorial direction, including the following:
Sometimes the magazine might go a little out of the boundaries and (in the Sept. 1990 issue of C/D on page 83) had the nerves of steel to operate an GM-EMD SD60 and saw how a locomotive was made and test one out before it was delivered to the Kansas City Southern Railway.
Car and Driver operates a website that features articles (both original and from print), a blog, an automotive buyer's guide (with AccuPayment, a price-calculating tool), and a social networking site called Backfires. As had occurred with other online auto magazines, Car and Driver first suspended its popular Backfires column in 2020; then, did make a partial effort in 2021 to continue with readers' comments, but eventually found, like the other magazines, the effort was too costly and often too divisive.
Car and Driver Television was the television counterpart that formerly aired on TNN/SpikeTV's Powerblock weekend lineup from 1999 to 2005. It was produced by RTM Productions and hosted by Jim Scoutten—who also hosted American Shooter , another RTM production—until 2003. [13]
Thereafter the usual host was Larry Webster, one of the magazine's editors, with Csaba Csere adding occasional commentary and news.
In 1993, Car and Driver licensed its name for a PC game to Electronic Arts entitled Car and Driver . The game was in 3D, and the courses included racing circuits, an oval track, automobile route racing with traffic, a dragstrip, and an autocross circuit.
The ten vehicles included the Porsche 959, Ferrari F40, Lotus Esprit, Eagle Talon, and the Ferrari 512.
In the 1970s, to celebrate the Interstate Highway System and to protest speed limits, reporter Brock Yates and editor Steve Smith conceived the idea of an unsanctioned, informal race across the country, replicating the 53.5-hour transcontinental drive made by car and bike pilot Erwin George "Cannonball" Baker in 1933. The New York to Los Angeles Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, later shortened to the "Cannonball Run", was staged in 1971, 1972, 1975 and 1979, with the race entries including both amateur drivers and professional racers, such as Dan Gurney (who with Brock Yates "won" the 1971 event driving a Ferrari 365 GTB/4, making the 2,860 miles (4,600 km) journey in under 36 hours).
The stunt served as the inspiration for several Hollywood blockbusters, such as The Gumball Rally , The Cannonball Run , Cannonball Run II , Cannonball Run III , Gone in 60 Seconds and The Fast and the Furious franchise.
Enzo Anselmo Giuseppe Maria Ferrari was an Italian motor racing driver and entrepreneur, the founder of the Scuderia Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team, and subsequently of the Ferrari automobile marque. Under his leadership, Scuderia Ferrari won nine drivers' world championships and eight constructors' world championships in Formula 1 during his lifetime.
The Porsche 959 is a sports car manufactured by German automobile manufacturer Porsche from 1986 to 1993, first as a Group B rally car and later as a road legal production car designed to satisfy FIA homologation regulations requiring at least 200 units be produced.
The Cannonball Run is a 1981 American action-comedy film directed by Hal Needham, produced by Hong Kong firm Golden Harvest, and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Filmed in Panavision, it features an all-star ensemble cast, including Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Roger Moore, Farrah Fawcett, Jackie Chan, and Dean Martin. The film is based on the 1979 running of the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, an actual cross-country outlaw road race beginning in Connecticut and ending in California.
The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such features as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 1915, a time when cars were often referred to as horseless carriages.
Road & Track is an American automotive enthusiast magazine first published 1947. It is owned by Hearst Magazines and is published six times per year. The editorial offices are located in New York, New York.
David Evan Davis Jr. was an American automotive journalist and magazine publisher widely known as a contributing writer, editor and publisher at Car and Driver magazine and as the founder of Automobile magazine.
Automobile was an American automobile magazine founded in 1986 by a group of former Car and Driver employees, led by David E. Davis with support from Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, using the credo No Boring Cars. From 2014-2020, Automobile had been absorbed by the Motor Trend Group.
Brock Yates was a prominent American journalist, TV commentator, TV reporter, screenwriter, and author. He was the longtime executive editor at Car and Driver magazine—and contributed to The Washington Post, Playboy, The American Spectator, Boating, Vintage Motorsports, as well as other publications.
Csaba Csere is a former technical director and editor-in-chief of Car and Driver magazine.
The Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, widely known as the Cannonball Baker or Cannonball Run, was an unofficial, unsanctioned automobile race run five times in the 1970s from New York City and Darien, Connecticut, on the East Coast of the United States to the Portofino Inn in the Los Angeles suburb of Redondo Beach, California. The Cannonball Run races have additionally inspired numerous contemporary efforts by independent teams to set the record time for the route, known as the Cannonball Run Challenge. The races were named after Erwin Baker.
Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker was an American motorcycle and automobile racer and organizer in the first half of the 20th century. Baker began his public career as a vaudeville performer, but turned to driving and racing after winning a dirt-track motorcycle race at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in about 1904.
Top Gear is a British automobile magazine, owned by BBC Worldwide, and published under contract by Immediate Media Company. It is named after the BBC's Top Gear television show. It was first published in October 1993 and is published monthly at a price of £5.99. As of December 2022, there have been a total of 360 issues published in the UK. The major presenters of the rebooted television series — Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May — were regular contributors, along with the series' production staff. "Tame racing driver" The Stig also regularly features in their car tests, though only communicates his thoughts and feelings through the articles of others. It is Britain's leading general interest car magazine in sales terms, with over 150,000 copies distributed each month in 2012, a drop of 50,000 from 2007. Previous columnists have included former Top Gear presenters Quentin Willson, Tiff Needell and Vicki Butler-Henderson.
In the late 1920s, American automotive company General Motors (GM) launched four companion makes to supplement its existing lineup of five-passenger car brands, or makes. The companion makes were LaSalle, introduced for the 1927 model year to supplement Cadillac; Marquette, introduced in 1929 for 1930 to supplement Buick; Pontiac, introduced for 1926 to supplement Oakland; and Viking, introduced for 1929 to supplement Oldsmobile. GM's fifth existing brand, Chevrolet, did not receive a companion make. With the exception of Viking, each of the companion makes were slotted below their "parent make" in GM's pricing hierarchy.
Jean Jennings is a retired American journalist, publisher and television personality covering the automotive industry, noted for making the industry more accessible to a broad cross-section of enthusiasts.
Hemmings Motor News is a monthly magazine catering to traders and collectors of antique, classic, and exotic sports cars. It is the largest and oldest publication of its type in the United States, with sales of 215,000 copies per month, and is best known for its large classified advertising sections. The magazine counts as subscribers and advertisers practically every notable seller and collector of classic cars, including Jay Leno and his Big Dog Garage, and most collector car clubs are included in its directory.
Road & Travel Magazine (RTM) is an online magazine focusing on automotive, travel, climate change and personal safety issues with a slant towards women. The magazine has its headquarters in Los Angeles, CA.
Karl E. Ludvigsen is a journalist, author, and historian of the automotive industry and motor sports.
Auto Motor und Sport, and abbreviated AMS or AMuS, is a German automobile magazine.
Alexander Roy is an American writer, podcaster, TV host and rally race driver who has set various endurance driving records, including the US "Cannonball Run" transcontinental driving record, which he and Dave Maher broke in 2007 in 31 hours and 4 minutes, featured in the 2019 documentary APEX: The Secret Race Across America.
Cycle was an American motorcycling enthusiast magazine, published from the early 1950s through the early 1990s. During its heyday, in the 1970s and 1980s, it had a circulation of more than 500,000 and was headquartered in Westlake Village, California, near the canyon roads of the Santa Monica Mountains, where Cycle's editors frequently road tested and photographed test bikes.