FIRST? Not even close!
The very first road test article 'Uncle' Tom did for Mechanix Illustrated
was the 1946 Ford, in 1946. His second was the 1946 Buick. I have in my
collection of stuff (from what I can remember off the top of my head) 1949
Hudson, 1949 Ford, 1949 Kaiser, 1951 Nash Rambler, 1952 Plymouth, 1951
Kaiser, 1951 Dodge Wayfarer, 1951 DeSoto, 1952 Studebaker V8, 1951 Chrysler
V8, 1953 Kaiser, 195? Crosley, 1953 Henry J, 1953 Chrysler New Yorker V8,
1953 Dodge Coronet V8, 1953 MG, 1952 Ford Consul, 195? Renault 750, all done
by Uncle Tom before 1955.
His stuff from the 1950's is the best. One report that stands out was the
one on the Singer 1500 roadster in the early 1950's. The brakes on this
thing were a joke, apparently. He had his wife (forget which one - he was
divorced a few times) stand on the raceway to get a picture as he came
around the track. And she stood there until she took the picture. Uncle
Tom had to slam on the binders to prevent hitting her, and the car came to a
stop just inches from her. But she never flinched! He was very grateful he
was able to stop in time. After all, according to Uncle Tom, good cameras
are hard to come by!
He reported on two vehicles per month, usually at least 10 out of 12 issues
per year. And he continued this right up to just before his death in the
1970's (forget which year off hand), The reports continued for a few more
years, being done by his step-son Brooks Bender (Uncle Tom's trunk tester -
Brooks was well over 6' and far from scrawny).
Other testers of that era were Floyd Clymer for Popular Mechanics, who also
started the owners' reports. Floyd had done some reports on his own and
published them (1947 Studebaker, 1947 Kaiser, 1949 Ford, 1949 Kaiser - I
have the two 1947 publications). The last reports by Floyd Clymer were
done in 1957 - I believe the 1957 Dodge was the last in September 1957.
>From there, PM had their own staff conduct the tests and reports, while
Floyd carried on with road test reports in his own Automobile Topics
magazine for a few more years.
Popular Science hired Wilbur Shaw, of Indianapolis 500 fame, to write road
test articles for them. He started with PS in 1951, and the last report he
did was on the 1955 Imperial. He was killed in a plane crash shortly after
conducting, and filing, his report on the car.
Science and Mechanics also did road tests during the 1950's. Their road
tests were conducted by anonymous staff and the reports usually had one full
page of statistics, giving details on the car size, weight, speeds, times
and braking. Only have a couple of those. That magazine was not very
common.
Bill
Vancouver, BC
> For those that remember "Uncle Tom" McCahill, be advised that this was the
> FIRST test drive article that he wrote and was the start of his fabulous
> career writing for Mechanics Illustrated. A very collectible piece.
>
> Wayne
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Timothy A Koah [mailto:talk4u@xxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 1:59 PM
> Subject: 55 Chrysler 300
>
>
> Greetings!
> The owners of the 55 Chrysler 300 might want to check out ebay #
> 1500304311. It is a Mechanix Illustrated magazine, May 1955 that has a
> five page article on the 300 by McCahill.
> Tim
> 55 St Regis
> 56 NY
>
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