Peter Egan and the zen of a restoration.

Any one of us who has breathed life into a long dormant car will understand completely. Those who haven't, take heed. You will not be satisfied until she lives again.

There is a delicate balance point here, a moment at which a car may just as likely be abandoned as saved, and the hard economics of restoration more often points to abandonment. Unless I'm around, of course.

Truly a literary masterpiece!

Life goal: sip a beer and listen to Peter Egan.

still one of my favorite authors

if he still wrote regularly for R&T I'd probably still subscribe

I always get the feeling that I am related to Peter. I can relate to his life experiences with cars and travels.

I'm reminded of my favorite line of his, "One night I got carried away on a mixture of French roast and Guinness and accidentally disassembled the whole car," or something to that effect.

I can't seem to find the story, though.

Does anyone know of an archive of his columns?

In reply to dimarra:

Collections of his best "Side Glances" columns are available as books.

A high point in my life was attending the 2007(?) Lotus meet in Colorado, and wandered into the local bar one night. We were sitting there and over comes Peter and his wife Barbara, asking if they could share the table. Oh, and Alain De Cadenet later joined the table as well. That was a very enjoyable evening.

In reply to kb58:

Alain De Cadenet and Peter Egan, there must have been some stories told

Danny Shields wrote: Collections of his best "Side Glances" columns are available as books.

I have them (and the Leanings collections, as well.) I just figured I could search the 'Net for one column vs getting caught up and reading through all the books. ...again.

Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock wrote: In reply to kb58: Alain De Cadenet and Peter Egan, there must have been some stories told

Every time I see de Cadenet I think of him getting buzzed by the Spitfire.

In reply to dimarra:

Road & Track site has a few.

wbjones wrote: still one of my favorite authors if he still wrote regularly for R&T I'd probably still subscribe

Side Glances appears to be back on a fairly regular basis. FYI. And I also spent the afternoon sitting in the sun with Peter in Aspen a few years back. It was just as you might expect, although I did disappoint him a bit with my lack of knowledge of his favorite guitarists.

This particular column is perfect for me, as I have a 1966 Cadillac sitting in my driveway right now, teetering on the edge of restoration vs abandonment. I've revived it once before, more than a decade ago, do I want to again?

I'm pretty sure I'd disappoint him also with regards to guitarists … since my favorites would start with Tony Rice, Bryan Sutton, Jimmy Martin, Doc Watson, Clarence White … etc

spitfirebill wrote:

Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock wrote: In reply to kb58: Alain De Cadenet and Peter Egan, there must have been some stories told

Every time I see de Cadenet I thing of him getting buzzed by the Spitfire.

Yeah I asked him about that... he didn't find it humorous at all. He actually does a lot of his own flying and it was one reason he knew that the maneuver was a bit dicey.

"Fixing up an old car is a lot of trouble, but some forms of trouble are better than nothing."

I remember reading about the adventures in restoring that Caddy back in the day.

What a brilliant writer.

kb58 wrote:

spitfirebill wrote:

Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock wrote: In reply to kb58: Alain De Cadenet and Peter Egan, there must have been some stories told

Every time I see de Cadenet I thing of him getting buzzed by the Spitfire.

Yeah I asked him about that... he didn't find it humorous at all. He actually does a lot of his own flying and it was one reason he knew that the maneuver was a bit dicey.

I've watched it quite a few times. I'm not sure how they did not hit him.

Peter Egan is in my top 5 list of automotive journalists. We're a few months apart in age and whenever he mentioned something relevant concerning historical events and how his life was affected, I understood and appreciated. And he likes sports cars (now considered vintage), blues and beer. What could be better?

Keith, you really should finish the Caddy (in your spare time), and take a road trip to the crossroads.