RIP Brock Yates Sr.

I, too, was addicted to C&D during it's heyday, and Yates was a huge part of that. His influence on the auto and motorsports culture was immeasurable.

As I said on another board, hopefully he and David E. Davis are having a drink together right now.

One of my heros. Started reading him when I was 14 and he remained the only reason to read C&D for many years. I was involved with One Lap in the early 1990s and got to meet him a few times. Had a beer together (with a lot of other people) at the Cannonball Pub late one night. What a guy.

I really hate to hear this, but 12 years is a long time to fight this chicken E36 M3 disease.

He was such a force in the auto world for many years.

Met him at one of the first RIT Distinguished Speaker series events where he spoke about the Cannonball and other events in his life. It was very small and pretty much only a few of us from the FSAE team went, so we got a lot of casual time to chat with him. One of the team's car's nose cones is/was displayed in his pub near Rochester, NY. He will be missed.

My dad and I pulled up next to him at a toll booth once. He was driving a preproduction Audi 80 or 90 with manufacturer plates and electrical tape over all of the emblems.

Very sad news. Yates and his contemporaries deserve major credit for keeping automotive enthusiasm alive during the Malaise Era.

Also, he took an old-school hot rod to Pebble Beach and won.

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/barbarians-on-the-grass

There are very few car guys this man hasn't touched in some way, even if they never knew it.

I hope the family will do a book of his best writings at some point.

Awesome guy. My favorite was his book Sunday Driver--truly a great read.

Terry

I had never heard of Sunday Driver but I just ordered a copy from Amazon.

bluebarchetta wrote: Very sad news. Yates and his contemporaries deserve major credit for keeping automotive enthusiasm alive during the Malaise Era. Also, he took an old-school hot rod to Pebble Beach and won. http://www.caranddriver.com/features/barbarians-on-the-grass

I remember reading that article when I was a kid! I spent a lot of time reading Car and Driver in the late 1990s-early 2000s so this is sad to hear.

Edit: I re-read that article just now. It's brilliant, I laughed out loud. You should read it too!

Sad news. I was always a fan of his writing. One year back in the nineties I knew he was going to be at the Lime Rock vintage weekend. I brought my old battered copy of Sunday Driver for an autograph. I was a little apprehensive because he was known to be a crusty curmudgeon at times. But he was very polite, friendly and accommodating when I talked to him, and included a nice note with his autograph. Great guy, and a great car guy. RIP.

RIP Brock, we are missing you already....