R&T ‘s Peter Egan - What’s he up to?

My favorite article was about him being at a racetrack test driving cars with a buddy. A guy drives into the track in a Zcar or something and says he'd like to do what they're doing. They immediately said not true. The gist of the article, that I take to heart almost every day since then, is that if you really wanted to do something you'd have done it or being doing it. This guy had a trackable car and was only a decent set of brake pads and tires from having fun on track. I think too that applying this logic has helped me to avoid chasing the mist. I look at what I have, where I am, and determine what is doable in the moment. It allows me to weed out wild goose chases. I miss his monthly writing. R and T is just not the same without it.

A 401 CJ said:

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

ddavidv said:

Wikipedia pegs his age at 65 this year. I would have guessed he was much older. 

It says he was born in 1948, that would make him 75 not 65.

 

I let that sentence sink in and it truly frightened me.

I was born 30 years later, so.... yeah, he's 65 this year, right?

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

I was born 30 years later, so.... yeah, he's 65 this year, right?

2023 - 1948 = 75.

vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:

My favorite article was about him being at a racetrack test driving cars with a buddy. A guy drives into the track in a Zcar or something and says he'd like to do what they're doing. They immediately said not true. 

As I recall in that column he was at the track with Allen Girdler, who was the editor at Cycle World who first published one of Peter's stories.  He wrote a nice obituary for Allen when he died a couple years ago.  https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-news/allan-girdler-1937-2021/

vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:

My favorite article was about him being at a racetrack test driving cars with a buddy. A guy drives into the track in a Zcar or something and says he'd like to do what they're doing. They immediately said not true. The gist of the article, that I take to heart almost every day since then, is that if you really wanted to do something you'd have done it or being doing it. This guy had a trackable car and was only a decent set of brake pads and tires from having fun on track. I think too that applying this logic has helped me to avoid chasing the mist. I look at what I have, where I am, and determine what is doable in the moment. It allows me to weed out wild goose chases. I miss his monthly writing. R and T is just not the same without it.

This was one of my personal favorites, too. I have been citing/quoting/paraphrasing the message of that column to others (and myself) for decades. Egan is/was both hilarious and profound in his writings.

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

R&T is now a "lifestyle" magazine, not a car magazine anymore.  I'm probably not going to resubscribe when it comes due.  C&D now sends out 75-80 page issues, I'll be letting them lapse as well.

In reply to ddavidv :

"That is one of two "PS" memes I saved from my old magazines. (The other is guys playing chess in the pits with various sized sockets)"

My father took that picture. As I recall, he was at the 1967 24-Hours of LeMans (or 1968). He was there with my mother. He saw the two mechanics had taken one of the chalkboards for sending messages to the driver and drawn a chessboard on it, then set it upon a fuel drum. They used sockets of various sizes to represent the pieces, and the two mechanics used tires as chairs. While they played the race cars went roaring past in the background. He was there partly on assignment (aka - getting someone else to pay the bills while he hung around with his friend Chris Economaki).

The 1967 race was the same race where Dan Gurney (and AJ Foyt) won. When he was handed the (expensive) bottle of champagne at the winner's podium, rather than standing proudly like the European drivers, Gurney was so caught up in the moment that he just started spraying the crowd (and some Ford executives, somewhat carefully aiming the bottle accidentally and totally not on purpose...). My father remembers the announcer saying "une douche Américaine!" (not an insult, like today, but literally saying "an American shower!")

At that time Road&Track would publish the "PS" photographer's name in big letters. But with that issue (or soon before) they changed the byline to small type. For years his sports-car acquaintances would mention the picture to him, not knowing he took it.

Anyway, that's the family story. Unfortunately, we haven't come across the photos when going through my father's estate. I have some of his magazine articles but not this photo. If you have a scan of it I would really appreciate it.

I have a paper copy. Somewhere.

Thank you for sharing the story. It adds greatly to my appreciation of that photo!

docwyte said:

In reply to vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) :

R&T is now a "lifestyle" magazine, not a car magazine anymore.  I'm probably not going to resubscribe when it comes due.  C&D now sends out 75-80 page issues, I'll be letting them lapse as well.

I stopped when they dropped the large format glossy - right after the financial crises.  Found better content on the internet anyway.

In reply to kwenners :

That's a fantastic story! Thanks for sharing it . . .