Throughout its 67 years in print, Car Craft was as much about people as it was about cars. It was a magazine that focused on legendary Pro Stock driver Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins so much that it made him, well, legendary. When Don “The Snake” Prudhomme and Tom “The Mongoose” McEwen snagged a sponsorship deal with Mattel for 1970, Car Craft’s Fred M.H. Gregory hauled their funny cars out to Orange County International Raceway and took a head-on shot that remains the single greatest image ever put on the cover of a car magazine. The story wasn’t about the cars; it was about Snake and Mongoose.
And then there were the car features. If you wrote about some guy’s blown and tubbed ’69 Camaro in Car Craft, you were writing about the effort and creativity of just some guy. There weren’t any corporate decisions involved, no marketing plans, no sales goals. Most of the work was done in the guy’s garage. When I was writing a car feature in Car Craft, I was writing right into someone’s soul and obsession. Occasionally, they’d call me up to say something nice about what I wrote. Other times, I’d get a call telling me about the wide range of reasons why I suck… read more >
