Peter Egan on the Road (Book)

[louisb]

My wife and I had planned a nice little weekend at the beach to celebrate our 13th anniversary this past weekend. She had ideas of riding bikes and long walks on the beach intermingled with great dinning in this resort town named San Destin located in the Florida Panhandle. Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans and it rained so much I saw animals walking around in pairs on the resort golf course. All was not lost though because San Destin also has a lot of great places to go shopping which occupied my wife during the day.  This allowed me to hang out on our hotel balcony overlooking the bay and catch up on some reading, and more importantly napping, while watching the storms roll across the water. A blinder full of ritas, a good book and comfy lounge chair is my idea of a perfect day at the beach so I was a happy camper for the most part.

I had found this book "Peter Egan on the Road" a while back but have been too busy with work and teaching to read it. Peter Egan is an editor for Road & Track and one of the motorcycle mags which I forget the name of at the moment. He is an excellent writer with good pacing and a great sense of humor.  I must say that it is one of the best books on cars, road trips and the friendships that develops around cars I have read. He recounts several great stories of driving cars ranging from MGs to Model A's through snow, rain, deserts and Iowa. One of the main points of his trips is staying off the beaten path and avoiding interstates at all costs, traveling through rural America, Mexico and even India. The cars all have a character of their own which shapes much of the going ons during these trips and anyone who has driven a vintage auto farther than the city limits will be able to relate. Adventures include resoldering a Model A carb float in the back woods of Texas, playing chicken with 5 ton Tata trucks in India, getting a MG TC stuck in the ditch on their way to the races in Georgia and driving a Dino Ferrari through the badlands of North Dakota in the dead of winter.

If your into doing more than dusting your car at car shows and enjoy reading then I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this excellent book.

--louis

[Jim Ratto]

I have the "At Large" compilation by Egan..... makes for great car trip reading. The trip in the Dino in the dead of winter, the replica Lotus 11 across the desert, the trip up the Himalayas. Been reading his stuff since '84 or so.

that guy's lived my dream. Great journalist. Be a great guy to have a cup of coffee with someday.

[Sam K]

I'll have to look for those books. I have always enjoyed Peter Egan's "Side Glances" column in Road & Track.

[javabug]

Sounds like good reading.  I really enjoyed his story about following Hank's last trip in the Caddy (I think that was Egan?).

[lawrence]

Peter Egan also writes for Cycle World, Louis. I used to have a subscription and his editorials were always good.

[Fritter]

I have all his books, "at large" and the "side glances" compilations.  Awesome stuff.

Road and Track sucks but it's worth buying for his article alone.  The rest of it is too blah.  Sometimes Egan writes a cool review or story also.

There used to be a British magazine in the 90s I bought called "performance car" that was awesome.  They actually had some kind of inflection and emotion in the writing rather than it reading like a press release.