[Land-speed] David and Hot Rod

[wester6935 at comcast.net]

I'm one of those who stopped reading Hot Rod after owning almost every issue from #1.  I too quit buying it (reading it at the library when I remembered to look for it) in the 60's when hot rods became cartoon cars.   When I got married and evacuated my collection from mom's basement I donated them to the BYU Library hoping they would be good reference material for an auto design program just being started.  Later checks convinced me they were round filed immediately but the engineer who designed the H2 and the Avalanche eventually came out of BYU so perhaps all was not lost.
I went to the Hot Rod offices one April after Hot Rod published a statement that there was NO racing on the salt the previous year.  (In the same issue was a half page on a car that set records at World of Speed the year there was NO racing.)  After a cordial visit with the then editor, Gray Baskerville came in and proceeded to inform me that since SCTA/BNI had not had meets on the salt the previous year there had been NO racing on the salt flats as far as he was concerned.  You can imagine what my opinion of Mr. Baskerville has been since then ... yeah I know he was an icon but he was also an arrogant, biased butthead.  The next fall at SEMA I was showing some Hot Rod staffers my pictures of Baskerville and Boyd Coddington, in his Oakland Roadster show winner, taken at an Americruise stopover in SLC.  When they offered to photoshop Baskerville out of what they called an "otherwise great shot" it validated my opinion.
I started buying, then subscribing again, after David proved to me that Hot Rod intended to expand it's Bonneville coverage to include all salt activity.  I will continue to subscribe until such time as I am severely disappointed in the publication under the new ownership.  Hopefully that won't happen.  
With David and his input, Hot Rod returned to the top level of the car magazine genre.  I appreciate his efforts at one of my, once again, favorite magazines.
Thanks David and best of luck in your new challenge.  See you on the salt!

Wes