Brock Yates, 1933-2016, RIP
10-07-2016, 06:14 PM
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Brock Yates, 1933-2016, RIP
This guy was an inspiration to me growing up with gas lines and all the malaise that was late 1970s. I was not a huge C&D reader, but it was a MUCH better mag then than it is now. I wanted to BE him, on more than one adventure. That is why I feel somewhat sad, but this was a fully-LIVED life, if you are an auto enthusiast.
Brock Yates, Car and Driver’s Assassin, lost his long battle with Alzheimer’s on October 5, 2016. We take solace in the words he crafted for this publication, his screenplays, and his books, a legacy that long ago became permanent and prominent chapters of the American legend.
Yates was born in Lockport, New York, in 1933, the son of Raymond F. Yates, a prolific writer who introduced Americans to the age of telecommunication with his 1929 book ABC of Television. Inspired by his father’s prose, Yates began contributing articles to Science and Mechanics magazine while still in high school. Upon graduation, he studied at Hobart College in Geneva, New York, and later served in the U.S. Navy.
Yates joined Car and Driver in 1964, as managing editor—although he claimed no experience in either managing or editing. The task at hand, envisioned by editor and publisher David E. Davis, Jr., was lifting Car and Driver up and out of the mediocrity miring the day’s automotive publications. Along with Leon Mandel, Steve Smith, and Patrick Bedard, Davis and Yates sharpened their wits and words to venture well beyond routine race reports and road tests. Nicknamed “car and social commentary,” this publication nominated Dan Gurney for president, toasted the day’s brightest engineers and executives, and mounted vicious attacks on those deemed impediments to the automobile’s advancement. Yates earned his Assassin sobriquet with a 1968 exposé of Detroit’s intransigence titled The Grosse Pointe Myopians, which accurately forecast the rise of Japanese-made cars in America. The barbs of Yates’s pen sank deep and often into early safety advocates Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook.
Brock Yates and Dan Gurney with the Cannonball-willing Ferrari 365GTB/4
Bored with tilting at windmills, Yates created the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971, a coast-to-coast public road race. Although it was never officially sanctioned by this publication, the inaugural test run and four additional sprints following the rules-free format made memorable reading in Car and Driver. Yates and Dan Gurney won the first race in just under 36 hours in 1971 with a (borrowed) Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona. About that exploit, Gurney noted, “At no time did we exceed 175 mph.” When Hollywood took notice, Yates teamed with stuntman and director Hal Needham to write the screenplays for Smokey and the Bandit II and The Cannonball Run I and II, which, together, earned more than $100 million at the box office.
Yates penned 15 books, sharing his insights as an amateur racer in Sunday Driver and untold drama in Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine. He contributed to Car and Driver as an editor at large for four decades, but Yates and Davis exchanged virulent verbal assaults through the 1980s. These sumos of the written word eventually shook hands and resumed their friendship.
Yates departed Car and Driver in 2006. In addition to the millions of car enthusiasts he nurtured and the scores of C/D editors he inspired with his brilliant writing, Yates leaves behind a wife he lovingly called Lady Pamela, sons Brock, Jr., and Daniel, a daughter, Claire Lilly, and a stepdaughter, Stacy Bradley. Contributions to the Brock Yates Tribute Fund can be made through the Alzheimer’s Association at act.alz.org.
Brock Yates, Car and Driver’s Assassin, lost his long battle with Alzheimer’s on October 5, 2016. We take solace in the words he crafted for this publication, his screenplays, and his books, a legacy that long ago became permanent and prominent chapters of the American legend.
Yates was born in Lockport, New York, in 1933, the son of Raymond F. Yates, a prolific writer who introduced Americans to the age of telecommunication with his 1929 book ABC of Television. Inspired by his father’s prose, Yates began contributing articles to Science and Mechanics magazine while still in high school. Upon graduation, he studied at Hobart College in Geneva, New York, and later served in the U.S. Navy.
Yates joined Car and Driver in 1964, as managing editor—although he claimed no experience in either managing or editing. The task at hand, envisioned by editor and publisher David E. Davis, Jr., was lifting Car and Driver up and out of the mediocrity miring the day’s automotive publications. Along with Leon Mandel, Steve Smith, and Patrick Bedard, Davis and Yates sharpened their wits and words to venture well beyond routine race reports and road tests. Nicknamed “car and social commentary,” this publication nominated Dan Gurney for president, toasted the day’s brightest engineers and executives, and mounted vicious attacks on those deemed impediments to the automobile’s advancement. Yates earned his Assassin sobriquet with a 1968 exposé of Detroit’s intransigence titled The Grosse Pointe Myopians, which accurately forecast the rise of Japanese-made cars in America. The barbs of Yates’s pen sank deep and often into early safety advocates Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook.
Brock Yates and Dan Gurney with the Cannonball-willing Ferrari 365GTB/4
Bored with tilting at windmills, Yates created the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971, a coast-to-coast public road race. Although it was never officially sanctioned by this publication, the inaugural test run and four additional sprints following the rules-free format made memorable reading in Car and Driver. Yates and Dan Gurney won the first race in just under 36 hours in 1971 with a (borrowed) Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona. About that exploit, Gurney noted, “At no time did we exceed 175 mph.” When Hollywood took notice, Yates teamed with stuntman and director Hal Needham to write the screenplays for Smokey and the Bandit II and The Cannonball Run I and II, which, together, earned more than $100 million at the box office.
Yates penned 15 books, sharing his insights as an amateur racer in Sunday Driver and untold drama in Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine. He contributed to Car and Driver as an editor at large for four decades, but Yates and Davis exchanged virulent verbal assaults through the 1980s. These sumos of the written word eventually shook hands and resumed their friendship.
Yates departed Car and Driver in 2006. In addition to the millions of car enthusiasts he nurtured and the scores of C/D editors he inspired with his brilliant writing, Yates leaves behind a wife he lovingly called Lady Pamela, sons Brock, Jr., and Daniel, a daughter, Claire Lilly, and a stepdaughter, Stacy Bradley. Contributions to the Brock Yates Tribute Fund can be made through the Alzheimer’s Association at act.alz.org.
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