70 Years Young
Happy 70th anniversary! MotorTrend
has been a big influence in my life while
nurturing my lifelong interest in cars.
A marginal grade school student
of English and grammar, my reading
and vocabulary were honed instead by
consuming MT issues beginning in 1961
at age 10, when my dad brought home an
issue borrowed from a car nut coworker. I
subsequently had an incentive to visit the
library and have something to do while
my mom shopped at the supermarket.
At age 16 I hoodwinked my dad into
purchasing a new ’67 GTO, after pointing
out for several years how great the styling
of the Le Mans was. He wasn’t aware
there was a beast variant and thankfully
didn’t notice the GTO badge! (About two
months after buying it, he would come
home from work bragging about what car
he blew away driving home.)
The following year the ’68 GTO
was named Car of the Year, and I was
ecstatic—so much so that I wrote my first
letter to the editor, and it was published!
I never forgot the rush of recognition.
Through adulthood, I found satisfac-
tion in seeing my opinion expressed on
a grand scale. Over time I developed a
love of writing to the point of creating
a writing/editing business and then a
website about the future.
If it were not for MotorTrend, I’m
certain my life would have been less rich
and fulfilling.
Congratulations on your fabulous
legacy, and happy 70th. Thank you, MT!
John Herman
Charleston, South CarolinaI have just received my September issue
and found of special interest the article
on the Kurtis Sport Car. When I was in
junior high school a friend of mine’s dad
had a new Muntz Jet, and I really knew
very little about the origin of Muntz or
the connection to Kurtis, so that was just
neat to see. I was especially taken by the
comment about “everybody present at
MT ’s birth has packed their desks and
relocated to that great printing press in
the sky.” I’m still around and have been
reading MotorTrend since your first issue
and plan on continuing to read it until I
do the same.
Dick Russ
Oklahoma City, OklahomaYour anniversary issue, especially the
story based on prior Car of the Year
winners, was probably the best issue MT
ever put out, and I’ve been a reader since- (It was not easy hiding it from the
nuns and brothers when I was supposed
to be learning what they were teaching.)
However, I have a question about the
piece on the 1968 GTO (page 37). The text
mentions your 1968 review and that “our
four-speed automatic tester” did 0–60 in
7.3 seconds while “our Hurst four-speed
manual tester” with Ram-Air did it in 6.5.
Clearly, the article notes the results
for two different test cars, an automatic
and a manual. Thus, the results had to
be from the 1968 review because you
certainly didn’t have two GTOs to review
for the 2019 issue: The 2019 article
notes a single 1968 GTO borrowed from
Original Parts Group.
I’m sure you see the problem: The
Turbo Hydro-matic automatic “back in
the day,” as the saying goes, was of course
a three-speed automatic transmission.
As Bob Seger would say, “Lord, I
remember ...”
Keith Dolan
Brooklyn, New York
You’re correct that the numbers come
directly fromthe car’s 1968 Car of the Year
feature. Second, good catch on the trans-
mission—the GTO’s sole automatic option
was a three-speed, not a four.—Ed.Reader on location
This month’s reader on location is
Milt Hazzard of Woodlawn, Maryland.
Here’s what he had to say: “On my
September–October trip to Egypt,
I took along the September copy of
MotorTrend so I could read and have
a picture of the new C 8 Corvette
handy; I plan to order one as soon as
my dealer starts taking orders. Here
I am at the Giza pyramids, where a
friend (who didn’t know how to use
my camera) took this picture.”Call toll-free 1-800-331-3030
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