Thomas Jay McCahill III (1907-1975) is an automotive journalist, born to the grandson of a wealthy lawyer in Larchmont, New York. McCahill graduated from Yale University with a degree in fine art. (McCahill's father is an American footballer at Yale). He is credited with, among other things, the creation of accelerated measurements "0 to 60" now universally accepted in automotive testing. He became a salesman for Marmon and at dealerships operated mid-1930s in Manhattan and Palm Springs, featuring Rolls Royce, Jaguar and other luxury luxury cars. His father's depression and alcoholism wiped out his family's wealth.
Video Tom McCahill
Journalist and Car Critic
After graduating from Yale, McCahill succeeds and then owns Murray's Garage in New York City. During the war he wrote articles on various subjects for magazines such as Popular Science, Reader's Digest Magazine and Mechanix Illustrated ("MI"). Holding to the idea that a post-war hungry public may be automatically attracted to an article about a new car, it sells that concept to M.I. in February 1946, the first reporting on Ford's 1946 alone. His opinion is fearless and this makes him favored by some in the automotive world but also creates enemies. Never an athlete - with six feet two and 250 pounds - he once fought against thugs hired by (as it was believed at the time) General Motors. Allegedly he sent two to the hospital and a third.
McCahill was a personal friend of Walter P. Chrysler and appreciated the handling and performance characteristics of Chrysler Corporation cars in the late 1950s and 1960s, which included many advanced engineering features such as front torque rod suspension (combined with multi-leaf springs) for cornering flattering, powerful V8 engine options across the board and a three-speed TorsiFlite automatic transmission is positive. In a 1959 Plymouth Street Fury test (which he calls "Sports Fury"), he claims that torque rod suspension is the best in America. Some European sedans, McCahill said, could match Plymouth's handling performance.
On the other hand, McCahill's many opinions about vehicles are far less profitable. For example, he reported in a 1949 road test that the new Dodge, with its semi-automatic transmission, is a "dog". He considered the early 1950s Chevrolet worldly and utilitarian.
Maps Tom McCahill
On the road
On many previous road tests, his wife Cynthia will accompany him as his photographer and almost always his black Labrador Retriever, "Boji". His assistant then is a professional driver and photographer Jim McMicheal who is photographed sitting - or lying - in the trunk of every brand tested and known as a "rod tester".
Prose
McCahill often uses extreme metaphors and parables in prose. For example, in M.I. he describes the AC Cobra as being "hairier of a Bornean gorilla in a raccoon suit" . He proclaimed the Pontiac journey of 1957 to become "as smooth as the thigh of the prom queen". The 1957 Ford was "cornered by the postman's foot" and 1954 De Soto was "as solid as Rock of Gibraltar and as fast."
Racing
In 1952 McCahill entered his own Jaguar Mark VII sedan in a Daytona Beach speed trial and won NASCAR in the Sedan class. Every year he attends and reports on world-famous speed events, notably Le Mans 24 Hours in France. He bought the first Thunderbird built and successfully used it in a Daytona speed test of 1955. Tom McCahill's trophy was named for him. As the director of annual speed trials in Daytona Beach, he is responsible for overseeing the rules as well as the safety of drivers and audiences. He is Briggs Cunningham's personal friend and is driving the fastest car in the world.
Effect
McCahill reported in detail about every car imported into the US during the early 1950s, while mocking US auto makers for their excesses, including soft suspension ("Jello suspension" as he called it) and poor handling quality. The example was given by one of the first street tests of 1958 Edsel in the September 1957 edition of MI: McCahill criticized the standard suspension as being too "horsey-back" and strongly recommends that Edsel buyers "horseback" a few extra bucks for an optional, heavy duty suspension package (ie export), which included heavier springs and shocks. He goes as far as to tell his reader that "I will not have one except with an export kit; without a stiff suspension, a car with so much performance (his test car has 345-horsepower, 410 cubic inches V8) can prove similar to opening a king's full Christmas basket Cobras in a small room with the lights off ".
McCahill supports the abolition of the Car Manufacturers' restrictions on factory-supported car races; although the ban was agreed by GM, Ford and Chrysler in June 1957, manufacturers continued to work under the table to provide performance and engine parts for racing teams or car-performance enthusiasts. McCahill chooses to stay in Florida because the climate allows to have a car like his Jaguar sedan, because the corrosion problem inherent with this type of car will be compounded by the Eastern climate.
In Chevrolet Corvair
McCahill did and reported on Chevrolet Corvair's first road test in 1959. In the presence of Zora Arkus-Duntov, chief engineer of the Corvair project, McCahill ran the car at speed at G.M. testing basis. McCahill reported that he was pleased with the handling characteristics and that Corvair was handled better than Porsche 1959. This goes against a statement by Ralph Nader in his book Unsafe at Any Speed ​​criticizing Corvair's handling. By the time Nader writes Unsafe at Any Speed, it must be remembered he does not have an automotive engineering degree or a driver's license. In response to Nader's book, McCahill tried to make Corvair 1963 to flip, at one point shifted to the curb, but could not hand over the vehicle.
Favorite vehicle
In 600 road tests that he did and report, his favorite cars were Bentley Continental 1953 and Imperial 1957-62, each year model he owned as his personal vehicle. In 1950 he bought a new Ford and began to get help from Andy Granatelli in "raising it" by switching to a high-performing head and manifolding. He then tested the car extensively and saw a cruising speed of 90 miles per hour. The car was known as "M.I. Ford" because it is often featured in Magazines. The thoughtful and attentive McCahill converted the car before selling it for 32,000 miles. The fear of mechanical failure quickly caused McCahill to worry about the safety of the future owner. He bought the new Cadillac Series 62 sedan in 1952 that he finally tracked at NASCAR's week speed events. He also purchased new and reported on the '54 Jeep CJ3A, stating that when Lincoln was the best street car available at the time, in the end, Jeep was the best idea ever made by humans. He claims Jeep will run faster than contemporary MG. McCahill bought the first Ford Thunderbird built in 1954 and started driving in Daytona Beach.
Sound Off
In 1958 M.I. McCahill's article accused the US Auto Industry of causing a recession and bad car sales in 1958 by standardizing the style and eliminating races from factories or factories. He focuses on AMC George Romney, who claims that Rambler is handled better than the full size US. McCahill did a test to prove him wrong. He is at loggerheads with Walter Reuther of U.A.W. due to poor quality problems in US cars and the fact that European imports - at SAAB and Volvo in particular - are of high quality, the performance is remarkable and no more expensive than good used cars for those who can not afford to buy new household cars. McCahill railed against unfair trade with Canada and Europe. He demanded that the US stop receiving imports and, in exchange for war reparations, forcing Britain, Canada and France (where people could buy British or German cars, but no US made) to accept the forced sale of hundreds of thousands of US used cars, the plans it claimed will increase new vehicle sales by more than six million per year over the next five years, significantly accelerating the US economy. McCahill has become the public face of Mechanix Illustrated, and the industry is quickly realizing that its reviews can make or break products instantly. When he tested 1948 Oldsmobile Futuramic 98 powered by an eight-cylinder flat engine from a prewar design, he claimed that pressing the accelerator was like "Stepping on a wet sponge". General Motors was angry at his review of '48 Olds and a number of angry letters from the company, as well as from Olds merchants and owners, came to MI's office demanding his dismissal. However, it is widely known that McCahill's report motivated GM to develop the new overhead valve Oldsmobile, the compression engine "Rocket V8", which made dÃÆ'Â © but the following year in 1949 "98". The engine format is filtered to a smaller and lighter body/chassis used for the "76" lows owned by Oldsmobile (powered by a six-cylinder engine) and to create Olds "Rocket 88." The Rocket V8 performs better than the bigger and heavier 98, thus creating new images for Olds and setting the stage for a similarly designed V8 engine throughout Detroit over the next few years.
Personal details
McCahill married several times but died without any problems. In a 1956 interview with Playboy magazine McCahill stated that he had "more money than hair". The statement was in response to the question of how he had been photographed in two separate Mechanix Illustrated problems with two different wives. McCahill has a home in Florida and New York, where he will receive a car to test. He traveled throughout the United States and Europe to facilitate testing. His stepson with his fourth wife, Brooks Brender, served as McCahill's assistant in his final years. McCahill is a personal friend of the band's leader, Paul Whiteman, with whom he shares his love of hunting and fishing. Every year, McCahill will take a ten-day boating trip from his home in New York to his Florida home on a thirty-foot Egg Harbor Cruiser, "Rooster" (McCahill was forced to sell Rooster in 1967 to pay taxes to the IRS). McCahill is a diligent fisherman, hunter, and deep sea diver.
At age 68, McCahill died at the Daytona Community Hospital on May 10, 1975. Mechanix Illustrated never publicly acknowledged his death, because his name was identical to that. He is "as big as a franchise" and management is never willing to admit he's gone. For a while, they run a column called "McCahill Report", which was written ghost by Brender. At the time of his death, he is believed to be the only living descendant of the Scottish fool, Rob Roy. According to Canadian automotive historian Bill Vance, McCahill has lost a leg that became gangrene after a spike penetrated it during a duck hunt, forcing an amputation. His widow died in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Books
- Tom McCahill,
Modern Car Cars , Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1954 - Tom McCahill, Tom McCahill Car Handbook Manual , Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1956.
- Tom McCahill, Sports Cars and Competition Today , Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959.
- Tom McCahill, What You Should Know About Cars , The Fawcett Crest Book, Around 1963.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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