Tom McCahill
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Thomas Jay McCahill III (June 21, 1907 – May 10, 1975) was an automotive journalist, born the grandson of a wealthy attorney in
Larchmont Larchmont is a village located within the Town of Mamaroneck in Westchester County, New York. Larchmont is a suburb of New York City, located approximately northeast of Midtown Manhattan. The population of the village is 6,453 as of the W ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
. McCahill graduated from
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
with a degree in
fine art In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...
s. (McCahill's father had been a football all-American at Yale). He is credited with, amongst other things, the creation of the "0 to 60" acceleration measurement now universally accepted in automotive testing. He became a salesman for Marmon and in the mid-1930s operated dealerships in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
and
Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...
, featuring
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
,
Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...
, and other high-line luxury cars. The
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
and his father's
alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...
wiped out his family's fortune.


Journalist and automobile critic

After graduating from Yale, McCahill managed and later owned Murray's Garage in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. During the war he wrote articles on a variety of subjects for magazines such as ''
Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or popsci) is an interpretation of science intended for a general audience. While science journalism focuses on recent scientific developments, popular science is more broad ranging. It may be written ...
'', ''
Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...
'' and ''
Mechanix Illustrated ''Mechanix Illustrated'' is an American printed magazine that was originally published by Fawcett Publications. Its title was founded in 1928 to compete against the older ''Popular Science Popular science (also called pop-science or pops ...
'' (''M.I.''). Hitting on the idea that an auto-starved post-wartime public might be interested in articles on new cars, he sold the concept to ''Mechanix Illustrated'' in February 1946, first reporting on his own 1946 Ford. His opinions were fearless and this endeared him to some in the automotive world but created enemies too. Ever the sportsman—at six foot two and 250 pounds—he once fought off goons hired by (as was believed at the time)
General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
. It is alleged that he sent two to the hospital and the third running. McCahill was a personal friend of Walter P. Chrysler and appreciated the handling and performance characteristics of
Chrysler Corporation FCA US, LLC, doing business as Stellantis North America and known historically as Chrysler ( ), is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of ...
cars in the late 1950s and 1960s, which included many advanced engineering features such as front torsion-bar suspensions (combined with rear multi-leaf springs) for flatter cornering, powerful
V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Origins The first known V8 was the Antoinette, designed by Léon Levavasseur, a ...
options across the board and positive-shifting three-speed TorqueFlite
automatic transmission An automatic transmission (AT) or automatic gearbox is a multi-speed transmission (mechanics), transmission used in motor vehicles that does not require any input from the driver to change forward gears under normal driving conditions. The 1904 ...
s. In a 1959 road test of the Plymouth Sport Fury (which he referred to as the "Sports Fury"), he claimed that the torsion bar suspensions were the finest in America. Few European sedans, said McCahill, could match the handling performance of the Plymouth. On the other hand, many of McCahill's opinions about vehicles were far less favorable. For example, he reported in a 1949 road test that the new
Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence, Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...
, with its
semi-automatic transmission A semi-automatic transmission is a multiple-speed Transmission (mechanics), transmission where part of its operation is Automation, automated (typically the actuation of the clutch), but the driver's input is still required to launch the vehicle f ...
, was a "dog." He considered early 1950s
Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ) is an American automobile division of the manufacturer General Motors (GM). In North America, Chevrolet produces and sells a wide range of vehicles, from subcompact automobiles to medium-duty commercial trucks. Due to the promi ...
s mundane and utilitarian.


On the road

On many of his earlier road tests, his wife Cynthia would accompany him as his photographer and almost always his black
Labrador Retriever The Labrador Retriever or simply Labrador or Lab is a British list of dog breeds, breed of water dog retriever gun dog. It was developed in the United Kingdom from St. John's water dogs imported from the Newfoundland Colony, colony of Newfoun ...
, "Boji". His later assistant was professional driver and photographer Jim McMichael who was photographed sitting—or lying—in the trunk of so many test cars McCahill eventually began calling him the " official trunk tester".


His prose

McCahill frequently used extreme
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide, or obscure, clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are usually meant to cr ...
s and
simile A simile () is a type of figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes are often contrasted with metaphors, where similes necessarily compare two things using words such as "like", "as", while metaphors often create an implicit c ...
s in his prose. For example, in ''Mechanix Illustrated'' he described the
AC Cobra The AC Cobra, sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra and AC Shelby Cobra, is a sports car manufactured by British company AC Cars, with a List of Ford engines#8 Cylinder, Ford V8 engine. It was produced intermittently in both the Uni ...
as "hairier than a
Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...
gorilla Gorillas are primarily herbivorous, terrestrial great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus ''Gorilla'' is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five su ...
in a
raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...
suit". He proclaimed the ride of a 1957 Pontiac to be as "smooth as a prom queen's thighs". The 1957 Ford "cornered as flat as a mailman's feet" and the 1954 De Soto is "as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar and just as fast." He described one model of Studebaker's gray-painted hubcaps as a feature "only an engineer could love."


Racing

In 1952 McCahill entered his own Jaguar Mark VII sedan in the Daytona Beach
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
speed trials and won in the sedan class. Each year he attended and reported on world-renowned speed events, especially the Le Mans 24 Hour in France. He purchased the first Thunderbird built and raced it successfully in the 1955 Daytona speed trials. The Tom McCahill trophy was named for him. As director of the yearly speed trials at Daytona beach, he was responsible for overseeing the rules as well as the safety of the drivers and spectators. He was a personal friend of
Briggs Cunningham Briggs Swift Cunningham II (January 19, 1907 – July 2, 2003) was an American entrepreneur and sportsman. He is best known for skippering the yacht Columbia (1958 yacht), ''Columbia'' to victory in the 1958 America's Cup race, and for his effor ...
and drove the fastest cars in the world.


Effect

McCahill reported in detail on every car imported to the U.S. during the early 1950s, all the while ridiculing the U.S. automakers for their excesses, including soft suspensions ("Jello suspensions" as he referred to them) and poor handling qualities. An example is provided by one of the first road tests of the 1958 Edsel in the September 1957 issue of ''Mechanix Illustrated'': McCahill criticized the standard suspension as being too "horsey-back" and strongly recommended that Edsel buyers "pony up" a few extra bucks for the optional, heavy-duty (i.e. export) suspension package, which included heavier springs and shocks. He went so far as to tell his readers that "I wouldn't own one except with the export kit; without stiffer suspension, a car with so much performance (his test car had the 345-horsepower, 410 cubic-inch V8) could prove similar to opening a Christmas basket full of King Cobras in a small room with the lights out". McCahill was in favor of lifting the Automobile Manufacturer's Association ban on factory backed
stock car racing Stock car racing is a form of Auto racing, automobile racing run on oval track racing, oval tracks and road courses. It originally used Production vehicle, production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifical ...
; although the ban was agreed upon by GM, Ford and Chrysler in June 1957, manufacturers continued under-the-table efforts to provide performance parts and engines to racing teams or performance-car enthusiasts. McCahill chose to live in Florida as its climate permitted owning such cars as his Jaguar sedan, as corrosion problems inherent with this type of car would have been compounded by the Eastern climate.


On the Chevrolet Corvair

McCahill conducted and reported on the first road test of the
Chevrolet Corvair The Chevrolet Corvair is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined, Chevrolet Turbo-Air 6 engine, air-cooled compact car manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet over two generations between 1960 and 1969. A response to the Volkswagen Beetle, it was of ...
in 1959. In the presence of
Zora Arkus-Duntov Zachary "Zora" Arkus-Duntov (born Zachar Arkus; December 25, 1909 – April 21, 1996) was a Russian"U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947," digital images, ''Ancestry.com'' (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed May 21, 2024), Zachar A ...
,
chief engineer A chief engineer, commonly referred to as "Chief" or "ChEng", is the most senior licensed mariner (engine officer) of an engine department on a ship, typically a merchant ship, and holds overall leadership and the responsibility of that departmen ...
of the Corvair project, McCahill ran the car at speed on the G.M. testing grounds. McCahill reported that he was pleased with the handling characteristics and that the Corvair handled better than the 1959
Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...
. This conflicts with the assertions by
Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American lawyer and political activist involved in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. He is a Perennial candidate, perennial presidential candidate. His 1965 book '' ...
in his book '' Unsafe at Any Speed'' criticizing the Corvair's handling. At the time Nader wrote ''Unsafe at Any Speed'', it is to be remembered he had neither an automotive engineering degree nor a driver's license. In response to Nader's book, McCahill tried to get a 1963 Corvair to flip, at one point sliding sideways into a street curb, but could not turn over the vehicle.


Favorite vehicles

In the 600 road tests he performed and reported on, his favorite cars were the 1953
Bentley Continental Bentley Continental refers to several models of cars produced by Bentley Motors. Originally, it referred to a special chassis for engines more powerful than the usual offering, supplied to a selected number of coachbuilders for the fitting of ...
and the 1957–1962 Imperial, each
model year The model year (sometimes abbreviated as MY) is a method of describing the version of a product which has been produced over multiple years. The model year may or may not be the same as the calendar year in which the product was manufactured. ...
of which he owned as his personal vehicles. In 1950 he purchased a new Ford and proceeded to acquire the assistance of Andy Granatelli in "hopping it up" by switching to high-performance heads and manifolding. He then tested the car extensively and noticed a 90-mile-an-hour cruising speed. The car became known as the "M.I. Ford" as it was frequently featured in the magazine. He purchased a new 1952
Cadillac Series 62 The Cadillac Series 40-62 is a series of cars which was produced by Cadillac from 1940 through 1964. Originally designed to complement the entry level Cadillac Series 61, Series 61, it became the Cadillac Series 6200 in 1959, and remained that unt ...
sedan which he eventually raced in
NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...
speed week events. He also purchased new and reported on the '54
Jeep CJ The Jeep CJ models are a series and a range of small, open-bodied off-road vehicles and compact pickup trucks, built and sold by several successive incarnations of the Jeep automobile marque from 1945 through 1986. The 1945 Willys "Universal Jee ...
3A, stating that while his Lincoln was the finest road car available at the time, in the end, the Jeep was the best idea that mankind had ever made. He claimed a Jeep would outrun a contemporary M.G. McCahill purchased the first
Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird is a personal luxury car manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company for model years 1955 to 2005, with a hiatus from 1998 to 2001. Ultimately gaining a broadly used colloquial nickname, the ''T-Bird'', Ford Introduce ...
built in 1954 and proceeded to race the car at Daytona Beach.


"Sounding Off"

In a 1958 ''Mechanix Illustrated'' article McCahill accused the U.S.
auto industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, repairing, and modification of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industrie ...
of causing the Recession of 1958 and poor auto sales during that year by standardizing styling and eliminating factory- or factory-sanctioned racing. He focused on
AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...
's George Romney, who claimed that the Rambler handled better than U.S. full-size makes. McCahill performed tests to prove him wrong. He was at odds with
Walter Reuther Walter Philip Reuther (; September 1, 1907 – May 9, 1970) was an American leader of organized labor and civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. He ...
of the U.A.W. over the issue of poor quality in U.S. cars and the fact that European imports – at the time SAAB and
Volvo The Volvo Group (; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of truck ...
in particular – were of high quality, outstanding performers and no more costly than a good
used car A used car, a pre-owned vehicle, or a secondhand car, is a vehicle that has previously had one or more retailing, retail owners. Used cars are sold through a variety of outlets, including franchise and independent car dealership, car dealers, ...
for those who could not afford a new domestic car. McCahill railed against unfair trade with Canada and Europe. He demanded that the U.S. stop accepting imports and, in lieu of
war reparations War reparations are compensation payments made after a war by one side to the other. They are intended to cover damage or injury inflicted during a war. War reparations can take the form of hard currency, precious metals, natural resources, in ...
, force England, Canada and France (where one could purchase an English or German car, but no U.S. makes) to accept the forced sale of hundreds of thousands of used U.S. cars, a plan which he claimed would increase the sale of new vehicles by more than six million annually over the following five years, thus significantly accelerating the U.S. economy. McCahill had become ''Mechanix Illustrated''‘s public face, and the industry quickly realized that his review could make or break a product instantly. When he tested the 1948 Oldsmobile Futuramic 98 powered by a flat-head eight-cylinder engine of prewar design, he claimed that depressing the accelerator was like "Stepping on a wet sponge". General Motors was incensed over his review of the '48 Olds and scores of angry letters from the corporation, as well as from Olds dealers and owners, came into MI's 'office demanding his firing. However, it was widely known that McCahill's report motivated GM into development of Oldsmobile's new overhead-valve, high-compression "Rocket V8" engine, which made its début the following year in the 1949 "98." The format of the engine was filtered down to the smaller and lighter body/chassis used for Oldsmobile's lowest-price "76" series (powered by six-cylinder engines) and to create the Olds "Rocket 88." The Rocket V8 performed even better than in the bigger and heavier 98, thereby creating a whole new image for Olds and set the stage for similar designed V8 engines throughout Detroit over the next few years.


Personal details

McCahill was married a number of times but died without issue. In a 1956 interview with ''Playboy'' magazine McCahill stated that he had "more cash than hair". The statement was in response to a question as to how he had been photographed in two separate issues of ''Mechanix Illustrated'' with two different wives. McCahill had homes in Florida and New York, where he would receive cars to test. He traveled all over the United States and Europe to facilitate testing. His stepson with his fourth wife, Brooks Brender, served as McCahill's assistant in his later years. McCahill was a personal friend of band leader
Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 193 ...
, with whom he shared his love of hunting and fishing. Every year, McCahill would make a ten-day boating trip from his home in New York to his home in Florida aboard his thirty-foot Egg Harbor Cruiser the "Rooster" (McCahill was forced to sell the Rooster in 1967 to pay off back taxes to the IRS). McCahill was an avid 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 synonymous with it. He "amounted to the franchise" and management never wanted to admit he was gone. For a while, they ran a column called "McCahill Reports", which was ghostwritten by Brender. At the time of his death, he was believed to be the only living descendant of the Scottish highwayman Rob Roy. According to Canadian automotive historian Bill Vance, McCahill had lost a leg that became gangrenous after a thorn penetrated it during a duck hunt, forcing its amputation.


Books

*Tom McCahill, ''The Modern Sports Car'', Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1954 *Tom McCahill, ''Tom McCahill's Car Owner Handbook'', Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1956. *Tom McCahill, ''Today's Sports and Competition Cars'', Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1959. *Tom McCahill, ''What You Should Know About Cars'', Fawcett Crest Books, Circa 1963.Open Library website under Fawcett Crest Titles.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCahill, Tom 1907 births 1975 deaths American male journalists 20th-century American journalists Motoring journalists 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers