Brock Yates, 82, Passes Away

Yesterday evening, American autmotive journalist Brock Yates died. He was 83 years old.

Born in 1933 in the state of New York, the Mr. Yates served in the Navy before joining the ranks of Car & Driver in 1964. His sharp words and unique style contributed to the magazine's success, sometimes attracting the ire of manufacturers when they demolished a car in a review. One of his essays from 1968 gave him the nickname of Assassin when he—correctly—predicted the rise of Japanese automakers.

In 1971, Brock started the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, more known as the Cannonball Run. Teaming up with race-car driver Dan Gurney, they borrowed a Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona and crossed the United States in less than 36 hours. According the Mr. Yates, they never went faster than 170 mph (273 km/h)...

Brock Yates wrote no less than 15 books about various aspects of the automotive world and penned hundreds, if not thousands of articles on his beloved subject. His love of the automobile, journalism and writing certainly convinced more than a few young people to find a career in this domain.

We salute you, Mr. Yates.