On my recent trip to Toronto I had to drive from ORD as the flights
to Toronto were full. I stopped by Don's house near Detroit.
I first met Don back about 1973 when he an Csaba Csere were
fresh out of engineering school. They both were sent out to SoCal by
Car & Driver magazine to attend my week long seminar on race car design.
I instilled a healthy skepticism in both of them for new engineering
features. Csaba is currently managing Editor of Car & Driver but 
this is not about Csaba.

Don was engineering editor of Car & Driver for a few years and then
became managing editor. Zorro Arkus Duntov sued Don and Car & Driver for
a statement Don made about the Corvette rear suspension at the time.
Don just told me he was quoting me when I said the design was "inadvisable".
Zorro lost and Don left C & D under unclear circumstances.
Don went on to become a freelance writer on automotive and aviation subjects.
He wrote articles and tested cars for Popular Science for years. I helped him test
several cars for Pop Science including the GM electric vehicle.
Several of his articles were published in Smithsonian Air & Space mag.
One very memorable one was how Orenda failed when trying to make an
aircraft engine out of the Chev V8 big block. Don is also the engineering editor
of Automobile mag. Look for an article of his in an upcoming New York Times
magazine.

Don has been a rotor head since I let him drive my brand new RX2 back in 1973.
He has held several Bonneville land speed records starting with an RX3 at 184 MPH,
a first gen RX7 and finally a 2nd gen RX7 at around 234 MPH as I recall.
Jim Mederer himself holds the current record in a 3rd gen at 268 MPH as I recall.

Don told me an interesting story. When the RX7 first came out in 1979 he bought
one in Costa Mesa with a specially arranged  factory rebate for $5,000. List at the time was
around $7,000. Also a 13B engine was surreptitiously left after hours on a pallet in 
the back parking lot at the Irvine headquarters of Mazda USA. Jim Mederer and Don went over
and lifted it by hand into the back of a pickup truck. It was subsequently installed
by Don in this RX7 at Racing Beat thus becoming the first RX7 in the world to 
be powered by a 13B engine.  


Paul Lamar
 
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