Thanks for stopping by!

This site is about cars, all sorts of cars. Vintage cars, new cars, the mundane and the magical. And about the people who drive — and drove — them. (Nostalgia will be knife-spreadable here.) You’ll find personal stories of the people who drove race cars with skill and speed — Fangio, Moss, Phil Hill, Jimmy Clark, Fireball Roberts, the Unsers, the Rodriguez brothers. And, too, you’ll read of ordinary people who, alas, drive us to despair.

This site deals with what to drive (I recently experienced the Bugatti Veyron); where to drive (some great roads I’ll tell you about); and how to drive (some tips and admonitions to make those despair-makers more like me and thee.)

I’ve been at both driving and writing a looong time. I got my first driver’s license in 1940. Some ten years later I was writing about, among other things, cars. Some of those other things will show up here, too. But mostly cars, trucks and a few motorcycles. Well, an airplane or two. Yes, and skis. But mostly cars.
Read more >>

2012 Hyundai Veloster

I’ll get directly to the point: I don’t like this car.

Judging from the ads for it (which I also don’t like) the Veloster (I don’t like that name either) is meant for the youth market. (And I’m not keen on that to stretch my crochets about as far as they’ll go.  The intention of the Veloster to appeal to young buyers accounts for its lack of cohesive purpose. In my experience today’s younger buyers are more interested in extreme “stylin’“ than in style and in gadgetry that caters to their obsession with texting and talking (if they must), constant music feeding directly to the inner ear and other forms of acute distraction from actual driving.

Book Review: THE LIMIT: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit by Michael Cannell.

THE LIMIT: Life and Death on the 1961 Grand Prix Circuit by Michael Cannell. (Twelve Publishing, $25.99)       
Reviewer: Leo Levine, Guest Critic

McCluggage observation: Leo was there, the book’s author was not. The difference? One gets it; one does not.

When writing about people in a particular line of work, if your effort is to have any validity you should be familiar with – should understand – the milieu in which they function. When attempting to get into their psyche, it is practically mandatory that you spend time with them.

If you didn’t have the needed experience(s), there would seem to be little point in trying. This is one of the principal reasons biographies of persons no longer with us so often reflect the writer’s prejudices rather than reality.

In the case of The Limit, which concerns itself with Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips and their competition for the 1961 world driver’s championship, we have been given to understand the author has never been to a race. In addition, Hill’s family informs us that Cannell spoke with Phil only on the phone—and briefly—when the champion was in his declining years. That he never spoke with Von Trips is obvious, since the latter did not survive the Italian Grand Prix in which Hill won the title.

As a consequence, what we have here is something considerably less than adequate. To be charitable.

But if YOU don’t know that HE doesn’t know, then you might find the book vaguely entertaining if a preoccupation with death interests you.

Photos and stories of Fangio, Stirling Moss, Phil Hill, the Rodriguez brothers brought to your car club gathering or corporate meeting. Questions answered. For a women's group: "Being Safe In and Around an Automobile." And along with Personal Car Consultant Fred Vang, "Choosing, Paying For and Tending To a New Car."

Write info@denisemccluggage.com.

6/23/11 - TRAVEL BUG
I think of Santa Fe's Travel Bug as "The Map Store" and confound people when I say that's where I'll meet them for tea (or coffee if they must.)

But there are more maps here than ever existed when cartography was middle-aged. Books too, travel guides yes, but books about the places as well.
Read More >>

Youtube, Denise on "To Tell The Truth", 1959.



Findings: The Perfect Bungee
I’ve always said that if you couldn’t do it with WD40, a bungee cord or a skinny dime it didn’t deserve to be done ...

Findings: Motormouse
Not many sleek sports cars fit in a soft pouch, but this one does ...

CONTENTS

• Home
• Photos by
• Words by
• About
• McBlog
• Things 4 Sale

CONTACT DENISE

• Personal Appearances
• McBlog Commentary
• Email
• Snail Mail