DAVID E. DAVIS JR. - WRITER AND RACONTEUR 1932-2011

NOTE: Bill Baker served as the head of public relations for Land Rover North America at its inception in 1986 until his retirement in 2003.

The success of the Range Rover in the United States was assured in part by one of automotive journalism’s most colorful and influential characters: David E. Davis Jr.

In his roles as editor and publisher of Car and Driver and founder of Automobile Magazine, David E. devoted page after page of prose and photos to exploits involving Range Rovers, Discoverys, and Defender 110s.

Once, he and wife Jeannie joined me in England to walk the Solihull assembly lines by day and dine with Lord Brocket at his baronial estate.

The next day he drove the hills of Gatcombe Park, the private country home of Anne, Princess Royal and her husband at the time, Captain Mark Philips. We all sat in the drawing room to drink tea while pet Corgis sniffed his trouser legs.

For David, neither the British people nor their rarified pursuits were intimidating. He was an Anglophile at heart and a student of their history. He could discuss Holland and Holland shotguns or Edwardian architecture with equal certitude.

His grace extended to bringing me under his wing when I needed it and encouraging me to try exotic challenges for the vehicles so that he could cover them in his magazines.

When we launched Range Rover in the United State in 1987, David E. (he was never just David) agreed to put what was to be the country’s most expensive sport utility vehicle on the cover of his new magazine, Automobile. This was a coup for us and a gamble for him because Range Rover was largely unknown here, and even at full throttle, we expected to sell no more than 5,000 vehicles a year−a rounding error for GM or Chrysler, as one wag put it.

But that cover, and David’s influence on automotive trends, gave Range Rover of North America and its various vehicles the kind of publicity and cachet that has helped sustain the brand for the past twenty‑ five years. He bestowed an Automobile All‑Star award to Range Rover long before SUVs became ubiquitous.

The current editor of Car and Driver, Eddie Alterman, wrote this about Davis on the magazine’s blog: "He was so in love with the craft and subject matter of car magazines that he came to inhabit an archetype. He was the dashing, witty, high‑spirited, and deeply knowledgeable writer/editor who brought the automobile to life, whose personal flair transferred to whatever he was writing about."

David not only understood the enviable lifestyle enjoyed by European Range Rover owners, he lived it himself. His shirts came from Turnbull and Asser on Jermyn Street and his bespoke suits and hunting togs were hand‑tailored by Gieves and Hawkes of Savile Row. He didn’t just wear a tie, he donned a cravat and added a complementary pocket silk.

When we visited the Holland and Holland shooting grounds, David was entirely comfortable wielding a $125,000 shotgun. And, he was a heck of a shot.

Why is the above important? As writer P.J. O’Rourke told me, David was a “participatory journalist” and a progenitor of the New Journalism that began in the 1960s during his first stint at Car and Driver. As such, his opinion counted more than most when it came to giving the nod to any automotive creation while his writing appealed to an influential generation of enthusiasts.

I once asked David E., who of course had driven or raced anything worth the experience, if he were an automobile what would he be.

Without pausing he looked at me and said, “A Range Rover.”