Automobile Quarterly Archives - Richard M. Langworth

“The drone of the engine went on as a background of gigantic sound….The song of the car bayed over wide spaces of country, was bruised and battered between the walls of startled village streets, was flung back in echoes from the walls of hills.” —Leslie Charteris, from an AQ tribute to “The Saint’s” fabulous, fictional Hirondel. (Painting by Ted Lodigensky, author’s collection)

Automobile Quarterly: The Memories (AQ Vol. 10, No. 1, 1972)

21 June 2021 Comments 1 Comment

A friend and fellow fan of Leslie Charteris and “The Saint” sent me the image above. “Is this yours?” he asked. Yes, it hangs in my home. My friend has now acquired AQ —Automobile Quarterly— First Quarter, 1972. It contains a portfolio of The Saint’s 1930 sports car, the Hirondel, conjured up by five great artists. This painting was presented to me by its creator, Ted Lodigensky. “It has no value,” he declared. “It’s a car that never was.”

Maybe so, but not to devotees of “The Saint,” aka Simon Templar. “He was an Englishman, and a gentleman,” explained AQ editor Don Vorderman—”though one must admit a pretty rakish one.…

Old Jags & Allards: The Whimsy and Fun of Dick O’Kane

21 November 2020 Comments 2 Comments

continuing the caption above…

Shrieking with hilarity and wheelspin, they left—Fast. B.O. sprinted puffing to his cruiser, leapt in and hit the starter, siren and red light all at once. With a wild squeal of rubber, the cruiser shot off after the Allard. That’s when I noticed the chain coiled up under the police car. One end was wrapped securely around a fire plug. The other end seemed to be attached to something underneath the cruiser. There was, oh, maybe 100 feet of it. We watched fascinated as the cruiser picked up speed and the coil grew smaller…and smaller… —Dick O’Kane

The O’Kane ouevre

Reader Mark Jones writes of my tribute to Don Vorderman and Automobile Quarterly: “You mention a story by Dick O’Kane and an Allard J2X named ‘Grendel.’…

Don Vorderman 1930-2018: The Best Editor I Ever Had

19 November 2019 Comments 3 Comments

AboutMy remembrance of Don Vorderman was published in shorter form in The Automobile, December 2019.

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“History with its flickering lamp stumbles along the trail of the past, trying to reconstruct its scenes, to revive its echoes, and kindle with pale gleams the passion of former days.” —Winston S. Churchill, 12 November 1940

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Writers rarely talk about writing among each other. It’s a very personal thing, and it’s almost always hard to do well, none of which is too conducive to cheery cocktail chitchat. Most of us would rather visit a dentist than face up to the task of beginning the next piece, though it’s not quite so awful once the commitment is made and the thing is under way.…