Behind the Star– Editor’s Note

Gary Anderson

Changing Times

Two weeks ago – on the eve of the L.A. Auto Show – I was with a group of 15 journalists test-driving the new S-Class coupes and cabriolets on the canyon and coastal back roads west of Los Angeles (pages 54-59). I’ve been driving those roads in my Austin-Healey and modern high-performance automobiles for the past 30 years; I know the area so well, I hardly needed a map.

But today, I pause a moment to look at a map on the www.ca.gov website – the Statewide Fire Map –  and several of the roads we drove above Santa Barbara are now covered by an ugly brown blotch on the map labeled “Thomas Fire,” where 260,000 acres tragically have already burned – and the fire is only 25 percent contained. It could be as much as a decade before the scenery we enjoyed has recovered from the damage.

Similarly, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, Sonoma County roads that have been our section’s automotive playground for so many years, were also affected by fires. I can only be grateful that we took part in as many First Sunday Drives and weekend car tours as we did before the foliage and many roadside attractions we enjoyed were burned.

Fortunately, there are still thousands of miles of similar roads across the country that are as yet unspoiled and can still be driven and enjoyed. There are uncounted automobiles, such as the three-generation Adenauer Cabriolet we profile on pages 46-53 and the replica of a 1956 300SLS racecar that the Classic Center has built for one of its customers (pages 32-39) as well as our new cars, that can be used for a Sunday drive or a thousand-mile tour.

Sure, automotive technology is changing, and many of our readers will live to see the day when Sunday drives and tours may be as unusual as driving a horse and buggy is today. But we still have time and places to enjoy our hobby. I’m already looking forward to driving the Smoky Mountains again during StarFest® and the Rocky Mountains on the Silver Stars & Golden Aspens tour. Will I see you on one of those roads?