Peter Egan (columnist)

Peter Egan is an American writer known for his monthly columns, Side Glances in Road & Track magazine and Leanings in Cycle World magazine, as well as road tests and occasional features in both magazines. His columns are chiefly autobiographical and anecdotal in nature, typically cheerful, self-deprecating and sometimes displaying an ironic or dark sense of humor. He has written extensively about his many road trips, including detailed accounts of the failings of the vehicles and his interactions with the people who accompany him and those he meets. He was described in a 2010 New York Times book review as one of America's "standout auto writers."

Egan was born in Elroy, Wisconsin in 1948. He first became acquainted with sports cars from photographs of celebrities and their cars in his sister Barbara's glamour magazines. He would later watch sports car racing at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

When he dropped out of college, Egan was drafted into the US Army, entering basic training in March 1969, and eventually serving in Vietnam. Characteristically, he later described a Jeep he had that the Viet Cong hit with a mortar shell as "the only non-English vehicle I ever drove that exploded." After his tour of duty, he visited Paris, France, from which he and a friend road-tripped on bicycles to Marseille.

Upon his return to Wisconsin, Egan proposed to his girlfriend Barbara and started working as a mechanic at Foreign Car Specialists, a repair shop in Madison owned by Chris Beebe, who is frequently mentioned in Side Glances and is now a neighbor and close friend.

In the early 1980s, Egan wrote a freelance article about a motorcycling trip with his wife, which he submitted to Cycle World. When the article was published, editor Allan Girdler offered him a position as a staff writer. Egan accepted and he and Barb relocated to southern California.

While writing for Cycle World, Egan also wrote for the automotive magazine Road & Track, part of the same organization, and had its headquarters in the same building in Newport Beach. His writing style fit well with, and may have been influenced by, those of his contemporaries at Road & Track, including Henry N. Manney III, Rob Walker, Innes Ireland, and Dennis Simanaitis.

...
Wikipedia