Motorsports Legend- Peter Egan: Adventures in Motors and Flight

Love what you hear? Please FOLLOW and leave a review!

If you would like to ride the extra mile, you can help support the show by -

Buy Me a Coffee

Peter Egan, a renowned columnist for Cycle World and Road & Track Magazine for over 40 years, discusses his new book, "Landings in America," which chronicles a 1987 cross-country flight with his wife Barb in a 1945 Piper Cub. He shares insights into his career path, detailing the persistence required to succeed in motorsports journalism after working as a foreign car mechanic. Egan also reflects on the origins of his passion for motorcycles, cars, and aviation, highlighting how reading and personal experiences ignited his love for adventure and the satisfaction of meeting his heroes within these communities. The discussion further touches upon the enduring nature of vintage aircraft and the challenges and joys of collaborating on writing projects based on life experiences.

Peter Egan's NEW book is "Landings In America: Two People, One Summer, and A Piper Cub"

The book is available at Octane Press or anywhere books are sold.

Transcript

Peter Eagan

Annick: Today's guest is well known for having had a monthly column in Cycle World and Road & Track Magazine for over 40 years. Peter Egan is a writer, columnist, author, editor, and today we discuss his new book, "Landings in America", which is the story of him and his wife Barb, taking a cross country trip in a 1945 Piper Cub in 1987.

Peter has had a long experience with motorsports and has met pretty much everyone relating to motorcycles, cars, and a lot of aviation. It is a great pleasure to be able to talk with him today about his new book and his experiences.

 * INTRO *

Annick: At what point did you feel like you could make a living out of writing, especially specifically in journalism for motor sports? 

Peter: It, it took quite a while. I, uh, I did a few freelance stories in the seventies. I was working full-time as a foreign car mechanic.

And, uh, writing in my spare time. And, uh, I finally got a story published by Cycle World Magazine after about eight years of, uh, rejection slips. And, um, and then they said, anything else you've got, uh. Send it to us and we'll take a look at it. So I, I managed to get, uh, four stories published by Cycle World and, uh, the stories that I was doing freelance.

For instance, I, I did a trip on my Honda, my 400 f Honda, down in New Orleans and went through blues country 'cause I'm a Blues fan and I wanted to see the Delta. And, um, I spent about $350 on the trip and I got paid $300 for the story and worked on it for three weeks. So, uh. So I wasn't really making, getting rich off journalism.

But um, anyway, fi finally when I got hired by Cycle World. The editors quit at Cycle World and went back to England and, uh, they hired me and all of a sudden I was making a living as a journalist. So it took quite a long time though. I wrote a couple of novels that didn't get published. And, uh, it, I think you have to be persistent, or at least you did then in this, in this field to get into a magazine and, and get on the staff.

But, uh, I guess it eventually paid off. 

Annick: I think this is a good example of when they say, you know, you become an overnight success, but it takes like 10 years, you know? 

Peter: Yeah. To be the overnight success. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Annick: My understanding is that you served in Vietnam. 

Peter: Yes, I did. 

Annick: Okay. thank you for your service, by the way.

Peter: Yes, yes, I did Vietnam. 

Annick: And was it also Motor related? 

Peter: Uh, no, I was not. I, um, I was sent over as an infantry rifleman, but uh, I got assigned to a Vietnamese infantry company on an advisory team, and so I became a medivac radio operator, and so I had to learn radio.

Annick: Oh wow. 

Peter: But it wasn't complicated. It was very simple radio, so even I could understand it 

Annick: well, where did the love and passion come for motors? 

Peter: I don't know really. Um. My dad was very mechanically inclined, but he didn't like, he wasn't interested in cars or motorcycles at all. He was, uh, my parents ran a small town newspaper and my dad was a printer and we, I spent most of my youth printing in the, in the office make, you know, printing lunch tickets and sale bills and this kind of thing, wedding announcements and, um.

But my dad could take a typewriter apart or a printing press and put it back together, but he had absolutely no interest in cars or motorcycles. And my parents saw my interest in those things as, uh, being a, some sort of a strange diversion from, uh, finding a real job or having a real career. Uh, no, you shouldn't be doing, you shouldn't be taking flying lessons.

You've gotta save for college. You shouldn't be working on a car. You, you know, uh, so I, I, they didn't want, I never had a car until I was in college. And, uh, I finally worked nights at a Coca-Cola bottling plant unloading trucks so I could buy an old TR three. But, uh, so I, I don't know where it came from.

My, I think my, uh, grandfather was also mechanically inclined, but, uh, I, I think I just hit the right part of a generation where we had go-karts and mini bikes. And, uh, so when I was about 10, there's a big go-kart craze that hit and, and then all of a sudden we had mini bikes and I built my own go-karts.

And, uh, in ascending order of complexity, some started out with wood and um. And then I built a mini bike out of a, an old bicycle frame and a Briggs & Stratton engine that we had on a cement mixer. Oh, wow. Arriving around the countryside, it actually worked pretty well. And, uh, so I, I, I was underage, of course, I shouldn't have been out there on the road, but I, or these are all farm roads in rural Wisconsin.

So I didn't have any trouble with the police, but I, I'd go visit my friends on farms and that kind of thing. So I, all of a, something kicked in when I was 12 or 13 years old where I was just all of a sudden smitten with the idea of, uh, motorcycles and cars as a, a way of adventure and, uh. 

Annick: it’s really interesting 'cause like most people would usually pick like cars or motorcycles.

Those kind of go, go together. But then you also brought in flying, like you hit all the things. 

Peter: Yeah. Full, uh, the full array of, of, uh, mental defects. I, uh, But I, I think I like impractical ways of having adventures, of getting around if it's a little more difficult or a little more, uh, exposure to the weather or something.

I like, uh, I look forward to doing that. I'd rather be on a motorcycle usually than driving a car. Unless I'm racing a car. That's a, a different kind of exposure. But, um, I, I've enjoyed some nice car trips across the country as well with, but I, I always like taking an older odd car of some kind that seems appropriate for the, the type of trip you're doing.

Mm-hmm. And it's more of a conversation piece car for people you meet on the road and, and that kind of thing. And I think the airplane was the same thing. The Piper Cub we flew across the country, was an old classic airplane. And wherever we landed, people would come up and wanna see, look at it, and talk to us.

So we, it gave you a chance to meet a lot of people you probably wouldn't have met. I, I've, I've always liked, uh, getting out there and just going on the road and seeing what's gonna happen next. And, uh, so I think I also, when I was about 12 years old, I was hitchhiking to a junkyard and, uh, two har, two guys on big Harleys went by bagger and one of them pulled over and said, hop on kid.

And I hopped on the back and they were going to a, a Harley Davidson dealer in New Lisbon, Wisconsin. And I couldn't believe how wonderful it was to be on this motorcycle looking over this guy's shoulder and, and the wind and, and, uh, so instead of going to the car junkyard that day, I stayed the rest of the day at the Harley Davidson dealership looking around at bikes.

And I said, I've gotta have one of these. So that, that was a, an influence as well, I think. 

Annick: That’s an in an incredible adventure for a kid. 

Peter: Yeah, just when I told him, I rode on the back of a motorcycle to New Lisbon, and, uh, but I thought, I told the guy who picked me up, I said, if you were going to Alaska, I would just call from, you know, from Anchorage and tell my parents where I was.

I could day long and all week. 

Annick: Oh, that's so great. That's so great. So how did you like get, 'cause I'm just fascinated by the fact of, you know, there's one thing to have these experiences and go out on these adventures. And as you know, as a writer, that it's hard to take these experiences and put 'em into words where people can relate to them.

And you've made a career out of being able to do that and people know you, you know, well because of Cycle World and Road and Track. But like, how is that process for you? Like, do you look for the adventure and write about it, or do you, you know, write, like, how do you, how do you set it up for yourself?

Peter: Well, I, I think once you're working for a magazine, you're looking for the next story.

Uh. usually, I, I think reading has a lot to do with it is, uh, you get reading about something and you think, I'd really like to go there and see where this is, and, uh, take a motorcycle there. And, uh, so a lot of motorcycle trips come from a curiosity about history or geography or the site of some famous battle.

Whatever it is you're reading about it, you have a, an interest in going there. And I think movies stimulate that, especially in a kid. I think a lot of my interest in flying came from, uh, from seeing the spirit of St. Louis with Jimmy Stewart, which was a book about, uh, about the Lindbergh flight to Paris.

And, uh, I, I think I, I didn't usually repeat movies because I couldn't afford to do that too often, but I think I saw that movie three times. And I, I was so smitten by the idea of flying that I had to, uh, go to the library and read everything I could find about airplanes. And so I think, uh, I sometimes I think motorcycles and cars and airplanes and sailboats are a response to reading about something else.

Somebody else doing something 

Annick: Now when you decided that you wanted to take this trip with your wife, Barb, you, uh, you, you just are putting out this new book called Landings in America 

Peter: mm-hmm. 

Annick: Which will be out in August, and you decided to do it on a vintage 1945 Piper Cub. So, at the point that you took this trip, it was already about 50 years old.

Peter: Mm-hmm. 

Annick: Which seems a little risky In a, in a, in a plane on a 50-year-old motorcycle, you know, you're pretty close to the ground, but on a plane it's a whole different thing. Yeah, it is, it is. But, uh, RO Richard Bach was one of my favorite aviation writers, wrote a thing about, uh, an old biplane he had, and he said that, uh, the airplane would outlive us all that it had been rebuilt three times, and it would be sold to somebody after he was gone.

Somebody else would rebuild it again because he said airplanes, antique airplanes, if they're cared for, can live forever, but we can't. And, uh. That's true. The Piper Cub right now, the plane we flew around the country is in Australia, and that's all we know about it. Uh, we were able to check an online site and Barb found out that the airplane is now in Australia.

Uh, they tracked the end number and I think, well, I hope it's, uh, I think I said at the end of the Cub book. I hope it's having a good time in Australia and flying down the coast or through Phillips Island or somewhere. Nice. And, uh, somebody's enjoying it. So I think it, you know, we, when we had the airplane, it was in slightly rough shape.

It had been restored much many years earlier, and then not quite finished, and then somebody put it together. And so when we came back from the trip, we, we took it up to, uh, central California and had an, a guy named Russ Harmit restore it. He was a very well known as a, a restorer of old vintage airplanes.

And, uh, he did a beautiful job on it, so it got a rebirth. When we owned it, owned and owned, we sold it to somebody else about four years later who all got to use it and maybe now it's being restored again. I dunno. But, uh, the airplane was pretty reliable. We had only one or two little glitches with the engine on our seven weeks or six weeks of flying.

Annick: So. And did, did you do the work on it while you guys were flying? 

Peter: Uh, I, I only had to do a few adjustments on it. Mm-hmm. I had done a little work. I'm not really an aircraft mechanic, so I wasn't supposed to be doing some of this stuff, but, uh, before we left, I put real brakes on it because Piper Cubs had almost non-existent brakes.

They were little tiny drum brakes. People call snuff can brakes, sort of like an an antique. Uh. Motor motorcycle, an old 500. It's, it hardly stops when you the brake. But, uh, they were kinda like that. So I put on, did, operated it to disc brakes and better wheels and tires before I went. 

Annick: What made you, what made you decide to take this trip with Barb?

Peter: Well, Barb, 

Annick: you can explain a little bit what the trip was, 

Peter: I had decided when we moved to California and I, I was finally getting paid enough that I could consider taking flying lessons. I, um, I went to ground school with Barb for one summer. We went there four nights a week, I think for five or six weeks.

And, uh, Barb went to ground school with me because she wanted to learn about navigation and, and radio and, and what was going on with the airplane. And, and then halfway through she got very interested in it and said, well, as soon as you get your license, I'm gonna start taking flying lessons and get mine.

So I'll, the week that I got my pilot's license, Barb started taking flying lessons. And so we were both pilots by the time we took, uh, the Cub on this trip. We'd been flying together at that point for three or four years. So, uh, she had, you know, almost as many hours as I did in the airplane when we, when we left on the trip.

Annick: That’s so great that you guys were able to adventure together. 

Peter: Yeah. It was nice because, uh, we could take turns if one of us got tired or if I wrote a lot of notes on the trip or I would record, I had a small tip recorder and I would record what we were seeing so I wouldn't forget. Later where we were and what we were seeing.

And, uh, I would transcribe the notes at night, but Barb could take over and fly for an hour while I wrote things down, took pictures or whatever. So, uh, we, we just swapped back and forth, taking turns, flying the airplane. 

Annick: When you did this trip in 1987, did you know that you were gonna write a book about it? Was that why you were taking the notes or was it for an article? 

Peter: I was, I was hoping to write a, uh. I was hoping to write a book about it and, uh, I took a lot of notes. When we got back to California, I typed them all out and expanded on them a bit. So I had a, I bought 110 pages of notes, uh, typed out and I had a lot of pictures and I kept all of the maps and all of the, uh, I also kept all of the Time magazines we got in the mail that summer, so I would have some reference of what was going on in the country that week and, uh, in the world.

Uh, when I got back to California, at that point I was working for Cycle World and Road & Track, doing a monthly column and a fair number of feature stories where I was traveling quite a bit. And so I just felt too worn out to spend the one day a week that I wasn't working. Uh, sitting down working on the book, I started to work on it and I said, I just, I gotta take one day a week off and do something other than sit and type and, uh, I have to take a motorcycle ride.

So I, I put. I put everything in a box and set it aside and, uh, never got back to it until I retired a couple years ago that I, I spent about two and a half years working on the book. 

Annick: How did it feel to visit these memories again? 

Peter: Well, it was, it was interesting because I'd forgotten quite a few things until I read my own notes and, uh, originally I had planned to write the book as just a travel log.

This, you know, this just happened. We just got back from the trip. But, um, it was interesting to. Rewrite it years later, because I'm looking back, a lot of the people we met on the trip have, have passed away. Uh, things have changed. We've gone back to some of those same places and, uh, and they've changed. So it was, uh, the book became more retrospective and, and more autobiographical probably, uh, doing it.

Mm-hmm. years later, whatever it was, I started out. 

Annick: One of the nice features about that book is that you also include a lot of photographs, which it's really nice to kinda see the, the era and the people that you're talking about. 

Peter: Yeah, it is, it was nice to have those. We just had a little pocket camera, so they were just snapshots on, on regular film.

But, uh, I sent them along to the, the art director for the book, Tom Heffron. And he was able to get, make nice reproductions of them and amp up the color a little bit so they didn't look so like old snapshots. And, uh, it helped a lot. So he, he made them look better than they did when I took the pictures in some cases.

But those are the pictures that we took on the trip. 

Annick: When you were writing for Cycle World and Road & Track, how did you come up with the stories for the articles? 

Peter: Well, uh, every month I had to have a column in, in, uh, both magazines. And so when you know you've got something coming up, you think, okay, what am I going to write about this month?

And then you some, if you're involved with racing and cars and motorcycles as much as I was, something happens during the month. You go for a ride with your friends or you see something. Strange. And you say there's, that would be an interesting subject, but it's always in the back of your mind that you're going to have to write something.

So, uh, you do, and then you reach a point where it's, okay, this, I have to have a column in next week, A week from now, I better get going here and figure out what I'm, you know, how I'm gonna do it. So, uh, I think just, just like any job knowing you have to do it, you have to show up. It makes it happen. 

Annick: And during those years, is there any experience that really, you know, stands out in your mind as having been like truly amazing or you're like, Wow, I can't believe I got to do this?

Peter: Well, uh, a lot of it for me, working for the magazines where I would, uh, as people say, pinch myself 'cause I can't believe this was happening, which I didn't literally do. But, uh, I got to meet a lot of my heroes. For instance, at Road and Track, um, I got to, uh, I got to work with Phil Hill and when I was in high school, I had a picture of him sitting in his racing car on the, on the wall of my room.

And I had his autobiography and or his biography. It wasn't an autobiography. And, uh. And I had read about him and all of a sudden I get to work with him and sit on an airplane with him and talk. And I said, I can't believe I finally, I have a job. When I was a kid, I would never believe I could sit with Phil Hill and, and drive somewhere with him in Europe and do a story about a Ferrari or whatever.

And the same thing with motorcycling. I got to interview all kinds of people. Uh, there was a dinner at, at, uh. One year, and I got to sit with John Surtees and his family, who's a, you know, the great motorcycle racer, who also then went on to become a Formula One car racer. But he was a world champion and, uh, one of the nicest people I ever met, by the way, which I found to be true of virtually all of the really great racers I, and whether car or motorcycle that I got to meet and work with were.

The nicest people I've ever met. They were down to earth. And you think, I can see why they went so far because they're, they're intelligent and people like them. They like, you know, they're likable people who are modest and they like to, people like to help them with their careers and, uh. But that was, that was true of Sterling Moss.

I got to work with him in Innis Ireland, and, and, uh, so I, it's, you, you get to meet a, that, that was the big thing for me. I mean, it was fun traveling. I went to places I hadn't imagined that I could go to, but I think a big part of the appeal for me was. Sort of like Woody Allen and Sig where he keeps turning up, you know, around famous people by accident and being somehow included in the group.

Yeah. You say, how did I ever get here? I can't believe I'm sitting here with, with John Surtees. 

Annick: well, it's interesting that you bring up the people versus saying like, you know, it was driving or riding this particular thing, or the airplanes. One thing that I always say is that it, uh, you know, in these motorsports you meet the nicest people and it's a lot about the community.

Peter: Yes, you do. I, I think, uh, Barb and I noticed that when we, I had, some years ago I had a, uh, a 50th birthday party. Since then, I've had a 70th birthday party and we've, we've both noticed that virtually everyone there has some connection with motorcycling or a few with airplanes, and quite a few with cars or all three.

We have several, I have three close friends who raced cars at the same time I did, but also own motorcycles and have a pilot's license. So, uh, there's, there's kind of a common thread that runs through that, that mindset. 

Annick: And I'm sure you're not short on talking about anything 

Peter: No problem. But I go, go riding about three times a week with my friend John Oakey, and he and I were foreign car mechanics together. And then he, like me, he went back and finished college and uh, and he. Uh, he's got a motorcycle. He got into motorcycling relatively late, but he also raced cars at the same time.

All of us who worked at the foreign car shop were racing old sports cars of some kind, and, uh, we still get together with those same people. Most of 'em are still around. My next door neighbor, Chris Bebe, was our boss at the, at Foreign Car Specialists, and he's, he's still racing once in a while.

a small motorcycle collection, so it's. nice group of people to hang out with. Always, as you say, always lots to talk about. 

Annick: I ask everybody this, but how many motorcycles do you own? 

Peter: I, uh, I'm ashamed to admit I'm down to just three motorcycles right now because I wrote a column years ago that five was the minimal number you should have representing different types of riding.

And uh, but right now I've just got a Triumph Bonneville, T one 20. A current is, it's 2016, but it's the current model 1200. And then, um, I've got a Royal Enfield Himalayan to run around the back roads here. And I've got about 13,000 miles on that. And, uh, I also, last winter I bought back my old BMW I've got an, I had a 1984 BMW R 100 RS and a friend of mine was nice enough to sell it back.

It was sitting in a large collection of bikes he had in his barn and, uh, restore it and get it back on the road again. And, and I did that. So I'm, I'm just riding those three bikes right now. 

Annick: That’s great. And you said you're still riding every week? Oh, yeah. I get out. I, I did about 150 mile ride yesterday with four friends of mine who we all took a ride down through the hill country and, uh, it was, uh, it's smoggy here right now.

At, at it's, we were having some beautiful hot weather, but, uh, we, the Canadian fires right now are producing lots of smoke. we're following, getting up to a, a high ridge where you could look out over the countryside. It looked almost like fog. And you can smell smoke in the air. It smells like campfire smoke.

So it's all s drifting in from Canada right now. I don't know if you're getting that where you are yet. 

Annick: Uh, we did it like a year ago. Not this year yet, but it, it's awful. It's really hard to be outside in that weather. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Hopefully it'll pass soon for them. So after, you know, after writing this book, do you, are you working on anything else right now?

Peter: I’m not right now. I've, I've thought about a couple of things, but I'm, I'm, I think I'm lazy and I'm taking a break from, uh, e every day For a couple years I sat down and tried to, sit for four or five hours and type and re rewrite things and write them, and, and it's kind of nice to be done with it for a little while and, and just, uh, go out and have a good time, go out and play.

Annick: Well, it's important to enjoy life, right? 

Peter: Yeah. Yeah. I'm 77 years old, so I don't, uh, I've worked a lot and I, I try to make excuses and not work anymore than I have to. 

Annick: Well, technically you are supposed to be retired. 

Peter: Yeah. 

Annick: Is there anything else that you would love to share with the audience? 

Peter: I don't know. I just, uh, I hope. I, I know that your specialty is motorcycling and, uh, it's very nice of you to have, have me on. And, uh, I think there is a connection with, with motorcycling and, and, uh, flying and to some extent other sports. Uh, cars, old cars, sports cars and so on. And, uh, when I worked at Road and Track and Cycle World, we had a lot of readers who were interested in all of them.

Some were very specific, motorcycle only. I don't know anything about motorcycles. I know anything about airplanes, but we had an extraordinary number of readers who were airline pilots and pilots who were flying, so I was hoping some of them would have an interest in, in a flying book as well. So I appreciate your discussing it and, and having me on the program.

Annick: Well, first off, I've read your article for a number of years, and I think that it is all related that. Like you said, if you're interested in one of these types of motor sports, you're gonna be interested in all of it. Whether or not you do it, there's gonna be a little bit of being able to relate. So it's great to have you on here.

The book is excellent, really, your writing is really good, and it's becoming a lost, lost art form. So it's really nice to see again that these adventures being put into words, and you do feel like when you're reading the book that you're there with you and Barb, which is really cool. 

Peter: Well good. Well, thank you. Appreciate that. 

Annick: You’re welcome. Well, and to everyone else, I just wanna say ride smart. Ciao. 

Peter: Bye-bye.

* OUTRO *