Yes, it's a tough question to answer----after 46 years of wheeling the world, and writing about it every step of the way, for thousands and thousand of pages, there have got to be moments that we reflect on and say, "What in the world were we thinking back then?" We could likely build an entire Website around the subject of Editors Behaving Badly, but thought we'd share a few choice moments from our archives with you. Want some chuckles? Read on.
"Crated Jeeps"
April 1984: A Mystery for the Ages, Solved at Last
Mythical stories of "low-buck crated Jeeps" have been the stuff of legend in our profession, and most of the time, they've proven to be just stories. But in the April '84 issue, we actually discovered some running Jeeps, with complete chassis and bodywork, in a crate, for less than a thousand bucks apiece. Naturally, we had to test-drive them, and we came away convinced that these particular Jeeps "undoubtedly create the most smiles per gallon, excitement per dollar, and fun per pound" of any Jeep we'd ever driven.
"Getting Drunk"
April 1984: Making Ourselves Sick to Prove the Obvious
Disclaimer: Don't try this at home, or anywhere else, for that matter. Okay, now that we've settled that, the April '84 issue also contained another stupid editor trick: "Four Wheeler Gets Drunk," in which staff members sotted themselves with rounds of beer, huffed into breathalyzers, then took turns driving a Chevy Blazer on a closed slalom course to prove an obvious point. Of course, public awareness of the dangers of drunk driving wasn't as keen back then as it is today, so we suppose you could say we were performing a public service. But for some twisted reason, we're guessing that wasn't our only motivation at the time.
"R/C Racers"
April 1988: The Rage of the Late '80s
We've tested all sorts of rigs in our day, but usually, we're sitting behind the steering wheel, not flipping a toggle switch from 50 feet away. But in April '88, we proved we obviously had too much spare time on our hands with a four-way comparo test of NiCad-powered off-roaders. And yes, as the photos show, we actually took these R/C racers to the dragstrip, fitted them up with a custom fifth-wheel assembly, and ran them through the quarter-mile. The winner? The race-tested Marui Ninja 4x4, which flew through the trap in a neck-snapping 1.01:49.