The voice of L J K Setright

The voice of L J K Setright

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dbdb

4,311 posts

172 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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judas said:
gforceg said:
Listening to the recording now has caused me to nip up and dig out a couple of old copies of Car from '87 and '92 in which Setright Decides between a BMW 750iL a Bentley Turbo and two others. In '92 he was reported to be Hopping Mad about what the car industry had offered in the preceding year. I'll read them in full soon I think.
That I would love to read, having just bought a Turbo R to replace my 750iL smile
The other two were the Jaguar Sovereign V12 and the Mercedes 560SEL. If you are able to scan it, I would be interested to read the article again. It would be fair to say LJKS didn't like the Mercedes. He admired the BMW, certainly, especially for detail elegance of its construction. But neither he found fit for a gentleman! That description he reserved for the Jaguar and particularly, the Bentley.

Thank you for posting this, Breadvan. I am strangely unsurprised by the voice of LJK Setright; he sounds just as I imagined him to.

It is not much remembered now, but Setright was greatly impressed by my car - the Jaguar XJ40. An interview of Jim Randle by Setright in 1986 - and technical description of the new car, particularly of its suspension design which Setright considered the best in the world at that time was a significant factor in my father buying one in 1987.

robm3

4,927 posts

226 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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Limpet said:
Car magazine in the Setright and Bulgin era (late 80s-early 90s) has never been equalled, in my opinion.
The first five years of EVO came close. But I agree, with Gavin Green as editor and such strong contributors like my favourite, George Bishop (Carte Blanche), it was a high watermark at CAR (or perhaps this was a little earlier in the eighties).... "Dartmoor was Angry that Day"... classic smile

I remember three things LJK mentioned:

1. The mark of a good powerboat driver is how clean and straight his wake is (I remember that every time I'm driving mine).

2. One article he was questioning why Wood and Leather is always used in cars and not other premium materials like Silk and Silver.

3. His love of all things Honda...

jhoneyball

1,764 posts

275 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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The highlight era for CAR was when Mel Nichols was editor

SimesJH

768 posts

150 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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Mel Nichols and his article on the Falcon GTHO Phase III. Pure journalistic gold.

You can clearly see where Bulgin got his inspiration from for the Lotus Carlton feature.

Loved George Bishop getting complaints that his writing centred more on the lavish PR food and drink than the cars themselves.

And that he told his son to borrow his E-Type for a drive across Europe to give him confidence and a good grounding. I really want to do the same for my son, when the time comes. Won't be an E-Type, though.

Funk

26,254 posts

208 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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Loved reading Setright's columns as a young car fanatic. Even as a child I could tell there was something about his writing that elevated him above most other automotive journalists even if I couldn't articulate why.

It's weird but having never heard his voice until today, he sounds exactly like he did in my head all those years ago.

longblackcoat

5,047 posts

182 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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I've never read a Setright column I enjoyed, and often came away with the impression that he was just trying to be provocative for its own sake.

Setright loved the sound of his own voice, and wrote some absolute cobblers in his time. Obviously Bristols were the finest cars in the world, all modern cars were rubbish, and he got massively excited about Citroen hydraulics; fine for a while, but then he started to bang on (and on, and on, and on.......) about Hondas of the 1990s and how fabulous they were. Apparently the four-wheel steering system of a Prelude was second only to ABS as a safety aid, and cars with additional safety features were more dangerous. Sure; and putting a big spike in the centre of the steering wheel would add safety too, as some idiots are still wont to claim.

The typical LJKS stance seemed to be to take an unfashionable position, dress up his argument with dense prose, then chuck in a bit of Latin to scare the proles. Then mutter something about Hondas and Bristols, or perhaps his Classics teacher.

Other classic LJKS contra-positions were:

  • Smoking is not harmful, it is actually healthful to the lungs
  • There's no shortage of oil, manufacturers should not pursue fuel economy
  • Automatic transmissions are just as good as manual transmissions, but you should force upshifts/downshifts by sharp stabs to the brake/accelerator

And don't get me started on George "at a car launch I enjoy a '73 Pomerol" Barker......

Edited because I finished mid-sent

Edited by longblackcoat on Thursday 23 October 09:19

guru_1071

2,768 posts

233 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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guru_1071 said:
cracking find, im going to listen to this tonight
well, as promised, I got home last night, stuck my headphones in and listened to an enjoyable 1.20 of music that I would never, ever normally listen to.

it was great, so good, that im going to put it on a disc, so I can listen to it in my car.


oh, and today im going to try and speak like ljk all day................

johnvthe2nd

1,285 posts

196 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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55palfers said:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Lane-Turnings-Motorin...

Found this on Amazon.

Note that the hardback is £100!

Edit

Just searched on eBay!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_tr...

Edited by 55palfers on Wednesday 22 October 09:16
I have a mint condition first edition hardback ... open to offers ;-)

Thankyou4calling

10,595 posts

172 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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Back in the 80's when I had far more disposable than now (lived with parents) I used to buy car magazines every week.

Autocar, What car, Custom Car and of course Car.

It may have been earlier but I have a memory of a trio of Italian super cars, I think they were a Merak, Urraco and 308 being brought back over the alps from Italy.

I don't even know if LJKS wrote the article but he certainly wrote others I enjoyed.

It seemed so exotic, literally another world as in those days high end cars were wedge shaped Princesses and Granada Ghias.

Without doubt the golden age of motoring writing.

gforceg

3,524 posts

178 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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There, don't say I'm not good to you.

http://s1059.photobucket.com/user/gforceg99/librar...

Hopefully this isn't breaching anything and has only been provided for the continued pleasure of those on here who appreciate his work.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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longblackcoat said:
I've never read a Setright column I enjoyed.....
I tend to agree with this. Sorry.

Davey S2

13,075 posts

253 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
gforceg said:
Listening to the recording now has caused me to nip up and dig out a couple of old copies of Car from '87 and '92 in which Setright Decides between a BMW 750iL a Bentley Turbo and two others.
That's the article of his I remember. The other cars were a Merc 560 SEL and a Jag V12.

He concluded the article with 'Stature is something that none but the Bentley possesses'

Top stuff.



anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
I do not agree with all that Setright wrote. He was probably a climate change denier, amongst other things. He was not, however, inveterately opposed to modernity, and welcomed many innovations. His best technical writing was probably done in the 60s and 70s. Later on he had a persona to maintain.

His prose style was that of an highly educated and Latinate writer. Notwithstanding my satire of his style above, he was not in fact verbose

judas

5,963 posts

258 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
gforceg said:
There, don't say I'm not good to you.

http://s1059.photobucket.com/user/gforceg99/librar...

Hopefully this isn't breaching anything and has only been provided for the continued pleasure of those on here who appreciate his work.
Thanks, very much appreciated. I shall savour reading this tonight! smile

NomduJour

18,988 posts

258 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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Nor was he a contrarian - he had opinions which he believed in, whether unfashionable or not. The current crop of (largely) jobbing nonentities are the opposite, and you could easily swap their bylines without anyone being the wiser.

Edited by NomduJour on Thursday 23 October 11:05

FRA53R

1,077 posts

167 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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Thank you for this BV, I will lokk forward to listening to it when I get home tonight.

I agree, Setright was an excellent writer.

When I was younger I thought myself well read and capable of understanding even complex writing. This was until I got a job lot of 80's CAR magazines from my favourite book store.

I was astounded by the sheer verbosity and technicality of his articles. Once I had got my head round his writing I thoroughly enjoyed every article, his contentious nature, impressive knowledge and incisive mind enthralled me. Others work seemed a little duller after reading that first article.

So what do we do?

We sit at our computer screens lauding the work of Setright, Bulgin et al and complaining about the paucity of similar writers now.

Why don't we do something about it? We have many people with a talent for writing, engineering, driving. Why not make Pistonheads the beacon for those who wish to know about cars and the automotive industry in greater detail and with more enthusiasm than is found in mainstream journalism.

I know that it would be a bit like herding cats to suggest that a site rely on user input alone, however what about a readers submissions area? Where members of the forum can post articles about motoring in general, technical items and reviews.

Submissions would need to be articles with a greater depth than an average forum post but I'm certain that most of us could manage that.

I feel that by doing something like that we would be honouring those that kept us entertained, fostered our interest and fed our knowledge of a subject that is dear to us, rather than lamenting their absence.

stedale

1,124 posts

264 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
55palfers said:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Lane-Turnings-Motorin...

Found this on Amazon.

Note that the hardback is £100!

Edit

Just searched on eBay!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_tr...

Edited by 55palfers on Wednesday 22 October 09:16
Thanks to you, I've just spanked £46 on a book smile

robinessex

11,046 posts

180 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
[quote=Breadvan72]I do not agree with all that Setright wrote. He was probably a climate change denier, amongst other things.

I hope he would've been. We need a few on our side.

longblackcoat

5,047 posts

182 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
Breadvan72 said:
I do not agree with all that Setright wrote. He was probably a climate change denier, amongst other things. He was not, however, inveterately opposed to modernity, and welcomed many innovations. His best technical writing was probably done in the 60s and 70s. Later on he had a persona to maintain.

His prose style was that of an highly educated and Latinate writer. Notwithstanding my satire of his style above, he was not in fact verbose
Really?

"Sculptor Alberto Giacometti said that his pieces were justified by the shadows they made. Thus the sculpture, which (like the Chrysler Crossfire) is tangible, is reduced to something intangible. The Crossfire is not as simple as a Giacometti, for it casts its shadows in space and in time."

"You will remember the subaltern who, asked the place of cavalry in war, described its function as "lending tone to what would otherwise be a vulgar brawl". The CBX does the same for motorcycling, with that effortless superiority which is the mark of the true aristocrat. Alas, a man is often ill at ease with a silver spoon if he was not born with one in his mouth, and it is not difficult to identify among motorcyclists that same resentful rejection of the best because of lack of familiarity with the best. It is a kind of craven lack of confidence, as though a mortal man were offered Aphrodite but, daunted by the prospect, ran back home to the girl next door."


NomduJour

18,988 posts

258 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
quotequote all
You do know that What Car? still exists?