LJK Passes Away
Posted on December 7, 2005, by Conor O'Neill, under Motor Cars, Personal.
I was gutted to read in CAR that LJK Setright passed away recently. I started reading CAR when I was 14 years old and continue to do so despite his absence for the past few years.
As a kid, I checked out most of the motoring magazines and CAR was the only one I read where I felt I was learning something, rather than just reading pseudo-ads. For a short while in the late 80’s I tried Performance Car but to be honest that was only because of Clarkson. I can happily claim to have spotted his future greatness whilst still in my teens. The letters page every month were filled with missives from indignant middle-Englanders who were scandalised by his digs at everything they held dear.
But Clarkson was just naughty and after a while I returned to the more thoughtful bosom of CAR, and more importantly, to LJK’s monthly column. Each month I worked my way through it and understood about half of it. His breadth and depth of knowledge was extraordinary, with many literary references and tons of Latin (all of which went straight over my head due to giving up Latin for Classical Studies in 2nd Year in Kierans!). I learned more about cars from his one page each month than from the rest of the magazine.
LJK was arrogant, pompous and usually right. This is a man who argued engine cylinder design with Honda’s Nobuhiko Kawamoto, who argued that there were distinct advantages to smoking, and who, most of all, argued that speed does not, in fact, kill. And for that, I loved every word the man wrote.
Last year I bought the last book he wrote: “Drive On! A Social History of the Motor Car”. As I am averaging two book completions a year right now, I have only read a few chapters. But this is a masterpiece of erudition, history, opinion, insight and humour. To many people, a car is simply an appliance whose main contribution to the world is pollution. This book shows how so much of who we are and how we live our lives comes from the motor car. And the critical thing is that most of its effect are to our benefit. It’s a heavy read (as were all his CAR articles) but you’ll feel that you understand the world just a little bit better as you go through it.
I felt that the obituary in CAR was a sad reflection of what has happened to that magazine. In the past, they would have articles running to twenty pages or more. Phil Llewellin (who sadly also died recently) specialised in articles like that. As a young-fella, I did find many of them overly wordy but now I see what the alternative is – every article stripped to 2 pages for the ADD-addled Max Power generation. No depth, no analysis, barely time for the specs. They gave two pages to Setright, one of which was a picture (and what a unique style the man had!). He deserved half the entire issue.
Here are a few links to obituaries:
The Telegraph. The Independent. Pacific Motorsport.
I’ll finish with two quotes from the great man:
On the Citroën GS in 1971:
“According to Voltaire, ‘the secret of art is to improve on nature’. It is a peculiarly French attitude, one that is manifested as much in their engineering as in their graphic, plastic or musical artefacts. In their automotive engineering it is especially apparent…”
And most famously, Setright on speed limits:
“Apart from tax evasion, there should logically be one and only one motoring offence: dangerous driving… If what one does (even if one does 150mph) is not actually dangerous, then it does not matter what it is, nor what other people think. It is then no business of other people – not if this is, as we used to think, a free country.”
I’m going to miss that man.
[tags] LJK, LJK Setright, CAR, CAR magazine, obituary[/tags]
18 Replies to "LJK Passes Away"
conor on March 22, 2006
I wondered about the articles too. I kept hoping he would write some more.
It almost looks like Performance Car did a reverse takeover of CAR. There is never anything about automotive technology or culture any more.
I’m similar to you – I still read it for the stunning photography and for the odd car now and then where your jaw hits the floor.
That’s now given me the impetus to finish “Drive On” in the next two weeks.
Noel on May 25, 2006
Yes, much the same as you I grew up on CAR always seeking out the LJK Setright article first. His was a light shone from a unique angle giving insight that was otherwise unobtainable. I wondered how LJK fitted into the CAR office especially in the latter years. Was he thought of by the CAR staff as a greatly experienced journalist, a wise engineer, a guru or was he seen as out of touch, irrelevant, or eccentric? I sadly think he was increasingly seen as not fitting in to the target market and so his departure was inevitable. For me a comparison of the fortunes of LJK Setright and Jeremy Clarkson mirrors the cars changing position in society. During the 60’s 70’s and most of the 80’s the car was an inspirational item, a friend that needed attention, it had faults (rust poor quality, front drum brakes), there were large differences between cars of the same class (layout, reliability, new mechanical features, handling etc.). To make a wise choice required some research. This was the environment that engineer-journalist LJK thrived in. However, as the 90’s came, designs converged (front wheel drive – transverse layout), regulations dictated design envelopes, quality universally improved, electronics and complexity reduced DIY maintenance opportunities and much of the ‘bond’ between man and machine was lost. In short it became hard to buy a bad car, thank God. Like wristwatches, cars had reached a point where the underlying technology was both reliable and universal. If cars could no longer meaningfully be differentiated mechanically, it was to image that car manufactures increasingly relied on to sell their goods. Hence it was the image that the car said about its owner rather than the cars ability that really mattered. So it was Jeremy Clarkson with his complete and open disregard for engineering, yet finely tuned sense of a cars ‘meaning’ coupled to wit and showmanship, who became the nation’s top motoring journalist.
I like Jeremy. I like LJK. But I feel if Jeremy was to ‘go’ someone would take his place. I can’t see that ever happening to LJK Setright.
Regards
Noel McElwee
Christchurch, New Zealand
Robin Capper on June 24, 2006
Hi Conor, I found your post while completing my own on LJK. He had a similar influence on me and I had to post about it but took a long time to complete the post.
It might be of interest to you & your readers.
http://rcd.typepad.com/personal/2006/06/ljk_setright_go.html
– Robin.
conor on June 24, 2006
Loved your post Robin, you really caught the essence of the man. Your quotes showing his brilliance with the English language still make me laugh.
My only hope is that somewhere out there, someone with his knowledge, erudition and passion starts a blog and gives those of us who miss that style a new place to hang out.
Robin Capper on June 25, 2006
I share your hope. I don’t expect to find another Setright, he was unique, but there is a need for someone to fill the gap.
Paul on June 30, 2006
once again I stumbled on this whilst searching for details of Long John Kick Start, as he was once descibed in Car.
I read this mag as a kid since 68, but now only rarely, it reads like a tv script.
I will miss him,I struggled with some of his technical articles, but read every one.
His regular end of year sum up of cars he had driven was great reading, I also miss Phil Llewellyn and the great George Bishop. I see LJKS is to be publshed in Granta september ,a must read.
conor on June 30, 2006
I officially gave up on CAR a few months back. I used to get a sense of excitement reading it, now it is just lists of facts wrapped in bad english.
It’s a bit pathetic of me but I do get a pang when I see it in the newsagent – at the back of my mind I worry I’m missing something.
But I’m holding tight. Now they will only suck me in when I’m flying somewhere.
Do let me know if they manage to find and hire someone of the ability of Setright!
Robin Capper on July 1, 2006
This tribute, of sorts, to the late great Phil Llewellin. This is another post that took too long to write which might be of interest to you & your readers.
Where is the next generation of LJKS and PL’s?
http://rcd.typepad.com/personal/2006/07/the_road_to_muc.html
John Ditchfield on July 17, 2006
Sir,
I agree with everything you said about Mr Setright. Except for two words: arrogant and pompous. I met him once. I was going into a motoring media ‘do’, and realised that the man in front could only be LJKS. I hesitated for half a moment, before deciding to speak to the great man, needing to pay homage. ‘Mr Setright?’ I said, and he turned round and gave a shy smile. He looked downwards when I praised his work, but his eyes lit up when I singled out his book ‘The Power to Fly’ for particular praise. He told me I was lucky to have seen a copy, as not many were produced. I admitted that I’d borrowed it from the library. I didn’t tell him that the book had probably burned to the ground in a library fire. If it hadn’t, it would surely have been stolen by now, for I’ve just searched for a copy on the internet, and found them priced from £275 to £575.
Thanks for your succinct and fitting tribute to LJKS. What a brain and a gift for writing he had. Whatever his written words conveyed, my impression was of a quiet and self-effacing man.
Best wishes from Somerset, UK
Jonathan Ross on September 12, 2006
Thanks for your eloquent posting, Conor. I’ve enjoyed LJKS in Car since 1972, searching him out, as others did, for my first reading in the magazine. He is sadly missed.
As for Car magazine, as of October 2006 it is now Worth Reading Again. I think that the Performance Car days are over, I hope for ever.
conor on September 13, 2006
Interesting. I succumbed in Gatwick last week and grabbed the latest issue which I guess is either Oct or Nov. Looking forward to reading it now. I liked the cover redesign even if it did mean that it took me a while to find it on the shelf.
Michael on September 28, 2006
Congratulations for such an eloquent tribute to LJK – I was beginning to think I was just about the only person in Ireland who had read his articles consistently! Like everyone else here I owe him a great debt: he made it possible to combine love of cars with learning. In doing so he removed the compulsion to decide between grubby mechanics and high art. Who else could have theorized that Japanese and American cultures might differ in the part of the audio spectrum they found attractive, based on the harmonics of the engines and musical instruments they produced?
It’s not that I always agreed with what he wrote – his attitude to speed limits is hardly to be recommended when most of us – I happily include myself here – cannot drive so well as he apparently could. His purist approach to engineering, too, sometimes denied the commercial necessity of proceeding to an ultimate goal via some pretty mediocre interim steps: I remember his being very critical in The Independent (London one!) of the Toyota Prius. The criticism was well deserved – all current hybrids are something of a lash up, in effect squeezing an electrical transmission into the conventional mechanical powertrain package. I felt however that he wasn’t giving Toyota enough credit for nudging the consumer along towards the point, perhaps some three or four Prius generations distant, where it could introduce a proper fuel cell car without any internal combustion carryovers.
But none of that matters, really. What his purism really amounted to, in my opinion, was a patrician attitude, in the best meaning of the word. If something was worth doing at all, it was worth doing well, from first principles. This seemed to apply whether he was tyre sidewall design, paragraph construction, or the reproduction of music. If I can’t attain such standards, I can at least try!
There is, incidentally, an autobiographical fragment now available. It’s only a short book, and printed in large type at that, but I still rushed out to order it from Amazon. Link is here, for anybody interested…
John Larkin on October 26, 2006
Hi Conor,
I have just read your article on LJKS. Well done!
I bought CAR magagzine mainly for Setright’s column, and I have not bought it since he stopped writing for it. I am delighted that there are some other people out there who appreciated his style, erudition and talent.
I never met him, but I saw him once. I was having lunch in a restaurant in Hendon and I was right beside a floor to ceiling window. He stood directly outside, well dressed, with a cane, and languidly smoked a cigarette over a five minute period. I regret that fear of a rebuff stopped me from going out to speak with him.
He considered that there should be only one motoring offence — dangerous driving. He was right.
Requiescat in pace.
John Larkin
conor on October 26, 2006
I think I would have been equally hesitant to talk to him in the same situation.
I finally read the September CAR which is supposedly the start of a new era more like the days of LJK.
It isn’t really but it is a huge improvement. Some more depth and longer articles and they”ll be in the right ballpark.
I’m impressed they are going this route, let’s hope it works out for them.
dave raby on December 10, 2006
Conor,
Good to hear fitting remembrances & parallels of my own memories of LJKS and his CAR colleagues. He was of a different time, of course, and the CAR staff reflected the era of the 60s $ 70s. That is, before cars and low-cost travel were available to most of the population. CAR readers travelled to European destinations as passengers with them. Great journeys.
DR
John McDonnell on September 12, 2007
I was a bit shocked on the passing of Setright. I first purchased CAR in 1980 and can honestly say never missed a copy to this day.
I loved getting to Setright’s articals and the technical items were brilliant.
I now drive a Merc ‘91 190E 2.5-16 & 2.6 auto and that is thanks in part to the great man. Wouldn’t mind owing a Bristol but I would need LJK to show me how to drive it……..so no I won’t be buying one.
A TRUE ADMIRER.
John on March 23, 2008
My admiration for LJKS goes back a little farther. He used to write erudite articlesfor motorcycle sport in the late 1960s. I’m not sure but did he not also write for motor sport?
He is irreplacable.
Gerard Sullivan on March 21, 2006
Well said. I just found this blog while looking for a book by LJK. When LJK left Car they said he would continue to supply articles occasionally but supplied only one more before he died. Shame, he was brilliant and I enjoyed him greatly both in CAR and BIKE. As you say CAR has been dumbed down so much the reviews are hardly worth reading. Fortunately the photography and some articles, like the Ferrari tour through China, make it worth buying. I’m hoping they will change the layout back from the current rubbish as it’s a pity to see a magazine I’ve enjoyed for so many years brought to this level.
I doubt if they’ll ever find anyone as brilliant as LJK again, he was one of a kind. I was tempted to add RIP but I don’t think that appropriate as I figure he’s still driving to his own limits somewhere and annoying the locals who don’t know any better