Mel Nichols
Journalist
Mel worked for Wheels magazine and edited Sports Car World in Australia before coming to the UK, where he edited Car from 1974 to 1981. He went often to Modena, Turin, Stuttgart and Munich and became known for vivid drive stories in fast cars. Jeremy Clarkson called Mel’s story Convoy! – about driving three Lamborghinis from Modena to London – ‘the best-ever drive story’ and says it inspired him to write about cars.
From 1987 to 2009 Mel was editorial director of Autocar, What Car?, Classic & Sports Car, Autosport, F1 Racing and PistonHeads. He has contributed to Car and Driver and Motor Trend and was a founding columnist of Automobile. His book And The Revs Keep Rising contains 50 of his articles about great drives in fast cars.
First car:
1952 Ford Prefect A493A ‘Yardwide’, £70, 36bhp and flat out at 61mph
Professional hero:
Richard Parry-Jones, Welsh boy whose influence as CTO of Ford made all cars better
Fondest driving memory:
Modena to Calais in a 1976 Lamborghini Espada: 900 miles in 11 hours
"I’ve loved cars since I was three or four. I was lucky enough to become a journalist; trained in newspapers, then switched to car magazines to combine my passion with my skills and have enjoyed the happiest of careers"
