Some people say you should never meet your heroes. Sure, sometimes that is wise advice, but I’d say it’s worth a shot, anyway. You never know when your hero will turn out to be even cooler than you imagined. Many car enthusiasts across generations have watched the charismatic MotorWeek host John Davis review cars since 1981. That’s over 40 years of the same smiling guy giving all sorts of cars a fair shake. As it turns out, he’s a pretty great guy off-camera, too!
Today, the Bishop gave us a Cold Start featuring the Chevy Sprint Turbo. In it, Bishop embedded one of MotorWeek’s glorious Retro Reviews, where he got to take a 1987 Chevy Sprint Turbo for a spin. It’s a textbook John Davis review featuring his trademark soothing voice set to a roll of a car getting absolutely sent in the background. Understandably, it’s a dream for the Bishop to meet the man. It was a dream for me, too!
Our readers spread the John Davis love, with COTD winner Carguy2219 warming our hearts:
True fact: I met John Davis many years ago at the New York Auto Show. I was so enamored by his presence that instead of the proverbial meet and greet handshake, I full on bro-hugged the guy. My girlfriend at the time, now my wife, still reminds me of the awkwardness of the whole situation. In full disclosure, I may have also shed a tear or two out of sheer happiness. Who knew John Davis could have such a profound impact.
Steve Gray has his own John Davis story:
I’m proud to say I worked for PBS for 20+ years and got to know John Davis – he even advised me on a few auto purchases. He is as nice as you can imagine.
I finally got to meet John Davis earlier this year during the Chicago Auto Show. I wasted no time in telling him that he remains an inspiration today and I’ve perhaps watched more MotorWeek reviews than from anyone else. He can make a review for any car sound awesome, even a review for the Pontiac 1000:
Somehow, I managed to refrain from fangirling. Besides, I wasn’t the only one, there were other young journalists there all wanting to say hi to the man they’ve watched on TV while growing up. Those readers above are telling the truth. Davis seems to have a heart of gold and he’s genuinely awesome to talk cars with. What a national treasure.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Topshot images: YouTube/MotorWeek
Seriously love MotorWeek, especially the retro days. Anything he says about your favorite cars just sits in your memory:
“with larger synchronizers to better handle the new engine’s torque”
“And go it does, with a 0-60mph time of…”
“But it’s small for the SAKE of being small”
Just little lines and excerpts that I had in my memory banks.
I have watched about every clip he has. I still watch it on KERA when it’s actually on and their not pushing vitamins, books, or some other fund raising crap. I guess the government grants aren’t enough for them. As far as meeting heroes? Mercedes, you, Jason, David, Stephen, the Bishop, Lewin, Mr Hundal, amongst many, are my hero’s everyday. I would love to meet any of you. John Davis? Oh hell yes! You can see from my comments I leave, I’m not shy and love to write. Who knows, in 2024 I may be amongst you. When it comes to trailers and rv’s, Mercedes, hunnikins, bring it on. I retired from the industry when covid damm near took me out. I have original brochures from the 60’s on. Hell. I have an original 1914 Baker electric car add framed and on the wall in my office here
John Davis is on my bucket list of automotive celebrities I’d like to meet someday. I met David E. Davis at Automobile Magazine and got a tour of their offices in Ann Arbor back in 1994. Good times.
John Davis is just the nicest dude. I’ve met him a couple of times and he’s chill as hell.
Just make sure you come prepared with an oil and voltage gauge.
Cam-ray
I cringe every time he says it.
I noticed the first couple gens of Mitsubishi Galant were spoken with a certain flair by both John Davis and Lisa Barrow, spoken quickly and dropping the t, almost like “g’lawn“. Unless that is how Mitsu PR team and execs said it back then. But then Toyota definitely didn’t pronounce Camry with an extra ‘a.’
I love watching Motorweek, just keeping in mind that it’s more like automotive press release than serious critical reviews.
Something that has amused me watching the old clips and episodes lately is when they cut to all the latest motor news, in the Lisa Barrow days somewhere in the late 80s. At that point John’s hosting portion was outside like it would be for decades to come, in basically an open field. John says “here’s Lisa Barrow” and look off camera, which then cuts to Lisa inside an office who says “Thanks John.” So conversational like they were right next to each other even though that clearly wasn’t the case. Somewhere by the mid-90s she stopped thanking him, like they realized it was silly since they weren’t across from each other in a studio.
Also with the retro marathons, since they’re randomized, it makes it seem like Lisa had a different hairstyle every week, really adds to the 90s nostalgia feeling. By the time I watched as a kid it was Jennifer Khasnabis hosting the motor news segments.
Am I the only one that had a crush on Jennifer Khasnabis?
Nope.
I still can’t believe that the show and the host that I started watching as a car-crazy kid in 1981 is still going. What a run. John Davis is a mensch. I was pretty gutted when we lost Pat Goss only a couple of years ago, but he had an incredible run in his own right.
It also helps that he pretty much did all of his aging between age 30 and 40, and then basically froze like that.
It’s am amazing run- Motorweek taped it’s pilot episode in 1978, less than a year after the first version of Top Gear debuted (though it wasn’t picked up as a series for another 2-3 years, due to underwriting issues I’d guess), and it’s still going and still with basically its original format. Longevity like that certainly doesn’t happen by mistake, especially not in the TV world
In 1991, I had the pleasure of meeting the late Pat Goss, who hosted the “Goss’s Garage” segment of of MotorWeek. He was also a pleasant man who seemed to be the same as he was on TV, down to earth and incredibly knowledgeable.
I didn’t know he passed. RIP