Cropley continued Nichols’ formula – exclusive first drives, expansive supercar stories, scoops, industry insights, quirky and clever columnists, ambitious travel stories. It was a very stimulating environment and success further fuelled creativity. Cheques were handwritten and always sent by return of post, further ingratiating FF to contributors and suppliers. Ian Fraser’s wife Robin personally mailed subscription copies from the family home in Norfolk. I recall MD Fraser marching into the editorial office soon after I arrived and announcing: ‘Good news everybody, we’ve just lost Honda!’ We all cheered and got on with our work, invigorated by our no-compromise stance and our owner’s unequivocal support.įF was a publishing minnow outgunning the giants.

I presented myself in Robbo’s office and his first words were, “Hello mate, when can you start?”I worked there for five and a half years. I bought a suit for the interview in Brisbane on the way. I had to travel through bushfires and floods. I told him it would take me a month to get there because I had to rebuild the cylinder head of my old fintail 220 Mercedes and Sydney was 2000 miles away. ‘I wrote Robbo eight pages of longhand, explaining there wasn’t a typewriter within a 100-mile radius. They were after a journalist to replace the departing Mel Nichols. When that proved elusive, he answered an advertisement placed by Peter Robinson, editor of Wheels magazine.

He covered the Adelaide stock exchange, before moving to Cairns to seek his fortune. Like his CAR predecessors, Cropley had newspaper training. Cropley, like Tasmanian Nichols, came from an isolated part of Australia, Broken Hill.

1990 protege car magazines