It’s high time somebody remembers one of our industry’s best editors—before everybody completely forgets.

Let me start by saying that I never knew Pete Pesterre—never even met him to the best of my recollection. I had only been in the business a scant three years when Pete met with his premature fate. People I talk to who knew Pete say he was a whirlwind force in the industry. He loved racing, he loved building cars, and he loved being the editor of Popular Hot Rodding. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because you probably read his stories and columns.

Pete Pesterre was an anchor at PHR for many years, working under the Argus Publishing umbrella starting some time in the 1970s. According to a mutual friend, Terry Cole (formerly of Super Chevy magazine), Pete died sometime around the Christmas vacation break of 1993 – 94. He was an avid dirt bike rider among other things, and suffered a fatal collision with another rider while out in the desert, far away from proper medical care.

Pete’s last editorial column was in the February 1994 issue (see photo), where he discusses all the cool project cars PHR is planning to build. He mentions that no other magazine has done more project cars—and you know something, nothing has changed in all those intervening years!

I decided to write this because after doing an internet search, absolutely nothing showed up about Pete and his notable career. I hope this changes that. One of the things Pete is most famous for is exposing the NBC Dateline fraud of the exploding Chevy truck fuel tank. In that scandal, it was discovered that NBC had rigged the Chevy truck with toy rocket motors set to detonate at the moment of impact. (They actually exploded a split second before, which can be seen on the slow-motion video playback.) NBC’s Dateline still suffers from a lack of credibility to this day. (It’s a little-known fact that Chevy actually gave Pete a free truck as a token of thanks.)

I’m embarrassed to say that the publisher of PHR at the time did not see a reason to mention Pete’s death in PHR at all. The March 1994 issue came out, and Pete was just erased from history. After not having an editor at the helm for seven months, a replacement was found, but that fellow (who shall remain nameless because he’s not at fault) was never allowed to say anything about Pete’s whereabouts, or lack thereof. Let’s all reflect for a moment on the bright, short career of one of the best!