Spotter's Guide For The September Road & Track
I'm always one of the last people to get my subscription issue of Road&Track, and I'm also not important enough at the magazine to know anything about how my articles are going to look before they come out. So I had to wait until today to prepare this comprehensive Spotter's Guide to the September issue. Which, by the way, is the one with Tony Stewart and a Corvette on the cover. You should read that article first; it's the most interesting one in the book and it wasn't written by me!
On page 24, there's the slightly truncated version of my Rallycross article along with an infographic about Kias and Mercedes-Benzes. I suspect the infographic was there to replace a particularly offensive section I wrote in the original article about the pajamas my friend the Snow Queen likes to wear. Have to remember that it's a family magazine, read by children such as my eight-year-old self.
The big deal is on page 72, where I write and play drift photo model for a three-way comparison between the Scion FR-S, the Mayhem Mustang, and a used Porsche Boxster. Again, the family-magazine thing comes into play, with certain sections I wrote about doing 110mph on one-lane back roads being excised in the name of human decency. Probably for the best. My true regret is that the Mustang drift shot (seen above) didn't make it onto a full page. It's really neat. What the article doesn't say is that in order to get that shot with a wide-angle lens, I had to repeatedly drive the Mustang sideways past Andrew Trahan, the photographer, at 60-plus miles per hour, under two feet from his camera. Lot of bravery on Andrew's part... he never had to drop the camera and run but there were times I came closer to his knees than others. That was a great day.
There was a lot of speculation regarding my participation at R&T when I assumed the reins at TTAC but I'm pleased to say that I'm continuing to get great chances at column inches in the magazine. We're currently working on a feature that, should it come to pass, will be the fastest and most exciting thing I've done yet for them. Cross your fingers, and thanks for reading!