I've spent a good portion of my life with grease under my nails. I've dealt with more than a few knuckle-busters. Late nights in the garage lying under a car are not uncommon. I've also spent the last few years getting paid to write about, photograph and test all that's entailed with the grease, the knuckle-busters, the late nights. I've learned to take the good with the bad. I welcome the grease.
It's been more than a decade and I still remember the first time I got my hands on a copy of Turbo. At a time when imports and sport compacts were regarded as little more than micro commuters for the money conscious, I remember Turbo as being among the first to portray these econo-boxes for the pint-sized powerhouses some of us knew they'd shape up to be. While the masses continued to insist that high performance was relative only to cubic inches and piston count - insistent upon being driven by the rear - I remember Turbo as being among the first to pave the way for the muscle cars' newfound compact competition.
Stashed within the glove box of a friend's newly purchased EF Civic, I remember pulling out a wrinkled up magazine full of boosted Mustangs and Grand Nationals. But it wasn't the eight or six cylinders of boost that caught my attention. I'd seen that before. At a time when I just wasn't impressed with what most four cylinders had to offer, including my friend's mockable EF, the last thing I expected to find inside Turbo was Honda hatchbacks packing doubled OEM horsepower and Mitsubishis snorting gobs of warranty-voiding boost. It was the early '90s, a time when imports and sport compacts spent little time in the pages of the magazines. A lot changed. I changed.
You're probably wondering by now who I am. Let me introduce myself: I'm the new technical editor here at Turbo. It's been several years since I've opened up that first copy of Turbo, since I've transformed from high-performance novice to motorsports enthusiast - from mechanic and motorsports participant to automotive journalist. The roles have changed along the way but the passion's remained the same.
Rest assured, I'm no two-bit journalist, straight out of college, desperate to sit inside the walls of the first vacant cubicle for a paycheck. There are few publications I'd write for and still even fewer topics I'd write about. As a long-time Turbo reader, I understand readers' expectations: the in-depth technical articles paired with real-world dyno and track results - the kind of content so regularly dispensed by Turbo technical editors of past. The voices have changed over the years but the message will remain the same.
Prior to reading Turbo, I entertained the typical teenage delusions of owning and tweaking eight cylinders of my own; this was, after all, the de facto powerplant for most high-performance enthusiasts of the time. Dressed in a bow tie, badged with the blue oval, it didn't matter. I never did get that V8 though - at least not right away. Instead, I've invested in my share of four and six-cylinder compacts, very few of which remained untouched. As an enthusiast, I've chosen not to relinquish my passion to just one particular make or to just one particular avenue of motorsports. The way I see it, if it has wheels and an engine, chances are I'm into it. I hope to share some of this enthusiasm with you.
It's under that premise I gear up for all of this, promising to bring the most useful and informative technical content to print as possible, all the while striking the perfect balance - one that gives the hardcore, hands-on readers what they're looking for without neglecting those still new to the scene.
It was the high horsepower, low-E.T. feature cars that first caught my attention and lured me into the pages of Turbo and the world of imports and sport compacts, but it was the tech articles that ensured I'd keep coming back. I want to keep you coming back.