It all started in 1985 with a silver logo and a red Maserati Bi Turbo serving as a cover car. Whenever I find myself talking about the premier issue I always seem to use the phrase, "the magazine has fared better than the car." I thought it would be cool to run some images from the past and divulge some behind-the-scenes details of the circumstances surrounding the car, its owner, etc The problem is Turbo has a very limited archive because a good deal of it was lost during the 1999 acquisition of Turbo by McMullen Argus. I have been editor of Turbo magazine since 1992 and since I am writing all of this off the top of my head some facts, especially the dates of some of the events, may not be as precise but the names have NOT been changed to protect the innocent.
June, 1997
The June 1997 "Flaming Turbo Issue" is one of the most recognizable covers in the history of Turbo magazine. To this day people still want to know, how did you do that? Some are quick to point a finger at computer enhancement and that's when I bust out the whoopin' stick. The only computer enhancement on the cover was the addition of the SPI boost gauge.
I had been wanting to put something other than just a car on the cover for some time. We were doing an article on Rick Head's 9.05-second big block 'Vette that used a huge "Big Thumper" turbo from Turbonetics. The crew at Turbonetics went on and on about how big it was and I said, "if it's that big send me one so I can shoot it for the story."
It just so happened we were also planning an article on basic upgrades to turbo-powered vehicles. The story would outline the benefits of upgraded exhausts, high-flow intakes, boost controllers as well as the importance of fuel enrichment. The turbo was all it was pumped up to be. It weighed 48 pounds, was 9.75 in diameter on the compressor side and had a whopping five-inch inlet. The tumblers had aligned-use the turbo upgrade story as an excuse to shoot the turbo for the cover. But how do you shoot it? When I told publisher Kipp Kington about my plans to put a turbo on the cover I was met with skepticism. I assured him we had a car cover in the can and told him I wanted to take a shot at it.
I knew I needed color and contrast. I wanted action too. Action meant long exposures, which axed our basic studio lights. I set up a table with black background paper in the shipping area. The shipping area had a sliding door that happened to be in line with the arc of the sun. The door could act as a shutter, regulating the amount of light in the shot. The time of day would determine what kind of light, direct or diffused, would hit the turbo. Color was added to the compressor housing by taping yellow construction paper to a dolly and positioning it just off camera. The dolly's red handles also added color to the shot. The red glow in the inlet and on the compressor wheel is from a "police sized" Maglite that was a Christmas gift from the previous year. The flashlight had a red filter taped to the lens.
What about spinning the compressor wheel, you ask? Can you say ShopVac. We had an industrial sized ShopVac and I cupped my hands between the nozzle and the turbine discharge and turned the vacuum on. It worked. It worked real good.
To get it all together in our makeshift studio we cut a hole in the background paper directly behind the turbo and ran the vacuum hose to the turbine discharge. As it turned out a Big Gulp cup had the exact step-up we needed to mate the vacuum and the turbo. A couple windings of duct tape and we were good to go. Carl Calvert was on the ShopVac, Michael Ferrara was on the Maglite. We were shooting with my old-school Pentax 6x7 and fired off a few rolls with varying amounts of light.
At this point the set-up of the shot had taken three days with a nay-saying publisher and other Doubting Thomases jokingly belittling us every step of the way. Undaunted, we continued. We had a vision.
During the initial photo sessions were impressed with how much air the turbo was moving. Somewhere, someone compared the Big Thumper to a rocket engine. Somewhere, somehow the idea of adding fire to the mix was born. Being tech editor, Michael was moved to pyrotechnic engineer, Carl was moved to flashlight duty and Shaun Carlson was called into action throttling the ShopVac. We experimented with mineral spirits, gasoline and lacquer thinner before settling on acetone. Paper towels were used as wicks and we discovered the folding of the towel was a key element in the process.
Day four was spent perfecting our technique and keeping an eye out for the fire marshal. We were excited, we knew we were on to something. When Kipp began giving tours of the "pyrotechnics lab" I knew we really turned a corner. I never did tell him there was no car-oriented cover shot waiting in the wings. I was on a mission and working without a net was pretty much the norm in those days.