The rocket engine analogy proved quite accurate. Once the wick was lit and inserted in the compressor volute there was a warm up time of about 5 or 6 seconds. Then Shaun brought the 'Vac up to speed slowly. Once at full throttle the turbo would hiss like a rocket and shoot out a stream of flame exactly like a rocket. This would last 20 to 45 seconds. Then the thing would do what we called a "flameout" where the rocket effect gave way to a traditional flame like in a campfire.
Shortly after this was "ejection" where the turbo would spit out the remnants of the towel, which had to be hurriedly pushed to the floor and extinguished. We didn't care about the fire alarms, we pushed it to the floor to keep it out of the shot. The trick was timing the exposure to encompass the correct mixture of rocket flame and traditional flame.
A shot used on the Table of Contents shows a rocket flame and the wick after the turbo suffered a premature ejection. There was a lot of pressure to make this shot work, we had to overcome the adversity of those in the company but I remember how well we worked as a team and after all playing with fire is fun.
Hopefully people now know the truth and our hands-on creativity and photographic skill will no longer be written off as piddly computer-generated graphics.
October, 1998
This Sentra SE-R was built by Shaun Carlson of Nuformz/Mopar drag racing fame. In 1997 and 1998 I was lucky, or was it unlucky, to share an office with Shaun. He was staffer at Turbo in those days and a strong photographer who approached his craft with the same attention to detail that can be seen in his custom car work. (I should be getting some kick-back cash for this Carlson!)
Anyway, the truth of the matter is that I have come across few fabricators with the natural, god-given gifts that Shaun possesses. I remember when he asked me about leaving Turbo to start up Nuformz and he was surprised when I told him, in so many words, to get the hell out!
He suffered through Ford's ill-conceived engine program in his tube-frame Focus and since has been sailing high with Mopar all the way into the 7s in his Pro FWD Neon. Shaun was the first import driver to make the jump to the NHRA Powerade series, piloting a Mopar in Pro Stock at the Pomona season opener in 2004.
After early struggles Nuformz is doing well as a business. However, the October, 1998 cover car can make no such claims. For the past three to four years its severely crushed hulk has been used as a storage bin at Body Pros body shop. Someone apparently lost control and backed into a tree or pole (we heard it was a tree) at a pretty good rate of speed. I had seen the car a few times and the damage was so bad I thought it was a 200SX hatch. The red sticker on the intake and a re-examination of the car finally set off the light bulb.
Cover Date: Unknown ('93-'94)
Not sure of the cover date on this one. The Integra belongs to Edward Eng, who like a majority of staffers worked at Dynamic Autosports in Irvine before joining the Turbo magazine team.
The Acura was pretty fast in the day and ran solely on the spray. This was when NOS did not have a Honda part number so import enthusiasts were "converting" Mustang kits to work on the rides. It was also well before sticker tuning was in fashion.
We had this one sticker and it was NOT very pliable. There was a god-awful wave in the sticker so we took an equally terrifying helmet and covered it up. On The cover we ran a column of yellow over the hideousness, dropped in the car's e.t. and gave birth to the bottom line banner which was subsequently copied in Australia, the UK and here in the States. As part of our heritage, we still use a version of the banner today.
December 1998
This sweet DSM was shot at the base of the Buttes Mountain range, supposedly the smallest mountain range in the country/world ... whatever. It is a quick drive out of Yuba City, California, my wife's hometown, and was close enough to hook up with Jason Lu, the car's owner. I love the road and the surrounding tall grass and the warm light that this place generates at sundown but haven't shot there since.
Jason, as I remember, was a naval officer having something to do with missile tracking. When I asked for specifics he looked into the shrubbery expecting to see the CIA camped out with recording gear before saying it was top-secret stuff that he couldn't talk about. Anyway, this car was well executed and ran like a scared wolf; one of those cars that was so awe-inspiring it made me want to go out and get a DSM myself.