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1.08
ShooTouT MAGiC
BEAU ANDERSON EXPERIENCES UNIMAGINABLE
THE ROAD HOME (TO REDEMPTION)
dAvid TRAvER AdoLPhuS
HURRICANE SANDY AIN’T GOT NOTHIN’ ON ME
STEPhEn doRRiCK
GETTING STUCK 1 WEEK BEFORE THE CARNAGE
ThE LonG hARd RoAd
I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
ShooTouT Bound
PLuS
PADDOCKSCENE: EVENTS CALENDAR FOR SEPTEMBER
CAR 22, OVER: PAUL GOES UNDERCOVER
MEET THE TEAM: DEANNA ISAACS JOINS TEAM GBXM!
AND MORE!
STARTER
GBXM 1.08 | THE MAGIC
From the Flaming Abracadabra of Failure Department, this month’s issue is a hot commodity.
Whereas last month saw me actually have ONE feature ready to go weeks in advance, making Build Day a
piece of cake, this month caught me wholly off-guard. The two largest culprits? First and foremost, above all
else, that most innocuous of deadly sins - sloth.
It’s “Monsoon Season” here in Phoenix, meaning it’s not a dry heat. It’s a thick, humid heat, where the rain
clouds build up outside town, only to burn off or go around the sprawling heat island. I drive home from
an all-the-kids-are-going-back-to-school-so-let’s-get-all-that-shit-done-at-the-data-center busy kinda day in
my non-air conditioned Pajero, pick the kiddo up from the grandparents’ house, and find myself with zero
motivation to get back on a computer at 8PM when the house gets quiet.
GEARBOX MAGAZINE IS:
Each Family Guy or American Dad (or Antiques Road Show) re-run on Netflix comes with litle voices arguing
in the back of my mind. “You need to work on the magazine, dude.” “Meh. We’ve got time. Besides, we’re PARTNERS
tired. We deserve a break.” Yeah. Sloth.
+ BRIAN DRIGGS, FOUNDER
Second, Deanna Isaacs joined the team this month, and maybe I spent a bit too much time bringing her up + DENNIS DEJONG
to speed on things. It’s like how the right turbocharger can DOUBLE your horsepower, but you know you’re + DEANNA ISAACS
going to be without the car a couple days while you get that thing installed. And my train of thought rides on
a plane of ball bearings.
CONTRIBUTORS
I have no regrets about investing so much time in Deanna this month. She is easily going to double our + ADAM CAMPBELL
horsepower here at Team GBXM. In just two weeks, she’s already helped us implement process improve- + PAUL TURNER
ments on the backend of our we’re-going-to-start-using-it-more-soon-I-promise website AND shared some + YOU? JOIN US. (CLICK ME)
of her J-school knowledge, which resulted in our connecting with a possible FOURTH partner, with whom
I’ve also spent a considerable amount of time discussing Gearbox.
Throw a long weekend trip to southern California to see great-grandparents, long time rally friends, and introduce a certain 10-month old girl to the Pacific Ocean, and you have a delicious recipe for procrastination
and a thinner issue than I would have liked.
The magic, however, comes from being so inspired by the people I’ve worked with in the previous month,
that this issue is STILL friggin’ epic. From Beau Anderson leaving the Shootout with a new, built engine under the hood, to David Traver Adolphus reminding us that all automotive “journalism” can be meaningful, to
Stephen Dorrick not giving up on launching a respectable business even when a hurricane floods his home,
this issue is a celebration of what’s possible when you never, ever, EVER, give up. I hope it means as much
to you as it does to me.
Until next month...
Keep going fast with class & press on regardless,
bd
we don’t do advertising|we prefer partners
Our goal is to help automotive enthusiasts build high performance machines & lives. If you’re a first
class business which believes, like we do, that success comes from helping others achieve success for
themselves, and are willing to work with us to empower our mutual customers, we’d like to tell you about
how our Official Partners program can help your brand prove value, build trust, and grow. Nobody likes
advertising & commercials. Let’s make a difference. Contact us today.
Gearbox Magazine. Of gearheads. By gearheads. For gearheads. united.
ConTEnTS | what’s inside
ThE EffinG CovER | BEAU ANDERSON
Imagine engine failure 2,000 miles (3,200km) from home. Pretty hopeless, right? If you
were lucky, you might have the means to rent a truck and trailer to drag the car home and
save up for a rebuild. If you were REALLY lucky, you might be at the biggest event of the
year for people with your vehicle. Beau Anderson was REALLY lucky. This is Shootout Magic.
10 dAvid TRAvER AdoLPhuS | REDEMPTION
“We’re the seldom-thin, ink-stained line that stands between automobile manufacturer’s
PR and an unsuspecting world. Or not. Whatever. Who’s got the keys to the press car?” A
conversation about burnout, going freelance, and making a difference.
16 STEPhEn doRRiCK | LOJ INNOVATIONS
You’re far too busy to make any progress on your automotive dream today. Or are you?
Stephen Dorrick explains how he’s launching a business while also working full-time. Oh,
and he’s also STILL rebuilding his house after Hurricane Sandy flooded it a year ago. How
busy were you again?
24 Az CRAwLERS | THE LONG HARD ROAD
Karma is probably one of the best investments you can make. You never know when you’ll
be stranded out of reach of AAA, and other gearheads - just like you - will remember that
time you rescued them from the middle of the Mohave or from teetering on the edge of a
cliff in Colorado. They will come, even if they have to walk there.
30 ShooTouT Bound | I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
We are Shootout-bound and down to the last dozen or so months until it comes again.
Figure I’ve got about a year to find myself another DSM and get it - and myself - ready to
finally make the drive to Norwalk.
| AUTOMOTIVE EVENTS & ENTERTAINMENT FOR SEPTEMBER!
23 PEnMAnShifT| SMART GOALS & COMMUNICATION
28 CAR 22, ovER | UNDERCOVER, PART 2!
40 MEET ThE TEAM | DEANNA ISAACS JOINS TEAM GBXM!
41 ThiS PAGE | INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
ARChivES | 12 STORIES YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED OVER THE YEARS.
ABouT GBXM|UNITED
Stories of real people doing things with vehicles they actually own matter more than thinly veiled,
marketing propaganga spun as helping sheep select their next consumer-grade appliance.
We believe our shared passion for all things automotive unites us on a global scale, and that the
things we have in common as gearheads empower us to get the most from our differences.
wE onLy MATTER BECAuSE you MATTER. hiGh PERfoRMAnCE MAChinES & LivES!
GBXM | 1
SHOOTOUT MAGIC
Image: Robert Kamrad, Slow97tsi Photography
2 | GBXM
Imagine engine failure 2,000 miles (3,200km) from home. Pretty hopeless, right? If you were lucky,
you might have the means to rent a truck and trailer to drag the car home and save up for a rebuild.
If you were REALLY lucky, you might be at the biggest event of the year for people with your vehicle.
Beau Anderson was REALLY lucky. This is Shootout Magic.
WORDS BRIAN DRIGGS | IMAGES VARIOUS
Imagine engine failure 2,000 miles (3,200km) from
home. Pretty hopeless, right? If you were lucky, you might
have the means to rent a truck and trailer to drag the car
home and save up for a rebuild. If you were REALLY lucky,
you might be at the biggest event of the year for people
with your vehicle. Beau Anderson was REALLY lucky.
[bd] First question: When did you know it had all gone
wrong? Literally, where were you? How did you know
you were doomed? What happened?
[ba] I was competing in Max Effort DSM [a special class
which combines autocross and drag racing at the DSM
Shootout] and had just completed my second drag run
of the day.
I was headed back to the pits by way of the timing trailer
to pick up my time slip and thought I heard something
awry. It wasn’t until I stopped completely and began to
accelerate away from timing towards the pits that I knew I
had to get the car to a spot and shut it down.
GBXM | 3
Beau’s 2GB Talon also sports the highly desirable 2GA “twistie” side skirts and door caps. Image: Robert Kamrad, Slow97tsi Photography
Under partial throttle, there was a definite knock of death coming from
the lower end. You know that noise that resembles boulders bouncing
around in your oil pan? Yeah, thats the one.
If I had to guess the cause of failure overall, it would be the combination of 307k miles (494,000km) - the last 70k/112k driven hard
by me - and a little mishap at the start line during my run down the
strip. Right when I pulled up to the staging lights, the car stumbled to a
halt, meaning I was turning the key while the lights were turning down
the tree. Once I got the car started, there was just enough time to hit
launch control, let the clutch out, and be on my way down the strip. I’m
no professional, but I would guess the oil pressure fluctuations from
that event were the final straw for at least one rod bearing.
[bd] What was the first thought through your mind at that moment
you realized the engine was toast? How did you handle it? What
was the first thing you did? Why?
[ba] I was ready almost immediately to call the local U-Haul outfit, rent
a truck and trailer, and have the car leave Norwalk on a dead leg so
to speak. I thought maybe I could sit back and enjoy racing action for
the rest of the weekend and come back to the car after the event was
over. First thing I did was inform my friends of the ejected bearing. They
were having none of the trailer idea. It was all or nothing to have the car
running before it left Norwalk.
[bd] Tell us about your car, brother. What’s changed since we last
interviewed you in 2010?
4 | GBXM
[ba] Oh man, in 2010 the car was nearly stock besides wheels and
the 68HTA turbo. I remember the last interview (http://bit.ly/gbxmbeau-2010) and how far it felt like the car had to go when I was filling
out what mods I had gotten around to doing - the “to-do” list was much
larger than the “done” list.
Lancer Evolution interior goodies, full Evo VIII Brake caliper/rotor setup,
OEM Exterior modifications, BCRacing BR+ Series coilovers, SSR Type
C wheels, to name a few of the things that weren’t on or in the car the
last go round.
[bd] I want to say I heard you had almost 300,000 miles on it when
you left for Norwalk. How many miles was the drive for you each
way? Why did you want to drive the Talon all that way?
[ba] I wish I could take the credit for driving the car all the way to Ohio
from Idaho, but a good friend of mine was the one who accepted the
challenge of traveling the car from Idaho - and picking me up in Wisconsin - where I am working currently. When she left Idaho, it was sitting a hair over 305k miles, from one end to the other that trip comes
in just a hair under 2,200 miles (3,500km) one way.
Why not bring the Talon all that distance? It’s the Shootout and wouldn’t
be the same without each and everyone of the attendees having their
very own DSM!
[bd] So your buddies talked you into having the car leave Norwalk
under its own power. Did you consider rebuilding the engine? When
There are zero Mitsubishi Eclipses in the above picture. Image: Marybeth Kiczenski
did you decide to just replace the whole engine? Why? (And how
the hell did you find a complete engine ready to go?)
was sitting on a hesitant $1200 offer from another buyer. I told him I
could have $900 in the next 30 minutes and we shook hands.
[ba] Initially, we began the search for some OEM 7-bolt rod bearings
at the vendors’ booths on site for the event. There were 6-bolt rod
bearings galore, but by some grace of god, there were no sets of 7-bolt
Mitsubishi rod bearings to be found.
[bd] Tell us about the actual engine swap. Where did you do it?
Where did all the tools and parts and gaskets and such come from?
Who helped (and how)?
[Editor’s Note: The 4G63 in the first generation DSM (and early Evos)
featured a 6-bolt crankshaft, which wasn’t plagued with “crankwalk”
issues so often attributed to the 7-bolt crankshaft in the second gens.
Thus, the 6-bolt motors are far more popular for high horsepower
applications, and the lack of 7-bolt bearings at the Shootout. Every
DSMer knows this, but as a courtesy for our non-DSM brothers and
sisters trying to follow along.]
With a bearing swap no longer being an option, I was forced to begin
the hunt for a shortblock. Having seen a few for sale in the pits area,
we started hunting them down. Each lead turned up yet another 6-bolt
block/crank/rotating assembly - not at all what I was interested in
putting under the hood - even considering the circumstances. At that
point, a light bulb went off in my friend’s head.
He had remembered telling a friend of his to bring up a fully assembled,
forged 7-bolt shortblock to sell. The phone calls began and a meeting
place was arranged - the Best Western parking lot! Upon laying eyes on
it, I had my more experienced friends look it over and give it the okay.
Once they gave it the thumbs up, we discussed price with the seller. He
[ba] After getting payment squared away, my friends had already unloaded the car off the trailer and began teardown. We figured being
at the Best Western in Norwalk was logistically a good choice for bits,
pieces, tools and assistance. That was probably the best choice made
all night; life saving decision for sure.
Tools were all loaned from friends and people who had gathered
around the commotion. (At this point, there was a solid crowd of 100
people gathered around the car offering help.) The only new gasket
used was the head gasket we picked up five minutes before the local
Advance Auto closed for the night. Most of the gaskets were made
with RTV - in true DSMer fashion!
Who helped? Everybody! Before this experience, the most I had done
with the car was swap head studs one at a time, so I was in way over
my head. My nearest circle of friends had plenty of swap experience
and knew how to make things quick as a whistle. Anything from knowledge to something as simple as a clutch alignment tool, help came in
every form possible.
[bd] Did you run into any problems during the swap? I mean mean,
GBXM | 5
Part of the impromptu car show in Wakeman the day before the Shootout. Image: Robert Kamrad, Slow97tsi Photography
beyond doing it in that hot, summer sun in a hotel parking lot! How
did you solve them?
[ba] Surprisingly enough, there were only two roadblocks throughout
the swap process. A very bad clutch disc that was close to disintegrating after 35,000 miles (56,000km), and when we attempted to lower
the 1997 4G63 head onto the shortblock, we had a very welcome
surprise waiting for us.
To fix the clutch issue, I began asking around if someone had one that
I could purchase. A DSM wiseman spoke up and said he had a friend
who had a clutch disc sitting around and that I could have it. So long as
the car got up and running, he was more than willing to help!
Back to the shortblock’s surprise and the headstuds being larger, that
made us inspect the block a little closer. We saw there were coolant
passages welded shut and the side of the block was stamped with a
4G64 marking. I had inadvertently scored a built and balanced 2.4
liter block, with all the work done to accept a 2.0L 4G63 DOHC head!
Now we had to get that DOHC head to slide down over the larger head
studs. What better way to enlarge the head stud passages in the head
than with a $30 hand drill and a half inch drill bit from Walmart? I
mean really, what other option do you have at 2:30 in the morning?
[bd] What was going through your mind as you and friends - some
old, some very new, I suspect - took on one of the biggest, most
complicated automotive projects possible, unplanned and so far
from home?
6 | GBXM
[ba] At one point I consided raising the white flag, I seem to remember
that being somewhere around the time people in the crowd around
the car were murmuring that this “junkyard machine work” was never
going to result in a running car; very discouraging to say the least. But
my pit crew friends old and new told me to shut up - we were going to
get the car put back together. Wouldn’t have been able to do it without
them.
At one point I consided raising the
white flag, I seem to remember that
being somewhere around the time
people in the crowd around the car
were murmuring that this “junkyard
machine work” was never going to
result in a running car;
[bd] How did everything work out?
[ba] Given the circumstances, I really couldn’t have asked for a better
outcome. Upon startup, it was realized that the throttle body shaft had
been bent sometime during the hubbub of the swap and was making
the throttle stick, but surprisingly the motor ran flawlessly!
I was a little worried because the shortblock hadn’t even had oil circulated through it. There were very small amounts of surface rust on the
crank counterweights and elsewhere, but it was good to go! Driving
it out to the track Sunday was a requirement to make the naysayers
from the night before eat their words. No passes necessary; just a
Beau’s friends & pit crew helped him get the dead DSM back to the hotel for heart surgery. Image: Beau Anderson
couple go rounds down vendor row and the pits to garner some cheers
from those who were supporting us throughout the whole process. The
latter group of people was a considerably larger group than we had
at first thought. There was a constant “Hoorah!” as we took the car
through the pits.
[bd] When the chips were down, they were there for you. Who are
they, how did they help, and what would you like to say to them?
[ba] If it wasn’t for my friend Savanna Stewart driving the car out from
Idaho, this surely wouldn’t have gotten off the ground in the first place.
She has definitely earned a thank you, because without the DSM, what
bearing would I have spun to put myself in the jam I was in?
Justin Mohney [of Detective Coating fame - detectivecoating.com]
was the biggest push initially and definitely got the ball rolling on the
whole operation, pushing me to realize that the car COULD be fixed
before leaving Ohio, the parts were literally just floating around given
the event at hand.
Jason Drew (Stanstead, Quebec), Edwin Flores (Tampa, Florida), Bruce
Anca (Dayton, Ohio), and Chris Paugh (Dayton, Ohio), were the best pit
crew I could have asked for in the situation. Their prior swap experience and decades worth of DSM knowledge definitely made things go
a lot smoother.
A shout-out to Aaron Ruppert for the connection on the clutch disk,
Thai Phan for the rides to the parts store and hooking it up with supplies to assist in the swap in exchange for the spare bed in my room at
the Econolodge.
The guy who loaned me a clutch alignment tool, I didn’t get your name,
but bravo to you, good sir!
And I definitely cannot forget those who cheered us on throughout the
night, and even those who stopped by in the morning on their way to
the track. Every bit of encouragement was very well accepted!
[bd] Everyone who’s ever been to the Shootout - or any national
meet/event like it - knows how it changes the whole dynamic. Going from a couple local pals and maybe a couple more buddies online who share your passion to being surrounded by hundreds or
even thousands of people like that gives you a sense of how awesome it is when we all come together.
You’re part of an elite group of people who have experienced the
real, ultimate power of the gearhead family realized on the next
level. We’re all know the simple joy of strangers in similar vehicles
giving us a thumbs up, or offering us a cold beer from their cooler
after a long day’s racing - these are equally important - but that
fateful evening in Norwalk, you were a lightning rod for all that is
righteous about the DSM community.
How does that make you feel - about your DSM, about the Shootout,
about being a DSMer?
[ba] Well, to be honest, I had placed my Talon on the back burner
close to a year ago and started in on my other project, a Toyota AWD-
GBXM | 7
swapped Ford Escort Sedan, but with this turn of events, every bit of
passion has been reignited and I’m going to do what it takes to make
my DSM brethren as proud as I can!
The car has always been well known for being a looker, but now she’s
looking to join the fast club! I will, for as long as I live (or this event goes
on), never miss another Shootout. The camaraderie, the friendships,
the morale - the essence that comes with the memories made in Norwalk - are incomparable to all other events I have been to around the
country. DSM FOR LIFE!
This author has been going to the DSM Shootout for the better part
of a decade. At least half those years, someone has been installing
an engine in the hotel parking lot. Sometimes they trailer incomplete projects into town to finish the night before the race. Other
times, necessity becomes the mother of invention, though, as the
Shootout works its magic, proving time and again just what we can
do when we call come together to help each other build high performance machines and lives.
Keep going fast with class and press on regardless.
We’ll see you in Norwalk.
IMAGES (clockwise from opposite, top):
Marybeth Kiczenski
Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith
Marybeth Kiczenski
Beau Anderson
Marybeth Kiczenski
I will, for as long as I live (or this
event goes on), never miss another
Shootout. The camaraderie, the
friendships, the morale - the essence
that comes with the memories made
in Norwalk - are incomparable to all
other events I have been to around
the country. DSM FOR LIFE!
8 | GBXM
GBXM | 9
THE ROAD TO
REDEMPTION
“We’re the seldom-thin, ink-stained line that stands between automobile manufacturer’s
PR and an unsuspecting world. Or not. Whatever. Who’s got the keys to the press car?”
WORDS BRIAN DRIGGS | IMAGES DAVID TRAVER ADOLPHUS
10 | GBXM
The Autowriters group on LinkedIn (http://bit.ly/linkedinautowriters) is simply described with two sentences.
First, “We’re the seldom-thin, ink-stained line that stands
between automobile manufacturer’s PR and an unsuspecting world. Or not. Whatever. Who’s got the keys to the
press car?”
Second, “And shills shall we be, for thee, m’Lord, for thee.
Filthy lucre hath descended forth from thy hand, that our
keyboards might carry out thy command. We shall flow
a river of copy forth to thee, and teeming with hucksterism shall it ever be. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus
Sancti.”
As founder of the group some time ago, I presume David
Traver Adolphus penned the former. Imagine my surprise
to discover my own parody, the latter, found its way into
the description as well.
LinkedIn, like any social network, can get a bit dodgy from
time to time. There’s no shortage of people who feel the
thinnest connection, individual or otherwise, is license to
peddle unsolicited mediocrity. Read between the lines,
however, and it’s entirely possible you actually make
some new connections there. Not everyone on social media is a huckster-ass shill. Some people actually make an
effort to build something of real, lasting value. Or maybe
they’re just really bored. Whatever.
Like I said, David founded the Autowriters group, and he’s
almost constantly seeding it with conversation starters,
job listings, and so on. To me, that’s gotta count for something, and as a would-be professional journalist - with
no formal journalism training - it means I spend the bulk
of my time on LinkedIn - all 10-15 minutes of it a week cruising the Autowriters group. After noticing David liked a
couple of my recent comments, there, I thought I’d reach
out and get to know the guy a little better.
GBXM | 11
[bd] Introductions: Who are you, where are you, & what do you do
for a living?
[dta] I’m David Traver Adolphus, and I write about cars.
I was on staff at Hemmings Motor News until March 2013, when I
quit to go freelance. That was never on my list of things to do - I have
two young children and I don’t want to worry about where the money
will come from - but I had an increasingly poor relationship with Hemmings’ publisher. I also realized that the work environment, including
physically spending eight years of in the same basement cubicle, was
sending me into depression, and the money wasn’t worth the damage
that was doing to my family. So I lined up what I thought was sufficient
freelance work to get by and quit. I’ve been a little gratified to see two
other people from the department quit since, as well, one of whom I
found a new job.
Now, as opposed to my public work at Hemmings with magazine covers and such, most of my work is nearly invisible. I’m involved in a vast,
long term historical project for a private collector (which may lead to a
book one day), and I’m on retainer as a consultant for another client.
I recommend the retainer model for freelancers, but that’s another
subject.
Slightly more visibly, I write descriptions for several auction companies,
which I like a lot, but it’s exhausting and feast or famine - I did about 40
pages for Pebble Beach catalogs, but right now I don’t have anything.
I blog for Road & Track whenever I have time and have a small, occasional piece in print for them, as well. And I have a small stipend from
The Road Home. I think that’s it.
12 | GBXM
I’m not doing any photography to speak of any more, and I need to find
some way to keep my hand in - I recently shot a web feature for R&T,
not because it’ll pay any more, but just to see if I still could. It came out
great, which was a relief, because I’ve invested a lot of money in it (as I
was required to do by Hemmings), and I can’t put it to work.
[bd] Introductions: Your LinkedIn profile features a picture of an
eager fellow behind a large wooden steering wheel. Would that be
you? What were you driving in that shot? What do you drive on a
daily basis?
[dta] That’s not eager, that’s a grimace of worry, pain and effort. Yes
it’s me, and I’m driving a 1907 American underslung roadster (for a
feature story). The transmission was having problems, so I was trying to keep it from popping out of gear, while simultaneously keeping
this incredibly important car on the road. The owner thoughtfully had a
camera out to document my torment.
I drive a 10-year-old Legacy wagon, and usually commute to my office
on a 1980 Peugeot moped (although it looks like it blew a seal, and it’s
benched - literally - right now). I’ve never figured out how to get on the
press car circuit, and I don’t have any other vehicles.
[bd] Transmission issues tend to bring about such feelings. How did
the roadster fare? Thinking “once bitten, twice shy,” how did this
experience affect your confidence around other such machines?
[dta] The roadster was fine, and I ended up with a great story and photoshoot. The owner had the transmission repaired shortly thereafter. I
admit, it did make me more attentive to shifting in prewar cars. Embar-
rassingly, no one had ever told me I needed to double-clutch shifting
up AND down, and it wasn’t long after that I was reading something
from the Teens or Twenties that mentioned it, and I put two and two
together. I took a ‘21 Hudson out on the road last month, though, and
discovered I was seriously out of practice. I was revving way too high,
shifting far too fast.
[bd] Your comments on how eight years of basement cubicle-dwelling pushed you past your breaking point got me thinking; you were
involved with automotive publishing before, during and, now, after,
so you must love what you do. If the work was largely invisible and
thankless, why even stay in the business? How has working freelance brought you relief? Has it rekindled the passion?
[dta] It’s only since leaving the print magazine world (largely) that my
work’s been invisible. Before getting paid for it, I wasn’t exactly a dilettante, but I wasn’t anything like a professional autowriter, either. I was
certainly a car lover, but my only serious credential was a degree project from college that talked about the postwar mentality in Europe vs.
the US, and how that affected design. So I essentially jumped into the
deep end when I started writing for Hemmings.
I think I burned out at that job after about three years - it was just
such an intensive, intensive, unrelenting and high-pressure situation.
As far as I know, I was the only person who always wrote for all four
magazines, which was in large part my own decision. But that generally
meant I had a feature story due every week, often one that needed to
be photographed.
It’s taken me some time to settle into and figure out exactly what I
need to do to produce good work, freelance. Which, incidentally, was
never and still isn’t my goal - I don’t love working for myself, as I’m a
terrible employee, and I work extremely well under deadline. On the
other hand I now have the ability to do very deep and thorough historical research of the sort that a print production schedule just doesn’t
allow - I’m working on a car right now for which I’ve called or emailed,
I think, 14 people, and I’m still developing leads. I only got to do that
maybe once a year, if I was lucky, for Hemmings, and now it’s daily.
That’s so gratifying and I really feel as though I’m making a contribution to automotive history. This is all new information, and I’m writing
it all down and it’ll be distributed publicly, so it won’t get lost again. I
never thought about it this way before writing it down for you, but even
though it’s essentially anonymous, I feel like I’m doing something valuable in a way I didn’t before.
And yes, it has totally rekindled my passion, although there was a very
difficult period of adjustment when I felt completely overwhelmed.
Now, I’m always writing stories in my head in the morning before I
come in, and I don’t even dread phone interviews any more, because I
can afford to be stuck on the phone for an hour.
[bd] Can you explain to the aspiring auto writers in the audience
how working on retainer works and why you recommend it?
[dta] In my original discussions with a client, they said they were going
to want a certain amount of my time and a certain amount of writing
every month. They’re people I like a lot and they pay well, so it was an
ideal situation, except the work ended up being far more sporadic than
they thought. Because I valued them as a client and they kept telling
me things would pick up any time, I was keeping my schedule free for
GBXM | 13
them but not getting paid.
After maybe four months of this, I wrote to one of the principals of the
outfit and explained my situation to them, that I couldn’t take on other
work because I had to be prepared to do theirs, but I wasn’t getting
work from them; and thus I wasn’t making any money at all. I proposed
a monthly retainer, guaranteeing X hours of my time as they needed
it, and they accepted. That’s given me a piece of predictable income,
invaluable for freelancers; and in return they know they can call me up
any time with something and not only will I drop whatever else it is I’m
on, but there’s no additional expense. The strange thing, though, is I
really felt guilty about it for a long time, even though I’ve concluded it’s
a good deal for everyone involved. I’m always happy when they ask me
to do something and I give them my best effort, because I want them
to get their money’s worth.
I’ve asked around and I know I’m
not the only one, in large part I think
because writing (and more recently
photography) is so dramatically undervalued.
Freelancers often suffer from this really weird guilt. I’ve asked around
and I know I’m not the only one, in large part I think because writing
(and more recently photography) is so dramatically undervalued. I
think entry level freelance should be 50¢/word, and for professionals
with specialized skills, knowledge and experience, something between
$1.25 and $2.00/word is appropriate. That car I’ve talked to 14 people
about? That’ll ultimately be about 1,500 words, but I also need to be
paid for the 20 hours of research.
I only have a very small library, as far as people in my line of work go,
but it’s still 35 or 40 linear feet of reference materials, and that’s got
to be amortized, along with the $75 book I seem to need for every
new project. I’ve got probably 3,000 contacts in the car world; memberships in AACA, CCCA, HCCA, VMCCA, HCFI (if only to have access
to rosters); spreadsheets with owners… and of course rent and insurance, and I can’t even afford to go to events. We should be paid and
treated like any other professional, but I think that’s related to a much
deeper issue about cars, and the people who love them, fundamentally not being taken seriously.
[bd] I love your comments on the research being important; on being an integral part of something larger than yourself, delivering
something meaningful and substantive on the other end of the project. That speaks to me as being part of the human experience;
wanting more out of life; wanting to feel like what we do matters
- and knowing it does. It goes deeper than the fleeting Dopamine
rush of a spontaneous purchase.
This year’s model, the 700 word review, even the odd 2,500 word
blog post - all these are transient, drifting out to a digital sea. Hastily scribbled missives on scraps of paper tucked into empty rum
bottles and set adrift on the tide. What are some signs of burnout?
Whenever there is any doubt, there is no doubt - that’s the first
thing they teach you. What would you say this experience has
taught you?
[dta] Well, you say that it’s transient and meaningless (you did say
meaningless, right?) but as I sit here in my office I can literally reach
out with my left hand and grab the February 1, 1912, issue of Automotive Trade Journal; and with my right the August 2013 Road & Track. If
this is going to be what we do, then it’s not really up to us to judge the
importance of what’s being written today, just like we really can’t tell
what cars we’ll look back on as being important. The stupidest, most
trite and inconsequential piece of Jalopnik fodder today might prove to
be the key in our successor’s research in 50 years.
I’m not sure I’m qualified to answer, actually, because my situation has
been shared with only a tiny handful of people in recent years - I was a
full time staff writer, and I wrote exclusively about old cars. The subject
matter was so varied, and I tried so hard to be original, that it was a
long time before the formulaic four stories I was writing over and over
again - The driveReport; The Restoration Profile; The Specialist Profile;
and the DrivableDream - got to me. AND EVEN THEN, it was more poor
editorial organization of the sort that had me planning a photoshoot,
shooting it, and writing a six-page feature on it starting 10 days before
the magazine shipped that got to me in the end.
The only things I learned were things about me. Like, I’m probably a
terrible employee, I don’t like not seeing the sun, I want to have fun
and love my work, my creative process is extremely messy, and I work
extremely fast when I need to.
[bd] Speaking of life lessons, how did you come to be involved in
charitable work? Can you tell us a little bit about the organization,
whom it serves and how, and why it matters to you?
[dta] I remember the moment the idea really coalesced for me--I was
in Jeff Snyder’s shop in Texas. [http://bit.ly/gbxm-jeffsresurrections]
Technically I was there photographing a story, but they were working
on a last-minute project and it was late at night.
At some point I had put the camera down and picked up a screwdriver,
and I was helping to assemble this car. I realized that every time I was
in a shop, that’s what happened - I’d be talking to the restorer, he’d say,
“here, hold this,” and then two hours later I’d be elbow deep in a transmission. And it wasn’t just me. All the really great shops seem to have
this group of friends, people whose cars are in restoration, or were, or
will be, or just local car people who stop in to chew the fat. People not
on the payroll, but who are part of the life of the shop nonetheless. A
surprising number of shops also have a Friday barbecue or Sunday
donut breakfast - there’s a whole invisible social scene going on.
At the same time, I’d been thinking about this sort of lost generation
14 | GBXM
of veterans we have, mostly younger people coming back from the
Middle East and it’s just done a number on them. You don’t have to
hear too many stories about 25-year-olds who have had six concussions from IEDs and are living in their parents’ basements to want to
do something.
I had read a story in The New York Times about the Farmer-Veteran
Coalition, which was trying to help the same cohort, and they were
I had my epiphany about the social
life shops and how that was potentially the hook for so many more young
people - cars.
literally describing a vet working on an organic carrot farm in Idaho. I
distinctly remember thinking, “OK, that may be good emotionally, but
how are you going to convince the kid from Detroit to go work on some
rural dirt farm?” So when I was in Jeff’s shop, I had my epiphany about
the social life shops and how that was potentially the hook for so many
more young people - cars.
I bounced the idea around for about a year after that and talked to
people all throughout the car world. Eventually I decided what it really
needed to get off the ground was a sponsor, and as I was working for
Hemmings Motor News at the time, I took it to my publisher. Despite
being a former Marine, he was spectacularly uninterested.
It was probably about a year after that that I was talking to my buddy
Al Navarro, who used to be heavily involved with the USA7s (Lotus 7s,
Caterhams, etc.) and worked (works) at a boutique ad agency, Mint, in
New Jersey. I may be insulting them by calling them boutique, I don’t
know. It was actually Al who came up with the name, The Road Home.
But Mint had just signed or were in the process of signing a new client in the collector car world - I don’t think they told me who it was
- and were looking for nontraditional ideas for them. We talked about
a bunch of stuff, nothing particularly earth shaking. Later, as he was
going into the actual pitch meeting, Mint’s CEO Eric Schoenfeld called
me up to see if I had anything else, at which point it occurred to me
that hey, maybe their client would like my vets in resto shops idea. So
in literally five minutes I spelled it out for him.
Their client turned out to be American Collectors Insurance, which already had some military programs in place, and they loved the idea.
Despite this being a money pit for them, they immediately came on as
the charter sponsor, which enabled us to get a website up, start collecting names and eventually get legal status as a nonprofit. I’m not
sure it would have happened without Al and American. I get a modest
stipend from The Road Home, which I deeply appreciate and I have a
vision of someday making it my full-time job (or perhaps that of someone more deeply versed in the world of nonprofits), but this is essentially a labor of love for everyone involved. You know, a nonprofit.
[bd] Two final questions: First, looking ahead, what do you want
to accomplish in the next six months and what, about that goal,
makes you most uncomfortable? Why?
[dta] Remember, I do this to feed myself so my goals are largely prosaic. I want to find more work. Isn’t that what all freelancers want for
the next six months? But I am picky - I require it be both meaningful
and pay well.
I am actually broadly, fundamentally uncomfortable. I like financial security and I like clearly-defined goals. I’m learning to live with it, I suppose.
Actually, I do want to do something else - I want to bring the Salon back
to Road & Track. It was perhaps the most influential single car feature
of all time, more than Bob Gottleib’s MotorTrend stuff in the 1950s.
I was at an auction with a 35-year-old colleague once, when he saw
the Cord L-89 Salon car. It was one of the highlights of this life. The
Salon was eclectic and wide-ranging and to bring it back would be a
statement about what cars are important and why, and I could do it so
very well.
I also want to go on a junket someday. Imagine a trip with only one
story to write, and not 10.
[bd] Finally, where can our readers find you and connect? Who are
you most interested in meeting?
[dta] I’m active on twitter, @proscriptus, although it’s mostly completely
nonsense… actually, anywhere there’s a username I’m probably there
as proscriptus, Facebook, LinkedIn… wherever. Or stop by my office
in Bennington, Vermont. My landlord is a Pebble Beach Best of Showwinning restorer, and there is almost always something cool in there, a
Paige Daytona right now. I host a D&D game here every other Tuesday,
And beer. Did I mention I’m a huge, giant nerd?
Who do I want to meet? Nice people? Attractive women? Who does
anyone want to meet? Professionally, as I’m no longer limited to the
old car world I’d like to meet some people in the new car world. I know
Clay Dean at Cadillac and kind of know Alan Hall at Ford, and I think
they are my only two contacts in Detroit. I saw Carlos Ghosn once, but
he was busy. Which is the steep price of a decade of isolation in my
niche. And the mothers of every resto shop owner in the country, so
they can browbeat their kids into signing up for The Road Home. and
in the great Gygaxian tradition, there’s always an open seat. And beer.
Did I mention I’m a huge, giant nerd?
I suppose in an ideal world I’d have raised money from $5 private
donations, but that was never going to happen and fuck anyone who
has a problem with it. If I ever hear from a veteran that they don’t like
a corporate sponsor, they should see how many corporate sponsors
Red Cross has. I want more corporate sponsors - I want Eastwood or
Jegs on board, too, or Ford, for that matter. My sole concern is getting
veterans into resto shops, and that only happens if there are people
to help publicize my mission, especially with shops. who have been a
hard sell.
GBXM | 15
LoJ innovATionS
You’re far too busy to make any progress on your automotive dream today. Or are you? Stephen Dorrick
explains how he’s launching a business while also working full-time. Oh, and he’s also STILL rebuilding his
house after Hurricane Sandy flooded it a year ago. How busy were you again?
WORDS BRIAN DRIGGS | IMAGES STEPHEN DORRICK
16 | GBXM
A couple months back, I asked my mates on GalantVR4.
org if they knew anyone doing anything remarkable
in the non-Mitsubishi world. (We’re after variety here
at GBXM.) One of the responses I got was from a guy
named Mike, who suggested I get in touch with his
friend Stephen Dorrick.
Mike told me Stephen has been doing some really nice
work in the area of engine swaps. Now, I’d say 80% of
the engine swap stories I’ve come across over the years
were Hondas. 10% were probably Mitsubishi 4G63s into
various other platforms. That final 10%, which I’ll admit
I’ve not really thought much about, is the veneral “LS
swap,” wherein a GM LS V8 gets shoved under the hood
of something silly.
The first V8 swap that comes to my mind is the “Vol-
vette,” a twin-turbocharged Volvo wagon which you
might have seen pulling away from a street bike at
somewhere around 200mph. Beyond that, however, I
guess the first candidate I’d imagine for a V8 would be
an old Datsun Z-car.
It would appear they’re not just for old Zs anymore. In
fact, Stephen Dorrick and partner have begun to make a
name for themselves developing V8 conversion kits for
the newer Fairladies. But they don’t stop there. They’ve
also helped build 600whp Mitsubishi street/strip cars,
60mpg Hondas, and even put a 3.2L Mitsubishi turbodiesel under the hood of a Toyota pickup.
Stephen Dorrick has a clear vision of success and is willing to work very hard to see it realized. Here’s his story.
GBXM | 17
[bd] Introductions: Who are you, where are you, & what do you do
for a living?
in the red 1992 slicktop, and sold THAT slicktop to a gentleman in
Utah.
[sd] My name is Stephen Dorrick, I’m 32 years old, and on nearly every
forum I am a member of, I go by SuperHatch. I live in New Jersey, born
and raised, and currently live in a small town known as Little Egg Harbor. I’ve lived here for just about three years now. This is the first house
my wife and I have purchased, and the 810ft2 shop, acre of land, and
no neighbors were the big selling points to me.
Then the build of the 1991 black on black slicktop began. I decided
that the car should be powered by an RB26, and I purchased a complete [Skyline] R33 GTR RB26DETT front clip. As many have learned
in the Z community, the RB26 AWD bellhousing can be swapped onto
the 300ZX RWD transmission making the RB engine a bolt-in affair as
far as the drivetrain is concerned. However, this results in a far-forward
placement of the engine.
As for what I do, I am first and foremost a husband, then a father,
then an engineer, then an entrepreneur. I graduated from Rowan University in 2003 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in
thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics. I started working
directly out of school for the Department of Defense, and have been
there since (10+ years). While working, I acquired my Master’s Degree
in Systems Engineering from Steven’s Institute of Technology.
While I have been wrenching on cars for all of my adult life, LOJ Innovations was not founded until December of 2012, on the advice of
many friends and family members. “You’re so good at what you do, you
should start making some money doing it”
[bd] Introductions: What do you drive, how do you drive it, & makes
it special?
[sd] I am assuming, by the nature of this question, you want to know
what I drive currently… if you want to know the cars I have driven, that’s
an article all in itself (43+). Right now, my daily driver is a 1995 Ford
F350 diesel, dually, with a few mods - most you can’t see. This truck
has provided me the means to tow my car trailer, haul basically anything, and support my personal projects as well as LOJ’s projects. But,
I’m sure that’s not the vehicle you’re interested in.
A TALE OF TWO SLICKTOPS
My current toy is a 1991 Nissan 300ZX slicktop. The story of this car
is quite interesting, to be honest with you. About five years ago, I had a
different 300ZX - a 1992 slicktop - which had a Infiniti VH45DE (4.5L
DOHC V8) under the hood that I had swapped in. After trying to sell the
car to fund purchasing a home, a young man in Philadelphia made me
a very good offer on the V8 conversion alone for him to swap into his
300ZX. Since I had not had all too many bites on the car, I sold him the
motor and mothballed the car to be reassembled another day.
After purchasing a home and having our first child, the 1992 slicktop
still sat in our yard with no heart, and about 2.5 years ago I saw an
interesting ad on Craigslist. “1991 Nissan 300ZX slicktop with incomplete V8 conversion. Lo and behold, it was the young man that I sold
my V8 conversion to. Even though I had offered to install the engine
for him, he elected to do it himself and apparently never finished it.
I then purchased his car, with the V8 conversion, back from him for a
hair less than I had sold him the conversion for alone. Basically, the
new slicktop was free. The new slicky, at the time, was a 1991 black
on black car with - gasp - 32,323 miles on the clock.
It was 100% original save the V8 conversion, and had originally belonged to a young Marine who gave his life during the first Gulf War.
The car sat in his parents garage for many years until the young man I
bought the car from purchased it. I pulled the V8 back out, put it back
18 | GBXM
The up-side of this is that a readily available front sump oil pan can be
used. The downside is no space for a front anti-roll bar and hood clearance issues that can only be remedied by lowering the front crossmember and as a result, the engine. This has a negative effect on
handling by compromising the front roll center. I didn’t want to go this
route.
Instead, I decided to move the engine to the rear by modifying the
transmission mount, shift linkage, and getting a custom shortened
aluminum driveshaft. This move necessitated the fabrication of a custom rear-sump oil pan and pickup tube. The end result was an engine
install that allowed for no suspension modifications and stock hood
clearance. There also ended up being more clearance in front of the
engine, which allowed for a larger front mount intercooler, radiator, and
an AC condenser. It also moved the turbo outlets far enough rearward
to retain the stock twins.
After buttoning up the conversion with all parts fabricated, the car
was run-in with a completely stock R33 setup to work out any bugs.
Everything worked well initially - every factory gauge and accessory
functioned as it should, including the air conditioning. This was late
summer of 2012.
Then in the winter of 2012-2013, the car went back under the knife for
a series of upgrades. Nismo R32 turbos were installed. These are larger units than the more common R33-R34 N1 ball bearing turbos, but
still bolt on like stock. What they sacrifice in response, they make up
for in power output, and unlike the N1s, I can have them rebuilt in the
event of a failure. BB turbos require a complete CHRA replacement.
Additionally, Siemens 660cc top feed injectors were installed, Nistune,
an HPX MAF in blow-through, twin Forge Motorsport blow off valves, a
4” thick bar and plate intercooler, dual 3” into single 3.5” SS exhaust
(custom), Tomei cam gears, and HKS 264 cams. The rest of the motor
is stock internally, including the water pump and oil pump. That rounded out the drivetrain upgrades and was good for well over 450whp on
pump gas.
The rest of the mods on the car include a full suspension upgrade
using a combination of Powertrix Ultra-Lite Racing coilovers, Powertrix and SPL control arms, Energy Suspension bushings, stock 300ZX
TT anti-roll bars, and a stock TT steering rack for the faster ratio. The
rear differential is a clutch type limited slip from an R33 GTR (4.08:1),
which also adds larger axles and hubs. The wheels are 18x10.5”+30
Enkei NT03+M’s and they’re wrapped in Toyo R888’s in 295/30-R18
tires all around. Brakes are Brembo 6-piston front, 4-piston rear forged
monoblock calipers from a Porsche Cayenne clamping Cadillac CTSV 14.25” front rotors and Corvette C6 Z06 14” rear rotors. Custom
brackets were fabricated, and the rear drum parking brake was modified to work with the new rear rotors. A Corbeau A4 seat was installed,
a Momo steering wheel, Z1 short shifter, Autometer Sport-Comp 2
gauges, and an Innovate wideband round out the interior. Lastly, a
Stillen front chin spoiler was installed and the car was wrapped in 3M
1080 Satin While Pearl vinyl.
[bd] “You’re so good at what you do, you should start making some
money doing it.” We’ve all probably heard this from a non-gearhead
friend or family member once or twice in our lives. You’ve just
shared insights on a particularly interesting project. What is LOJ’s
specialty? Strictly V8-powered Fairladies? Engine swaps?
[sd] I think LOJ is very young to be able to point a finger and say “that’s
what our specialty is.” It sure seems at this stage of the game, though,
that we’re engine swap specialists. But I don’t think that we’re restricting ourselves to any specific engine type or chassis. We’ve done, in no
particular order…
Mitsubishi 4D34 4cyl diesel powered Landcruiser
2x Infiniti VH45DE V8 powered 300ZXs
2x Infiniti VH45DE V8 powered 240SXs, one of which went 11.90’s
on a bone stock 130k mile engine
The aforementioned RB26 powered Z32
2x SR20DET 240SXs
A couple B Series powered Civics
A D15Z lean burn engine in a CRX that netted 60+MPG
A 2003 Gen 3 LQ9 6.0L small block in an 89 Quigly 4x4 conversion
van
And then there are a few things we’re currently working on…
A 2004 Gen 3 LM4 5.3L small block into an Infiniti J30
A 98 VW TDI into a 94 Toyota pickup
I guess there was a time there when we were hooked on the Infiniti V8,
but that time has passed. Yes, we do a lot of engine swaps - for any
reason, performance, reliability, fuel economy, “wow” factor, it doesn’t
really matter.
[bd] Why are you guys officially going into business? How do you
see LOJ turning into a solid living?
[sd] I have a colleague that started his own business a few years ago,
and it has done very well. He and I talk a lot about the pro/cons of being a business owner while trying to balance life and working a full-time
job. It isn’t easy, but he started his business for the same reason we
started LOJ.
He wanted to earn enough supplemental income to allow his wife to
quit her job and come home to raise their family. I want the same for
my family, but with the cost of living in NJ, it’s difficult on a single income. Of course it would be wonderful if LOJ became so successful
that I could quit my day job, but that’s not my dream right now.
GBXM | 19
We have products currently in development that will make it possible
for the more average mechanic to pull off some of the engine conversions that we’ve done. They should be hitting the market soon, and
when they do, we hope to shift our efforts away from building cars and
further into product development.
Selling parts online and providing technical support for said products
is a lot less intrusive into our day to day lives, and quite frankly, more
profitable, than building the random one-offs that we’ve currently been
doing. It’s not that building those types of cars isn’t profitable - if it
wasn’t we wouldn’t do it at all - but people can be online shopping for
our parts while I’m at my day job and while I’m sleeping. We can’t build
a custom car during those times.
As I said earlier, my colleague started his business with a similar goal.
The reality is that it has grown to the point where he is considering leaving his job. If God blesses LOJ with the same type of success over the
next few years, we’ll visit that question then, but that is in His hands.
[bd] Selling and supporting products makes sense and you explain
it perfectly. I’m a firm believer in true success being a function of
helping other achieve success for themselves, so developing products which help others realize successful swaps on their own is my
kind of thinking. The fact that you can build & ship on a schedule
while selling 24/7 is a smart move. My question to you is, what
products - specifically - are we talking about, here? And what are
your thoughts on specialization vs. diversification at this early
stage?
[sd] Our first product to produce and sell is one of the last products that
we “wanted” to make. My partner and I are both into things that are
truly unique, and oddball things are hard to sell, because the buyers
are probably as unique as the products. Because of this, we needed to
come up with a product that could hit as broad a target as possible.
Our first product is an adapter set that is designed to allow a Nissan
300ZX (1990-1996) transmission to bolt to a Gen III/IV (LS1/2/3, etc.)
V8 engine. We chose this product for a few specific reasons. First, I
spend a lot of time in the Z community forums, and this adapter that
has been asked for repeatedly. While the T56 [transmission] bolts directly to the LS [V8], it is too big to fit in the Z’s transmission tunnel.
People don’t like hacking up their cars to make swaps work; they want
it as bolt-in as possible.
Second, The Z transmission is very strong. Yes it has it’s Achilles Heel
of weak syncros in the early versions, but no option is perfect. Few
20 | GBXM
people know that this transmission is actually a RWD version of the
R32 and R33 [Skyline] GTR transmissions. Considering the abuse
THEY survive, in a RWD application they’ll do just fine behind the majority of “mild” (stock-600HP) small blocks out there.
Third, the transmissions are cheap and plentiful. Finding a T56 can be
very difficult, and once you find one, it can be very expensive ($2000
easily). Z32 transmissions are everywhere online and cost anywhere
from $150 to $400.
Lastly, using the Nissan transmission in a Nissan vehicle makes issues like starter connections (starter is bellhousing mounted) and
speedometer signals irrelevant.
Our adapter is essentially a plate that bolts to the transmission allowing it to bolt to the block, all the necessary hardware, and a custom
flywheel manufactured by a very reputable company in the sport compact community exclusively for LOJ. Since most LS donors are from
automatic transmission vehicles anyway, the flywheel is a necessary
investment. The cost of our adaptor and a used transmission is significantly less than a T56 and associated flywheel and hardware.
We also have other products in development, one of which is a set of
brackets that allow the 300ZX accessories to bolt to the LS engine.
Again, making the swap into a Z easier, and allowing the owner to retain all his stock options (PS, AC) without having to adapt GM pumps
and compressors to their cars.
Additionally, we will be releasing an engine and transmission mount kit
that will allow the above products to bolt into a 300ZX while using a
readily available aftermarket oil pan for the Gen III/IV engines. As well
as a complete plug and play wiring harness to complete the conversion. The only thing the customer will need to worry about is an intake
and exhaust, which most general gearheads can handle.
I’d like to think that our first product, the adapter, is both a combination
of specialization and diversification. It is specialized because of the Z
gearbox, but it is diversified because anyone with a small block can
use it, and they can adapt the transmission to their vehicle. There are
a lot of budget gearheads out there, and the small block is the obvious
choice for cheap power. Now we’re providing an obvious choice for a
cheap transmission option.
The follow-on products are more specialized to the Z specifically, but
any Nissan enthusiast (240ZX, Infiniti, truck) can use the accessory
drive and trans adapter as well. I’d like to see the reaction to the initial
products before deciding on a direction for follow-on developments.
We’ve got a lot of ideas on the whiteboard. Time will tell which direction we go.
[bd] How are you determining which products to make for which
swaps? How do you manufacture them? How do you determine
pricing? (I suspect these sorts of things aren’t household items,
meaning you can’t just price them like everyone else is pricing
them.)
[sd] Part of our product determination process was alluded to in my
answer to the above question. We wanted to find the largest market
possible for the products, initially. This meant making an adapter for a
small block instead of a “cooler” engine like Toyota’s 1GZ-FE or Audi’s
W12. GM has made over a million small blocks. The market will always
be there. If this initial adapter can sell well enough, hopefully it will fund
the more “interesting” products we have in mind.
We have in-house CAD and Solid Modeling capabilities, and we also
own a manual horizontal milling machine and a 2-axis lathe. Additionally, we have limited sheet metal fabrication tools and full welding capabilities. Essentially, we can handle everything from product conception to prototype manufacture. We do not have the CAM (computer
aided manufacturing) equipment required to support production runs,
and we have been in contact with a number of local and non-so-local
machine shops to produce our designs once the drawings are verified
in house.
As far as determining pricing, I’ve looked at equivalent products and
their prices as well as how well they seem to be selling relative to each
other. For instance, years ago one speed shop released an adapter for
the Nissan 300ZX trans to the Infiniti VH45DE V8. It was a niche market, and the adapter was priced at $475. A lot were bought and sold,
but there were still a group of people online that felt it was too expensive to justify and made their own adapters. Then two other companies
came out with adapters over the next few years. The designs were different, and the prices were cheaper, which in my opinion was reflected
in the quality. The original still sold, but the new ones took away what
seemed to be a good chunk of market share.
When it comes to pricing our adapter, we know we’re the only game in
town, so we can price accordingly. But we also need to be sensitive to
the fact that we’re a new business with no established reputation, so
we can’t be too aggressive. If you notice, I’m not mentioning a specific
price here, and that’s simply because we have not nailed it down yet.
Make it safe to say that the flywheel will be sold for close to what they
would be as if you bought it right from the manufacturer. The adapter
will fall in the 300-450 range including the hardware.
[bd] They say it takes money to make money. Even more precious,
methinks, is the time it takes to make money. You mentioned being
open to LOJ one day making the jump from side-hustle to full-time
living. There are only so many hours in the day, right? What sacrifices are you making - what are you giving up now in order to enjoy
more later?
[sd] Brian, this is a LOADED question. To be perfectly honest, I’m not
entirely sure where you’re from… but judging from the language you’ve
been using, I’d guess Australia.
[bd] Actually, I live in Phoenix, but I’ll take that as a compliment!
Also, I’ll be sure to let my Ozzie friends down under know they’re
influencing my vocabulary.
[sd] You may or may not be aware that in October of 2012 New Jersey
was hit by a significant hurricane named Sandy. I currently live on the
Shore in NJ, and at that time the first floor of my home was flooded.
The insurance company essentially gave us the one finger salute and
told us we were on our own for repairs. Since then, I have been working
my full time job, gutting and rebuilding 1500 sq ft of living space, and
working to get LOJ off the ground. The stress has been... heavy. I don’t
know how else to describe it.
The insurance company essentially
gave us the one finger salute & told
us we were on our own for repairs.
Since then, I’ve been working my
full time job, gutting & rebuilding
1500sqft of living space, & working
to get LOJ off the ground. The stress
has been... heavy.
I’ve made a commitment to never work on LOJ related activities on
Sundays, that is a family day. But with everything going on, I have not
been perfect on this. My #1 priority has been, and will always be, my
family. My wife means the world to me and she has stood by me, patiently, lovingly, as I’ve worked myself to the bone trying to get our lives
back together. It has not been easy, we’ve all made sacrifices. I feel as
though the last nine months or so have been the most difficult, but I
also feel that I can now see the light at the end of many tunnels.
LOJ did not have any capital to get off the ground. My wife and I have
been financially strapped with home repairs, and my business partner
has been doing his best to save for his first home purchase. We each
put $1 into the LOJ bank account when we started. We decided that
we would do any job that came our way - from mods, to general repairs,
to swaps - in order to raise capital early on. We did a lot of side work.
We dedicated Friday evenings into Saturday mornings for the business. When Kyle (my business partner) got off work on Friday at 5:00,
he would head straight down to my house and we would work from
about 5:30 until Saturday at some time between noon and 2:00. That
is straight through, no sleep. I would nap Saturday afternoon while my
daughter took her daily nap, or I would tough it out and just work on the
house. Saturday evening would be date night for myself and my wife,
and Sundays were church and family days.
We did this for months on end, but eventually earned the finances necessary to purchase a Bridgeport milling machine and a Monarch tooling lathe. We were able to use these tools to produce our prototypes,
which we are now going to production with. I don’t recall if I mentioned
it before, but my day job is an engineer in the aerospace industry, and
my partner heads the Quality Assurance department at the machining company he works at. These backgrounds gave us the necessary
skills to do what we do at LOJ.
We literally placed the order this past Friday for our first batch of flywheels for our adapter kits. We will be ordering the adapter plates
themselves shortly, and we should be ready to make our first sales
in October. That is the light at the end of the LOJ All-nighter Ttunnel.
Depending on the success of these kits, we can make the shift from
GBXM | 21
mods and manual labor to product development and sales. This shift
should reduce the physical demand of the business and make the
shift to mental labor. Doing business planning, product development,
customer support, etc..
I also finally got to the point of hanging sheetrock at my home this
week. The project is coming to a close, and I hope to be living in the
lower half of my home again at about the 1-year anniversary mark of
Hurricane Sandy. Once that burden has been removed, my time will
be freed dramatically to further pursue my family and the business.
I have no plan to take LOJ from a side business to a full-time living. The
company is too young and it is much too soon to tell if we will be a success or not. If the products are successful, sales go well, and we can
see continual growth then we will start making plans in that direction.
If not, we’ll make plans to close the doors. I’m going through the effort
of starting a business to earn income. Breaking even and having “fun”
is not success in my book. I’d much rather not run the business and
have fun with my wife and 3 year old.
[bd] What do you most want to accomplish in the next 6 months?
What, about that goal, makes you most uncomfortable?
[sd] I want to get the adapter kits on the market, the accessory drive
out of prototype phase and into production, and the Z mount kit into
the prototype phase. Nothing makes me uncomfortable about these
goals, as I feel they are all attainable. The only things that give me any
worry are financially related. The progress of each successive product is based on the success of their predecessors. The sales of the
adapters will fund the accessory drive, the accessory drive will fund
the mount kit, etc.. The reason I want to accomplish this in the next six
months is to get out of the garage. I want to spend more time with my
family, and that will only be possible if our products are successful.
[bd] Any closing thoughts about the industry, community, being a
gearhead entrepreneur?
[sd] I think the industry is approaching a turning point, based on the
economic and environmental shift we are seeing the world go through
right now. I don’t think hot-rodding will ever go away, but the way these
22 | GBXM
things are approached and the size of the market will change. Rising
fuel prices will make eco-modding more popular, which is why we have
products planned for diesel conversions. I don’t think anyone new
in the industry can be entirely one-dimensional and hope to be a resounding success. I think we need to get smarter on hybrids and electric drive systems as they become more popular. People want performance, but they also need to be reasonable about their expectations
of their cars, especially if they’re daily drivers. The days of 10-15MPG
vehicles being reasonable commuter vehicles are over. Not everyone
can afford to own a daily AND a toy, so that market will need support
from modders who care about all the aspects of a vehicle, not just
horsepower figures.
There’s never enough time to do it all - or is there? Stephen shows
us how, if you want something bad enough, you can find the time
to get it done. A focus on quality - craftsmanship, service, and family - makes all the difference. What’s your dream and how are you
making it happen? You can learn more about LOJ Innovations and
their products (and see some pretty cool pictures) on their website
- www.lojinnovations.com - which should be completed by the time
you read this issue.
WORDS BRIAN DRIGGS
SMART GOALS & COMMUNICATION | The fifth discussion topic in the
Penmanshift program was devoted to SMART goals and communications. Upon completion of this module, participants would be confdent
in developing specific, strategic goals and pursing them tactically.
Any P-shifter should be able to do the following:
Communicate to others what makes a goal SMART
Create SMART goals for personal projects
Craft SMART messages
Find SMART opportunities in story ideas
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely = SMART.
How many people do you know who, despite sinking thousands into
their project vehicles, never seem satisfied? It’s one thing to joke
around about, “If it’s too fast, you’re too old,” but it’s another altogether
to pursue vague, non-specific goals. Remember when we talked about
open ended questions?
This is the next evolution of that type of thinking and we bring it up now
not only to provide you with another angle for delivering top quality
content to your readers, but also a means to look to the future of your
automotive journalism career. SMART goals are all about clarifying
where you want to go and applying your energy toward the things
which advance you to those ends. ATTENTION NON-JOURNO READERS: THIS IS VERY USEFUL FOR AUTOMOTIVE PROJECTS, TOO!
Specific - Be specific about what you’re after. Just as there is a difference between wanting a 400hp car and wanting a 400hp daily
driver with solid road course chops two weekends a month, there is a
difference between wanting to write about cars and wanting to write
for Motor Trend.
Measurable - I tend to ask this question a lot around here, but it’s
worth repeating; How will you know you’ve achieved your goal?
10-second quarter-mile is measurable - “fast” is not. This is where you
define success. Whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish, how will you
measure that accomplishment?
Attainable - Is this goal even possible? Ultimately, there are few limits to human potential, and goals should always challenge us to stretch
a bit if we want to achieve them, but make sure your goals are realistic.
If your goal isn’t attainable, you make little progress and give up.
Relevant - Kinda goes without saying, but if you’re out to build a race
car or a career in motorsports journalism, you probably want to make
sure your goals are aligned with those aims. “Buy a new coffee table
this month” is specific, measurable, attainable and timely, but it’s
not exactly relevant to building a race car or starting a career in
automotive journalism.
Timely - Commit to a deadline. Get your projects done on time.
SMART Communications
Taking things a step further (and a bit simpler), when you send emails
to or leave messages for other people, do yourself a favor and ask
yourself, “Why am I contacting this person? What do I need from them,
and when do I need it?” Everybody’s left a message, hung up, and
thought, “I am so dumb.” Just a moment’s consideration before dialing/sending can make life so much better.
An example (which clearly dates this content and, as anyone who’s
ever emailed back and forth with me might attest, highlights just how
much I need to work on this myself):
Hey, Jeremy, it’s Brian. I’d like to run the Free Candy interview next
week. Will you have time to get it back to me with pictures by Saturday? Please let me know. Thank you.
PENMANSHIFT TO GO!
Think about your current automotive project. Are your goals SMART?
If not, what would it take to make them SMART? How do you think
SMART can help you get things done?
WE’RE HERE TO HELP!
If you’d like to talk about SMART goals or share something you think
we’d be interested in running as a feature in a future issue, drop us a
line. You can email us through the website, or catch us on Facebook
(https://www.facebook.com/GearboxMagazine), or our still mostly
quiet Google+ group - Gearheads Without Borders (http://bit.ly/gearheadswoborders).
Next month, FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - what
it means and how it’s not Carte Blanche to be
a douchebag.
GBXM | 23
LonG hARd RoAd
Re-building a truck six weeks before the big trip might not be the best idea in the world, but it certainly
prepares you for the adventure to come. Now is a good time to invest in Karma.
WORDS & IMAGES ADAM CAMPBELL
24 | GBXM
Re-building a truck six weeks before a big trip has been
an adventure of its own. Kevin and I have been working
on his ’94 Montero in shifts in order to have it ready in
time for the Sierra Nevada Challenge; the reason for this
short notice build was another adventure.
Last spring, Kevin had purchased a ’97 Montero Sport,
which we had planned to fix up and take on the Sierra
Nevada Challenge this month. This particular Sport had
been neglected, beat on for years, and left sitting in a
storage lot for a few years prior to him purchasing it plagued with problems from the beginning. We picked it
up near San Francisco, from a friend, and drove it home
to Phoenix in a day. Somehow.
GETTING THE ‘97
That long ago spring day started before the sun rose.
Kevin picked me up at 5 a.m. for our 7 a.m. flight to California, and we landed in Oakland around 9 in the morning. Before loading up the newly purchased ‘97 Montero
Sport, we ate breakfast with our friends Carlos and
Mikey, and then started toward Phoenix about noon.
Just after crossing into Bakersfield, Kevin and I were
talking about what great time we were making figuring
we’d be in Phoenix just after midnight. As we spoke, the
rearmost U-joint overheated so bad that it started melting through the yoke; luckily it was the driveshaft side.
GBXM | 25
borrow his tools and shop.
Before we could leave the Flores’, we were invited to have diner with
the other mechanics and their families. It would have been insulting
to pass up authentic Mexican carne asada with roasted jalapenos.
Somehow, our luck turned around and we made it the rest of the way
home without any further problems. Over the next several months,
Kevin poured time and money into the Sport to get it in shape for the
trip. The ‘97’s problems were persistent and the progress was slow.
Six weeks ago, he got the opportunity to cut his losses and start over.
OBTAINING THE 94 & BUILDING IT IN 6 WEEKS
When we looked at it on the side of the highway, it was smoked. Limping to the next exit at about 10-15 mph, Kevin and I hoped for a tool or
auto parts store. Instead, the first thing we saw was a Flores Automotive. They were open, but too busy to help us until the next day. The
mechanic let us use their shop and we did the work ourselves.
We had to modify a spare that Carlos had given us back in Oakland,
but, unfortunately, it came from a truck with a different rear axle - the
pinion yoke needed to be swapped. Instead of two days, we had a
driveshaft in an hour and a half. I tipped the mechanic for letting us
26 | GBXM
A little over a year ago, I sold my wife’s ’94 Montero SR to Kevin’s dad.
He four wheeled it for a year and, two months ago, Kevin talked him
into selling it to him. He worked out a deal to sell the ’97 Sport to pay
for the ’94 - this was when the build started.
The ‘94 Montero SP already had a small lift, 35 inch tires, a custom
front bumper, and when I had owned it I took care of it, so the truck
was in pretty decent shape. Before sending the ‘97 Sport off to the
new owners, Kevin and I cannibalized parts that would be recycled
onto the new truck.
Making the parts swap over was no easy task - everything had to be reworked. For those who don’t know the Montero and the Montero Sport
are two completely different vehicles. The Sport is actually based on
the L200 pickup, rather than the SUV, so the only things the two share
are drivetrain and a name.
In the course of the six weeks, Kevin and I managed to rebuild an entire rear suspension, raise the front bumper 2 inches, raise the gas
tank 4 inches, install a winch, and build a rear bumper. The whole time
we were building we were also recycling and modifying the parts that
came from the Sport, such as rock sliders, front air locker, CO2 system,
roof rack, and more.
the spotty cell service would deliver the text.
Around dinner time, a friend informs me of the predicament because
I know the area Kevin and Pat are located. We headed up towards the
town of Sunflower and arrived at the trailhead around 8 p.m., twelve
hours after they started this adventure.
Upon our arrival, we found that we had brought the wrong vehicle for
the job. Having had no idea how badly the trails were washed out, we
left the truck behind and set out on foot carrying a hi-lift jack, tools,
and water. Fortunately for us it was dark with a light rain which made
the 4-mile hike much more enjoyable.
It’s been a rough build, but it came together on time and within budget
(roughly $600 spent). Now we only hope our hard work will pay off;
that the ‘97 Montero will take us through the entire Sierra Challenge.
We arrived around two and a half hours later, got the tire replaced, and
were able to three-wheel drive the truck out of the washout - winching
our way to the top.
SHAKEDOWN AT SUNFLOWER MINE (ONE WEEK BEFORE TRIP)
Now, with three wheel drive, we were able to get the truck out of the
washout and continue winching up to the top. All four of us piled into
the ‘97 SP and wheeled the rest of the trail, two hours of winching and
climbing to the top, without any issues. Heading down took half the
time and we all went our separate ways from the trailhead at around 2
a.m. - challenges like this keep us fit to conquer the future that await
us.
With the truck somewhat complete, a shakedown trip was needed.
A moderate trail was chosen for the task and a few of the guys in our
club set out for a nice day of wheeling. (I stayed home to spend my last
weekend at home with my family.)
As I hear it, nature decided to change things to a more Sierra Challenge-like environment. Forest fires within the past few years have allowed flash floods to move car-sized boulders, washing out the trails.
The group came to the now boulder-filled creek bed and decided to
turn back. Kevin and his co-pilot Pat decided this was an opportunity
to really test the truck in the proper setting.
They pressed on through the boulders and headed up the mountain
only to find the switchbacks heading up had been washed out. Being
in too deep to turn back they made their way up through the washed
out trail. This is when things went bad.
Times like this remind me that karma is probably one of the best investments you can make. You never know when you’ll be stranded out
of reach of AAA, and other gearheads - just like you - will remember
that time you rescued them from the middle of the Mohave or from
teetering on the edge of a cliff in Colorado. They will come, even if they
have to walk there.
The washout was down the length of the trail about 3 feet wide by 3
feet deep, roughly, and made from a weathered type of shale that is
very sharp. Kevin found it difficult to keep the truck from sliding into the
void. Falling and winching out they managed to break a front axle, blow
a rear tire and WHOOPS forgot to pack the jack.
This put a stop to their progress and a rescue text was sent out; hoping
GBXM | 27
car 22
undercover
PART 2
BY PAUL TURNER
That Sunday I was up early down in the car park, lubing the chain and
adjusting the tension, checking fluid levels and tyre pressures. This
was going to be hard enough as it was without having the bike working
against me. Just after 5:15AM, I wiped everything down and polished
the tank and fairing before heading back upstairs to change.
I switched the air-conditioning on high in the bedroom and closed the
door as I showered. I caught the news as I grabbed a coffee and some
toast. Then the phone rang.
“7:15, Kowloon Tong, street opposite the railway station.”
The voice on the other end of the line paused as if the speaker was
waiting for a response, when he didn’t get one he carried on.
“Do you know it?”
“I’ll find it!” I replied
“Yeah well,” continued the voice “Don’t be late, they don’t like to hang
about. Too many of us parked up like that, it attracts attention.”
“I’ll be there.” I said, trying to sound as indifferent as I could and hung
up.
I called Toby, gave him the information.
“Any idea on the route?” he asked, all business as usual.
“No,” I replied trying to sound composed, “They didn’t say!”
“Figures,” said Toby “Well there aren’t many options from there, they
don’t like tunnels and they won’t be heading back to the Island. Don’t
worry mate we’ll find you. I’ll put guys on Lung Chung Road, Tai Po
Road, and I’ll cover the highways. You hang back. Follow and observe
just like I told you!”
“You worried I can’t hack it?” I asked, wondering if he was detecting
the nerves.
“No!” Toby replied, “I know you can. That’s the problem!”
I smiled silently. Obviously he had detected the nerves. His way of telling me I could do it. I took a deep breath.
“Follow and observe,” I assured him, “you just make sure your guys are
28 | GBXM
out of sight!”
“Like ninjas!” he retorted and put the phone down.
The bedroom was like a freezer, which was exactly what I wanted. I
pulled on the Kevlar and Cordura one-piece, the Frank Thomas boots,
the leather gloves. I took one look in the mirror and then pulled on the
Arai. I pushed down the visor, picked up my keys and left the flat.
I winced stepping out of the lift. It was barely 6.00 am and already the
heat in the air was insufferable. It seemed to permeate every inch of
available space, creeping inside the suit like an unwanted visitor, leaving behind nothing but perspiration and discomfort. I reached under
my arms pulling open the zipped vents and climbed straight onto the
bike wanting nothing more at this stage than to get moving.
I passed the petrol station on Kennedy Road glad that I’d had the forethought to fill up the night before and didn’t have to stop. I weaved
from left to right using the entire lane, taking advantage of the clear
open road to warm up the tyres. I’d missed the sunrise but the sun
was still low in the sky, casting rich gold and red colours across Victoria
Harbour and the Wanchai skyline below me. Great morning for a ride I
reflected and then cringed at the irony.
I opened the bike up once I reached Canal Road West, up onto the flyover, into the Cross Harbour Tunnel, topping 160 before the bus in stop
forced me to slow down. I slipped down the lanes of traffic to the tunnel
booths and handed a twenty dollar note to the Tunnel Control Officer,
pocketing the change before winding it up to redline in first straight
onto Princess Margaret Road. I was early reaching Kowloon Tong, slipping into one of the numerous side streets and parking up outside one
of the ‘Love Motels.’ Hong Kong, ‘City of Contrasts,’ I reminded myself.
Where else in the world would you find these luxurious ‘hourly rate’
hotels tucked away in the suburbs of the rich and famous, surrounded
by exclusive schools and wedding planners?
ponytail and a Ducati 748.
A young couple slipped surreptitiously out of a hotel to my right. The
guy smartly dressed, tie draped around his neck, jacket over his arm.
He opened the door of the Porsche for the young Chinese girl who still
managed to look ridiculously gorgeous despite the disheveled hair and
very creased dress. I followed the car as it pulled out and onto Waterloo Road, waited for the change in exhaust note on the Porsche as it
hit the ramp towards the Lion Rock Tunnel and wound the ‘Gixxer’ up
to the redline again streaking past the Porsche on the left hand side,
flicking the girl in the passenger seat a glance as I passed. I slammed
on the brakes to turn left down Dorset Crescent towards the railway
station.
“Look after Paul for me Gary!” he barked before turning back and
looking me straight in the face. “We run pretty fast, but if you can’t
keep up, don’t worry, someone will wait for you further down the road.
If the cops show up, split up, find your own way home, we’ll call you
later. Got it?”
0713hrs. I turned into Suffolk Road. Not much of a turn out; maybe
ten bikes at most, but reading the licence plates that Toby had given
me, the key players appeared to be there. I pulled up alongside John,
flipped up the visor.
“Told you I’d find it!” I said.
John introduced me to Noel, the group leader. A German guy with a
French name and perfect English. I feigned interest trying to keep my
eyes off his young pillion. When he spoke to her, it was in almost perfect Cantonese. Impressive.
Noel turned to another rider, a Chinese guy in his early forties with a
“Got it!” I said.
“Good!” Noel said turning to the pinion, “Get ready!”
The girl smiled at me donning the white Shoei as Noel kicked his bike
into gear and cruised to the front. He looked back once again and the
girl nodded, sliding her arms around him as he took off turning left onto
Waterloo Road again.
Gary nodded as the Ducati burst into life and I nodded back. The
“Gixxer” was straining at the leash as I followed him painfully slowly
to the end of the road, Noel’s exhaust note already disappearing into
the distance.
Instinctively I cracked open the throttle then quickly braked hard as I
found myself already a bikes length ahead of Gary.
Follow and observe, I reminded myself. Follow and observe.
GBXM | 29
SHOOTOUT BOUND
For those of us who missed the 2013 Buschur Racing DSM/EVO/GTR Shootout, there is only one lane choice Memory Lane. They say you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone, which probably explains why this piece
about the Shootout means so much to me.
WORDS BRIAN DRIGGS | IMAGES AARON CASBON
I see it when I close my eyes. The better part of a day spent
sitting in a car, sailing a ribbon of asphalt through an endless,
green sea of corn. Our wolf pack of eight cars travelling at near
excessive speeds fluidly circumnavigates the commuter sheep in
its path, stopping only to be fleeced all the same at toll booths on
the Ohio Turnpike. We are Shootout-bound and down to the last
dozen or so miles.
We take the long, sweeping exit ramp onto US Highway 250
south and quickly pass the small town of Milan. Our wolf pack
30 | GBXM
now resembles a snake; slithering along the winding, 2-lane highway. The trees move in on both sides of the road. We cross the
east fork of the Huron River. We know we’re close.
The sun, well past its apex in the afternoon sky, casts long shadows all around, painting our proud caravan of modified vehicles
in Chiaroscuro camouflage, as we desperately cling to now wellworn threads of self-control. Months of saving, planning, and
preparation have come to this. It’s DSM Shootout weekend and
we’re so close we can taste it.
GBXM | 31
The rumble of a dozen modified machines, snorting and popping on
constrained downshifts as we enter the penultimate, penultimate corner before Norwalk is intoxicating. There’s a clearing up ahead. It’s that
little A-frame cabin. Then the self-storage place. Milan Avenue opens
before us, as if Norwalk welcomes us with open arms. We’ve made it.
THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
I bought my first DSM in 1996, discovered 2GNT.com in 1998 and,
after lurking for awhile (and buying my first computer), finally joined the
community in 2001. By 2004, I was stepping off a plane at midnight
in Chicago, meeting someone I only knew as “Cereal5” for a ride to the
suburbs, where I would meet a group of gearheads, some of whom
would eventually prove to be family.
Looking back, I didn’t see it at the time. I was in a dimly lit, midwestern rec room. There were three or four other guys, soundly drunk and
on the verge of passing out. I think there was a Stephen King movie
playing on the TV. They were all cordial, if not exhausted, and after a
few quick inside jokes from the board, the room went dark and silent.
Even though I’d been up a full 20 hours at that point (got up for work
at 4AM that morning), I struggled with finding sleep on the cold, hardwood basement floor. I mean, I was sleeping on the floor in a strange
house almost 2,000 miles (over 3,000km) from home, surrounded
by drunk dudes I’d just met, all of whom were snoring loudly. I finally
passed out just before dawn, which was about the time everyone else
got up and started getting ready to hit the road.
Several hours after sunset that evening, I was sitting on a cooler in a
hotel parking lot, cracking my first beer of the night and feebly explaining why I wasn’t the best choice to make a run to the liquor store before
they closed. I’d been up and at ‘em for a good 40 of the last 48 hours.
I just wanted to drink my beer and pass out. Ultimately, the ante was
raised sufficiently. Aaron and I hopped in Derek’s brand new, twinturbocharged Nissan 350Z and took the scenic route to the liquor
store. (By scenic, I mean least likely to encounter law enforcement.)
The girl behind the counter would tell us we missed last call by five
minutes, but we played the out-of-towner angle, pointed to the Le
Mans Sunset Turbo-Zed glowing under fluorescent lights in the parking lot, and extended an invitation to party with us at the hotel when
her shift ended. We returned triumphantly. I wonder if the local chick
who ended up in jail for being drunk and topless on a slip-n-slide that
night was her.
32 | GBXM
WAKE ME UP INSIDE
That was the year Dino and Thura drove all the way from Houston with
a broken radio that only played Evanescence. We still laugh about that,
but what I don’t laugh about is how my Shootout memories really do
wake me up inside. I don’t even have to close my eyes to see it. I can
feel it.
I can feel the sticky sweet summer air coming in the passenger window, the laughable tension as we coordinate a dozen-plus largely hungover people having breakfast together at Bob Evans, the pride of being that 20+ party taking over the entire patio at Outback Steakhouse,
the searing, humid heat of a midwestern summer afternoon. I feel a
sense of belonging so genuine there’s no way I could ever explain it
to anyone who doesn’t already get it.
Which is why missing the DSM Shootout this year was both damned
frustrating and incredibly motivating. I’ve been to the Shootout seven
of the last ten years in a row. This was the first time I’ve missed two
years in a row. It’s not so much race event as it is family reunion. I
didn’t see it that clumsy night on a Chicago basement floor, but I see
it now. The Shootout is a family reunion. Do you know what I’m talking
about?
RACE? WHAT RACE?
I’d venture the vast majority of gearheads in Norwalk on Shootout
weekend aren’t there for the racing. We’re there for the spectacle; for
being part of the oft-drunken horde permeating every side street and
parking lot. We’re there for the family reunion.
In the decade or so I’ve been going to the Shootout, I’ve probably overslept and missed 90% of the actual Shootout at least half the times
I’ve attended. I’m not much of a drag racer, personally; you seen one
Evo run a 12-second quarter, you’ve seen ‘em all, I say. Instead, I stay
out in the hotel parking lot WAY too late, drinking and catching up with
my 2GNT family.
BLOOD, SWEAT, & TEARS
The last time I went - in 2011 - I decided to hang it up early and went to
bed around midnight. My wife and I were sharing a room with another
couple. About an hour after I hit the lights, said other couple came up
to the room. She was out of her mind on Irish Car Bombs, had cut her
foot on broken glass in the parking lot, and they were trying to clean it
up in the shower. Then they both passed out.
Not long after that, my wife came to bed, elegantly wasted as everyone else on the late shift. Between all the snoring and mumbling and
tossing and turning, I never did get to sleep. Ended up going back out
into the pre-dawn silence for a walk to the local convenience store (I
needed my Rockstars and a pack of smokes), then actually caught
the free continental breakfast for the first time ever at a Shootout
hotel.
As I watched the sun come up that Sunday morning, I also saw the racers. The REAL racers. The ones who know that early to bed and early to
rise makes a racecar driver healthy, um… Well, let’s just say there were
more than a handful at the All-American Inn that year, and I considered
it an honor to see them rise and shine. Truly, they are the reason the
event happens. Sweat equity.
on returning to that family reunion, it really sucks. This year, as many
of my best friends made their way to Norwalk for the DSM Shootout,
I saw their updates in the Google Hangout, on Facebook, and so on.
I could see it when I closed my eyes. An epic road trip, sailing a ribbon
of asphalt across an ocean of America. Connecting with a wolf pack
fluidly circumnavigating the commuter sheep, stopping only for gas,
tolls, and quick meet-ups with old friends along the way.
We are Shootout-bound and down to the last dozen or so months
until it comes again. Figure I’ve got about a year to find myself another DSM and get it - and myself - ready to finally make the drive
to Norwalk. In over a decade, I’ve never driven my own DSM to the
event, and there’s this Maximum Effort class I’d like to try.
I think it was Tim who first approached me and asked what I was doing
outside so early. I believe my response was something to the effect of
“Blood and gore, man. Blood and gore.” I would manage to sneak in a
short nap that afternoon, but as it stands, there was little sleep at my
first and last Shootouts.
WHY ALL THIS MATTERS
Events like the Shootout bring us together. Just as being part of an online automotive community takes vehicle ownership to the next level,
so too does being part of the bigger events. Once you’ve met everyone
in person - face-to-face - the whole dynamic changes. It’s an incredible thing you have to experience to truly understand.
And when circumstances prevent you from going the year you planned
GBXM | 33
34 | GBXM
ADDITIONAL IMAGES (THESE PAGES) CORINA WALLACE (HI CORINA!)
GBXM | 35
36 | GBXM
ADDITIONAL IMAGES (THESE PAGES) CORINA WALLACE (HI CORINA!)
GBXM | 37
We’re very excited to be partnering with PaddockScene
to give you a list of events coming up before the next
issue of Gearbox Magazine.
PaddockScene features a mix of professional, amateur,
and non-motorsport events. Everything from test and
tune nights at the local drag strip, to the biggest names
in motorsport and concours, to cruises and parties to
meet up and simply watch the big race on TV - you can
find it all on PaddockScene.
ANYONE can join PaddockScene and add events, too.
If your local group gets together every month to catch
up or go cruising, ADD it to the PaddockScene calendar! If you’re planning a F1-watching party, ADD it to
the calendar! And, if you’re a venue owner looking to
get more enthusiasts to attend your next event, ADD it
to the calendar.
There’s something for everyone on PaddockScene. We
at Gearbox Magazine are proud to partner with the PadockScene team to bring you something to do when
you’ve finished reading this issue!
BE A GEARHEAD, PLAY WITH CARS.
38 | GBXM
BE A GEARhEAd. PLAy wiTh CARS
GBXM | 39
MEET THE TEAM: DEANNA ISAACS
It was just over a month ago. I was working on an interivew with
Adam Clees for issue 1.07 when I found myself on Deanna Isaac’s
site, looking for pictures to go with Adam’s story. In her quick review of the Nameless Performance Rally, she had this to say:
Just in case it wasn’t obvious, I’m trying to get a lot of experience in
auto-journalism . . . Well, this weekend I was lucky enough to get a
chance to [be] on stage at the PNW’s very own Nameless Rally.
It was amazing to be: Right. There. You couldn’t get a better seat in the
house. There is nothing like hearing the cacophany of engines echoing
on the hills and, yet, muffled by the trees. Then, bursting forth from the
tree laden roads, a blurry glimpse of speed, dust - and one rock that
pelted me like a bullet in the back. I have been christened by the rally.
On our way home, we realized that this was heaven. Auto journalism is
where we want to be; whether trackside, roadside, or manufacturing
side - this is the life I (we) would love to live.
Enter Deanna, GBXM Partner – Seattle, Washington, USA
My dream is not to be famous. It’s not to have all the hottest cars or all
of the moneys (it’d be nice, but it’s not my dream). My dream is to tell
stories. Truthful stories, granted, but truth does not necessitate raw,
fact-reporting.
I want to take each member of the audience on an automotive adventure via my articles – give them a taste, a touch, a sampling, of
what it’s like to be an engineer for Lamborghini, a mechanic for a Spec
racing team, a rally driver… I want you to know the people behind the
powerful machines they create and wield, the events they compete in,
40 | GBXM
and why they do what they do.
Along with an Associate’s Degree in English from Edmonds Community
College, I’m working on my Bachelor’s in Journalism at the University of
Washington (Seattle). As a reporter for The Daily and part of the press
relations team for UW Formula Motorsports (rated 6th in Formula SAE
in the world); I have reported on and seen great things.
Hearing a string of 25+ Miatas whizz past, feeling the thunderous roar
of a Lamborghini V-8 echo through my chest or listening to the creators of forged carbon fiber speak of their craft, experiencing the raw
excitement of being on stage rally even though I’m being pelted with
high-velocity rocks - these are the things that motivate me to write. To
craft a report enjoyable to read.
Now, I hope to report on your great things – your build, your dreams,
and share your experience with the world.
I am but a servant of the audience, a purveyor of stories for those who
wish to listen.
Deanna brings a variety of skills to GBXM. She’s ex-military, actually went/goes to school for journalism, loves to spend time carving
twisty roads in her Miata, has a variety of contacts already in place
(you guys are gonna love this stuff), and she even knows Adobe
InDesign!
I have long said, people who act like partners will be treated like
partners. Deanna is already stepping up in huge ways and proving
herself partner material. Please join Dennis and I in welcoming her
to the GBXM|united team!
THIS PAGE
Intentionally left blank. Why? Because I needed ONE MORE PAGE to complete the issue, had nothing ready
(that was only one page long), and felt like celebrating Deanna joining the team by having a cold one.
GBXM | 41
Here’s some of our favorite stories from August 2010.
ANTHONY VANDERBERG
BEAU ANDERSON: THE FIRST STORY
Revisit our interview with Anthony:
http://bit.ly/gbxmanthony
Revisit our original interview with Beau:
http://bit.ly/gbxmbeau
TONY’S ‘72 CHEVY CHEYENNE
DREW MCPHEE - 2ND GEN RALLYIST
Revisit our interview with Tony:
http://bit.ly/gbxmtonygm
Revisit our interview with Drew:
http://bit.ly/gbxmdrewmc
42 | GBXM
Here’s some of our favorite stories from August 2011.
TJEAU’S NISSAN NAVARA
WHY WE DO IT OURSELVES
Revisit our interview with Tjeau:
http://bit.ly/gbxmtjeau
Revisit a fun little OpEd:
http://bit.ly/gbxmwhydiy
L&H HISTORIC RALLY TEAM
FREE CANDY!
Revisit our interview with L&H Historic:
http://bit.ly/gbxmlnh
Revisit our interview with the Free Candy team:
http://bit.ly/gbxmcandy
GBXM | 43
Here’s some of our favorite stories from August 2012.
DAVE’S EV HILUX LIVES!
SCREAMING BANSHEE
Revisit Dave’s EV HiLux update:
http://bit.ly/gbxmdavesev
We interviewed the inventor of the Screaming Banshee:
http://bit.ly/gbxmbanshee
WHAT’S THE POINT?
NEVER, EVER, EVER GIVE UP!
Back before I gave up on my rally car dream:
http://bit.ly/gbxmthepoint
Yeah, I actually gave up.
http://bit.ly/gbxmgiveup
[Note: Some good information in these last two.]
44 | GBXM
LESSONS LEARNED
high performance machines & lives
Here’s a quick overview of what we’ve learned in this issue:
1. IF you build it, they will come, but if you break it at the shootout, surrounded by a couple thousand fellow enthusiasts, they will come running,
often with tools and spare parts. shootout magic is real.
2. burnout sucks, but if you know what you love and you’re willing to work
hard at it - even if you’re not the best employee - you can make it work. bonus
points if you can find a way to use what you love to help others in need.
3. it’s possible to completely rebuild a serious off-road rig less than two
months before the big trip. it’s also possible to break it and get stuck on
the test run a week before you’re supposed to leave. karma comes correct.
4. attending the big events changes the whole dynamic. you might even find
you more enjoy spending time with the people than you do watching the big
event! just get to norwalk. we’ll handle the rest. (we always do.)
5. we’re not alone in our dream of using automotive journalism to make the
world a better place - especially for gearheads. work hard, believe in what
you’re doing. You will find help (often just when you need it most.)
6. there are times when you will find yourself even less prepared than you
thought. whatever happens, chalk it up to a learning experience, then do the
best you can with what you have. you’ll be surprised how well things turn
out. (people might not even notice that issue is 20 pages shorter. Shhh.)
thE BIG TAKEAWAY THIS MONTH? it’s not magic at all. we’re all pretty damned
amazing - especially when we think we are. and when we decide to work
together, nothing can stop us. nothing.
GBXM | 45
GEARHEADS UNITED
GO FAST WITH CLASS & PRESS ON REGARDLESS
copyright 2013, gbxm|united, all rights reserved
46 | GBXM