Automobile Magazine

Indy's Short Chute between 1 and 2.

And I kept it off the fence!

I was an original staff member at Automobile Magazine and today am listed on the masthead as a contributing writer. Recent stories are "Substance over Style," about winning the Carolina Trophy vintage car rally (February 2006); "Borderline Cruisers," about driving the U.S.-Mexico border from Pacific to Gulf in the Toyota FJ Cruiser (April 2006); "American Idols," the tale of using a Chevy Silverado to tow a vintage Airstream trailer to Elvis's birthplace, in Tupelo, Mississippi, and onward to an Airstream club's rally in the Florida Panhandle (January 2007); and "Parker Kligerman's Big Adventure (January 2010).

Here's a link to my Lexus Hybrid Living story on Automobile's site.

Video of my ride in a Ferrari 458 Italia at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on July 2, 2010. Slide the controller to 7.48 to get right to the action.

My father's stock car in action, late 1950s.

In recent years for Automobile, I've written everything from a profile of "Monster Garage" host Jesse James, to a feature story titled "Blood, Sweat, and Gears"—a personal experience piece in which I worked as a valet parking attendant, a dealership porter, and a car wash jockey, all in order to get close to cars. One story that everybody seems to remember is "I'll Just Go Back to My Room and Chill." In this episode, I drove a Mercedes-Benz G500 to the Ice Hotel, in Quebec, huddling under a bearskin for two nights in a freezing room. The G-wagen was just as uncompromising as the lodging. Click on this photo, from "Blood, Sweat, and Gears," to visit photographer Joe Vaughn's site.

In the summer of 2009, I followed Parker Kligerman in the ARCA/REMAX stock car series for "Parker Kligerman's Big Adventure," which appeared in the January 2010 issue of Automobile. Above, you see his car at a critical moment of the season, when he ran out of gas at Chicagoland Speedway with just a couple of laps remaining in the race. He had been in third place, and the loss of points cost him the series championship. Below, Parker is musing after a practice session at Iowa Speedway on July 11. Most of the photos that appeared with the story, including these, were my own.

Here's the link to the story and all photos.

An assignment for Automobile placed me on what proved to be the winning team in the 2004 Alcan Winter Rally. My teammates were Gary Webb, driver in the time-speed-distance rally sections, and Peter Schneider, the navigator. I drove many of the long transit stages and also scored some points for our side in the special ice-racing stages. The account of this experience, "Three Zero Heroes," appeared in July 2004. The photo below, by Peter Schneider, was shot on the shore of the Arctic Ocean at the Northwest Territories village of Tuktoyaktuk, which was reached by driving across a section of the frozen Beaufort Sea. Clicking on the photo will take you to the Alcan Rally's site.

A low sun tinges the frozen Arctic Ocean faintly pink.

Martyn Goddard hung out of a chase car to make this image of our '51 Chrysler Saratoga in the 2005 Carolina Trophy. The next big adventure Martyn and I shared was the 2000-mile sojourn along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, from Pacific to Gulf, in the Toyota FJ Cruiser. This story, "Borderline Cruisers," appeared in the April 2006 issue of Automobile, which celebrated the magazine's twentieth anniversary. His photos were fabulous. At the end of the border trip, when we arrived at the Gulf of Mexico, east of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, he self-timed this "wrap" shot to commemorate the successful journey. Be sure to visit his site by clicking on the photo below. His exhibition, titled "Rock 'n' Roll & Speed," is coming up in summer 2007.

Playa Bagdad, January 2006

Click on the photo for the link to Martyn's site.

"No, Ronald, we won't be taking your piece."

Deputy editor Joe DeMatio has been avidly rejecting my story ideas and completed manuscripts for many years. He started doing so at least as early as 1995, as seen in this picture.