Thursday, April 25, 2013
How to Go Faster & Influence People - Gordon Murray
Superb documentary detailing his Formula One design career, the McLaren F1, and his latest microcar projects, the revolutionary T25 and T27.
One I Wrote for Petrolicious - 928 Ways to Kill the 911
"A world without the Porsche 911 is not a place I like to imagine, but to paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, you’ve got no place as a writer if you’re not willing to indulge the occasional dark thought. So here goes: no iconic uber-beetle, that unmistakable silhouette honed by decades of aerodynamic refinement no more than a dream, the gruff, off-beat idle and yowling, warbling top-end scream of that fabulous pancake six merely an echo from an alternate plane of reality, that gently bobbing front end, living, ethereal steering, initial understeer and physics-defying post-apex traction no more corporeal than an emotion. This 911-less world is a cold and colorless place for anyone with petrol in the blood, a nightmare scenario for those of us who love great cars like others love the sun, so we should all be thankful that Porsche never had their way—they never killed the 911."
Link
Link
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Monday, April 1, 2013
What I've Been Busy With - Long Live ANF
Hey all,
sorry for the lack of work on the site lately.
I know I promised I’d be back to full-strength soon but unfortunately that’s
just not proven to be realistic. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been working with Petrolicious, but I'm happy to announce it's now on a full-time basis! Working there is an amazing opportunity which I’m
enjoying the hell out of, but it leaves me with very little time to tend to ANF
like I used be able to.
I was initially
motivated to start this blog after reading a very inspirational article in evo,
which I just happened to read on lunch break during a particularly stressful
day at my shitty fucking corporate job sometime early last year, in which the
writer was giving advice on how to break into the world of professional auto
journalism. Paraphrasing, it went
something like this: “Write about what you know, about what you’re passionate
about, and pay little or no attention to what is popular or widely-covered at
the time – be unique, be entertaining, and have fun. If you’re talented, lucky, and know how to network
you’ll have a good chance of landing your dream career”. I honestly thought it was an over-simplistic
and optimistic view at the time, but also felt that I had nothing to lose - at
the worst, I’d have a creative outlet and a blank palette on which to exercise
my many OCD’s. Soon after I was laid
off, and on the advice of my awesome, beautiful wife I turned down several potentially
quite lucrative job offers in order to play the long-shot and pursue my dream
career.
With the help
and friendship of Jim at Tamerlane’s Thoughts and Lord Orlove over at Jalopnik
(I’m deeply and sincerely grateful, thanks for all the support and
encouragement, guys. Incidentally, Raphael,
your bosses can suck a fat one for never responding to my earnest and heartfelt
employment inquiries…) I soon began to see steady and exponential growth of my
audience. I was shocked, and remain so
even today – the idea that people were actually interested in my unfocused,
nerdy, random, and frequently odd rantings about cars just blew me away. I owe you all so much, you have no idea how
much you helped me get through a very difficult part of my life. Your readership and comments kept me going
and gave me the confidence to keep pushing ahead, and I wouldn’t be where I am
without you.
About two
months ago, Josh, the ridiculously skilled filmmaker and all-around nice guy
behind Petrolicious’ video production, contacted me and said he liked my work
and wanted to know if I would be interested in working with them. Obviously I was, though I tried (but failed)
to play it cool. I've never been good at that.
So here I am,
writing professionally, working with talented and ambitious people who are just
as passionate as I am, making a living at doing what I love to do, with no
formal background or training in writing.
At the risk of sounding clichéd (when did I ever worry about that,
right?), this experience has taught me that you should never give up on your
dreams, regardless of how impractical or unlikely their attainment may seem –
if I can do it, anyone can. I plan on
being in this industry for a looong time, keep an eye out for my name.
That explains
the slow down, then. I don’t plan on
abandoning the site - I love it too much for that - but I won’t be updating on
a daily or even weekly basis anymore, either.
I’ll still post a few cool pics and videos from time-to-time, and once
every few weeks I’ll try to post an editorial or story as well. I have a lot of creative freedom at
Petrolicious, but once in a while what I want to write about isn’t a good fit –
maybe it’s just a bit personal or a bit sweary – and that’s what I’ll post
here. I wish I could post more
frequently, but I value you too much to give you quantity over quality. Stay tuned, I promise you won’t be
disappointed.
Again, thank you
all, sincerely and deeply.
