Announcing the Cult of GT-R Book Tour
Heads up Bay Area, Portland and Seattle — here we come.
HAPPY RACE DAY! and welcome back. It’s been a busy couple of months. I took some time away from weekly car culture to focus on building a legit, real-life publishing company. And today I’m happy to announce the next step.
This weekend begins my first-ever book tour, traveling up the Pacific coast to celebrate the release of Cult of GT-R, culminating in Seattle with the official launch of our latest Carrara Media title — We Deserve This by Victoria Scott.
Taking Carrara Media on the road has been a dream of mine since starting the company in 2018. Now, after the success of Cult of GT-R and the raucous opening for We Deserve This, we’re finally able to do it.
On the slate are four incredible cities, with four very distinct events planned. Each one has its own personality, almost. Here’s where you can find us:
Sunday, May 26th in Monterey, CA: Kicking things off is R’s Day, the annual meeting of Nissan GT-R owners and enthusiast, at the iconic Laguna Seca Raceway with its inimitable twists and turns. What better setting to sign and sell copies of the definitive GT-R story? Click here for more info. Admission is free for spectators.
Wednesday, May 29th in Portland, OR: This is a casual one, and a fun one. I’m meeting up with the PNW Skyline owner’s club for a hangout sesh at the Tanasbourne Barnes & Noble. It’s not an official signing, per se, but the book will be available for sale inside. After that we’ll all cruise to Skyline Restaurant up in the windy roads of Skyline Blvd., believe it or not. Good stuff.
Thursday, May 30th in Tacoma, WA: The following night I will be the featured speaker during a ticketed presentation at the LeMay Automotive Museum in Tacoma, followed by a Q&A and book signing. Guests can stroll the current collection afterward, too. If you’re in town, don’t miss this one! Tickets here.
Friday, May 31st in Seattle, WA: Finally, in the trendy Sodo District of Seattle we’ll celebrate the launch of We Deserve This by the über-talented journalist and photographer Victoria Scott. There’s no entry fee, and Victoria will be available to sign copies. Our hosts at The Shop are making their bar available so come raise a glass with us to honor Victoria and kick off Pride Month in style.
And that’s that. It’s pretty wild, really. Hard to believe this tour is really going to happen in a matter of days, but the reception to both books in recent months has made it clear that there’s an appetite for what we’re doing. I couldn’t be more thrilled to hit the road and make new friends up and down the coast.
Please consider meeting up with us at one (or more!) of the stops. You can also buy copies of Cult of GT-R and We Deserve This right here, or wherever books are sold.
See you on tour!
Q&A: Sam Smith, author of Smithology
Speaking of awesome book releases, the auto world had a good one to celebrate in recent weeks. That’s because Sam Smith, a fixture at places like Road & Track and Hagerty over the years, renowned for his ability to turn automotive journalism into a living breathing thing that made you want to laugh, scream and drive like a madman, released a collection of work spanning his entire distinguished career to this point.
Smithology is a round-up of Smith’s writing, but it also features new pieces, and it’s also a reminder that there aren’t a lot of voices like this around anymore. Smith is one of a rare few whose work gets the space it deserves, and who knows what to do with it. He paints people as detailed but complicated, but always soulful, and cars as almost human. His writing is likely the most friendly, most hospitable in our industry.
We worked together on my profile of Hiromu Naruse for R&T back in 2017, and when it was time to find an editor for Cult there was only one call I wanted to make. I’m forever grateful for his deft contributions to both, and even more grateful to say Sam is a friend. It was my honor to interview him, here.
RD: What did you learn or re-learn about your career thus far by going back and sifting through your published works?
Man, what a question. So much. Top of mind at the moment: How context and heart are the core of any good story. How immensely fortunate I've been—not that I didn't know that, but the book was a hell of a reminder of that. And a reminder of how the stuff that brings us together is always stronger than whatever pulls us apart.
Which might sound like a strange way to frame a life spent writing about machines, but hey. The machine is just a reason to talk to people.
RD: Did you notice your own internal philosophies changing over time? As in, did you gain any pivotal knowledge or perspectives that crept into your work?
Not at the time, while doing the work. But in retrospect, definitely. Above all, I think I became a lot more empathetic. Empathy is one of the things you tend to think you have enough of until you gain more of it. You spend enough time asking people why they love something, you learn a bit about what makes us all tick. People are rarely as simple as we like to think.
RD: My favorite quality of yours is the ability to playfully frame the silly and absurd, and then seamlessly pivot to the solemn or serious. There's something about cars that plays uniquely to both ends of the spectrum — why is that?
I don't know if I've ever really thought about it. Off the cuff, I think it probably has something to do with how cars tap into our core emotions. Joy, love, fear, surprise, trust, anticipation, even anger and envy. The forces that frame us and make us feel alive, make life more than eating and sleeping. If my reactions on the page have ever been silly or solemn or anything in between, that was just me trying to be honest with how my head works. Show me a serious person who isn't occasionally goofy, or vice versa, I'll give you a person who probably keeps a lot of stuff buried.
Cars are simple. Humans are complex. Anyone who tells you the intersection between the two isn't the emotional equivalent of quantum mechanics . . . they're not paying enough attention.
RD: Can you share a word or phrase that comes to mind when you look back on everything you've gotten to write and experience over the years?
SS: Cars are great, but it's not the car. It's never the car. It's always the people.
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