What GT-R Heaven Looks Like
Both in Japan and in the states, the Skyline GT-R rules the culture
Happy Race Day! especially to Avants Magazine and the Petersen Museum for hosting a Women’s History Month car meet and panel discussion with some incredible ladies in the automotive world.
As for recaps, they’re short, and I wish there were more. But you can see a fun photo gallery from our friend Leo Mayorquin at the Avants website, or see these short IG Reels posted by The Petersen here and stunt-driver extraordinaire Bri Lynch here.
This week’s newsletter will be super short, as I’m currently typing from a hotel room in Japan and am about to head out in search of mountain roads and more interviews for my upcoming GT-R book. (More info in last week’s edition.)
But I do want to quickly point out three things:
The first is that Jalopnik last week published a review of our latest release: Postcards From The End Of The World by Victoria Scott! Read the review here. I thought this beautifully captured both the aim of the project as well as its broader message.
The second is that I’m thrilled to announce that one week after signing motorsports journalist Hazel Southwell to write a book about Formula One, we’ve also signed journalist Michael Banovsky to write a book of his own!
Michael is already a published author after his 2015 book Weird Cars caught a lot of attention. We’ve been kicking around ideas for awhile and I’m over the moon about his next topic. I’ll wait for him to announce it, but any guesses?
Follow Michael on Twitter to keep yourself posted and check out his delightful newsletter May I Drive Your Car? too. Follow us at Carrara Media while you’re at it.
And finally, last week myself and photographer Matt Formica had the unreal opportunity to join an epic GT-R cruise along the California coast. The group featured not only well-known owners and influencers but also Mr. GT-R himself, Nissan product planner and father to the Z and GT-R both, Hiroshi Tamura, in from Japan!
There were smiles all over — from those involved and from shocked motorists who likely never dreamed of seeing a dozen GT-Rs on the street at once. I have a lot of thoughts, but I’ll save them for the book so stay tuned. In the meantime, check out the photos above!
And then there’s this: I’m currently in Japan as previously mentioned. I’m also live-Tweeting the trip as much as time allows. Catch up with my Day 1 exploits right here and follow my ongoing Day 2 experience over here. I aim to please!
Ask A Millennial! Corey Ford
Corey caught my eye on Instagram with a striking fashion shoot featuring he and his son, which includes the picture you see here. When I found out he used to write for The Drive (and he’s a sneakerhead like yours truly) I had to know more.
My son gave me the inspiration for this photoshoot. It was getting close to deadline and models kept cancelling on me. I was frantically making calls the day before and my two-year old pulls me aside, mentioning that he wanted to take pictures of cars later. Since this collection had a matching set, I realized we could model it ourselves using the car as a prop!
The most exciting thing in car culture is social media. A lot of people view it as a bad thing, or say that social media ruined cars. I try to look at it from a different perspective. Being able to grab my phone and look at other thousands of cars with a variety of different mediums is so awesome. There’s so much amazing content out there. Photos, videos and even drawings or animation. I think it’s great thing for the future of car culture.
My perfect day of driving? I thought about a day at the Nürburgring, or driving along the PCH, but it would probably happen right here in Northeast Ohio. Sunday, 75 degrees and sunny. I’d drive my 6MT ‘04 Infiniti G35 (hopefully it’s actually finished), with my wife and son. We’d drive along the coast of Lake Erie for about an hour from Cleveland to the Sandusky ferries. We’d take the car on a short ferry ride to the closest islands and do some scenic driving, eat some good food and take some great photos. Hoping to make it happen this year!
And Finally…
Last week I had the opportunity to interview the wonderful Larry Chen and hear many stories about his automotive passion and illustrious photography career. Hours after our meeting he dropped an absolute BANGER of a video: driving his personal R34 GT-R in Japan at Fuji Speedway. It doesn’t get much better than that. I haven’t watch it yet, so watch it for me and let me know what you think in the comments.
Drive hard and be safe. Black Lives Matter.
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Hmmm…maybe it should be "Learn to Love Your Shitbox"… Thanks for the shout-out Ryan and I'm stoked to get the project out and on the shelves! Looks like Japan is going well, can't wait to hear all about it soon.