I’m going to get a bit deep with you if you’ll bear with me for a moment. I’d like to talk about imprints: gateways in life which stay with you forever. These imprints happen at significant moments in every person’s young life and go on to inform the shape of their passions, dreams, likes and dislikes.
The launch of this new Speedhunters project has been making me think back to some of my own imprints and how they relate to my full-on passion for car culture. Why is it that I spend most of my waking life reading, filming, watching, surfing and thinking about cars, car culture and racing?
Imprint 1: Revell Model Funny Cars:
I have a distinct memory of being over at a friend’s house (couldn’t have been more than 3-4 years old) and spotting a Revell model cars catalogue. In it was an overview of all the various dragster funny cars that Revell was sponsoring at the time. Somehow this moment stuck with me.
Thereafter, model cars became a fixation of mine for the next 10 years
or so. This lead to a real interest in custom cars, drag racing, hot
rods, show cars and street machines; I would spend increasing amounts
of time collecting and building elaborate custom models. I started to
gain a real appreciation for the lineage of car culture: in this case
the evolution of drag racing, customs and hot rodding.
The above picture is the last car model I built, right before I got into racing RC cars. It's a fully customized 57 Chevy sporting some rare 1960s 3in1 kit parts. Took over a year to build.
Imprint 2: Westwood race track:
The year is 1977, I’m 6 years old at my favourite place on the planet. It’s a picturesque flowing circuit carved into the side of a mountain near Vancouver in the beautiful Canadian province of British Columbia. I was at Westwood to compete in the local go-cart race next to the car circuit. That day, however, something really big was happening on-track. It was the SCCA Trans Am series, one of the top championships in North America at the time. In between my go-cart practice sessions and racing heats I would rush over to watch. For the first time in my life I saw international level GT racing cars: Porsche 934s, DeKon Monzas, Greenwood Corvettes, and Datsun 240Zs going at it hammer and tong.
The above picture shows a group of Trans Am spec Vettes and a 911 rounding the hairpin at Westwood. Just imagine the noise that these four cars are making and what a deep impression this would have on a young boy :>
BTW I have no idea who the photographer is of this photo. Found it on the internet years ago.
Seeing these late 70s Transam races really sparked an interest for me in European GT and Sport car racing. I became a huge fan of the Le Mans 24H race and the cars that raced there. In 2001 I put together an experimental documentary DVD at Le
Mans called "Speed Tribe" in collaboration with Dance51.com. It was a lifelong dream fulfilled to visit this race, let alone have full photographic access :> It was through the creation of this project that I first started to get into filming at car races.
My unhealthy addicition for GT and sport car racing led me into video game production as cofounder of the Virtua-lm mod team. We focused exclusively on recreating the Sports car and GT racing eras of our childhoods. After a stint working on hardcore PC sims like GT Legends I got a job at EA working on the Need for Speed video franchise.
The project I've had my biggest involvement with at EA is NFS Pro Street where I worked on a lot of the car culture research elements and their integration into the game. Also got to creative direct the NFS Girls photo shoot haha :>
Imprint 3: Miss Piggy:
I should mention that my father and his brothers are
all car fanatics of varying degrees. In the late
70s, an uncle who lived in Vancouver at the time, built a gutted, roll caged Datsun
510 nicknamed "Miss Piggy" for slaloming. This was the first direct exposure I had to modified Japanese cars. I think the notion of performance tuned import cars really stayed with me from then on.
This is the second car I ever owned and my first Japanese machine: A 1982 Corolla SR5 which I got in around 1988 or so. I think this shot was taken before I got it lowered. Boy I wish I could reach into this picture and bring this car back into my life. Not a spot of rust!
I had a Honda for a while after this, a 92 Civic Si and a done up CRX before I moved to London, UK and didn't drive anything for many many years! It was painful.
Imprint 4: The Scirocco:
In 1979 my father got his hands on a VW Scirocco and immediately modified it with a Zender body kit, Recaro seats, two tone paint, BBS wheels and lowered suspension. It was a bit of a show car for his stereo business. I just loved being driven around in the Scrocco, it was just sooo cool to be in a hard riding, hotted up compact coupe. I was gutted when he got rid of that Scirocco in favour of a shop van.
I'm pretty sure that this is the moment that taught me that a car can be much more than an A to B transportation appliance. It can be an expression of style and personality, just like the clothes you wear.
The above picture is not my dad's Scirocco but it's pretty similar to how I remember his car. Found it on the VW Vortex forums
And so the list goes on.
Does this story sound familiar to you at all? It’s not that I like filling my days with all manner of cars, motorsports and car culture; its more that I need to. No cars, no joy. This is more than a passing interest, it’s an all-consuming lifestyle. Is that self indulgent?
For me this Speedhunters project is a godsend. What could be better than a website that brings together car culture scenes from around the world? Personally, I can’t think of anything!
So what were your first automotive imprints? Let's hear about them!
:Rod Chong
PS: a bit thanks to my cousins Robert (Opel man) and Laura for sourcing the shot of Miss Piggy!