I’m often asked, how did I get my start writing articles.
Well, like many of you, I am really just an average hobbyist. I have a regular full-time job but since the early 2000s, I have written articles and books on Pontiacs during my free time. As I grew older, got married, and had kids, available free time has lessened, but my passion for the hobby continues to grow each day. Today I write as many articles as I can churn out for magazines like Car Craft and Poncho Perfection. But how did I get here?
Growing up I was car crazy. My dad always owned one or more good running second-generation Firebirds. My mom drove Grand Prix SJs. Both sets of grandparents drove Pontiacs, too. Looking back, I didn’t have a prayer. I was predestined to become a Pontiac-aholic.
My dad always saved the paperwork from his new-vehicle purchases. That meant he had a cache of 1970s Pontiac brochures. He had every book written about Firebirds up to that point. He saved every older magazine that contained a technical or feature article on Pontiacs. And then there was his subscription to Thunder Am, the magazine that eventually evolved into High Performance Pontiac (or HPP).
Over the years I read these books and magazines as often as I could. One of my fondest memories was reading the April 1983 issue of High Performance Pontiac magazine. I didn’t know who Nunzi was, but a picture of his Buccaneer Red ‘74 Super Duty Trans Am engulfed in a cloud of tire smoke was on the cover. I knew then I wanted a Trans Am that could do the very same.
The April 1983 issue of High Performance Pontiac magazine that hooked me.
I purchased my ‘76 Trans Am during the summer of 1993 at age 16. Knowing that I wanted to work on my cars myself, I found a ‘75 Pontiac Service Manual and the ‘76 supplement to it. Then I found an interesting set of bulletins for the ‘75 and 76 model years. I learned that these Technical Service Bulletins contained valuable information about the service updates that occurred during the model year.
As I attended swap meets, my literature collection grew. And as I entered college and the internet became a way of life, I found myself in the computer lab between classes surfing the web for any Pontiac related site I could find. It was about 1998 that I found Rich Miller’s Classical Pontiac and its interactive tech forum where members shared info. And then I stumbled across eBay where I was bought up as much Pontiac literature as I could afford. And it still goes on today.
Having read High Performance Pontiac for what was truly only a few years shy of my entire life, I always dreamed about how great it would be if I could someday write about cars. Whenever we had creative writing projects in high school English class, I wrote about cars. And when I entered college, my many research papers were about cars or the automotive industry.
While I earned good grades in high school and college, and helping that was the fact that my teachers probably had no way of verifying if Rally II wheels were truly a no-cost option on the 1972 Trans Am (Yes, I really did write a high school paper on that!), I never felt qualified enough to write for a magazine. And while I enjoyed taking photographs of cars with my little Canon 110, and later disposable 35 mm cameras, my photo skills were nothing special.
Around 2000, while reading a new issue of HPP, I found a reader had written in looking for information on his ‘75 Pontiac LeMans GT. Editor, Tom DeMauro responded and asked readers for assistance. One of the many Pontiac manuals I had held the answer. I emailed Tom and shared that info. He thanked me and ran my response in the next issue. My name was in print!
A couple of months later Tom had another reader ask about 6X cylinder head use during the 1975 model year. Again, I had a bulletin that contained the answer. I emailed Tom, he thanked me, again and ran my response. He also said to feel free in sharing that type of information in the future.
Around that same time I had submitted my Trans Am to be considered for a feature spot on Classical Pontiac’s Features page. I wrote my story, mailed some pictures, and Rich Miller selected it for a feature. That story still remains on his website today, read it here. That experience gave me the confidence to write a similar article on my Trans Am for a members-rides-type story in POCI’s Smoke Signals magazine. It was featured in the November 2002 issue. Despite that, I still felt unqualified for a magazine-stand publication.
The November 2002 issue of Smoke Signals Magazine in which I wrote a feature on my '76 Trans Am.
In 2002 my dad and I attended the Pontiac Southern Nationals in Dallas, Texas. It was a wonderful event that included a round table discussion, and participating that year were such Pontiac hobby notables as Steve Ames, Jim Butler, Pete McCarthy, Cliff Ruggles, Quint Stires, and Tom DeMauro. I took the chance to meet several of them in person after discussion, but I wasn’t able to catch up with Tom until the next day at RedLine Raceway. It was an 1/8-mile drag strip that was filling in for the 1/4-mile Texas Motorplex, whose timing lights were knocked out by lightning just before the event.
We saw Tom walking around the pits, camera in hand taking pictures for the magazine. I remember telling my dad, “There’s Tom DeMauro. I want to introduce myself.” We walked up and did just that. Tom was extremely approachable and very nice. To my surprise, he said that he’d been looking to meet me and asked if I ever considered writing for High Performance Pontiac magazine. I didn’t know what to say. I felt very unqualified for a print article of that caliber. I explained and joked that if Tom had saw my grades in English class he wouldn’t want me writing for his magazine.
Tom pressed, “Why not?”
Again, I declined. I mentioned that I had a full-time job and he countered with the fact that I would be contributing on a freelance basis at my own pace.
Tom then challenged me and asked if I owned a Pontiac. I told him of my ‘76 Trans Am.
He then said, “Do me a favor. Write a story on your Trans Am and send it to me. I’ll look it over and let you know what I think.” He handed me his business card, we said our mutual goodbyes, and walked away.
The business card that Tom DeMauro handed me at the Pontiac Southern Nationals in 2002.
I remember being excited and scared at the same time. Tom DeMauro was big league and I wasn’t a writer by any stretch, but here was my chance to write a real story. I figured I had nothing to lose so I sat down and wrote the story on the ‘75-76 Trans Am’s optional 455 package. Instinct took over. All those years reading articles as I grew up must’ve paid off because I didn’t really have to think how to form a story or write it, it just came out naturally.
I nervously sent my story to Tom. Within a day or two he replied back and said “There’s no reason you can’t write for High Performance Pontiac magazine. Now go out and find me a story.”
It was about this same time that I came across a bulletin that outlined the changeover from pressed rocker studs to threaded during the 1973 model year. It also outlined the differences in the various 4X castings. I posed it to Tom, he agreed to the topic, and coached me through the photography. That article appeared in the December 2003 issue and remains on the web to this day. It was at that point that the kid who wrote about cars in English class became a “professional” writer.
December 2003 issue of High Performance Pontiac magazine
My article in the December 2003 issue of High Performance Pontiac magazine
It started with Tech, where photo quality wasn’t quite as critical. Tom helped me hone in my photo skills and eventually invited me to begin shooting cars for Feature articles where photo composition was extremely critical. That on-the-job training resulted in more than 150 bylines in HPP, right up until May 2014 when parent-company SourceInterlink reorganized and dropped a dozen titles seemingly overnight. HPP was a casualty. That ultimately led to bylines in other great titles such as Hemmings Motor News, Hemmings Muscle Machines, Car Craft, and even Hot Rod magazines.
The opportunity to write a book came in 2009 when friend and fellow author, Jim Hand recommended me to CarTech Books. They needed an author to write a follow up book to Jim’s original How To Build Max Performance Pontiac V-8s. And that has resulted in the (4) books that I have written about Pontiac engines and/or ‘67-81 Firebirds.
Researching Pontiacs is a sincere passion of mine and there hasn’t been a day in my life where I haven’t woke up striving to learn more about Pontiacs than the day before. Hopefully that means I have many great years ahead providing the hobby with new and exciting findings.
I hope that you might take from this that if you’re passionate about the Pontiac hobby, even if it’s limited to a single model or aspect, I sincerely encourage you to share what you know, and/or the Pontiac documents you may have pertaining to it. I would be happy to consider publishing it on this website where others can read it.
…all because Tom DeMauro wouldn’t take “No” for an answer.