We hear it all the time and it's often not the easiest question to answer. After all, no one wants to sound self-aggrandizing with this kind of thing. However, I figure if I put the answer in print, it will be immortalized and we can simply refer to a back issue instead of verbally choking through what you're about to read every few weeks.
The question I'm referring to, of course, is the often-controversial subject of what the editors of Sport Compact Car magazine choose as personal transportation. If you don't care, give up now, because this is about to get complicated.
I'll start at the top with editor Larry Saavedra. Saavedra is in a unique position as editor of this journal in that he should probably have at least three Hondas in his garage and at least two of those should be racecars, right? Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the grand total of Saavedra's arsenal of Japanese cars is zero. He has a thing for Volkswagens, water-cooled, that is. He's owned at least two that register in my recent memory, both of which made their way into the pages of McMullen Argus magazines at one time or another. The Volkswagen thing is still in his blood as he spends a disproportionate amount of time in these cars anytime we're graced with the company of one of the German machines.
We all know that Saavedra will buy another one someday, but right now he's without-without anything at all in fact. Saavedra's daily commute occurs within whatever press vehicle or long-term cars happens to be floating freely among staffers. Oh yeah, he owns a 1965 Chevrolet El Camino as well, but it's rarely, if ever, driven and is sort of a dinosaur, as far as cars go. We like to ignore it.
Next up is Kari Windes, Sport Compact Car's illustrious and overworked managing editor. Windes owns one car and as far as we can tell uses it for everything from daily transportation to garbage disposal. In fact, her 1993 Mazda Protegf is probably the hardest working commuter/daily driver/catch-all among any the staff-owned cars. Windes has a burgeoning interest in motorsport and insists that it will one day be a cone-smashing autocrosser. We're not keeping our fingers crossed.
James Carey, SCC's newfound copy editor, drives a 1987 Mercury Cougar XR-7-not exactly a sport compact car. It remains a mystery whether or not Carey was an enthusiast when he came on staff to fix our poor grammar, but since that time, there have been a few hints that he's leaning our way-at least as far as modified cars go. Every other week or so there been a new car part-usually something he found on eBay-showing up at the office. So far, the tally includes a new intake manifold and throttle body, larger injectors, a re-mapped ECU and a healthier cam. We see him coming around.
OK, now for the hard part. Engineering editor Dave Coleman and myself throw off the one-car-per-staff-member curve considerably. Coleman owns four cars and I own three.
Coleman's obsession began with what used to be his father's 1983 RX-7. This first-generation car underwent several rounds of upgrades in SCC, but has since turned into a constant oil supply for Coleman's driveway. Someday, he insists, it will sport a fuel-injected 13B.
Next to the leaking RX-7 at the Coleman household sits the 1971 Datsun 510, known as "Project Rally Beater." If you've been following closely the last few months, you know the story with this car. It justifies its own existence, regardless of how Coleman's fascist homeowner's association feels about its presence.
Until last month, "Project Sentra SE-R" was Coleman's wife's daily driver and was a practical, useable car. However, the inevitable transition from daily driver to hot rod recently justified a fourth car into the Coleman household-one which will remain free of the constant need to "improve" performance if Coleman's wife has her way. I get the feeling their 1990 Mazda Miata will remain stock for quite a while. So that's the Coleman line-up: Four cars, two people-a ratio that can only be justified using a very skewed car-nut perspective.
I can't really mock the Coleman household, owning three cars myself. The first doesn't really count; it's half-way across the country stored in a garage, collecting dust. However, it will never be sold; it was my first car. It's a 1971 Opel GT. I was 15 when my dad and I began restoring it and it will always hold a special place in my heart.
Anyone who cares has probably figured out by now which cars that make regular appearances in SCC belong to me. The nicest and newest is SCC's first-generation "Project Miata." It's now turbocharged and can actually get out of its own way, thanks to Flyin' Miata and Bell Engineering. This is the car I list when people ask what I drive. It's the fastest and most significant.
Then there's the 1988 Mazda 323 GTX-this old beater gets the honor of being the most fun car I own. It exists only to absorb the occasional shameless pounding every few months by thrashing its way around rallycross courses all over Southern California. It's even had pretty good luck the last year or so by winning its class on several occasions. It has also made several sideways sliding and airborne appearances in the pages of SCC as a semi-regular project car.
So that's how we stack up at SCC. Some of us take the car-nut thing further than others, but the bottom line is simple-this is a car book and we're car people. See you on the road.