Automobile interview
May 2013.
Question: 1
Pick three or four of your favourite automotive brochures of all time.
Answer: 1
It’s hard to pick just a few. In general I would say that I always loved the “drawn” brochures.I also like the Chrysler corp brochures the most, especially those from the 1950s, ‘60s, and early ‘70s. Then when you get to the late sixties and early seventies theChrysler Corp musclecars got all the crazy colours:Plum Crazy, Go Mango, Hemi Orange etc.Those are definitely among my favorites. Those brochures were often “drawn” too. I also think that Pontiac did some of the best illustrated brochures.
Question: 2
How did this project begin?
Answer: 2
I have been fascinated by cars since I was a little kid. I visited local car dealers regularly (on my bicycle) and collected brochures. Then when internet came along I just found a way to share my passion for cars in general. When I added the brochure section to my site it got more popular and visitors started to contribute.
Question: 3
How long have you operated the site?
Answer: 3
Since1995. The first 10 years only my “friends” knew about it. It was before any (good) search engines existed. The first stuff to go online was some auto related stories that I wrote for the local newspaper. I got really busy some six to seven years ago.
Question: 4
How many brochures/ads are posted on your site? About how many bytes of data is that?
Answer:4
Don’t know. I never counted, but if I had to guess maybe around 3000 U.S and1000 non U.S brochures.As for the data size I optimize for screen view only. You will not be able to reproduce these. The brochures alone take up about 10 GB of space on my site.
Question: 5
How frequently do you post new brochures?
Answer:5
That depends, I finished adding all of my (in flesh) collection a few years ago. So now I am dependant on contributions. I would say I add regularly, for the most I update my site/blog daily. I get other contributions as well, as my blog has many different categories. I regularly attend auto related activities and update on that too. Then I also maintain a log on modifications to my cars.
Question: 6
How many brochures/ads do you possess in the flesh?
Answer:6
Not sure there either. If you stack them, I guess I have about 4 meters of brochures. :-)
Question:7
Has an awesome brochure ever convinced you to buy a certain car?
Answer:7
No, but theyhave surely made me want more cars than I can afford.
Question:8
How often do you hear from fellow brochure lovers? How often do these fans contribute to your site?
Answer:8
I get lots of e-mail from people that praise my collection, but only a few percent of those contribute. Luckily most of those who contribute are eager to share. Thanks a lot to all of you!
Question:9
Are there any “holy grail” brochures that your site is missing?
Answer:9
Too many to pick just one.What I can say is that as a Corvette enthusiast I would love to have every Corvette brochure in flesh,that to me would be the ultimate series.
Question:10
Why so much affection for American cars, particularly Corvettes?
Answer:10
The affection for American cars came gradually. When I was a kid I was 100 percent into Italian cars and the design studios. I guess my parents had a hard time understand my language as I preached about Pininfarina, Giugiaro, Bizzarrini, Bertone, Iso and the likes. I think I was about 12 or 13 years old when I saw my first Corvette live. It was a C3 and I didn’t know what it was, but I was shocked. I could not get that long curvy hood and the V8 rumble out of my head. It opened my eyes to American cars in general. As I grew older I soon found out that American cars were among the easiest classics to own. Easy to maintain and understand, quite reliable and parts were not that expensive. I was so fixed to own a Corvette I started saving almost from that day. I bought my first car in 1984, a white 1974 Corvette coupe. I was 20 years old then. After that car I have had several other classic American cars.Then a few years back I got the urge to have a Corvette again, so now both my wife and I drive C3 Corvettes, and we love it.
I have to add that at Cadillac.com they have a section called enthusiast sites. Nine sites are listed and one of them ismy site/autoblog. witch translates to “Love to Accelerate”.