Memorable Magazine Murcielago

Hot Wheels doesn’t make the Lamborghini Murcielago in Verde Draco and I don’t have a picture of one in real life. I am settling for a picture of a Lamborghini I do have that was an interesting story in itself to acquire that I might tell in another blog.

Thinking back to high school in one of my previous blogs reminded me of one of the most memorable cars from a magazine I have ever seen. My first memory of this car came while sitting in the waiting room of a chiropractor. I picked up the March 2007 Automobile magazine laying on the table and flipped it open to reveal this gorgeous, aggressive, and very new, 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 in Verde Draco green.

The author, Chris Harris, was given the keys to a brand new machine and his goal was to leave England, traveling in the car, to find a road somewhere in Europe where he could test the top speed and then write all about the adventure. He loaded the car onto the train that goes under the English Channel, made his way through France, and somewhere in Belgium, the V12 beast happily hits 216 mph. Reading about a trip like that in a car so remarkable was fueling my desire to be an automotive writer.

Almost 9 years after graduating college, I am going to try to put my skills and passion to use. It is fun to see that other automotive icons close to my age have similar fond memories of particular cars that I do. In this case, Ed Bolian of VinWiki shares the same passion for a Verde Draco Murcielago, and he made his dreams come true by owning one.

You can read the Automobile article from 2007 here.

See Ed’s Lamborghini in a few videos here, here, and here. 

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Automotive Literature

It was during a study hall my junior year of high school that a huge aspect of my automotive passion grew into something far larger than just being a kid who liked cars. I wanted to do something with that passion. The pivotal moment was seeing the January 2007 Automobile magazine with the Nissan GT-R concept on the cover. After picking it up and soaking in every bit of information about that car, along with all of Ezra Dyer and Jean Jennings article, I made up my mind. I wanted to be an automotive journalist.

Upon going into my senior year, I took all the journalism classes in high school I could. I was late to the party on most, being that many were designed to be taken as a freshman so you could write for the school paper by your senior year. So, I didn’t get to do that. But every class assignment I wrote was car related some how.

I wasn’t keen on going to college but my parents wanted me to, so I went. I was accepted into Regent University, the first and only college I applied for. They didn’t have a journalism program for undergrad when I arrived, but by my sophomore year a bachelors journalism program was created and I immediately declared that my major. All throughout college I wrote about cars for every assignment that was students choice to write about. The school had no newspaper, and was pioneering the digital media segment. I wasn’t on any of those teams or classes, so there was not a lot of potential from my school to really get a solid foundation towards a career in journalism.

Even though the internet was becoming a large source for up to date automotive content, automotive magazines were some of my favorite things to get information from. It was also a lot of fun to get things in the mail. Plus they could be had for so cheap, that even as a college kid, I could afford them. Automobile, Road & Track, Car and Driver, Motor Trend, and Hot Rod, showed up on my doorstep faithfully every month. Flipping through the pages, seeing the wonderful images of cars in hand, smelling the paper that was freshly printed, it was wonderful.

Sadly, I never took the necessary steps to get into the automotive community. My passion was still primarily a dream. I didn’t own a cool car, I never applied for internships (the economy was really sucky from 07-11 while I was in college), and sadly, I didn’t utilize the internet to my advantage. I blame myself for a lot of missed opportunities and not working hard enough to become an automotive journalist. I never really believed in myself to achieve my dream.

Regardless of what happened in the past, automotive literature has kept my spark alive. I was able to write for Barn Finds for a while, which was an awesome opportunity. Now, I am taking my automotive passion and actually applying myself. These blogs will hopefully keep coming. I appreciate all of you who read them.