Art Markus
03-03-2013, 09:11 AM
Hi chaps,
Most of the intros I have read are commendably brief so will try to follow suit.
Have been car crazy for as long as I can remember; literally from the time i could turn the pages of a book or magazine. First car was an Austin A30, followed by a '62 Mk1 MG Midget, then a 1970 Mk3 Midget, bought in 1972 or so, so almost new at the time and a great little car. Began racing in a very low-key way with the Sports Car Club of Canterbury, sometimes attached to the back of the national championship (SCANZ) but occasionally in our own 'production' race at Ruapuna and Levels mainly.
Married young, divorced not quite so young, so went off to do my OE, a little belatedly, in 1978, intending to bring back a new Fiat X1/9 after statutory (at that time) 18 months abroad. Ended up staying away for 25 years!
As a kid I dreamed of being a racing driver but, as an avid reader of motoring magazines and books, second choice of career was a motoring journalist. By sheer good fortune I gained an intro to reporting on the British Touring Car Championship for Performance Car magazine. Can you believe it? I was provided with tickets to all the meetings, petrol money, got paid for my articles, and I got to meet and mingle with many of the movers and shakers of British motorsport; Rouse, Harvey, Brodie, Soper, Walkinshaw, Percy etc. Brilliant!
In early '84 I was invited to join Performance Car as a full-time writer, but after almost a year I was head-hunted by Cars and Car Conversions, which was much more competition oriented and hence even more to my liking. Meanwhile I had bought another MG Midget and begun racing in the MG Car Club's Sprite and Midget Challenge for road-going cars. The cars could be trailered to events but had to be road-legal and MOT'd (WOF"d). A very 'clubby' series but boy was it competitive, with 30+ cars at most meetings. I started out driving the car to all events and was more or less on the pace (top ten anyway) from the beginning but took two seasons and lots of development (okay we ended up trailering to races) to finally win a race at Donington Park in 1986.
From then on I raced anything I could get my butt into, including the Tourist Trophy (then a round of the European Touring Car Championship) in a Golf GTi in 1985, many 'celebrity' drives in manufacturer's one-make championships (Renault Clio, Ford Fiestas etc) and loads of one-off drives in anything I was offered. I was probably best-known for racing Caterham (nee Lotus) Sevens, as CCC (as it was known to all and sundry) sponsored and promoted the series, in return for which we were provided with a car to race. I finished second (dammit!) in the road-going championship in 1991.
During my years as Features Editor of CCC, among other duties I 'ghosted' a column for Steve Soper while he raced for Ford and Eggenberger Racing, and later BMW. I also performed lots of track tests, conducted interviews, went on new-car launches (mostly at exotic locations on mainland Europe), tested new road cars and specials from all of the UK's top tuners, and 'moonlighted' from time to time as an instructor on all of the UK's major circuits. I had no formal technical training but I was never scared to ask someone to explain anything I didn't understand, and as a result I learnt heaps. Dream job? You bet…
And yet. After ten years or so it began to pall. I felt I was running out of words! Among other things I was becoming rather blase about testing high performance road cars when the roads were so crowded, speed cameras more and more prolific and performance, on the road at least, less and less relevant. However in late '96 or early '97 we were sent a Lotus Elise for test, and everything changed. For the first time in a long while I was genuinely enthusiastic about a new car. Here was a car that was so cleverly designed and such fun to drive, yet it was relatively inexpensive and cheap to run. I vowed to buy one some day.
Soon afterwards I left CCC (I am sure the fact that neither magazine survived my departure is just a coincidence!) to work for Raceline Engineering, which among other products sold tuning packages for the Elise. The company test hack and demonstrator was used to develop the acclaimed Nitron suspension package, and also a 160hp tuning kit which was subsequently adopted by Lotus and became the factory Sport 160 model. I had a hand in much of the development of both packages, which involved demonstrating and testing the car at track days all over the UK and at Spa, the Nurburgring etc. It was great fun, as the Elise could match all but the very newest and fastest Porsches, Ferraris and other exotics.
Once I had left the magazine publishing business the offers of drives dried up of course, and I last raced in 1997, although I hasten to point out that I never actually retired! I don't kid myself for one moment that I was a great driver, but over time I accumulated enough race wins, pole positions and fastest laps to suggest i had at least a modicum of talent. Hey… they can't all have been flukes, surely?
While working at Raceline, and later at Lakeside Engineering, an independent Lotus specialist in Woking, Surrey, I wrote a book, 'Track Day Driver's Guide' which was published in 2002 and distilled much of what I had learnt about vehicle dynamics and driving over the years. It was well received and sold quite well, although JK Rowling needn't worry...
Much more importantly, I met and subsequently married my beloved wife, Carol. I proposed to her on the banks of the Thames on Millennium night (cue violins) and we got married in Nelson in 2001 on our second visit to NZ as a couple. After our third visit in '02, we started to make plans for a permanent return to NZ. This took some time to achieve, and we finally made it in January 2004. Meanwhile we had bought an Elise, which came with us and which we still have. It's a great little car.
We settled in Wanaka, which sadly is somewhat out of the motorsports mainstream, although that may be all about to change with Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell due to open soon.
Shit even trying to be brief I have used up more words than intended; I guess I just can't help myself. Love everyone else's stories. Hope at least someone has enjoyed mine…
Very best wishes to all motorsport enthusiasts.
From,
Art Markus
Most of the intros I have read are commendably brief so will try to follow suit.
Have been car crazy for as long as I can remember; literally from the time i could turn the pages of a book or magazine. First car was an Austin A30, followed by a '62 Mk1 MG Midget, then a 1970 Mk3 Midget, bought in 1972 or so, so almost new at the time and a great little car. Began racing in a very low-key way with the Sports Car Club of Canterbury, sometimes attached to the back of the national championship (SCANZ) but occasionally in our own 'production' race at Ruapuna and Levels mainly.
Married young, divorced not quite so young, so went off to do my OE, a little belatedly, in 1978, intending to bring back a new Fiat X1/9 after statutory (at that time) 18 months abroad. Ended up staying away for 25 years!
As a kid I dreamed of being a racing driver but, as an avid reader of motoring magazines and books, second choice of career was a motoring journalist. By sheer good fortune I gained an intro to reporting on the British Touring Car Championship for Performance Car magazine. Can you believe it? I was provided with tickets to all the meetings, petrol money, got paid for my articles, and I got to meet and mingle with many of the movers and shakers of British motorsport; Rouse, Harvey, Brodie, Soper, Walkinshaw, Percy etc. Brilliant!
In early '84 I was invited to join Performance Car as a full-time writer, but after almost a year I was head-hunted by Cars and Car Conversions, which was much more competition oriented and hence even more to my liking. Meanwhile I had bought another MG Midget and begun racing in the MG Car Club's Sprite and Midget Challenge for road-going cars. The cars could be trailered to events but had to be road-legal and MOT'd (WOF"d). A very 'clubby' series but boy was it competitive, with 30+ cars at most meetings. I started out driving the car to all events and was more or less on the pace (top ten anyway) from the beginning but took two seasons and lots of development (okay we ended up trailering to races) to finally win a race at Donington Park in 1986.
From then on I raced anything I could get my butt into, including the Tourist Trophy (then a round of the European Touring Car Championship) in a Golf GTi in 1985, many 'celebrity' drives in manufacturer's one-make championships (Renault Clio, Ford Fiestas etc) and loads of one-off drives in anything I was offered. I was probably best-known for racing Caterham (nee Lotus) Sevens, as CCC (as it was known to all and sundry) sponsored and promoted the series, in return for which we were provided with a car to race. I finished second (dammit!) in the road-going championship in 1991.
During my years as Features Editor of CCC, among other duties I 'ghosted' a column for Steve Soper while he raced for Ford and Eggenberger Racing, and later BMW. I also performed lots of track tests, conducted interviews, went on new-car launches (mostly at exotic locations on mainland Europe), tested new road cars and specials from all of the UK's top tuners, and 'moonlighted' from time to time as an instructor on all of the UK's major circuits. I had no formal technical training but I was never scared to ask someone to explain anything I didn't understand, and as a result I learnt heaps. Dream job? You bet…
And yet. After ten years or so it began to pall. I felt I was running out of words! Among other things I was becoming rather blase about testing high performance road cars when the roads were so crowded, speed cameras more and more prolific and performance, on the road at least, less and less relevant. However in late '96 or early '97 we were sent a Lotus Elise for test, and everything changed. For the first time in a long while I was genuinely enthusiastic about a new car. Here was a car that was so cleverly designed and such fun to drive, yet it was relatively inexpensive and cheap to run. I vowed to buy one some day.
Soon afterwards I left CCC (I am sure the fact that neither magazine survived my departure is just a coincidence!) to work for Raceline Engineering, which among other products sold tuning packages for the Elise. The company test hack and demonstrator was used to develop the acclaimed Nitron suspension package, and also a 160hp tuning kit which was subsequently adopted by Lotus and became the factory Sport 160 model. I had a hand in much of the development of both packages, which involved demonstrating and testing the car at track days all over the UK and at Spa, the Nurburgring etc. It was great fun, as the Elise could match all but the very newest and fastest Porsches, Ferraris and other exotics.
Once I had left the magazine publishing business the offers of drives dried up of course, and I last raced in 1997, although I hasten to point out that I never actually retired! I don't kid myself for one moment that I was a great driver, but over time I accumulated enough race wins, pole positions and fastest laps to suggest i had at least a modicum of talent. Hey… they can't all have been flukes, surely?
While working at Raceline, and later at Lakeside Engineering, an independent Lotus specialist in Woking, Surrey, I wrote a book, 'Track Day Driver's Guide' which was published in 2002 and distilled much of what I had learnt about vehicle dynamics and driving over the years. It was well received and sold quite well, although JK Rowling needn't worry...
Much more importantly, I met and subsequently married my beloved wife, Carol. I proposed to her on the banks of the Thames on Millennium night (cue violins) and we got married in Nelson in 2001 on our second visit to NZ as a couple. After our third visit in '02, we started to make plans for a permanent return to NZ. This took some time to achieve, and we finally made it in January 2004. Meanwhile we had bought an Elise, which came with us and which we still have. It's a great little car.
We settled in Wanaka, which sadly is somewhat out of the motorsports mainstream, although that may be all about to change with Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell due to open soon.
Shit even trying to be brief I have used up more words than intended; I guess I just can't help myself. Love everyone else's stories. Hope at least someone has enjoyed mine…
Very best wishes to all motorsport enthusiasts.
From,
Art Markus