As soon as the motor turned over and that first pulse of exhaust cracked through the end of the pipes, I knew we were going to be in for a treat. Your heart beats faster, your blood pressure rises, and the camera is ready. All I have to do is get this shot for the story. Sometimes in printed form, it’s hard to convey and illustrate a vehicles potential for speed. Unless you can get a shot of the car doing a wheelie, it’s difficult to represent a cars power output. On the other hand, get a burn-out shot and make the back-half of the car disappear in smoke and all talk is put aside. That’s exactly what we did last Saturday at Lou’s Performance shop in San Fernando. At the end of the photo-shoot, the gang laid down a bucket of water for the tires to soak up but failed its first couple attempts. After some careful evaluation of the tires and surface, it was deemed the car did not have enough air pressure in the tires (Those Mickey Thompson’s can really stick). Naturally, we filled the tires with some positive air pressure and viola! The car screamed like a Japanese air-raid and the rear of the car turned into Old Faithful at Yosemite National Park. Good thing I had the camera set on the “rapid” setting. I fired away as many shots as I could—click, click, click. It sounded like a mini-sub machine gun.
Smiles were abundant and I think my ears were bleeding but we got the shot. Time for a drink and a high-five. Good job guys. The burn-out was a great ending to a perfect day, a perfect shoot and a perfect group of guys to share it with. Thanks to Al and Lou for the help and support of the magazine.