If the world you live in is remotely anything like mine, it’s now immensely different from the one it was a mere four weeks ago.
While I was acutely aware of the coronavirus epidemic sweeping through China and the emerging one in Italy, here in New Zealand we had just been informed of our country’s first positive Covid-19 case – a reality that everyone knew was coming, but no-one really wanted to believe. A month on, I, like I’m assuming a lot of you, now find myself in lockdown at home wondering how this nightmare is going to pan out over the coming weeks, months, and even years.
It’s easy to become dejected at a time like this. Not being able to enter the outside world for anything other than supermarket items, essential healthcare, or a brief amount of fresh air makes it near impossible to escape the hopelessness of the situation; turn on any device and it’s there.
Yes, it’s absolutely critical that everyone knows what’s going on in their part of the world and follows the advice of health professionals and government departments in order to slow the spread of infection – we all have a part to play in that respect – but it’s also very important to remain optimistic while maintaining some sense of normality in your life, which is what the Speedhunters team in self-isolation all around the world is currently doing.
No, we’re not out there shooting, but we are catching up on a huge number of back-logged stories. When it comes to car culture, it’s our job to inform, inspire and entertain, and you can consider all of the images throughout this post as a taste of what’s on our publishing schedule for the month of April.
We also want to hear from you. Our IAMTHESPEEDHUNTER program is still all go, so if you’ve got a nice set of images and a short story to tell, feel free to get in touch. It might be something from the past, or something that’s happening right now in your garage while you’re stuck at home. We can’t publish everything of course, but do know that we appreciate every single reader submission sent our way.
How the economic ramifications of Covid-19 will affect the car community and aftermarket industry as a whole remains to be seen, and it’s going to be a long time before we have a true idea of the damage done. But while we wait and hope for the very best case scenario to eventuate, I’m using car culture as an escape. If you’ve logged on to Speedhunters I’m guessing you are too, and that’s great.
Brad Lord
Instagram: speedhunters_brad
brad@speedhunters.com
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
Let's just hope before summer starts in the Northern Hemisphere everyone is allowed to be outside without a piece of paper telling the government why. So we can go out and wander the streets, which are now really empty. Luckily, in the Netherlands, we can still go wherever we want to. Plus, being forced inside means the garage is the perfect escape room for the missis.
Thanks for posting each day guys, its something for us too look forward to. For me the lockdown aint too bad, i've got a stack of model kits to build which should keep me entertained a few weeks of the 12 im locked in. Incidently, its cars indirectly that have caused me to be locked in, always remember to wear a mask when your doing body work/chemicals/etc..., lung problems are no joke
While staying at home is getting boring, reading Speedhunters makes the day quite interesting
Hopefully, we get to meet up again once this all ends!
Nice article, I really liked the other one as well with the individual stories.
The world is certainly much changed from even a couple weeks ago. I work in what my Province deemed an essential service and was out to a site a week ago today. I saw more super cars in the wild in my 1 hour commute than I have in any peak summer month (barring track days). Isolation, social distancing (we weren't being directed to stay at home then), the beginning of warming weather (summer tires are just now useful), the emptiest roads I've ever seen and extremely low gas prices (regular was $0.65/L where previously it was $1.30-$1.55/L cdn, Premium a proportional change as well) had all brought about the perfect Venn diagram of conditions. Now with my tracking season on hold and the new track toy not yet committed to or started, it's down to family, work, racing simulators and car detailing, In that order of priority.
Kudos to the guys at Speedhunters for the consistently great content.
Knowing first hand how much effort goes in behind the scenes not only curating content, wrangling contributors and balancing the sometimes disparate goals of ownership, sponsors and stakeholders (inc readers) makes me appreciate what you're all doing that much more. At the best of times it's great and everything clicks, which is rare, at the worst of times it's herding cats, with one hand tied behind your back, and a blindfold on (to mix a few metaphors).
Having been behind the scenes of automotive journalism in the late 90s/early 00's until the wave of 'everyone with a digital camera is a photographer' coincided with the increasing popularity of automotive culture (Thanks F&F, some of the enthusiasm enduring and for many others a temporary fashion accessory) turned into people shooting for free with being published its own reward. The timing, coinciding with increasing competing personal priorities and a commitment to be more directly involved in racing after graduating college made me step away from it. Speedhunters since their inception (in other forms as well before coalescing under this one) has been a breath of fresh air and for me personally has done the balancing act of rekindling my passion while putting out content so good as to quiet my own compulsions to get back into it.
Hopefully the back catalog of unpublished content, or re-treatment of previous content provides ample articles to get us all through.
Once this lifts and the hills once again reverberate with the echoes of distant heel/toe downshifting I look forward to trading waves with the other genuine enthusiasts out driving solo, but not alone.
must say i even went back and read some old stuff here , cant get fed up of it as been home ... keep the content up guys . one day i hope to feature my work on speedhunters , right now its not ready .lol
Stay safe Brad! wish you the best!
Now you can fix the Speedhunters store
I am positive this will never happen, lol.
Keep up the good work fellas.... best vibes to everyone
We'll get through this,I promise.