How the young learn about cars

Those of us who share an obsession with driving, we who live for those moments when synapses fire in sync with cylinders, may think that nothing could be further from our automotive passion than sitting behind a computer screen.

Journalists are forever praising a notchy gearshift or unassisted steering rack on the merits of their tactility, and I have lost count of how many times I’ve been reading a review of a particularly pretty car only to be told that, to be fully appreciated, its curves must be seen ‘in the metal.’

Because we direct our love towards the material object that is a car, for as long as cars have existed journalists and enthusiasts alike have also been fixated by the tangibility of automotive media. Stuff you can actually touch and pick up. We call them magazines.