Driven to Shift is meant to be a photojournalistic exercise performed by the creator of (I’ll be referring to it as DTS for short eventually) DTS, Adam, the one writing this. Now that’s out of the way, I can finally speak in first-person haha. This blog is about me, and not about me at the same time. Obviously, it will be written from my perspective and experiences of the (usually SoCal) car scene, but it’ll be all about the cars. Maybe one day I’ll do a background story on who I am if people actually want it.
I’ve always been a fan of websites and photojournalism photography blogs surrounding car culture, and most people who know me know I rant and rave about hopefully becoming a Speedhunters photographer in the future. Like I said in the last paragraph, this is more of an exercise more than anything. I’ve always wanted to have a full-fledged and properly written out blog to call my own and I’m finally going to sit down and do it. I’m going to be using tumblr as my platform as it is the platform I’m the most familiar with, and I already know the limitations of what I can and can’t do on tumblr in terms of blogs and photography compared to my completely unknown knowledge of other platforms such as wordpress, etc.
While this is a test of my (potential) journalism skills, this is also meant to be a time capsule of some sort, as this blog or whatever you want to call it, will show the progression of my builds, events I’ve attended, as well as hopefully many other moments filled with heartbreak and/or joy.
This website is also meant to supplement my future YouTube endeavors and Instagram will have a shortform version of what I post here, and clips of what appears on YouTube.
Okay, enough about that poor background attempt. Since this is a car blog, what do you drive???
What do I drive? Something more than you can afford, pal.
Haha, I’m just kidding. If you couldn’t tell, my main vehicle of attack is my 2002 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 in gorgeous Millennium Yellow. Fun fact, the introductory photo isn’t even actually my car but a photo I shot of another Millennium Yellow C5 Z06 at a track day I hung out that I was actually going to race in, until my Corvette broke down months before said track day sadly.
Before you ask, I’ll get to my “mods” in a later story, but for the most part, my Corvette is 97% stock as I write this post. I want to enjoy this car thoroughly before I go absolutely bonkers even though I will stay somewhat conservative in modifying my car. The mods I have planned out will be tasteful and will turn this into a completely enjoyable machine.
Now, what else is in my stable of machinery? Well, I guess the next vehicle in my lineup would be my 1995 Acura Integra LS. Don’t get too excited though, it is sadly autotragic (yes, I know......I know). With my Corvette broken down and it being my only car (technically) I had a few weeks to find a car to use to get around. Luckily though, my (now) sister-in-law had this Integra and her family was just going to send it to the junkyard as she’s now in full-time wife mode as my brother serves in the U.S. Navy and therefore she can use his car. So, several hundred dollars later, I own a Honda with 105,000 miles (about 107k at the time of writing this), a salvage title, no manual transmission, no A/C, at least one previous ricer owner, and various creaks and rattles of the suspension that would put most horror movie houses to shame. After owning this car for a few months I can see why it was as cheap as it was and why my sister-in-law was so willing to practically throw it away. That’s okay though, other than it being a complete deathtrap with no fun factor thanks to the transmission, I’m having fun owning and working on this car. As much as I used to fit the stereotype of USDM car guy hating on imports, I’ve always liked the EG/EK Civics, Integras, RSXs, S2ks, NSXs, and of course any type R variant. I’m still thinking about how long I want to keep this car. 2018 will be an interesting year in my garage and driveway for sure. It’ll be a lot like the trade deadline season for professional sports, cutting things loose and adding others to the stable. Whether the “teggy”, as my friends and I affectionately call it, stays or not, is to be seen. If it wants to stay in my stable, it needs to get a manual swap at some point down the road. Who knows, we’ll see.
Speaking of imports, my other car is a 2008 BMW 528i. There’s not much to this car other than the fact that it is a perfect cruiser and I love taking it on roadtrips. Especially now that I have that Integra that scares me if I try to drive it farther than the five minute drive to work and back every day. Sadly not a M-sport, not a manual, and obviously not a E60 M5. That’s okay though, this car has been absolutely lovely to me and my family. And since I WILL legitimately die trying to take my Integra to canyon roads such as the famous GMR and my favorite, Angeles Crest Highway, the BMW gets to pick up the slack for canyon duties whenever my “banana” is broken. Surprisingly, I’ve taken it on more canyon roads than the Corvette. Its always funny seeing the faces of people I pass going the opposite way in the canyons staring at this seemingly asshole guy in a bland, leasemobile BMW and keeping pace with all my car friends with actual, working sports cars.
Alright folks, I’m going to cut it short here. There’s so much to write about and I have to remember to pace myself as if I’m in the 24 hours of Le Mans or the Rolex 24 hrs of Daytona. Slow, steady and consistent will hopefully show me the results that I want.
I hope you all enjoy this show which I call my life revolving around cars. If you’re on tumblr reading this, please go ahead and hit that “FOLLOW” button in the top right corner. Stay tuned for future posts and copious amounts of car porn.
If you’re reading this without a tumblr account, consider making one perhaps? There’s a lot of great content on this website including cars. But if you don’t want to follow that’s fine too.
Feel free to follow my Instagram: @driventoshift. Whether there will be content on the other outlets to see is in question, but everything will get caught up shortly.
Thanks for reading, now go out and drive to shift!
