Est. 2006
Motor Car Market was conceived as an online database of stick shift, rear-wheel drive cars that I could reference when looking to buy my next project. It includes links to manufacturers, forums, parts suppliers, owner’s groups and anything else that supported the marque. You see, I was always searching for manual transmission cars yet might forget to consider the Mercedes-Benz R129 300SL or the Lexus 300SC which came in a stick. When I landed on something I might buy, I needed to know how to support it. So it became important to catalog all these resources I uncovered. Most of which are to my tastes and liking and I hope they are to yours too.
The magazine articles and cover art were developed alongside the database further establishing the company. It gave me artistic expression of the hundreds of cars I photographed over the years. The overall concept lead to interviews with Jay Leno, Victor R. Muller, Spyker’s modern founder and chief executive, and Malcolm Bricklin. I even interviewed Tesla’s PR manager when they had only 300 employees. The interviews in turn, opened up opportunities for press passes to Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance, Monterey Historic Races and the Detroit Auto Show which lead to more articles and more events.
Unfortunately in the early to mid 2010s, I started running into web development issues. I built the entire magazine, nuts to bolts, myself. Originally it was constructed on the Joomla platform a free, open-source content management system (CMS) that allows users to build, organize, manage, and publish web content. Unfortunately, it required migrations to upgrade architecture as their developers designed security patches and new features. As web master, story writer and content creator, I couldn’t keep up with it while working full time. Ultimately, I lost the entire site and most of the articles I wrote. But many of the magazine covers survived backed up on a hard drive. Years ago I rebuilt what was left on the WordPress platform. More recently, I redid the logo, this time in a SVG format, and basically started over creating the database which is what you see here. I hope you find it useful as you research marques and parts. Enjoy.
I’m always happy to take feedback with anything cataloged here, your experience with a company and the site itself.
Please feel free to email me below or call my California cell 310-Four Three One-5600. I live in Dexter, Michigan now.
by Paul “Groosh” Grusche. Nickname Groosh, last name pronounced Grew-shay.
Thanks for reading!
Groosh