I Was Made for This Job.

Hello! My name is Tim Gavern. I’m a car freak and have owned over 100 cars. In the future, you can read my stories in the Traction… section, but today, I would like to tell you the story that sets the stage for my being able to help you to build your street machine.

The year was 1989. I was 27-years old and lived with my parents in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I was struggling to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. One sunny, but brutally-cold February morning, a life-changing letter arrived in our mailbox. I quickly opened it before I went inside. I remember seeing my breath freeze in the air as I read the letter in our driveway.

The letter was from Ken Yee, President of McMullen and Yee Publishing Company in Anaheim, California. A month earlier, I had written a letter to Mr. Yee, asking if there were any job opportunities there. He stated that if I came to Los Angeles, he would grant me an interview to see if I was a good fit for an editorial job.

A few days after I received the letter, I jumped into my brand-new Volkswagen 16-valve GTi and drove it cross-country to my job interview. Mr. Yee hired me, on-the-spot, as an Associate Editor on VW Trends Magazine. And just like that, I was living in Los Angeles.

At the time, I was really into Volkswagens – air-cooled, water-cooled – I loved them all. Back then, there were hundreds of, “enthusiast magazines” – these were magazines about every topic imaginable. VW Trends Magazine was a great example of an enthusiast magazine. There were three staff editors, the Editor and one Art Director, and we all loved Volkswagens. It was a great place for me to begin my editorial career.

I spent five years on and off at VW Trends. Then, I moved to Rod & Custom Magazine and got the photojournalistic education of a lifetime. This was, of course, working for the late, great, Pat Ganahl. Pat was the best editor I ever met. He would collect photos for a decade, then write the definitive article on the subject. Pat was also the toughest boss I ever had. I would turn in an article to him and he would say, “That’s good. Now, make it more concise.” Then, he would do that two more times. By the third time, I was ready to kill him. Pat also tuned up my photography skills by teaching me how he photographed stories and cars. He used to call me, “One-Trick Pony,” because I would return from an event with film shot at F8, F11 and F16 to make sure my photos had the correct exposure.

In all, I spent over fifteen years writing for nearly fifty high-performance car and truck mags. I believe all but one of those magazines are gone now. After the great West Coast car magazine business disappeared, I started selling commercial trucks. I still sell trucks today and have for the past 19-years. And I still live in L.A.

So, it may have taken me 20-years, but I believe I finally found the perfect way to get back into writing, filming and editing. If my 15-module course, “How to Build a Street Machine,” can teach people how to get their cars built and finished, then, I was made for this job.

Tim Gavern

Irwindale, California

July 2025

P.S. My, “self portaits,” are from the early 2000s. They are just a few of the over 100 cars I have owned and built since arriving in California in 1989.