This month, I feel compelled to answer the Top 5 Questions asked of me every single day of the week by our readers. The answers are in no particular order. I didn't print the questions because they are fairly obvious.
1. No, we don't sponsor free parts for our readers.Occasionally we give away swag that's lying around the office, but for the most part we don't mail stuff out to you just to make your truck cooler-looking. Sport Truck spends all of its cash on memory cards, plane tickets, and fruity drinks with tiny umbrellas in them, so we don't have anything left over to buy a set of 24s for your F-150 that you're sure belongs on our cover once you finish working on it.
2. Calling wheel companies or any other aftermarket parts company and telling them your truck will be in the magazine won't usually get you free parts either, even if you name-drop. You'd be amazed how tight-knit this industry is and a quick phone call will blow up your spot faster than a 400 shot of n2o on a cast piston.
3. Magazine editors are broke too. The primary reason that our trucks look remotely cool is that most of us live in one-bedroom apartments with our relatives. This SoCal lifestyle isn't cheap, and rent is a mofo.
4. We do want to see your truck. We don't want to see your girlfriend/wife/mother naked, and that sort of bribery only works some of the time on certain people. Seriously. So send us some photos-of your truck.
5. It may sound crazy, but we don't always know the answer. But, we are really good at finding the right person that has the answer, so be patient if we don't answer your email question the same day.
Now that we've covered that subject, I also feel compelled to respond to another question that I'm sure you're going to ask me next month. This is me being preemptive. Neat, huh? It's time for change at the Sport Truck headquarters. You probably noticed that the magazine looks and feels different. As soon as you grab it from your mailbox or off the rack at Auto Zone you can feel the difference. The mag doesn't feel as thick as it once did. That's because it's not. We've had to tighten our belts just like the rest of you, as the world changes and so do our priorities. The tightening of the proverbial belt doesn't mean we are diluting the great content you've come to expect from your favorite mag. Instead, we've switched to a less expensive way of putting the magazine together, using staples instead of glue to hold the pages together. For me, this isn't really a step backward or punishment for a job well done.
I've always liked the staples, because I'm able to pull them apart and take pages out of the magazine that I really like, without tearing them up. Our Pin-Up girls make much better garage wall art when their legs and arms are intact, and when the mag was "perfect bound" with glue, I always ruined any page I tried to remove from it.
Now that the magazine has staples once again (we had them back in the '80s and early '90s too), we are taking the opportunity to add the traditional magazine centerspread back into the mix. Beginning with the June issue, we are expanding our Pin-Up girls section with a centerspread photo that is suitable for tacking up in the garage next to your toolbox. As a bonus, the back of the centerspread will feature a portion of a larger image, much like the life-sized Lana Kinnear poster we featured in '08. Every month, we'll bring you a hot truck and girl on the front side of the centerspread and once you collect them all you can flip them over and hang them on your wall to create another mega-sized image of all that's right with the female species. See ya next month!