The Feature.
In the summer of 2000, I was 19 years old, working my first engineering work term, and running Talon Temple out of a bedroom in Saskatchewan. I'd built the site because I loved the car and wanted somewhere to put everything I was learning about it. That was the whole plan.
Then Sport Compact Car magazine — the biggest name in the North American import scene — put my site in their August 2000 issue, in a section called "WEBSIDE!"that reviewed enthusiast websites. Page 34.
Alongside two vendor sites, they featured a kid from the prairies with a homemade shrine to his Eagle Talon. And they were kind about it. Really kind.
What they said
It's Dan-Dan from Saskatchewan here, and he's cleverly merged some Temple of Doom graphics with a Bam-Bam Flintstone outlook to give browsers a welcome jolt of comic relief. True, there are serious subdirectories devoted to specs and mods and how-to tips. There's even a "Rim Selector" feature that works better than the ones at some wheel vendor sites. But I somehow kept finding myself veering off into Dan's collection of Car Spoofs. These feature irreverent "virtual" images that have been photo retouched as well as some cheeky observations about "what the car you drive says about you." Some samples? Well, the driver of a Volvo wagon is apparently admitting, "I'm afraid of my wife"; but an Acura NSX proudly confesses on behalf of its owner, "I'm impotent.""
The lines I still can't believe
The article, page 34
When I built this site the first time, I never imagined a magazine would notice. I was just some kid from the prairies who loved a car. Getting three columns of print in Sport Compact Car was one of those moments you carry your whole life.
I'm in my mid-40s now. Executive Director of Digital Services in Saskatchewan. A husband, a dad of three boys. I sold the Sprint and the first Talon years ago. But the memory of being "Dan-Dan from Saskatchewan" on page 34 stays with me.
Bringing the site back is partly for me, partly for anyone who read that article and wondered what happened to the kid. Turns out he grew up. Still loves the car. Still thinks V8 is a swear word.