Zach Gale

Since about the time I learned to walk I’ve been fascinated by cars of all shapes and sizes, but it wasn’t until I struggled through a summer high school class at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design that I realized writing was my ticket into the automotive industry. Growing up, I would pretend packets of sugar in restaurants were cars and drive them around the table when my Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars weren’t available. Later, I spent a couple long years waiting to drive myself through the winding canyons that led to my high school, and I have never lost that excited feeling some 16-year-olds get when they first set out on the road. The automotive industry, singing, and writing have always been my passions, but because no one seeks a writer who sings about the automotive industry, I honed my writing and editing skills at UC Irvine (zot zot!), serving as an editor of the official campus newspaper and writing stories as a literary journalism major. At USC, I developed a much greater appreciation for broadcast journalists and became acquainted with copy editing rules such as why the Oxford comma is so important. Though my beloved 1996 Audi A4 didn’t survive my college years, my career with Motor Trend did. I started at the company in 2007 building articles for motorcycle magazines, soon transitioning to writing news posts for Motor Trend’s budding online department. I spent some valuable time in the copy editing department and as an online news director, and Motor Trend now keeps me busy as the senior production editor and director, buyer’s guides. I’ll never turn down a drive in a six-figure exotic car, but what really thrills me in the automotive industry are well-executed cars that manage to be fun to drive, practical, and reasonably priced – not an easy task. Not everyone has a career centered on one of their passions, and I remind myself all the time how lucky I am.