BEHIND THE LENS SCOTT MEAD With a little help from his grandfather, Mecum’s senior photographer, Scott, started driving at the age of 3 and was racing go-karts by the time he turned 8. He received his first camera (a Kodak Instamatic) around the same time and started photographing car events, races, rallies and concours. Before coming to Mecum, he was a writer and photographer for Edmunds.com, Motor Trend and spent 15 years in Hawaii photographing the island’s splendor. Scott’s wife swears he gargles with 100-octane race gas and bleeds 20/50 motor oil, and when he’s not on the road, you can find him in his garage, wrenching on their DeTomaso Pantera or Porsche 914. ALL IN THE FAMILY I consider myself to be one heck-of-a-lucky guy. Traveling throughout the States and Canada shooting images for Mecum’s website and auction catalogs, I get to meet a plethora of amazing car aficionados and collectors, most of whom ooze the passion of the hobby from every pore of their bodies. Some are mega historians of a certain marque, while others just love anything on wheels that burns gasoline. However, the shoots I enjoy the most are those where the entire family is passionate about their four-wheeled babies. When I was a kid, nearly every weekend was occupied by some sort of a car event: time trials at Riverside, Ontario, Motor Speedway or Willow Springs Raceway; showing the cars at the Newporter or Palm Springs Concours d’Elegance; running the International Show Car Association (ISCA) circuit; or cruise nights at the Pasadena Fuddruckers, Frisco’s Carhop Diner in City of Industry or Bob’s Big Boy in Burbank. It didn’t matter what the event was or where the venue was located, everything was a family affair, and we usually didn’t bring just one car. We drove what became known as the “Family Twins.” See, my dad and grandfather both had matching DeTomaso Panteras. Both were 1974 models, and they were also both orange. Driving to and from car events, we caused a lot of people to do double takes. It was a rarity to see a Pantera on the road, let alone two at the same time wearing the same color. For many of us, our muscle cars, Street Rods, classics and exotics are a family bonding agent, bringing families together, trickling down generations of knowledge to the younger gearheads (like setting points with a match book) and allowing everyone involved to share in a job well done when the last piece is in place. Nowadays, when I’m out on a catalog shoot, I can’t help but smile when I pull up to a client’s home and am greeted by a parent and their child standing in the family driveway. I know some good stories are going to be told as I photograph their car. Many of those stories follow the same theme: parent and child(ren) find a project vehicle, and their weekends and evenings are spent rebuilding the car in the garage (save for those times that a good ballgame is on the tube). A couple of years later, they enjoy the vehicle on cruise nights and at local car shows. Years after that, it’s time for another project, and selling their baby at a Mecum auction will finance the next build. Except this time, maybe it’ll be parent, child(ren) and grandchild(ren) turning wrenches side-by-side. 62 • MECUM.COM
