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Guest Opinion: A View From The Top
By by: Greg Emmerson
Apr 6, 2004, 18:15

Leaving his position as the first Editor of Performance VW, Greg Emmerson reflects on his time at the top.

Walking away from Performance VW after seven and a half years as Editor has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's been like giving a child up for adoption, when you don't know if the smiling guardians you're handing it over to will really love it the way you did.

Of course, I'm exaggerating slightly, but I really saw the mag as my baby. After all, I gave birth to it, in a manner of speaking. Admittedly without the messy placenta or anything, but it was a difficult pregnancy. It was mid-1996. I was fresh from a four-year stint on Max Power and concerned about the state of existing VW magazines. I felt they were pretty lame and that anybody could do better. Even me!

From the beginning, I wanted to do something different. I wanted to feature the cars that were being ignored. Real cars. Cars like Bini Yousaf's first Mk2. In many ways, Bini and his car came to represent PVW. Bini for his undying enthusiasm, and the car for its grittiness. It was low - very low - partly thanks to an enormous sub box. The bodywork was clean and had some basic Euro tricks, but it bore the scars of regular use. This was no trailer queen. It got driven, and driven ridiculously hard. That Mk2 opened the floodgates. Other GTi owners realised their cars were of a similar standard. They weren't show cars, they were multi-role. They were racers, commuters, entertainers and, after a polish, could win trophies.

It wasn't long before PVW was getting serious recognition. People liked what we did. They liked that we stopped at cars the other mags walked past. We cared about the detail, but we didn't care about the owner. Hang on - don't take that wrong. What I mean is we didn't care where he was from. We were featuring cars from all over Britain when rival mags were favouring certain regions. Even more importantly, from my perspective, we were blind to race. I'd seen many magazines ignore owners who didn't fit the editor's criteria. But they were ignoring the huge part many black and Asian owners were contributing to the scene. We recognised their importance and, once Bini hit the front cover, we were good to go. It may seem strange to imagine how racism could be a factor in feature car selection but, back in the day, it was. I didn't like or understand it so, as soon as I could, I did something about it.

Suddenly, every VW owner felt part of the scene. Hell, we even featured the "minority" cars. Magazines like The Golf and Golf Extreme were hamstrung by their own names. By definition, they couldn't do Jettas, Sciroccos, Polos, Corrados, etc. So we waded in and had a go. I've joked about it in the past, but I'm not a huge fan of the Scirocco, or Polo. However, that doesn't stop me appreciating excellence. I mean, I don't love Mercs but I'll stop at the Brabus stand when I visit the Essen show to see what's on offer. In the same way, I can recognise a truly great VW when it tries to run me down.

Yet it was from the owners of these cars that PVW always took the most stick. If we featured one Polo it was never enough. "Where are the Sciroccos??" our emails would shout. Yet, in reality, there's a shortage of what I'd call feature-worthy cars from these 'minority" groups. And being in the minority meant we couldn't fill a mag with just Jettas and Corrados. The Golf has to take precedence by virtue of its broad appeal. I genuinely thought that if we were the only magazine to feature such cars, we would gain respect for taking a stand, but I now believe such owners will only be satisfied when they have their own, dedicated magazine.

Now this brings me on to another controversial area: car selection. We used to get slaughtered if we rejected somebody's car. "Who put you in charge??" was a common reaction. It's a fair point, and something I regularly tussled with. Why should we define the scene? But that's exactly what we did. By favouring the Euro-look, we effectively marginalised anything that didn't meet our criteria. This was perhaps most vividly seen in the USA where modified VWs had their own distinct style before we came along. To be honest, I liked the variety. The big spoilers and body kits were in stark contrast to the clinical German scene and the style that was emerging in Britain.
Visit an American VW show these days and the "touring car" style has gone, replaced by obedient Euro-looks. Admitted, I reckon the scene is better for it, since it distances VW owners from the "rice" style that infects America, but I was sad to see it go nonetheless.
I hope it's not arrogant to suggest certain styles have been killed by our selection process. To get in PVW you had to meet certain undefined criteria. And while the dominant styles which remained were created without our input, I don't think they would have reigned supreme without our backing. Admittedly, it's a chicken and egg situation, where one cannot exist without the other. And yet our own success began to backfire on us.

Within a couple of years there were just too many cars to feature. When we started, we were picking up the leftovers other mags didn't consider worthy. Yet within a short space of time we were defining a style and everybody was following suit. Pretty soon, we had incredible feature cars cropping up all around the world. The problem was, I have a peculiar weakness: I can't say "no" to a great car. As a result, we were commissioning features that had no chance of appearing in the magazine for months or even years. And that situation persists today. So you can blame me for that. I just have to photograph great VWs. It's an addiction!

As the number of cars on file increased, we found the selection process had to be more discriminating. Pretty soon we were turning our back on the cars that gained us our reputation, in favour of big-budget show cars. To this day, that remains my biggest regret.
We had a duty to reflect the real cars. And yet I knew we were being sidetracked when Bini was forced into ever more ambitious winter rebuilds in order to keep his Mk2 at the forefront. To be fair, he persevered and we rewarded his commitment by putting him on the cover more times than any other owner (I believe). Yet even he was forced to give up in the face of some dazzling competition.

I think it's fair to say Performance VW is now regarded as the best VW magazine in the world. I've been told this hundreds of times but still find it hard to believe. I can remember hurrying to complete the first issue and hoping it would be able to survive against its many opponents. Thankfully, it survived very well and remains strong and healthy. The mag is still inundated with the very best VWs from all around the world, and long may that continue.

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