Long before there was ever such a thing as a pair of smelly Nads, an angry Rikdaddy, hearts filled with Seoul, or a JDM checking out his Wong, there were monkeys-staff monkeys to be precise. Spearheaded by the original. Petersen Publishing, two dorky and very out of place white guys began reporting on a burgeoning Southern California and soon to be nationwide phenomenon-oh yeah, and they brought a local street racer along for street cred. Meet Matt Pearson-the very first editor-in-chief, Karl Brauer-feature editor extraordinaire, and Ed Eng-tech guru and token Asian guy. These three represent the very first Super Street staff, which is responsible for all things nuclear and then some.
Super Street: What brought you all to Super Street? Surely it wasn't the fine pay we'rereceiving these days.
Ed Eng: My college roommate's cousin's sister, who was working for Petersen, told me that the company was about to launch a new magazine and the guy they hired to run it didn't really know anything [about import cars] (laughs). I was wrenching at Dynamic Autosports at the time and couldn't see myself as a writer or photographer, but they wanted writing samples from me anyway. I had another friend, shoot some photos and copyedit my story before I turned it in.
Karl Brauer: Mine's easy, I just wanted out of the editorial assistant's job-badly. I asked Matt if it covered big block, rear wheel drive cars, and he said "Nope." I took it anyway (laughs). The truth was, I had known Matt about two years when he was an editorial assistant, before the magazine was created, and was calling from Denver to bother him about getting a job within the company. Ironically the guy I first spoke to about getting a job at Petersen wound up becoming the boss of the book that I would be reporting to two years later.
Matt Pearson: The short version: It was '95 and at the time I was driving a '90 Civic Si while working as an editorial assistant for Hot Rod. Every day those guys would come around with no ends of crap for the car I was driving, saying I should trade it in. It finally got to a point where John Dianna (former Petersen VP/publisher) teased me because I drove a Honda. I told him he should come up with a new book, especially since Sport Compact Car and Turbo were doing so well. He said a book like those would never work in Petersen. There was a Battle of the Imports that weekend and I said I would be going up to take pictures, so he asked me to bring them by after they were developed. He saw the pictures and was impressed by the size of the crowd, so he asked me to put a proposal together on what I thought would be a good magazine for this type of scene. I put a 14-page proposal together on what departments and features should be included. I didn't hear anything for weeks and finally he came to me saying, "We're going to do this. Don't screw it up." He took a hell of a chance on me because I had only edited SIPs (Special Interest Publications) until that point, not monthly magazines.