To be successful in the magazine space today, you’ve got to have passion.
You’ve got to be all in, pedal to the metal with your hair on fire, especially in the automotive genre.
Where losing touch with your audience or taking your eye off the bottom line quickly causes your doors to close. Fortunately, we’ve got a digital publication here in Atlanta that can easily navigate today’s treacherous hairpin corners.
ShiftAtlanta has been covering the full range of Atlanta’s automotive experience for the past three years.
Their articles range from Scalar Performance EV Testing At Atlanta Motorsports Park to An Enthusiasts Guide To Scan Tools to the latest events and gatherings.
Recently we had a chance to talk with Paul Pezzano, editor of ShiftAtlanta, and learn more about their platform.
Early Love Of Sportscars
Rod Worley – Editor – Before we talk about the website, have you always had an automotive passion? How has your journey led you here to SHIFTAtlanta?
Paul Pezzano – Editor – ShiftAtlanta – I’ve had a passion for cars since I was a kid. Like all kids who loved cars in the 80s, I had a poster of a Lamborghini Countach and a C4 Corvette on my wall.
In high school, my group of friends were all car enthusiasts. We had imports at the time, joining the craze in the 90s.
I modded my first car with suspension and did my first track day at Road Atlanta. I was hooked and never looked back.
Since then, I’ve owned a full spectrum of enthusiasts cars, from those Japanese cars in my high school and college years to owning multiple Chevys and later adding German performance cars to our stable, including a Porsche and several BMWs.
My experience has ranged from a 77 Chevy C20 with a 350 that I put cams, headers, and a Holley carb on. I come from the timing light era, but I still find myself being drawn to how technology has helped progress cars forward.
There is no either, or for me, I need it all. I need my very tactile fix of a manual in an analog car, but I enjoy the fact that daily drivers can run mid-11s at the track and high 1:30s around Atlanta Motorsports Park but still be comfortable enough to take on a road trip.
That journey and desire to experience and share my passion for cars with others have always led me to be active in the car community. I’ve been President of multiple car clubs and have built a number of events, including building one of Georgia’s largest sportsman drag races that still operate down at Silver Dollar Motorsports Park.
I’ve also organized track days and car shows over the last 30 years. My motto has always been “Give more than you take.” I’ve carried that into my work with ShiftAtlanta.
Others helped pave the way for me to get on track, supported our events, and shared their passion. I wanted a place where I could replicate the feeling for anyone who was passionate about cars in Atlanta.
Every one of those experiences helped me get out and do something I didn’t think I could do – either because of money, experience, or just didn’t know about them.
With ShiftAtlanta, we wanted to find ways to help people break down those barriers, whether they are real or perceived, so they could do more with their passion.
A Passion For Cars
Rod Worley – Editor – When did you start SHIFTAtlanta, and what needs do you see it fulfilling for area car enthusiasts?
Paul Pezzano – Editor – ShiftAtlanta – We started ShiftAtlanta 3 years ago with a simple purpose: Get people to do more with a passion for cars. While not exclusively on those with a passion for driving, we do focus heavily on them.
Still, we encourage the entire range of car enthusiasts, from track enthusiasts to offroaders to show cars. One thing we want to do is break down the cliques and circles in the car scene.
Just because you drive on track doesn’t mean you don’t enjoy offroading. Just because you have a show car doesn’t mean you wouldn’t be interested in learning car control.
Most car enthusiasts go on a journey, starting with small customizations and trying different things until they find their favorite parts of the car scene. But just like anything, you eventually either decide to perfect your craft or decide to try new things.
We want to help people learn how to do both. So we seek out those friction points where enthusiasts tend to stop on that journey and see if we can help provide opportunities to overcome them.
Some people are happy doing what they do with their cars, but we find most people at least want to try different things. Even if you never want to do anything but drive on the street, what are some great drives we can get you out to do?
If you don’t want to try wheel-to-wheel racing but love track days, what iconic tracks can we help you find ways to drive?
Knowledge & Resources
Rod Worley – Editor – How would you best describe the ShiftAtlanta experience to someone who’s never seen the website before? What areas do you focus on?
Paul Pezzano – Editor – ShiftAtlanta – The experience is focused on knowledge and resources. If I’m interested in doing something or doing more, how do I accomplish it?
How to manage my time, finances, and commitments to make it happen? How do I find resources that can help me do more – from events to how-tos and, in some cases, even help provide vehicles or opportunities?
All of our information is intended to make every aspect of the car scene accessible. And where there are cost or complexity barriers, we want to demystify that. We can’t necessarily make owning a car magically cheap, but we can help you understand to maximize what you spend through these resources.
Reaching Those In Need
Rod Worley – Editor – How can community members, event organizers, and partners be a part of these exciting times at ShiftAtlanta?
Paul Pezzano – Editor – ShiftAtlanta – You can just hop over to ShiftAtlanta and check out our articles and resources. Enjoy the articles, and check out our calendar of events. Literally, 1000s of car enthusiasts in metro Atlanta find our articles and/or use our events calendar each month.
And those in the community and partners are constantly sending us more to add every day. Event organizers and community partners can send us a contact request with details about events they’d like to add to our calendar or to request coverage of their event.
While we can’t yet cover everything, we do our best to help any meaningful organization or group get coverage. We want to support the community and prioritize those who give as well.
In addition to the written resources and calendar, we’ve also got some additional things going on.
First, annually we do a charity show to raise money for the Atlanta Children’s Shelter, which helps parents with children transition out of homelessness. But this is no ordinary car show.
We call it a Drivers Festival, and we encourage any type of high-performance car – from purpose-built race cars, Lemons cars with themes, dedicated track cars, and supercars to come put on a display. We attract other drivers and performance enthusiasts to celebrate the vehicles that enable these passions, all while doing great for the community.
It’s usually held at a brewery, so it’s a great chance to grab a brew if you drink and meet fellow enthusiasts.
Also, unlike a lot of charity car shows, we don’t take anything off of the top. Most of our vendors and sponsors donate everything needed to run the event, including the space.
So we give 98% of every dollar that comes into the charity. And not 98% of profits, 98% of all dollars. Last year we raised over $8,200, and we hope, with the growth of the event, to be able to smash that number in 2023.
We always have a number of Corvettes on display and hope to see more support for the event. Corvettes are the perfect example of an exotic, high-performance car that draws attention at nearly any car show.
Plus, there are so many track-dedicated Corvettes that really showcase the car’s racing heritage. We want to showcase that. You can head to driversfestival.com for more details about the show itself.
Next, we’re passionate about getting people out doing more with their cars. We also have a number of community projects to help support this.
We’ve built a dedicated amateur endurance race car that we run in the 24 Hours Of Lemson and Lucky Dog Racing League that is operated by members of our community. Qualified members get an opportunity to get behind the wheel and do real, wheel-to-wheel racing.
For some, trying it once is enough of an experience. For others, it gets them hooked. One member joined us for a race and immediately went out and built their own car. Those types of stories are what we live for. Helping people get the exposure and seeing them fall in love.
To further expand on that project, our latest community project is building a track training car. The goal is to provide an opportunity for people to get behind the wheel on track to get them prepared for track days and even join one of our amateur race teams.
This gives us an opportunity to help people break the seal, either when they don’t have a car that makes sense to put on track.
Finally, we operate a series of private track day events and partner with track day and car show operators to host groups of members for exclusive activities. We’re going to be expanding the opportunities for these types of events here in 2023 and looking to over not only track days and car shows but car control/skid pad private events and much more.
The best part of all of this is as a community organization, those who help us and support us get input on what we do. We’re here to fill the gaps. We don’t want to compete or replace anyone; we want to help fill the top of the funnel for the community.
We believe rising tides lift all boats.
Try ShiftAtlanta
Are you looking for something different from the typical online publications?
ShiftAtlanta stands out from the crowd in several areas.
While many magazines seem bogged down with ads and disguised advertorials, ShiftAtlanta delivers diverse and engaging content on various automotive subjects.
We should know. We’ve been readers for three years and counting.
Join us and discover an automotive magazine that’s not afraid to put the pedal to the metal with its hair on fire.
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