A Mostly True Biography of Gary Anderson

Gary Anderson's mother believes he became a gearhead after his first motor racing accident when he was knocked unconscious in a head-on collision with a doorframe at the age of four while drifting his Jaguar XK140 fixed-head coupe Dinky toy across the carpet between the living room and dining room.

While growing up and getting a proper education including a degree in history from Princeton (1967) and a master's in industrial administration from Carnegie-Mellon (1969), Gary owned in succession a 1949 Chevy fastback, a 1954 Chevy Belair coupe, a 1959 Renault Dauphine, a 1968 Datsun 2000, and a 1964 MGB tourer. (He even claims that he drove the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix race course in Schenley Park in his Datsun 2000 every night on his way home from the library.)

Gary toyed with the idea of an automotive career, taking a position with Ford Motor Company in product planning after receiving his MBA in 1969, but he had to leave that position when he received an offer he couldn't refuse from Uncle Sam and donned army green for two years from 1969 to 1971. Coming out of the army, Gary decided he should put cars aside and take up a respectable career, so he became a consulting economist, first with Merrill Lynch and then with SRI International (Stanford Research Institute).

To satisfy his car interests, Gary bought an Austin-Healey, joined the Austin-Healey Clubs, became editor of the Austin-Healey Magazine, and then president of the Austin-Healey Club Pacific Centre. Dissatisfied with the outcome of his judging in an Austin-Healey concours event, Gary joined with two other Healey enthusiasts to found the Austin-Healey Concours Registry, now the accepted organization in North America and Australia to maintain restoration standards for the Austin-Healey and register correctly restored Healeys.

In 1996, assuming that editing Austin-Healey Magazine had given him an adequate base to become a publisher, and having the confidence of all consultants, Gary with his wife, Genie, purchased British Car Magazine , which they continued to publish through 2002.

Based on his experience with the Austin-Healey Concours Registry, Gary collaborated with Roger Moment to write a restoration guide for the big Healey. Their book Austin-Healey 100/100-6/3000 Restoration Guide was published in 2000 and has become a best-seller for Motorbooks.

Also while publishing British Car, Gary began vintage racing in a 1960 MGA 1600, which he has campaigned in two Wine Country Classics and two Monterey Historics, as well as in other West Coast vintage events. Gary and Genie also acquired a 1964 Jaguar Mk2 which they have driven to the Grand Canyon and back from their home in Los Altos, California and which won the 2005 Popular Choice Concours award from the local Bay Area Jaguar Club.

In early 2003, the Andersons sold British Car to Motorsports Marketing in Florida, and Gary worked for a year with the Motorsports staff as editor to relaunch the magazine as Classic Motorsports.

Resigning from Classic Motorsports in the spring of 2004, Gary has since been working as a freelance journalist, writing for several modern car publications, including Sports Car Market magazine, while writing and editing a book on new MINIs. Just published by Gary's company, Enthusiast Publications, the book Motoring-Getting the Maximum from Your New MINI is available through Minimania.com and Motorbooks.com.

In 2005, drawing on his experience writing Motoring, Gary became founding editor and art director of a new magazine for the Mini hobby called MCsquared, and managed the editorial and production of the magazine for its first two years. During that time he acquired and modified his own MINI Cooper S, which he now uses as a track car and daily driver.

Currently, Gary is a freelance journalist, writing editorial columns on collectible British cars for Sports Car Market magazine, testing and writing about contemporary cars with his wife Genie for the local Los Altos newspaper, and contributing articles to Hagerty Magazine and British Motoring published by Moss Motors. He is also editor of the Austin-Healey Magazine. For fun, he races his MGA in Historic Motor Sports Association events, teaches track driving with Hooked-on Driving, and drives his 1959 Austin-Healey to club events.