This is what the current AutoWeek editorial team did in the 1990s – part 2

From dreaming to doing

I was only working during the last year of the 1990s, because from January 1990 to January 1999 I was a HAVO and HEA student. I started reading car magazines frantically in the last decade of the last century, yes of course also the newly started AutoWeek. I absorbed the information and started dreaming about what I would like to drive later. With an older brother and a much older brother-in-law, I was able to get my money’s worth when it came to riding along. Hot hatchbacks, BMWs and big Opels with a six-cylinder, that works. In the mid-1990s, as an eighteen-year-old, I finally got my driver’s license, but the budget did not yet allow for my own car. However, it was clear as day that I would, no, should, do something with cars in a few years. As an intern, I had a great time at the BMW importer. I often drove the latest BMWs – the E46 3-series was released during my internship in 1998 – and as an intern in the aftersales department – whose aim, among other things, was to push as many accessories as possible into the sales channel – I had a lot of contact with tuner AC Schnitzer. At that time, his items were offered through the official dealer channel. Now that is unthinkable, because manufacturers have long realized that they have to offer as many trinkets as possible themselves in order to make money. At the close of the 90s, a dream I never thought possible came true. On December 15, 1999, I started as a car editor at a journalistic agency and started writing about cars. Until then, I always thought that my future would lie in the car industry itself, but it became the media, and one of the best jobs you could wish for as a car enthusiast.

Stephan Vermeulen

Impress girls

This decade has been decisive for me. During the first half of my life as a student, I worked on weekends as a car cleaner at a garage and there I learned to drive. At least, I learned to operate the car, because I couldn’t leave the lot. I didn’t have a driver’s license, but I could park with millimeter accuracy at the age of fifteen (of course without cameras and sensors), a skill that I still enjoy. In the second half I started as a journalism intern at AutoWeek and if you’re talking about being on the same page… As the youngest employee, I was often used to pick up and deliver the test cars and as a photo assistant. For example, I was portrayed fishing next to a Skoda Felicia. I drove almost all the cars that came to the newsroom. That went from a Renault Sport Spider, via a BMW M3 (E36 for the experts) and a Lotus Elise to a Nissan Serena, a Daewoo Lanos and a Peugeot 306. As one of the very first in the Netherlands on the road with an Alfa Romeo 156, a Peugeot 406 Coupé or a Volvo V70R, that attracts attention. The special thing about all this: I had a crush on a beautiful girl from my hometown and for almost two years I visited her a few times a week with literally a different car under my ass every time. You might think that would make an impression. Well, no. She didn’t care one bit. Many hundreds of cars later still not, by the way, but we have been together for 25 years this fall. So the 90s brought me a lot of good things.

Damien Hage

Cinquecento in the leading role

If I move back to the 1990s, the Fiat Cinquecento was a common thread, but not from the beginning. During my military service with the Royal Air Force in 1991, I drove around in a fairly young Berlin blue Fiat Panda, which was succeeded by a burgundy red copy with a folding roof. My parents took it over when I bought my first Cinquecento: red and basic. But what a nice cart that was! Later I fell for the ultimate Cinquecento, a bright yellow Sporting. It linked a compact carriage to a larger 1,108 cc engine. He turned that lightweight cart into a smooth companion, even though there were ‘only’ 54 horses prancing under the hood. It had a sporty interior with ode needles in the dashboard (yes, also with a tachometer) and a leather-covered steering wheel. He often took me to rally sprints, where I followed the Cinquecento Trofeo. The little ones competed against each other in short rally events. That produced nice images, especially because they were technically identical. I made the longest trip with ‘Tweety’ from Veghel via Frederikshavn to Gothenburg in Sweden. However, there was no fatigue. With this experience, after a few years I bought a new ‘Cinque’ Sporting, but tomato red. It was just as nice, but less striking than the bright yellow. It turned out that I often challenged Golfs and BMW 3s to a sprint at a traffic light. I also won that regularly. I made the ultimate ride with a Cinquecento, overhauled by Novitec, equipped with a turbo. Where do you think that broad smile came from when I spurred the car on the Middegaal between Heeswijk-Dinther and Veghel (at that time a winding cobblestone road)? Simple: 160 hp in a car weighing just 800 kg. Now think about that again…

Joost Boers

A sea full of Waves, Escorts and Astras

Oh, how cool we thought our Jetta was when it arrived at the Lemkes house as a relatively young vehicle. With its red paint, large shield bumpers and deep ‘front spoiler’, it made its predecessor, a Ford Escort, pale in comparison. This photo is from June 1994 and I was five years old, but that was old enough for the car-crazy Jantje to have vivid memories of it. I think of the difficult start and the merciless rattle of the 60 hp 1.6 turbo diesel (with cat!) under the hood, but also of the smell and sight of the square, black and chunky Jetta 2 interior. A new car from dad, that was the absolute highlight of my car-filled existence. The hunt prior to the purchase was even more fun for me, although I seem to remember that my father mainly saw it as a necessary evil. We drove the Jetta around town and country for years and for me it is the car of the 90s, which I filled in by spelling out all the car magazines and books I could find, making it look as much like a car as possible. of my go-kart and rebuilding all kinds of models. At the beginning of this decade we lived in the Goverwelle district of Gouda, which was largely built in the 1990s. I remember a Ferrari Testarossa once braving the doorsteps of that neighborhood, after which I jumped on my bike with my father to see the miracle. That Ferrari was the exception in Goverwelle in a sea full of Golfs, Escorts and Astras, all of which I could have mentioned by name and all of which I found interesting. Not much has changed in that respect.

Jan Lemkes

The carrots

As a child of the early 90s, I always have special memories of that decade. It was the time when I went to primary school, explored my neighborhood day in and day out on my go-kart and also the period in which my love for cars developed. The living room often turned into a huge parking lot, where all my toy cars were neatly displayed side by side and my Lego collection was used almost exclusively to build even more cars. In my bedroom there were photos of classic cars taken by my grandfather on the wall and of course there was a play mat on the floor with a complete road network on it. It is difficult to say exactly when this car craze started. In any case, it helped that my parents eventually decided to sell their not-too-old Ford Fiesta and buy a beautiful, fully restored Citroën DS in return. As a young boy I was extremely impressed by the lines of the DS, but also by the comfort. There was something magical about it, with its special suspension system that made it rise when starting. My neighborhood friends often came to see us when we went out with the DS. I would sit in the back as proud as a peacock and will never forget that feeling, the sounds and the smells. Every now and then a hint of that smell passes by in my Peugeot 205 (which is now as old as the DS was at the time): that slightly musty old car smell. The 205 actually comes from the 1990s, and I think back and immediately realize how long that time is behind us. Fortunately, there are still vivid memories.

Joas van Wingerden

Career switch

A lot happened for me in the 90s. During that period I laid the foundation for a new career. For four years, I drove two evenings a week to Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in Zwolle to study journalism & communication. A tough time, with a young family at home and working a few days a week as an employed driving instructor to partly earn a living. I drove those kilometers with a Golf 1.6 Pasadena on gas, followed by a Golf 3 1.9 D. As a private car we drove an old Ford Escort 1.3 automatic. In the spring of 1997 the years of study were over and in the final phase I was able to do an internship for a few months. As a born car nut, you naturally choose a car magazine and I was very fortunate to find a place at AutoWeek, then still part of VNU in Haarlem. I can still remember my first press trip. We flew to Verona with two small jets to drive the new Mercedes-Benz CLK. That was in 1997. A test car that spontaneously comes to mind is the Kia Pride, including leatherette upholstery! Then we laughed at such a Korean, in 2023 I drive an electric car from that brand myself. I had a few Audis in the 90s, perhaps because my father also drove an Audi 100 for a long time. My first was a white 100 type 43, then a blue type 44 2.3 automatic, which was followed by a black 2.3 with manual gearbox, climate control, cruise control and that beautiful dashboard with a whole row of clocks. In the summer, my parents-in-law’s caravan went behind it and we drove as a family to the west coast of France. Now and then I sometimes sit behind the wheel of a five-cylinder Audi for AutoWeek Classics and that brings back many wonderful memories.

Marc Klaver

Writing pieces in WP 5.1

I had just gotten my driver’s license when the 90s arrived. That pink rag (there was no question of plastic cards yet) was kind of the ticket to freedom. At least, if you had wheels. As a student, the latter was not a given. But the student public transport card did not yet exist, so as long as you did not want to hitchhike, traveling cost money anyway; I would rather pour the proceeds from my Saturday job into the bottomless pit called a car than spend it on strip cards and train tickets. Over the years I have been the proud owner of a whole series of cars that were no longer beautiful (you would now make a good impression at a classic car festival). But it drove and that was what mattered. Things changed in the fall of 1992. From then on, my new part-time job consisted of filling the car page of the door-to-door magazine ‘De Zaankanter’. In practice, it meant that I borrowed a car from the local dealers for a few days, wrote a piece in between studying my experiences with those cars in WP 5.1 and then submitted it to the editor on a floppy. . Almost all common models from the first half of the ‘nineties’ stood in front of the student house in this way. Like many other things in life, the first one has always stuck with me: the Ford Scorpio Wagon. When was the last time you saw one?

Cornelis Kit