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IBNEWS "RENOWNED CAR JOURNALIST “TAKES READERS ON A RIDE s 3s 2 5 FS Oakville Beaver | € 8 : 3 £& BAMBANG SADEWO bsadewo@metroland.com Througha long series of amaz- ing coincidences, Jim Kenzie found himself wi IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY “The only credit I can take is that when the opportunity was presented, I didn't turn it down,” the longtime Halton resident said. and his He first wrote for a. Jocal publ cation — later kno ton Weekly Tribune mene en tually for the Toronto Star for nearly 38 years. There was also the Milton Champion {Comnec: tion, but more on that The flukes, as he anne them, including getting the first gig a tool that ultimately took him behind the wheel of the Star's automo- tive section, Wheels. ia and nustralia to South Africa and Be- lize — are encapsulated in his au- tobiography, “In ie Driver's Seat," which Kenzie describes as a book about "the cars that I've driven and the cars I've written about" — divided into fairly short The oane escapades, in far-flung from Mongoli ipters with some photos. "Ive travelled all over the world,” he said, sharing how “very, very fortunate" it had been to drive on tracks like the Nur- burgring in Germany, Spa- Fran- corchamps in Belgium, and around the Monaco circuit, im Paine; e/ Metroland Grahai Jim Kenzie is seen here with his vintage 1977 bright orange Hornet coupe. mong others. “But I didn't get to ane a Not a lot of cars in Antarctica." There are tales of the vanish- ing Porsche cars in southern France, losing a Jaguar test car, coming out unscathed after "bar- rel-rolling" his Mini Cooper S at Mosport, and picking up Gordon Lightfoot at the airport on his Volvo. Then there's the origin story. “The two things I wanted to do in my life were race cars and play in a rock and roll band. The two things I swore I'd never do were teach or anything to do with com- puters. Within six years of gradu- ation, I'm racing, playing in a rock band, and teaching comput- er programming," the University bd aaa engineering graduate aahat tells you all you need to know about career planning.’ On the impetus of the book, Kenzie, who was also one of the hosts of, Motoring TV show, said: "T'd like to think that " was always sort of writing “ He was encouraged to put ai his stories down in a book by someone he met while giving a talk at the 101 self-published book was leased. “That's why it came out andit's been a lot of fun," he As for being ‘turned own by the editor of the Champion at the time for not being "as good a writ- er" back then only to get hired by the Star not long after, Kenzi said they have since become good friends and that they still have coffees "with a bunch of our old buddies." "We still laugh about it," he said. interested in gett copies of the book ($30) can email al ior at jim@jimken- zie.com. * “Plus HST. 7-DAY "99 DENVERY SERVICE 599 /WEEK FOR 12 MONTHS YOU'LL GET: * 7-Day home delivery + New York Times International Weekly and Book Review section * Access to the Star ePaper and thestar.com OR CALL: quote code ‘This offer includes The New York Times International This offer is for a NOW: stand continue after the 1: at only. F your View our subscril 15, 2023,