October 5th, 2009 will go down as a dark day in the sport compact industry, as Shaun Carlson, one of its best and brightest, was taken from us far too soon. Only 35 years old, Shaun had recently been diagnosed with Brugada Syndrome-a genetic disorder that disrupts the heart's electrical system-but upon being given an implanted defibrillator, reportedly told his condition would be manageable. It was unclear exactly what caused his passing, as of press time.
After years served in this industry, any chance I found to BS with Shaun at events and industry functions were a big part in keeping them worth looking forward to. Although we missed each other through much of 2008, he always set aside a good chunk of time so we could reconnect and talk about cars, racing and everything else that's been going on in our lives-no matter how busy we were, we would always catch up like time hadn't passed. SEMA was always a good place for this; I try not to think of how much quieter this year's show will be without him.
Shaun started his import performance odyssey at Turbo magazine back in 1997, where he became a staff editor and our best photographer. I shared a cramped office with him and we worked long, hard hours, as committed people with vision and purpose usually do. It was an exciting time; the scene was in transition, growing into a legitimate industry and we saw our efforts as being the tip of the spear, bringing credibility and respect to what was so often described back then as merely "kids with small cars and big mufflers." It was an uphill battle at times.
We were shooting a Mustang one evening, when the owner's son and a friend who drove the car to the shoot started hating on Sean's import, asking him about muffler bearings and what he thought the best valves for a 13B would be. Shaun was spoolin' up and ready to body slam the boneheads, but held his cool for the sake of professionalism. I wasn't so reserved. I asked Shaun for his film, ripped it from the canister, told the Mustang kids where they should store it, and informed them that daddy's car-nor any of his customers' cars-would never appear in our magazine. Shaun was shocked, and worried about me getting in trouble. But he was there shooting for me, and on the front lines, you stand up for your guys. I suggested an early dinner and we spent a good chunk of time just talking. It was one of the few times he didn't run home to weld something. We talked about my daughter, about him moving out on his own, about how we had a hard time spending money on ourselves for stuff like shoes when we could use the cash for something useful, like parts or tools. We also touched on where the emerging import scene was going, and he surprised me with some of his product ideas, the Honda Block Guard among them. I stayed quiet and let his train of thought carry the conversation, the gears in his head turning almost frantically, a precursor of things to come.
Shaun was only 23 years old at the time (and looked like he was 13) but his fabrication skills were far beyond his years. On several occasions, people couldn't believe his work was his own, and that shook Shaun's rafters to no end. He was building his "World's Fastest 1.5-Liter Honda", when he started working at the mag, a CRX project he and cohort Jason Whitfield collaborated on, and his immense talents needed little justification once we ran that series of articles. In one of the more popular installments, he explained how he painted it in the front lawn of his parent's house. The paint was flawless. What emerged at the end of the series was a truly timeless build that combined form and function as only Shaun could. Heck, the car would still pop retinas today as it did when it appeared on the April '98 cover of Turbo.