South African-born Glen Smale started his professional motor journalism and photography career back in 1994, but if truth be told, Glen has had a driving passion for all things motoring since a tender age.
In 1997, Glen launched Autosport & Classics, a classic motoring and historic motorsport magazine covering the local scene in SA. Two years later, having sold his share in the magazine, Glen moved to the UK with his family and took on the editorship of a new online motoring publication with one of the UK’s biggest insurance companies.
Between 2004 and 2016 Glen has authored twelve books covering sports cars and motor racing. In 2007 he received the Laurin and Klement ‘Design Writer of the Year’ award for his book Jaguar E-type: Portrait of a Design Icon. In 2012 his book, Porsche at Le Mans: 60 Years of Porsche Participation in the World’s Greatest Motor Race, was shortlisted in the British Sports Book Awards. Of his twelve books, no less than seven have been on Porsche cars, perhaps suggesting where his passion lies.
Glen first started writing for the only magazine dedicated entirely to the Porsche 911, namely Total 911, as far back as 2005 and still contributes to this magazine on a regular basis. He has also been writing for the well-known Porsche magazine in America, Excellence, for a number of years. In addition to this, Glen has contributed to the Porsche Club of North America monthly publication, Panorama, as well as a host of other titles over the years in Europe, the UK and South Africa.
Having researched and written so much on the subject of Porsche, it perhaps comes as no surprise to learn that the Stuttgart marque has got under his skin somewhat. Being impressed not only by Porsche’s quality of engineering, but also by the brands phenomenal record of racing achievements, Glen has sought to expand his writing activities in this field. It is for this reason that Porsche Road & Race was brought to life.
In previous years Glen has owned and driven a variety of classics, and these have included: Jaguar 420, Jaguar S-type 3.8, Jaguar XJ6, Jaguar Mk I 2.4, Alfa Romeo Giulia Super Nuova and a BMW 2000 CS. He was also the only person on his university campus to own not one, but two Jaguars – only one worked though, and he did a lot of walking! But what would he like in his garage today? Well unsurprisingly it’s a Porsche, but specifically, a 993 Turbo would do very nicely, or really pushing the boat out, a 997 GT3 would be just about perfect thank you very much.
Away from the race track, Glen was an aspiring golfer in his younger days and represented his province in the under-18 age group for a number of years. He went on to win his University Championships and represented Rhodes University for five years, as well as playing club league golf for ten years. Glen is married to Elke and they live in the beautiful county of Carmarthenshire in West Wales.
Glen has been a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers since 1995, and is also a member of the Western Group of Motoring Writers.
Want to see more?
Visit the Virtual Motorpix website or follow Glen on Twitter
