DRE’S ANATOMY REVISITED

Andre Simon is no stranger to these pages, but when a recent yarn with the legendary Kiwi tuner/ex-NZPC tech expert swung towards the ‘good old days’ and the fact that plenty of our younger readers probably didn’t even exist when Andre strapped his first car onto the rollers, we knew it was time for a good ol’ campfire chat. This is a story about exceptionally bad haircuts, burning money on the cutting edge, and finding new callings beyond the soot-stained, sound-proofed walls of a dyno room.

NZ Performance Car: What was your first introduction to cars, and what was it that captured your interest at the time?

Andre Simon: It’s a little hard to pinpoint a single thing, to be honest. I think I was kind of brought up with an interest in anything mechanical, and when I was growing up I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to learn how to race karts. The car thing just grew from that once I was old enough to get a licence.

What did you want to be when you grew up, and at what point did you realize that cars and racing could be a real career for you?

I actually wanted to be a commercial pilot and did quite a lot of training towards that while I was still at school. The car thing was simmering away below the surface, though, and I was subconsciously trying to connect the dots and find a way of making it a career. That old saying, ‘Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life’ really resonated with me.

What was the scene like back then in those early days? It must have been exciting when GTXs, Legacys, and VR-4s started flooding the scene?

It was