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Jim Koscs on Muck Rack

Jim Koscs

New Jersey
As seen in: LinkedIn, MSN, The New York Times, BBC, The History Channel, Motor1.com, Capital One News, Hemmings Classic Car, Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine, Hagerty Media and
Automotive PR/marcom writer has worked with the world's top car brands. Auto journalist writing stories at the intersection of history, emotion and culture.
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Back from the USSR: Soviet cars earn another look

Back from the USSR: Soviet cars earn another look

bbc.com — It was a dark and stormy afternoon (it really was) when I stepped into a big, forboding Soviet limousine from Mikhail Gorbachev's fleet. But what was it doing at a Starbucks in New Jersey?
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Rusty Trails: Surveying America’s troubled roadways from a ’49 Hudson

Rusty Trails: Surveying America’s troubled roadways from a ’49 Hudson

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — America's infrastructure is crumbling, with some 63,000 bridges considered structurally deficient by the American Society of Civil Engineers. To spotlight the problem as no others have, Dan McNichol has driven 20,000 miles crisscrossing the country in a rusty, leaking 1949 Hudson. “It’s not a complicated subject when you illustrate it with the car,” he said.
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The Schwinn Sting-Ray: No longer child's play

The Schwinn Sting-Ray: No longer child's play

bbc.com — In the 1960s and early '70s, the two-wheel dream machine for many children in the US and Canada was a Schwinn Sting-Ray, a bicycle that put the spirit - if not the power - of a Chevelle SS 396 at their feet. And somewhere between their childhood and middle age, a love of the "muscle bike" was rekindled.
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In Iran, Hailing Detroit With Vintage V-8's

In Iran, Hailing Detroit With Vintage V-8's

The New York Times — The late Anthony Bourdain did a wonderful "Parts Unknown" episode on Tehran, Iran, which ended with a gathering of young people and their hopped-up American cars. A few years before, I wrote about that scene for The New York Times. I did not travel there, but rather interviewed via email a gentleman who was right in the thick of it with his Baldwin-Motion Camaro. How did all those American muscle cars get to Iran?
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Lots of Web Traffic in Such a Tiny Town

Lots of Web Traffic in Such a Tiny Town

The New York Times — Artist Michael Paul Smith became a social media sensation in 2010 when his tiny imaginary town of Elgin Park drew tens of millions of views via images posted on Flickr. I had the privilege of interviewing him for this New York Times story -- my first for the paper. Eight years, three books and a documentary film later, Mr. Smith is still at it.
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Beauty in the Beast: Which Classic Muscle Cars Are Most Iconic?

Beauty in the Beast: Which Classic Muscle Cars Are Most Iconic?

The History Channel — If you think talking politics is the quickest way to ignite an argument, you haven't tried classic muscle cars. Which was the first? The quickest? The coolest? Such questions spark fierce debate among Chevy, Ford, Dodge and Pontiac partisans, with effective jabs coming from the Olds, Buick and even AMC camps. Here's my take for The History Channel.
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Forty years on, GMC Motorhome remains on the move

Forty years on, GMC Motorhome remains on the move

bbc.com — How does an RV develop a cult following? One of the GMC Motorhome's adherents is the man who developed life support systems for the Apollo Space Program in the 1960s. This unique RV has a loyal following around the globe. I asked why.
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Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Beach Cars

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Beach Cars

The New York Times — What has 13 horsepower, a happy name, and looks like it escaped from a Disney kids' ride? It's the Fiat Jolly! I spoke with collectors to find out why they pay $100,000 and more for these rarities.
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A Hand-Me-Down With a History

A Hand-Me-Down With a History

The New York Times — Some things are worth cherishing and preserving. Randy Mehrberg became the caretaker of a 1952 MG TD in 2010, after his uncle Morty gifted it to him. Randy had learned to drive in the same car in 1972; he recounts to me why those memories are priceless.
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Two Fieros for Want of a Ferrari

Two Fieros for Want of a Ferrari

The New York Times — (From the "Auto Ego" column I wrote for the NY Times) The TV hit "How I Met Your Mother" helped rekindle interest in the Fiero, Pontiac's innovative but flawed mid-engine car from the 1980s. But for Onix Taveras, a Mercedes-Benz technician, the love started with the Ferraris he couldn't afford.
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Legend of the Car Craft Camaro

Legend of the Car Craft Camaro

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — In the mid- and late-1970s, used 1967-69 Camaros became what the 1955-57 Chevy had been for hot rodders and racers in the '60s. Camaros packed drag-strip staging lanes across the country. This one made some history. I talked to guys who built and drove it.
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All That Glitters is Probably Fiberglass

All That Glitters is Probably Fiberglass

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — To some enthusiasts, they are the automotive equivalent of a Thomas Kinkade painting: inspired art to their owners, but kitschy wall decor to others. They are neo-classics, cars built mostly in the 1970s and ’80s and often derided as caricatures of the 1930s cars they emulate. I spoke with those who designed and built and sold them, including Alain Clenet, whose eponymous roadster was a favorite in Hollywood.
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How a Ford Mustang become a National Rally Champion | Hagerty Articles

How a Ford Mustang become a National Rally Champion | Hagerty Articles

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — If rallying makes you think of flying Audis and drifting Subarus, adjust your brain to the idea of the Ford Mustang Mach 1 winning an SCCA Road Rally Championship in 1969 and 1970. Yes, this happened. I interviewed members of the original team.
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Gen-Z Driver, Cool for School

Gen-Z Driver, Cool for School

The New York Times — For a first car, many high school kids pine for a souped up Civic or Subaru. But in his junior year, Anthony Di Liberto was cruising suburban New Jersey in a 1962 Chrysler. And he was pin striping custom cars side by side with pro Alan Johnson. How did that happen?
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The first IROC Camaro was a street car with desire

The first IROC Camaro was a street car with desire

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — Propelled by a racing image and the novelty of having a car that seemed to declare, “I rock,” the IROC-Z Camaro supplanted the Z28 as the line’s top dog from 1985–90. The Camaro, however, had become an IROC star long before that.
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Knock if off, guys: It's not her husband's car!

Knock if off, guys: It's not her husband's car!

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — Admit it. At some point, you've witnessed a woman standing by a car at a show or concours and heard someone ask incredulously, "Is that your car?" The implication is that it surely must belong to a man in her life, as if a woman owning such an impressive car is a complete novelty.
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Citroën's Last American Gasp: French, Futuristic and Desired by Few

Citroën's Last American Gasp: French, Futuristic and Desired by Few

The New York Times — Did you catch Dave Chappelle in this season of Jerry Seinfeld's "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee?" Seinfeld chose the Citroën SM for the show, a car owned by Brian Brandt, who owns a record label in New York. I rode in the same car when I profiled Brandt four years before. (So, is that one degree of separation from Seinfeld and Chappelle?)
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The man who designs the future drives a '72 Chrysler Imperial | Hagerty Articles

The man who designs the future drives a '72 Chrysler Imperial | Hagerty Articles

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — It's been 36 years since the sci-fi cult classic film Blade Runner foretold a future of homicidal synthetic humans called "replicants" and flying cars known as "spinners." Sad Mead is the futurist who designed those machines. But what's Mead's favorite car? His 1972 Chrysler Imperial. He told me why.
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The original Ford Mustang was a tour de force in the 1964 Tour de France | Hagerty Articles

The original Ford Mustang was a tour de force in the 1964 Tour de France | Hagerty Articles

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — Before there was a Tour de France bicycle race, there was the Tour de France Auto race, begun in 1899 (that's no typo!). Just months after its debut in Ford showrooms, the new Mustang won its class in the week-long 1964 competition. Henry Mann, son of Alan Mann, whose shop prepped the cars for the race, recalls the details.
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50 Years Ago, the Turbocharger Was a Disruptive Technology

50 Years Ago, the Turbocharger Was a Disruptive Technology

The New York Times — Was the first production turbocharged car a Porsche? A Saab? Neither. General Motors got there first in 1962 with the Chevy Corvair Monza Spyder and Oldsmobile Jetfire. I spoke to the gurus for each model that help owners keep them running nearly 60 years later.
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When the C4 Corvette was banned for being too good, it had to create its own series | Hagerty Art...

When the C4 Corvette was banned for being too good, it had to create its own series | Hagerty Art...

Hagerty Classic Cars Magazine — When the SCCA booted the Corvette from Showroom Stock GT racing in the 1980s, the Corvette Challenge series was born. I talked to those who were there.
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Rat Rod: A Statement Made of Rust

Rat Rod: A Statement Made of Rust

The New York Times — HIGHLAND FALLS, N.Y. - The Storm King Highway, a twisting two-lane ribbon carved into a mountainside here nine decades ago, hardly seemed the place to test the roadworthiness of a hot rod that looked to have just escaped the junkyard.
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Looking Like a High Roller

Looking Like a High Roller

The New York Times — As part of a freelance video news crew, David Michael Leedy was on the scene of the arson at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx in 1990 that killed 87 patrons. Today, he's happy to be selling real estate in middle-class New Jersey suburban towns. The paint has lost a bit of its luster, and there are a few scuffs and dings on the body. But two hallmarks of the brand - the Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament and the upright grille, a monument of polished stainless-steel - still gleam.
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Her True Colors, in Plain View

Her True Colors, in Plain View

The New York Times — EAST MEADOW, N.Y. - Over a lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches at Panera Bread on Hempstead Turnpike here, Kim Schreier told the stories behind the tattoos that, she said, covered some 60 percent of her body. "This is my military arm," she said, raising her left arm. After lunch, we went for a ride in her hotrodded '51 Ford.
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