Circle of Friends.(AutoWeek magazine )(Viewpoint essay)

Byline: KEVIN A. WILSON

This is our 50th-anNIversary issue, but it's not about AutoWeek. It's about you. What has made AW different and special is not so much the people who've created the magazine as it is the people, the cars and the events portrayed on its pages and the hundreds of thousands of readers whose interests we've served.

I've been on staff here only 22 of the 50 years, but I was a reader for more than a decade before that. During these years, I've developed the profile of an imaginary AutoWeek reader.

He (we never forget that our reader is often "she,'' but males are the majority) has a wide, lower-case-c-catholic view of the car world. He's interested in races that take seconds over a quarter-mile, a couple of hours at an oval, 24 hours at Le Mans or Daytona or days and days at something like the Monte Carlo Rally or the Dakar. He likes wheel-to-wheel action on the high banks and one-at-a-time climbs up Pikes Peak.

It's not that we imagine that this reader has no preferences, but he's happy to know that motorsports comes in dozens of flavors, all inspiring emotions like his own. And that interests him, makes him curious.

He wants to know about exotic and luxury cars, because they're fun, and the pioneering technology they use will someday influence his daily driver. He's curious about "ordinary'' cars, because he's the expert in his circle of friends and family. Just as with racing, he may prefer one kind of car over another but seeks knowledge he can use to help and connect with others.

He likes cutting-edge technology but is also attuned to historywhether a car was built in 1932 or won't arrive until 2012, he wants to know about ...