Originally hailing from New Mexico and currently based in Central Florida, Gilbert Smith is a professional author who has been covering classic and modern cars as a professional author for five years and change.From his first car (a 1985 Honda CR-X) to his last (a 1997 Ford Thunderbird), Gilbert has had a soft spot for hatchbacks, and anything with eight-cylinders under the hood, for longer than he's been legally allowed to drive.After spending several years as a journeyman content author, Gilbert has ultimately gravitated towards cars as his main subject of expertise after writing a how-to eBook for drivers looking to enter the competitive drifting scene.Starting there, Gilbert would become a devoted student of the automotive industry after discovering that it's just more fun to talk about V8s, hot-hatches, and off-roaders than it is to cover home insurance and web hosting.Prior to joining up with HotCars, you could find Gilbert's writing all over the web, but especially on Vehicle History, where he produced a series of buyers' guides for used cars in an effort to inform the savvy shopper hoping to get the most bang for their buck.While Gilbert tends toward high-torque V8s and front-wheel JDMs as his favorite subjects, he's covered everything from Hot Wheels toys to RVs to those bicycles with the fake motorcycle engines strapped to the frame so kids can pretend they're riding a Harley. If it's got wheels and you can make it move, Gilbert Smith wouldn't mind giving it a look and seeing if would make for a good op-ed piece.