Jeffrey "Jeff" R. Zwart (born 24 May 1955) is an American commercial film director, racer, photographer, cameraman and author for Porsche, BMW, Cadillac, General Motors,

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

and more.

Jeff Zwart with Porsche Motorsport Racing Overall (5875046443)

Life and career

Zwart was born in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, and learned to drive in his father’s 1964

Porsche 901 Porsche 901 was the name originally intended for the Porsche 911. By the early 1960s, Porsche project design numbers had reached into the 800s. For instance, Porsche's 1962 F1 model was called Porsche 804. At the Internationale Automobil-Aus ...

, chassis number 35. Growing up next door to his childhood friend and future automotive designer,

Freeman Thomas Freeman Thomas (born August 20, 1957) is an American automobile and industrial designer who has worked for Porsche, Volkswagen Group, DaimlerChrysler and Ford. Background Thomas, the son of an American military air traffic controller and a German ...

, the two shared a lifelong obsession with automobiles and Porsches in particular. In high school, Zwart worked as a veterinary assistant in order to save enough money to eventually purchase a yellow Porsche 914/6. In 1997 he ran that same 914/6 in the 10,000 mile, 25 day, Panama to Alaska Rally winning second place overall. In 1979, after graduating from the

Art Center College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred ...

in Pasadena, California, he began work as a still photographer shooting Road & Track Magazine covers, calendars, and article photos. In 1989, following an American Photography Magazine cover story on Zwart’s automotive photography work, he was given the opportunity to direct television commercials. He joined Jon Kamen and Frank Scherma to form @radical.media. Zwart has published three books in collaboration with David Bull Publishing and is a monthly contributor to the Porsche Club of America’s ''Panorama'' magazine.

Racing career

Zwart started road racing Formula Fords during the mid-1980s on the West Coast of the United States which led to an interest in rallying. In 1989 and 1990 he drove a

Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...

in the US Pro Rally Championship, eventually winning the Open Class National Championship. Zwart also competed in the New Zealand round of the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

driving a Mitsubishi EVO in 1993. Zwart is noted for his wins at the

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as The Race to the Clouds, is an annual automobile hillclimb to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, USA. The track measures and has over 156 turns, climbing from the sta ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

. In 1994, he entered the event with a Porsche and won the Open Class Championship. This success led to a number of programs; driving 10 different Porsches resulting in 8 different class championships over a period of 14 years, including his 2015 win in the Time Attack Class. In 2011, he competed in what was essentially a production street car, a Porsche 997 GT2 RS. The accomplishment of driving the Porsche from Southern California to the famous hill climb in Colorado and successfully racing at Pikes Peak was highlighted in the short film “Porsche, the Road to Pikes Peak,” directed by Will Roegge.�
Porsche, the road to Pikes Peak” Video A short film Directed by Will Roegge, Sunday June 26, 2011
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Books

Porsche 917x17: The Cars and Drivers in Studio
, Hardcover with slipcase, 13"x11", 264 pages, Published in 2009
Three Points of Contact
, Hardcover with slipcase, 13"x11", 152 pages, Published in 2008
Porsche Rennsport
1-893618-69-2, Hardcover with slipcase, 15"x10", 192 pages, published 2006

External links

*
Rennsport Randomness: An Interview with Jeff Zwart
Car and Driver Magazine article, October 18, 2011 by Sam Smith
Commercial reel
on @radical.media website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwart, Jeff 1955 births Film directors from California Living people Photographers from California Racing drivers from California Sportspeople from Long Beach, California Musicians Institute alumni Art Center College of Design alumni