User:Rob Siegel

Rob Siegel (born Robert Marc Siegel) is an American writer, folk singer-songwriter, and humorist.

Early Life and Education
Siegel is from Old Bethpage New York. His family moved to Amherst Massachusetts in 1969, Lexington Massachusetts in 1973, and back to Amherst in 1976. He attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1980 with degrees in mathematics and physics.

Writing
Siegel is an automotive writer. He has written for Roundel (the magazine of The BMW Car Club of America (BMW CCA)) since 1986 and is known by his column's title "The Hack Mechanic™." He is the author of eight automotive books. He also writes weekly for BimmerLife (the online media arm of the BMW CCA), as well as weekly for Hagerty Media and bi-monthly for Hagerty Drivers Club magazine.

Books
Memoirs of a Hack Mechanic: How Fixing Broken BMWs Helped Make Me Whole (a memoir with actual useful stuff), Bentley Publishers, 2013, ISBN 978-0837617206

The Hack Mechanic™ Guide to European Electrical Systems, Bentley Publishers, 2016, ISBN 978-0837617510

Mechanical Ignition Handbook: The Hack Mechanic™ Guide to Vintage Ignition Systems, Bentley Publishers, 2017, ISBN 978-0837617206

Ran When Parked: How I Resurrected a Decade-Dead 1972 BMW 2002tii and Road-Tripped it a Thousand Miles Back Home, and How You Can, Too, Hack Mechanic Press, 2017, ISBN 978-0837617671

Just Needs a Recharge: The Hack Mechanic™ Guide to Vintage Air Conditioning, Hack Mechanic Press, 2018, ISBN 978-0998950716

Resurrecting Bertha: Buying back our wedding car after 26 years in storage, Hack Mechanic Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0998950723

The Lotus Chronicles: One man’s sordid tale of passion and madness while resurrecting a 40-year-dead Lotus Europa Twin Cam Special, Hack Mechanic Press, 2020, ISBN 978-0998950730

The Best Of The Hack Mechanic: 35 years of hacks, kluges, and assorted automotive mayhem from Roundel magazine, Hack Mechanic Press, 2021, ISBN 978-0998950747

Music
Siegel played both folk music and rock and roll in Amherst in the late 1970s and was part of the band Total Electric Living. He fronted the Boston bands Ralph's Lunch, The Lunch, and Left of Center in the mid to late 1980s. He returned to playing singer-songwriter music in the mid-1990s and continues to play at Boston area venues and house concerts.

Discography

 * Rob Siegel and Moving Parts (cassette) (1983)
 * Rob Siegel and Moving Parts: Perpetual Motion (cassette) (1984)
 * Left of Center: One song about love, four songs about sex, and several ill-fated stabs at social awareness (cassette) (1988)
 * Shaker Chair (2000)
 * Voices from the Right Brain: Rob Siegel Live at Club Passim (2004)
 * A Landscape of Ghosts (2018)