Eli Shayotovich
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
School
San Jose State University
Expertise
PC Gaming, Entertainment, History, Technology
- Raised on the Atari 64 and graduating to Commodore's line of home computers, Eli has been playing games since the very Dawn of the Gaming Age.
- In 1991, Eli created and moderated the "Star Wars Echo" on FidoNet, one of the first Star Wars fandom sites. He was also the president of the America Online Star Wars Fan Club on AOL.
- Eli learned to drive a stick shift in a beige 1970 VW Beatle, beat a Porsche 911 in a souped-up '67 AMC Ambassador, got wedged on a speed bump in a slammed mini-truck, and used a Kawasaki Vulcan 1500 as a surveillance vehicle.
Experience
Eli has written about tech, hardware, and video games since 2003 for sites like AOL, Joystiq, GameDaily, Endgadget, GameSkinny, and Game Rant, as well as Beckett Massive Online Gamer magazine. His unique interactions with automobiles and motorcycles allow him to see them from a different point of view than other "car writers." Eli especially likes to weave those personal experiences with historical anecdotes and pop culture references into all of the stories he brings to SlashGear readers.
Education
Eli graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science in Administration of Justice. Instead of becoming a police officer, he became a licensed private detective, where his love for researching and investigating the facts — then putting them into a coherent, informative narrative — grew into a passion.
SlashGear's content hails from a group of experienced technology and automotive editors and a wide-ranging team of writers, engineers, enthusiasts, and experts across consumer tech and transportation. Our goal is to provide up-to-the-minute breaking news coverage as well as original and engaging opinion and editorial content that serves as the ultimate resource for those who want to stay up to date on the latest and greatest the industry has to offer.
Our editors, advisors, and fact-checkers conduct regular reviews to ensure the accuracy, timeliness, and completeness of our articles. Complete information on our editorial process available here.
Stories By Eli Shayotovich
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If you blinked, you might have missed the 1991 Oldsmobile Quad 442 W-41. This weird little Cutlass spin-off is pretty rare today, and the reason why is strange.
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The Oldsmobile 442 came in several confusingly named packages that sometimes ended up being made into their own separate models. Let's take a look at the W-30.
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The F-4 Phantom is one of the most iconic jets in the history of the U.S. Armed Forces. Here's everything that made it such a great fighter.
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Alongside the many other pieces of hardware in Russia's arsenal in its invasion of Ukraine is the TOS-1A Buratino, a tank with staggering firepower.
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When it comes to muscle cars, many look back to the 1960s as the golden age. But the first muscle car may have come out long before that. Here's what we know.
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EV batteries and the materials to make them continue to be prohibitively expensive, but a Chilean startup may have found a novel solution in our landfills.
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The Rover Jet1 was the first car ever built with a turbine engine and while it had it's advantages, there were also flaws that came with it.
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The dream of generations of motorists is finally coming true. As crazy as it sounds, the world's first street-legal flying car just took its maiden flight.
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Now exclusively manufactured in India, Royal Enfield is the oldest motorcycle brand in continuous production. This is the full history.
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While celebrities tend to have plenty of vehicles in their own collections, when you're famous enough, other people will make cool custom cars in your name.
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While France was defeated by German advances in 1940, the Allied nation put up a valiant fight thanks to the formidable Char B1 - a legendary WWII tank.
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England's Diana, Princess of Wales, tragically died in an automobile accident in 1997. The Mercedes she was in had above average safety, but it wasn't enough.
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In 2014, Iran revealed its Tian armored fighting vehicle, a tank with odd beige squares all over its surface. What was the deal with the weird looking vehicle?
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You might never have heard of the Panhard LM64, but it was groundbreaking in many ways. It didn't win Le Mans, but it inspired car designs for decades.
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Orlando Bloom enjoys a nice, relaxing motorcycle ride when he's not making movies. The story behind his completely custom BMW bike is pretty amazing.
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The M1A1 Abrams proved its credentials during Operation Desert Storm, as it helped decimate the Iraqi forces while suffering very few casualties comparatively.
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Bugatti has produced some incredibly unique cars over the years, but some never made it past the concept phase -- here are some of our favorites.
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Mazda is most well-known for employing rotary engines in modern cars, but the design concept has existed for centuries in various forms and prototypes.
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When an old piece of military tech gets outdated, you might assume that it's simply phased out. But what about a jet fighter like the F-14 Tomcat?
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Most famous for its brief appearance in Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange," the Adams Probe 16 is a wild sports car that still looks futuristic today.
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The vertical take-off and landing-capable Harrier served in the U.K.'s Royal Air Force for five decades from 1969 to 2011. But why was it retired?
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Based on a popular and reliable design, the Czechoslovak Tankette Model 33 somehow ended up becoming notoriously the opposite, and saw middling military use.
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In 1958, Ford rolled out a 3/8-scale model depicting how the future of atomic energy would impact automotive design in the Nucleon.
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The P-47 Thunderbolt was one of the most dominant planes in the skies over Europe during WWII. Here's everything we know about aerial monster.
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BMW did not start out building motorcycles, but once it started making them, they quickly became the standard for professional racers around the world.
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Saab is most famous for its cars here in America, but the company actually started out making airplanes for the Swedish Air Force. Its best was the J35 Draken.
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The Harley Davidson Fat Boy is an iconic motorcycle first hitting production in 1990 and then starring in, "Terminator 2." This is how the Fat Boy came to be.