How Microsoft's scientist of speed turned a business strategy into a great series

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Dan Greenawalt rolled his first car before he ever got a chance to have his way with it. A '73 Volvo 145 station wagon, it was a victim of the young driver's rash love of stepping its sizeable tail-end out. "It was rear-wheel drive and had loads of weight at the back, so it was great for drifting," he says, his big blue eyes softening at the recollection.
Greenawalt had been raised in a working class Pennsylvania family where tinkering under the bonnet was to become second nature. His passion wasn't necessarily for the cars, but for making them better - getting beneath their skin, understanding how they worked and then figuring out how to make them run more efficiently and, more importantly, faster.
Today, that youthful flash of recklessness comes as something of a shock. As the creative director and most visible spokesperson at Turn 10 studios, Greenawalt's a man of neat logic. You can sense that much upon meeting him, his ink-black shirt perfectly pressed, his hair cut to the scalp, his beard impeccably trimmed. You'll get that from his conversation - steady, thoughtful and always working towards a grander point - it carries the practised cadence of at once a lecturer, a salesman and a patient evangelist.
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