Car mags... do you bother now?

[AnthonyG]

I buy the occasional copy of Car, that’s about it, I still read old/free ones though!

 

I used to have Classic and Sportscar on sub but got fed up with the watches/lifestyle/city boy attitude of it. Occasionally Jon Presnell or Buckley would write about something left field or interesting like a Lancia Flavia or a Simca 1200 but reading about some white room dealer’s A35 van being ‘a good value runaround for Goodwood’ at £12,000 gets very tiresome very quickly. The writing is still light years better than Classic Car though which is just terrible, and has been for years.

[Angrydicky]

I used to buy Practical Classics regularly, but the kind of cars I like to read about (1930s-1980s family saloons) are mostly ignored now in favour of 1990s and 2000s stuff. I understand they have to move with the times to attract younger audiences and bigger sales, it just doesn't appeal to me now. 

Classic Car Weekly is (or was the last time I picked up a copy) obsessed with values which gets very tiring. If I do buy one of the two I usually get CCB, it tends to have more classic cars in it and less waffling about values and investments.

Classics Monthly is pretty good, out of all of them this is probably the one I'd get on sub if I was so inclined.

The Automobile is pretty good, sadly let down in my eyes by too many prestige marques in there. They are very conscientious and don't often let errors through proofing. I did however, find an error in the last mag, a car that had a Liverpool registration (AKC IIRC) was incorrectly captioned as a Kent registration. Still some interesting articles about obscure manufacturers and the oily rag thing is brilliant.

I've tried Classic Cars and Classic and Sportscar (and Octane) and the content of all of these is way too posh for my tastes.

 

I generally get my old car resto story fix online with forums now, but will still flick through the mags from time to time and buy something if there's an article or feature that especially appeals to me.

[HMC]

Slight topic drift but what current magazine most closely represents the ethos of the main forum? PC has a sort of “bangernomics” staff car bit, is car mechanics crossed with this something not too far off?

[Datsuncog]

I do have a subscription to The Classic Motoring Review though, which has a fantastic breadth of new and reprinted articles from across the decades (many of which are from Car, which I'm sad to say I didn't bother with in its heyday). I don't really consume it like a magazine for instant gratification on the train, though - as a quarterly publication, I make a point of holding it back until I have an evening free to sit down and really savour it. There's an eclectic mix of supercar exotica, classic racing and utter sheds, which makes it into something of an automotive chocolate box - but it's marvellous to once again read new writing from my Jalopy heroes Mark Williams (CMR editor), Rod Ker and Frank Westworth.

 

[...]

 

So yeah, TCMR and Motorpunk are the only motoring titles I make a point of reading these days, and that works well enough for me...

 

Bollocks, just heard that The Classic Motoring Review has gone to the wall. Seemingly, they just couldn't pull in enough subscribers to make the numbers work.

 

http://www.classicmotoringreview.uk/

 

Gaaah.

 

MrsDC expressed some surprise at this news, as within her knitting community the quarterly-published, £10 an issue subscription magazine containing long-form content and authoritative articles has been a roaring success (such as PomPom Quarterly) - and are seeing impressive subscription growth, apparently at the expense of the weekly/monthly titles that seem to just print the same thing on repeat.

 

Real shame, as TCMR's a cracking read and I'd only just received my copy of Issue 5 the same day. Maybe petrolheads are yet to catch on.

 

Away for a quick cry now.

[lesapandre]

Sorry to hear. I'd missed that one. Back copies are still available it seems for a bit if anyone is interested.

[artdjones]

Bollocks, just heard that The Classic Motoring Review has gone to the wall. Seemingly, they just couldn't pull in enough subscribers to make the numbers work.But I feel your pain as there's no equivalent anywhere else.

 

http://www.classicmotoringreview.uk/

 

Gaaah.

 

MrsDC expressed some surprise at this news, as within her knitting community the quarterly-published, £10 an issue subscription magazine containing long-form content and authoritative articles has been a roaring success (such as PomPom Quarterly) - and are seeing impressive subscription growth, apparently at the expense of the weekly/monthly titles that seem to just print the same thing on repeat.

 

Real shame, as TCMR's a cracking read and I'd only just received my copy of Issue 5 the same day. Maybe petrolheads are yet to catch on.

 

Away for a quick cry now.

I found that the articles were good in the main, although I did wonder if some of the old Car articles had been edited down a bit.But I found the line drawings a bit wispy.I didn't see any drawings I would hang on the wall,put it that way.Having given it some thought,I felt that it needed some photographs.Also,I don't like cream paper,I think it should have been at least 2 shades lighter,which would also have given the drawings more punch.So in my opinion,a good try,but not quite there.

[mercrocker]

I never saw CMR first to last, sadly!    I generally stopped buying magazines about 20 years ago (except for fusty old shit from people's lofts).   Looks like I missed some good reads - I take it that was THE Mark Williams?

[Datsuncog]

I never saw CMR first to last, sadly!    I generally stopped buying magazines about 20 years ago (except for fusty old shit from people's lofts).   Looks like I missed some good reads - I take it that was THE Mark Williams?

 

It was indeed THE Mark Williams!

 

I tend not to buy magazines off the shelf anymore -  TCMR was available mail-order only, or by subscription. No ads, no filler. I'd first heard of it on here (News 24 thread, mebbe?) but then forgot about it again... daah, I should have done more!

 

I SHOULD HAVE DONE MORE!!!!

 

Back issues are still available, mind - it's not exactly cheap, but for the amount of content (much of it shite-related) I found it a very fair price.

[mercrocker]

This is an all-too familiar pattern in my life.   About 15 years ago one or two obscure rockabilly heroes of mine were actually still alive and came to London to play gigs.  I only found out when going through some back-issues of scene magazines I found......Maybe I should buy more things when they come out!

[Asimo]

So, what was the verdict? Not much in there you can find online (which is sort of the point) and hopefully not much lazy repetition (with the possible exception of one feature written by a notorious copier)

I enjoyed it, reading in the MoT "waiting area". Featured cars a bit shiny and restored for my taste and pocket but that is not surprising considering how old pre war cars are now. I know little about pre war road cars and have only ever driven one, an Austin 10 before I was legally driving. (racing cars are familiar from upteen visits to VSCC hill climbs).

Will buy again because of the coming Lancia article and because my subscription to this has unexpectedly ended.

 

Agree about the difference between the content of the magazine and internet.

I think it is the writing and editing that makes for a succesful periodical, rather than the subject, and the specificity and infinite nerdiness that makes for a good web page.

[motorpunk]

I think 5054 has hit the buffers, an ambitious project but the KickStarter to fund the latest issue fell short and now they're talking about PDF only, maybe. Sad, really.

 

The reason for this post? I just realised that issue two of MotorPunk has contributions from two Shiters in it, and issue one had Datsuncog's genius Pepys HGF nonsense in, which confused a few readers but made me laugh so hard I popped a haemorrhoid. I ought to get my shit together for issue three, really. 

 

There's been a good take-up from our internet readership transferring to our printed mag, people who seem to understand that it costs to make nice things and enjoy reading something a bit different.

[bramz7]

So I got my 50 issues of old Top Gear...

 

Some of the photography is unbelievable. It would be lauded on Instagram if it were new now. It's quite obvious the motoring landscape has changed a shed load since 1993. Back then, trim and model designation was the name of the game, but now it's just the badge. It's also amusing how many of today's issues were issues 25 years ago too. Pollution, congestion, road condition...

I'm not sure whether it was more exciting back then or not. I get the impression that prestige brands were still that, and the exotica was a bit more ferocious than it is now, and there was genuinely a cottage industry of bizarre supercar manufacturers.

 

They well hated the Proton Aeroback. They even rated the Samara more highly

[Alusilber]

After hearing belatedly about 5054 on Twitter, I decided to order the first two issues for the special offer price of £14.10 plus postage. Two chunky tomes arrived yesterday, On first impressions, looks like my kind of magazine - good mix of interesting historical and contemporary subjects with the emphasis on engineering, and a bit of aeronautical engineering thrown in too (the title, if you were wondering, is a reference to the serial number of the prototype Spitfire - Superrmarine not Triumph) and nothing about posh watches (as far as I can see). Oddly, issue 2 doesn't seem to carry any advertising at all apart from a Subaru ad on the back cover.

 

Their fancy matt paper does smell strangely of wallpaper paste though...

[bangernomics]

Used to buy practical classics and did so for a year after Will Holman? Left then it lost its appeal for me.

 

Latterly the odd bike mag but interwebs far more useful now.

[MiniMort]

I have a Readly account which is shared with family. For what I used to pay a year for Practical Classics I can get Practical Classics, Classic Car Weekly, Classic Car Mart, Classic And Sports Car and tonnes of modern car magazines. It's fantastic

[72_square]

Just Practical Classics to read at dinner time.  Used to do a few classic VW mags, but they ended up very samey with cheque book restos in them.  You could also read the content in about 30 minutes.  Much prefer surfing forums to be honest, although most of them have gone downhill (not this fine establishment I hasten to add )

[Eyersey1234]

I regularly get Car Mechanics Magazine but that's about it these days.

[paulscavalier]

Car mechanics is actually very good. I have to feel sorry for them a bit though. They bought an insignia diesel as a car to use for a few issues as a bit of a fix up car then sell it on. Only the saga has gone on and on over the months culminating in it needing a full engine rebuild at much expense. Then after all that someone shunts into the back of it

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Any of you Readly users out there must read " Losange" magazine. It's a Renault mag, appears to be quarterly and this is the first issue I've seen- I have my settings to every automotive title in English worldwide , which throws up a lot of American one model stuff but occaiasonal gems like this.

 

This issue is all about Brazil and its local cars , Alpines, Dauphines, Gordinis and of course 12s and Ford Corcels. If that's not enough there's a test on a Duster crew cab pickup.

 

It's like a magazine version of the old Renault TV channel that I sometimes saw when searching for Babestation.