Jump to content

Practical Classics Magazine


UglyAmerican

Recommended Posts

I nearly choked on my £2.40 Costa Cappucino

WTF!!! £2.40, they cost £2.55 in Bath!

 

m0rris

:shock: I can't belive we are discussing Cappucinos on Autoshite.

 

 

What's wrong with Cappuccinos?

Posted Image

i like those, shocked how small they really were :shock:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

...Mick Cotton..

Thats a familiar name. Sure I've met him, maybe at the Peterborough BMC show.
You may well have done - he had an A55mk2 and a series V Oxford on the road for years and regularly goes to that show - you also met both of us at Ally Pally - it was myself & Mick who picked up the "Pimp my Riley" Oxford from you - Mick later raced it at Standlake in Oxfordshire - there was a serious quantity of filler it it tha fell out when it got a knock - the passenger side was really hanging!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I quite enjoy PC although they do play it too safe on what they feature sometimes. The article on future classics a few months ago was just daft. All the cars they chose were already accepted as classics by most which made them look a bit silly. Plus i find it a bit steep at £4.20. Have bought it every month in the past regardless , but now i only buy when there are articles i specifically want to read as its too bloody dear for what it is imo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You may well have done - he had an A55mk2 and a series V Oxford on the road for years and regularly goes to that show - you also met both of us at Ally Pally - it was myself & Mick who picked up the "Pimp my Riley" Oxford from you - Mick later raced it at Standlake in Oxfordshire - there was a serious quantity of filler it it tha fell out when it got a knock - the passenger side was really hanging!

Ah, I thought it was him at Ally Pally. Didn't realise it was you too!

 

Posted Image

 

:D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I quite enjoy PC although they do play it too safe on what they feature sometimes. The article on future classics a few months ago was just daft. All the cars they chose were already accepted as classics by most which made them look a bit silly. Plus i find it a bit steep at £4.20. Have bought it every month in the past regardless , but now i only buy when there are articles i specifically want to read as its too bloody dear for what it is imo.

Sums it up perfectly. :)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't buy the "paper is too dear" argument... its just those in charge wanting as much profit as they can squeeze, which is fair enough... but at £4 odd I do think its pushing it. My ex used to buy reams of girlie chat type magazines and they never seemed to be more than a couple of quid at most. She was always telling me car mags were a rip off. And she was right!I don't want to subscribe as the last time I did it was just at the point where we got landed with the Martyn Moore dull as dishwater era, and I had a whole year of cloth cap MG and Triumph type tosh that didnt interest me at all.Every so often the powers that be seem to tell them to put non stop MGs and Moggies in the mag which as a 30 year old just bores the daylights out of me. This months seems quite a good read though, picked up a copy yesterday..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh FFS! :shock:

 

Last month it was FWD Ford Mustangs, now it's rear engined Renault 12s! :lol::lol::lol::lol:

I'm not one of these assholes who moans about misplaced apostrophe's :wink: and the like, but how bad are things going to get before they do something about the howling inaccuracies that are creeping into the mag?

This isn't Wikipedia, some people actually believe what you say.

 

If there's anyone from PC reading this, sorry guys you've lost another reader. :roll:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You may well have done - he had an A55mk2 and a series V Oxford on the road for years and regularly goes to that show - you also met both of us at Ally Pally - it was myself & Mick who picked up the "Pimp my Riley" Oxford from you - Mick later raced it at Standlake in Oxfordshire - there was a serious quantity of filler it it tha fell out when it got a knock - the passenger side was really hanging!

Ah, I thought it was him at Ally Pally. Didn't realise it was you too!

 

Posted Image

 

:D

Yes, guilty as charged - I was very impressed with that Suntor you had at the time!

 

I have still got the Riley bonnet & front panel - somebody from COOC was supposed to pick them up and never did - I rescued them from the rain, but they are kicking about at a mate of mine's place in cheshire at the moment!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

I adore Cappuccinos. I WILL own one.

I love them also. If sufficiently minted I would buy all of the MR K cars, so a Cappuccino, a Honda Beat, and (my absolute favourite) the Mazda [Autozam] AZ 1. I remember being spellbound by a 1993 CAR article about them, when Clive de Carle's RARE Import company was where you went for slice of Kei jidosha.Also, Initial D Fourth Stage has a great touge battle episode between the star AE86 and an EA211 in the pouring rain. Episodes available on request if you lob a USB stick in the post. Make it a big one though.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 months later...

Larkin's Wolseley wedge was a white one, and although it was saved from the scrapyard it didn't look in that bad condition and I'm sure he had it on the road at one point. The epically rusty Wedge was a prototype Morris in orange that was also saved from the same scrapyard. I'm sure it was offered to a good home on a forum recently.

 

As far as I know he still has the Wolseley.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Every so often the powers that be seem to tell them to put non stop MGs and Moggies in the mag which as a 30 year old just bores the daylights out of me. This months seems quite a good read though, picked up a copy yesterday..

 

I once sent an email to Retro Cars magazine years ago when a few issues had numerous MG's and Triumphs and the like in it. I didn't bother me too much, but I used to buy these on my lunch break and read it in Cheshire Oak's car park - I didn't buy it to read about MG's, there's millions of other mags that do that. However, my letter got printed (it was about 2006) and they didn't have one in again! They also disappeared shortly after. I don't read much magazines as I tended to keep them and it's hard to justify keeping a massive pile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For a magazine to survive, sadly it has to cater for advertisers, not just readers. Believe me - I have looked at the economics for something like autoshite in a magazine format and it just doesn't work. (not helped by there already being this quite good website called autoshite!). That means that you can't escape the need to feature the popular stuff - though it's no reason why oddball things can't also be included as well. This is why you will see MGs, Triumphs and Jaguars quite often, and because there are lots of people who will buy a magazine with these features, it explains why they are so often on the front cover too.

 

After the Autoshite report was included in Classic Car Buyer, I'm endeavoring to get more quality shite in there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've given up with PC now. I was finding I was reading less and less of it and that virtually from the day I bought it, it sat unread until I rediscovered it and stuck it in the recycling.

 

I used to buy it religiously but it just doesn't seem to appeal now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've given up with PC now. I was finding I was reading less and less of it and that virtually from the day I bought it, it sat unread until I rediscovered it and stuck it in the recycling.

 

I used to buy it religiously but it just doesn't seem to appeal now.

 

I read one a month or two ago (one of the lads in work left it for me) and I found it somewhat lacking. Ok, they're doing better cars than they were, but there seems to be one hell of a lot of mistakes and misinformation in it. It's as if they don't have anyone there who actually knows, cares, or researches what they print.

 

Then there's the never ending restoration of the Jag. All of which appears to be being done by various specialists in exchange for a mention in the mag and all PC's staff seem to be doing is taking bits off, driving to the appropriate restorer, taking photos, writing a piece about how hard it is to do this particular job (whilst plugging the resto firm) then going back to their workshop and losing stuff. No doubt for it to be replaced by Robeys or whoever in exchange for another free plug.

 

I may be being harsh as I've not bothered to read the magazine much lately, but that is how it appears.

 

I was also a bit peeved that in one of the recent issues in the 'features' bit they say they're roadtesting an X300 Jag on page 130 or whatever, and page 130 was an advert for something completely unrelated. The roadtest of the Jag wasn't in the mag at all. I'd have bought that mag on the strength of giggling at whatever misinformation they were going to print about it, but the roadtest simply wasn't there.

 

I don't know if it's EMAP or whoever that are responsible, but surely they're not that hard up that they can't afford to pay someone to actually research stuff further than Wikipedia. They did a feature on buying a Bentley Turbo R last year, one of their editorial staff (who shall remain nameless) rang me for info on the cars, which I gave them. They then went, tested and photographed a car that was triple the budget of the cars in the feature (car tested was a late '90s Turbo RL I think, can't remember) because they obviously didn't know any better, just an excuse to go and hoon a Bentley. They e-mailed me the feature before it went to print and I advised them that most of the power / torque figures they had were stunningly inaccurate and that they'd tested a £25k car for an £8k car feature. They corrected the editorial regarding the car (an '85, £5k Turbo R wouldn't have active ride or a floorchange for example so they added a few bits about the car tested being a higher budget job) but published some insane spec from something like an East African spec carb Turbo as being right for a Turbo R. 300-odd lb ft, which is about 250 short. When I pointed out this was wrong, the answer was "Well, I got that from the owners club". Would it have broken the bank to ring Nantwich and ask the blokes who built 'em? Probably not, but to be honest I don't think PC really gives a toss.

 

This doesn't happen often in the proper classic car mags. C&SC rarely fuck up. Classic Car tend to be a bit more thorough, but PC? Do me a lemon, they don't have a clue.

 

Thing is, there are people out there who read these magazines, memorise them, and think they know everything about these cars. If PC is giving them the wrong information to start with, the facts will soon get muddled and confusion will reign.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...