PPC Magazine

[sierraman]

I’m ashamed to say I used to buy Max Power, partly because at the time you might have got the merest hint of a pair of tits out at a car meet. Some of the feature cars looked genuinely well put together but they were few and far between. 

[warren t claim]

Such a shame as PPC tried to rekindle the spirit of C&CC. 

[artdjones]

21 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

treated* myself to a sub for the once great CAR at Christmas last year and to say I was shocked at how the quality has plummeted is putting it mildly.

It was once something special, but I don't think I've opened the cover of a current issue in twenty years. About that time it started catering to the kind of people who like Pistonheads.

[warren t claim]

Sad to say that I honestly couldn't put a year on the last time I bought a car mag.

[bunglebus]

10 hours ago, sierraman said:

I’m ashamed to say I used to buy Max Power, partly because at the time you might have got the merest hint of a pair of tits out at a car meet. Some of the feature cars looked genuinely well put together but they were few and far between. 

I bought Lax Power (and Revs) from issue 1. It was the right mag at the time, lots of teenagers/early 20s guys and girls and lots of hot hatches available, I was 17 when it launched. I know it gets slagged off but it was no different to Custom Car in the 70s, aimed at young men, modifying everyday cars and showing birds wearing not a lot. Both Max and CC were also genuinely funny and well written.

Max Power got too big for its boots and burnt out, CC matured with its readers and continues.

[Split_Pin]

I kept every issue of PC and Popular Classics from January 1990 to 2016. I offered them for free on here and when a member said they would take them I spent about 6 hours organising them chronologically and boxing them up. They never turned up. Dickhead.

I binned all the Practical Classics but held on to the Popular Classics fora few years more but when I needed the garage space for car spares they had to go. I was saddened that nobody wanted them as the early issues were fantastic. The staff project cars were genuinely exciting, especially the Beetle 3119HA.

I continued my subscription to Practical Classics until 2020 but I think I have now flushed out every issue that was hidden in various places around the house and loft when we had a huge clearout into a skip in April.

I have held on to all my issues of Trucking International and Truck and Driver though. They date from 1992 through, sporadically, to 1998, when I was involved with the industry. 

[New POD]

On 27/07/2022 at 22:50, djoptix said:

Practical Performance Car.

I've only ever seen it for sale in WHSmiths. I only go to WHS in the airport.  Once every couple of years.

 

[sierraman]

38 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

I kept every issue of PC and Popular Classics from January 1990 to 2016. I offered them for free on here and when a member said they would take them I spent about 6 hours organising them chronologically and boxing them up. They never turned up. Dickhead.

I binned all the Practical Classics but held on to the Popular Classics fora few years more but when I needed the garage space for car spares they had to go. I was saddened that nobody wanted them as the early issues were fantastic. The staff project cars were genuinely exciting, especially the Beetle 3119HA.

I continued my subscription to Practical Classics until 2020 but I think I have now flushed out every issue that was hidden in various places around the house and loft when we had a huge clearout into a skip in April.

I have held on to all my issues of Trucking International and Truck and Driver though. They date from 1992 through, sporadically, to 1998, when I was involved with the industry. 

That’s sad. I don’t have much space for clothes in my wardrobe mainly because it’s full of 90’s copies of Top Gear, PC and Car Mechanics. Who needs fucking clothes anyway! 

[Dobloseven]

6 hours ago, sierraman said:

 Who needs fucking clothes anyway! 

Got any old Health and Efficiency magazines? They bought a whole new meaning to the game of swingball! 

[Dobloseven]

Was PPC the one Will Holman started when he left PC? If so, didn't another PC scribe go with him? Kein Leaper? Or am I dreaming it all? 

[Erebus]

15 minutes ago, Dobloseven said:

Was PPC the one Will Holman started when he left PC? If so, didn't another PC scribe go with him? Kein Leaper? Or am I dreaming it all? 

That's it.  Though Kevin Leaper was the MD and Will Holman the editor

[Faker]

Gone are the days that I regularly buy car mags... instead I browse and will buy if there’s an article or feature that relates to me or cars I’m really interested in. I’ve gone through all the phases over the decades. Custom Car, Street Machine, Jalopy! Mini World. CCC. Performance Ford. Performance VW. Max Power. Carsport (NI publication I’ve been in a couple of times) I can go on.... but practical classics and practical performance car were always the mag to browse of late. Again I’d only buy if there was something of interest. I buy Pacenotes from time to time...  however I’m a long term subscriber to Hayburner

[warren t claim]

Car mags are something I read in the supermarket while my lady is shopping.

[MJK 24]

I have a subscription to Evo.  I’ve been reading it since day one.  It was brilliant, 20 years ago.  I would be on edge waiting for the next issue.

I flick through it these days and probably read only 10% of the content.  If that.

Is part of the decline due to the never ending vilification of the internal combustion engine?  People are just giving up?

[AnthonyG]

I can’t believe how bad ‘Car’ magazine is now, it seems to be printed on toilet paper and the reviews of anything that’s not from a German brand - or a Tesla - automatically assumes it’s readers would only buy it as some sort of ironic joke. 

Even for a quid on EBay I couldn’t be bothered to buy a recent one. 

I still read Octane and CS&C , but tend to buy them on EBay when someone’s selling a recent year’s worth for a tenner or so. 

Old/vintage copies of Car, Car and Driver and Motor Trend are my go-to reading now. 

I have a subscription to Private Eye though, as @HMC says it’s prospering despite the total lack of online/digital presence. Maybe that’s the key.

I kind of like the fact it looks like the ones I bought in the early 1990s apart from maybe more colour inside. And the fact that the quality of political scandal - indeed politics in general - has got a lot worse! 

[warren t claim]

I hate to say it but I'm pretty sure that print media is a dying format. Long gone are the days when I'd buy at least two or three a month. Readly, forums and FB pages have largely replaced them. Maybe the aspirational glossy mags have a future but they'll rely on online subscriptions.  

[Eyersey1234]

I also used to buy a few magazines but again am just down to a subscription with Car Mechanics now. Unfortunately I had to get rid of most of my back issues of CM a few years ago when I moved house and didn't have the space for them.

[95 quid Peugeot]

There was a very nice gentleman taking pics at FOTU for his mag, Classic Retro  Modern, he left a copy we me, looks really well produced,  quality printing and good articles, I'll read it when at work and report back

[GrumpiusMaximus]

It's the same in other subjects too.  Modern Drummer used to be a hugely respected publication and I used to walk into town to WHSmiths to buy it every month when I was 15.  I haven't bought a copy of it in at least ten years, probably more and the content went downhill before that with huge amounts more given to advertising over the six or seven years I read it.  It now looks like they're about to shut up shop as a lot of subscribers are receiving copies eight months late and told they won't get another, etc.

The only magazine that I know of that hasn't declined in quality is Sound on Sound - which is just about the highest quality of magazine possible and every month is absolutely superb.  I haven't bought a copy in a while but will still pick it up if I see it.

[Lacquer Peel]

Revs was a kind of shite Max Power, I liked that magazine. 

I also bought MP for the chebs on show mostly. 

[garethj]

I think print media only survived when there was no alternative.  For years people said “I’m fed up of seeing another MGB article” and when something different did come up it was pretty obvious the research wasn’t very thorough most of the time.

Now we’ve got alternatives; if you want a poorly researched piece, the internet spoils you for choice 😀

But if you do want real info, there are online articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, Facebook groups…. There’s some dross to wade through, but the info is available.

As for anything but MGB articles, all of that is available too, whenever you want it.  I’m just surprised magazines have lasted as long as they have.

[skoda_fan]

Didn't know PPC had folded. I've just bought my first ever copy (Aug 22) only because it has an amazing Quattro'd Estelle on the cover. The mag as a whole is actually not a bad read though feels cheap on low quality paper despite the extortionate £6.49 price.

I've also bought Classic Retro Modern since issue 1 a year or so ago. It's nicely produced but I may give up on it as it doesn't really seem to know what it wants to be and contains lots of padding in the form of reproduced old ads and knocked together articles that don't tell you much.

I subscribe to PC and used to look forward to it landing on the mat but nowadays I just flick through it and chuck it on the pile.

[motorpunk]

3 hours ago, 95 quid Peugeot said:

There was a very nice gentleman taking pics at FOTU for his mag, Classic Retro  Modern, he left a copy we me, looks really well produced,  quality printing and good articles, I'll read it when at work and report back

My words will be in that mag soon.

PS - they once had a Rancho in the cover. 

[motorpunk]

9 hours ago, warren t claim said:

FB

Fuck FaceBook. Fuck it to death. 

[garethj]

5 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

Fuck FaceBook. Fuck it to death. 

Perhaps the biggest problem with the platform is that the content and some knowledgeable people are there, but the search facility it dire.

And the fact that it’s a pox on society, obvs

[95 quid Peugeot]

31 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

My words will be in that mag soon.

PS - they once had a Rancho in the cover. 

This one  ....ooof

[grogee]

On 7/28/2022 at 10:07 AM, motorpunk said:

Can't people see that online content is mostly crap? It's either riddled with adverts, or buried deep in some FaceBook-style domain where your personal, digital profile is scrutinsed and sold to? 

I will admit that standards could be higher, in print. I still believe if it's good enough, people will buy it. But the end result will be something like that of local newspapers online - a tiny snippet of 'news' (recycled celebrity shit they found on Twitter, usually) buried under a billion inane adverts. Do you really want that?

 

Absolutely have the opposite view of this. Having been a muttering rotter myself, I could see which way the wind was blowing - basically there is going to be next to zero demand for printed opinion, no matter how sexy the photography. It was easy to see there would be a plethora of free opinion and information available FoC.

It's ironic that you think adverts spoil the online experience, because adverts make around 40% of a typical magazine page count. 

Meanwhile I have absolutely lost patience with some knob jockey telling me the Vauxhall Astra "lacks steering feel" and "was slower around our handling course than a VW Golf GTE". Get to fuck. Can I fit my kids in it, can I afford to run it, are the dealers total chancers - not a mention of these. 

Online content has moved into the domain of video, and left static print behind. You don't need amazing production values or expensive 'experts' to make engaging content. 

[Rocket88]

4 hours ago, 95 quid Peugeot said:

There was a very nice gentleman taking pics at FOTU for his mag, Classic Retro  Modern, he left a copy we me, looks really well produced,  quality printing and good articles, I'll read it when at work and report back

I subscribe to that…. Pretty good

[Dick Cheeseburger]

As a kid, I loved reading books.

As a teen, I regularly bought Practical Classics and range of Volksfarken mags.

At uni I bought mags with photos of women with big boobs.

In the intervening 25 years, I've bought car mags from time to time - usually Classic and Sportscar, Practical Classics or Retro Cars. I've never subscribed though and mags are very much an occasional treat. Much as I enjoy reading car magazines, online content is generally free and extremely convenient.

It's wholly to blame for the slow death of its printed predecessor. 

[wesacosa]

5 hours ago, 95 quid Peugeot said:

There was a very nice gentleman taking pics at FOTU for his mag, Classic Retro  Modern, he left a copy we me, looks really well produced,  quality printing and good articles, I'll read it when at work and report back

I have subscribed to that since issue 1, I really like it