PPC Magazine

[chadders]

I reckon it's pretty good as well.

I get Car free with a bank account deal. I used to look forward to getting it but now it gets put to one side and skimmed through later. PC seems to be heading the same way.

Maybe I'm not in Cars target market anymore as EVs leave me cold. It's a shame as it used to be by far the best car magazine with the best writers, only Georg Kacher remaining but there's only so many ways that even he can write about 911s.

[sierraman]

Used to be spoilt for choice with good reads in the late 90’s. But now... I’m not so sure, you can get your old car fill through the internet, be it learning how to do something or some rabbit hole about Talbot Alpines. Less space therefore for the magazines I guess but I’d call it positive progress. 

PC annoys me a lot these days, it’s basically full of yuppies spending this months bonus on suspension refreshes, chequebook restorations or talk or market speculation. Gone are the days it seems where you’d read about some bloke rebuilding a Cortina in a council lock up with no power, it’s more likely now to be a junk bond trader who has sweated blood writing cheques at the car restorers for a money no object job. I’ve mentioned this before but last months issue had a guy that had a Mk1 Golf restored, he’d had the body done at the garage and a place up the road rebuilt the engine, by the sounds of it he’d put fuel in it and rang up PC for the article. Great stuff that it’s been saved but really what is the actual point of the article. I want to hear about how he found a gearbox in a scrapyard or rebuilt the engine in his cellar. 

[Eyersey1234]

Yeah I don't bother with PC these days for the same reason 

[Rocket88]

I get Autocar every week, just so I can rant at their obsession with how wonderful JLR products are…….

[Mally]

On 7/30/2022 at 1:07 AM, warren t claim said:

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

Do they not seal them all in cellophane now to stop you opening them?

I used to copy phone numbers in W H Smith's from ads in Kit Car magazine.

Bought a couple  of cars that way.

[motorpunk]

Fresh from WHSmiths…

[motorpunk]

9 hours ago, grogee said:

Online content has moved into the domain of video, and left static print behind. 

This is a fair point. I really enjoy some YouTube stuff, even though for every single Soup there are a million Schmees. 

Perhaps I’m just too grumpy for the modern world.

[grogee]

10 hours ago, motorpunk said:

This is a fair point. I really enjoy some YouTube stuff, even though for every single Soup there are a million Schmees. 

Perhaps I’m just too grumpy for the modern world.

Let's start our own grumpy YT channel...

[grogee]

15 hours ago, Rocket88 said:

I get Autocar every week, just so I can rant at their obsession with how wonderful JLR products are…….

Agreed, although here's a rare attack of the truth

[Rocket88]

35 minutes ago, grogee said:

Agreed, although here's a rare attack of the truth

I read that……wonder how much pressure they’re under to “ be nice” from JLR , or we withdraw our advertising….

[HMC]

On a similar subject IIRC in the past car used to risk the ire of advertisers.Their cover of the mk3 golf (vr6) being a lemon didn’t go down too well

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/features/top-10s/the-car-top-10-most-controversial-car-magazine-covers/

 

[barefoot]

21 hours ago, grogee said:

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

Sadly that's no longer the case. The magazine I'm currently editing is down to about 15%, I suspect that its days are numbered.

Incidentally, does anyone know how to find out details, actual numbers of magazine issues sold? I can't find any numbers for Hayburner, which obviously has a huge number of adverts, or any of the other VW magazines.

[sierraman]

28 minutes ago, Rocket88 said:

I read that……wonder how much pressure they’re under to “ be nice” from JLR , or we withdraw our advertising….

I found that with What Car, it was so fearful of offending you could not derive anything meaningful from their tests. 

[delux]

Back on the original subject for a second, for years I bought and read car magazines.

I remember as an apprentice buying CCC, Max power, Fast car, Revs sometimes even Street machine!

I remember when PPC came out and the excitement and anticipation flicking thru the 1st one.

There was a real excitement about knowing you had a car magazine to look thru you just dont get visiting a website/PDF/Bookface page.

In the same way, having to travel home with your new bit of vinyl or CD before listening to it always feels better than downloading something.

Nowadays I only buy car magazines when I go on holiday. I dont think its good value regularly paying £5 or £6 for a book of car insurance adverts with the odd vaguely interesting car in between. Insurance adverts and badly built cars kinda took over. Nothing interesting about a car thats been flung together to get in a car mag or something someone richer than me has chucked millions at and bolted something shiney together!

Sad to see PPC go, was sad to see Retro mag(both), Retro Japanese, CCC go. But would I still be buying them nowadays? Prolly not.

Bought a big pile of 'Hot car' from the Seventies on ebay, still working my way thru them now!

[drewd]

I've also not bought a physical car mag in years, but I'm sad to see PPC go. As they say though, use it or lose it.

When I was learning to drive I used to buy Mini World, then when Retro Cars mag was launched I bought that as I've always liked slightly modified older cars, even if I've kept my own cars standard.

As time went on I felt like Retro Cars were featuring less DIY modded cars and more cars where people were paying others to do the work for them. I've nothing against this as it's a good way to get things done to a high standard, but I've always been more drawn to man in a shed engineering, so when PPC was launched I bought that instead.

I stopped buying car mags all together after a while as  I also found I wasn't reading mags as much as I used to. When I was a student I used public transport a fair amount, and magazines were a great way to pass the time. Once I started working I was either driving or cycling so didn't have the same opportunities to read the mags. PPC was my favourite car related publication though.

[motorpunk]

6 hours ago, sierraman said:

I found that with What Car, it was so fearful of offending you could not derive anything meaningful from their tests. 

I've mentioned this before, but there are nice backhanders to be had for writers/presenters saying nice things online and in print and/or not mentioning when a car is a load of shit. No-one dare bite the hand that feeds them...

[skoda_fan]

6 hours ago, delux said:

Sad to see PPC go, was sad to see Retro mag(both), Retro Japanese, CCC go. But would I still be buying them nowadays? Prolly not.

Bought a big pile of 'Hot car' from the Seventies on ebay, still working my way thru them now!

I hadn't realized Retro had gone (again). Shame as it was looking promising and I actually preferred it to the original. Similarly Retro Jap, though I only bought that once or twice. I have a big pile of Hot Car mags in the loft somewhere so maybe I should fetch 'em down. Latest PC landed on the mat this morning. I've only flicked through it and thought 'meh' whereas years ago I couldn't wait to sit down and read it avidly from cover to cover. I like having it as its the only fun thing that comes in the post but lately it's always a disappointment. I'd be interested to know what others think of Classic Retro Modern too.

[tom13]

35 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

I've mentioned this before, but there are nice backhanders to be had for writers/presenters saying nice things online and in print and/or not mentioning when a car is a load of shit. No-one dare bite the hand that feeds them...

Harry Metcalf from Evo told an interesting story about when they used to test Ferrari's, this how they could not fathom ever coming anything other than first in the tests. If they were not first, the relationship was soured for some time.

It was on a Podcast with Chris Harris or Jonny Smith I think. Good podcast to be honest. Well worth a listen.

[HMC]

Ferrari certainly have form if opinions and reviews are not allignws  with their values. This goes some way back- possibly from The Old Man himself - and extended to letting drivers go if they got “too political” ie critical- Ickx and Prost being such casualties.

[egg]

I had every issue of Car between mid 1989 and about 1994 - the end of the 'Golden age' perhaps* (Green, Bremner, Setright and guest writers like Rowan Atkinson etc). Any the only mag I have ever bought religiously. I thought PC was pretty good in the early 00's too.

* the only thing that annoyed me was the 'planted' press shots of mule cars which were obviously just fodder direct from the manufacturers to build a buzz around upcoming models (even the teenage me had some grasp about that!)

[sierraman]

Some articles were decent in the late 80’s CAR but LJK Setright was a tiresome bore with his highbrow opinions. 

[HMC]

I have to say I quite liked his attitude and style. It arguably became a bit of a caricatured style but opinion pieces are at their best when distinctive and reaction provoking, to my mind. Him bulgin, bishop Llewelyn etc what a combo.

[motorpunk]

40 minutes ago, sierraman said:

Setright was a tiresome bore with his highbrow opinions. 

I found the same. You’re reviewing a Volkswagen Passat, man, not the Mona bloody Lisa!

PS - and back on topic, I think PPC may have had a stay of execution.

[SiC]

6 hours ago, tom13 said:

Harry Metcalf from Evo told an interesting story about when they used to test Ferrari's, this how they could not fathom ever coming anything other than first in the tests. If they were not first, the relationship was soured for some time.

It was on a Podcast with Chris Harris or Jonny Smith I think. Good podcast to be honest. Well worth a listen.

Chris Harris got banned by Ferrari for a long time to road test their cars after this article:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/jalopnik.com/how-ferrari-spins-5760248/amp

I think he only got to drive new factory Ferraris once he really made his name on Top Gear. All his previous DRIVE/ videos had borrowed cars from owners. 

[SiC]

On 7/31/2022 at 9:33 PM, motorpunk said:

Fresh from WHSmiths…

That Volvo on the front cover made me double take. This one lives next to the storage bay I rent. 

 

[Rod/b]

7 hours ago, egg said:

I had every issue of Car between mid 1989 and about 1994 - the end of the 'Golden age' perhaps* (Green, Bremner, Setright and guest writers like Rowan Atkinson etc). Any the only mag I have ever bought religiously. I thought PC was pretty good in the early 00's too.

* the only thing that annoyed me was the 'planted' press shots of mule cars which were obviously just fodder direct from the manufacturers to build a buzz around upcoming models (even the teenage me had some grasp about that!)

I like the way JLR have built a long feature wall with branding on it at the roundabout at Fen End where all the alleged spy shots are captured…

[grogee]

On 7/31/2022 at 1:48 PM, chadders said:

I reckon it's pretty good as well.

I get Car free with a bank account deal. I used to look forward to getting it but now it gets put to one side and skimmed through later. PC seems to be heading the same way.

Maybe I'm not in Cars target market anymore as EVs leave me cold. It's a shame as it used to be by far the best car magazine with the best writers, only Georg Kacher remaining but there's only so many ways that even he can write about 911s.

I get the same deal. But I'm not interested in any of the mags so I Mrs Grogee uses it to get Red magazine or something. 

Heard a story about Kacher editing a group test and telling the journo, "Yes the copy looks fine but can you re-write it so the Mercedes wins please?"

I also remember him choosing an Audi (A5?) in shit brown colour

[egg]

Without wishing to blow too much smoke, Mr @barrett's article on the Talbot 105 this month was a good read! Bought this edition for the Austin 7 retrospective - haven't read that yet.

http://classicmotorhub.com/showroom/1935-talbot-105-airline-saloon/ (car for sale here)

[barrett]

I thought it was quite shit myself. This month's article is much better!

[louiepj]

Chris Harris got banned by Ferrari for a long time to road test their cars after this article:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/jalopnik.com/how-ferrari-spins-5760248/amp
I think he only got to drive new factory Ferraris once he really made his name on Top Gear. All his previous DRIVE/ videos had borrowed cars from owners. 

I thought that a lot of car journalists ended up taking turns being banned by Ferrari when they gave their true opinions on the cars failings.