Practical Classics.. when was it best?

[Martyn Moore]

  On 09/03/2010 at 02:38, Heep said:

Slightly off topic, but I just had a read through the last 3/4s of this thread and saw Nigel Boothman's name come up. I'd forgotten about him, but he always seemed to me from day one to be a fantastic chap and a great guy to have on staff.

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Nigel was great guy to have on staff. He was massively conflicted when Will left because he got his break under Will, I think. I was really pleased he stayed.

[Martyn Moore]

  On 03/03/2010 at 16:38, warren t claim said:

Quoted from the PC forum...Then the editor of Practical Classics was sacked after questions were asked about his competence and integrityI would love to know more about this! Why did all his staff leave with him? Was it through choice?Someone please put me out of my misery!

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Hope I've done something for your misery, warren.

[Martyn Moore]

  On 10/04/2025 at 18:24, chaseracer said:

@Martyn Moore, remember 20-something years ago some opinionated tw@t emailed on a Friday evening to point out some issue with a cover - and you offered him a spare press pass for the Goodwood Revival that weekend?

Hello again!

😁

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I do remember, chaseracer! Hello again. Who said being an opinionated twat gets you nowhere? Look at us! 😉

[warren t claim]

  On 11/04/2025 at 10:45, Martyn Moore said:

Hope I've done something for your misery, warren.

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Thanks for taking the time to reply @Martyn Moore and for bumping a thread so old that if it were a car, it'd be eligible for a PC Buyers Guide!

I can understand how pissed off EMAP must have been when they discovered Will Holman had been poaching advertisers for PPC when he was on their payroll. IIRC the first issue of PPC had his yellow Mk1 Capri V8 on the cover to catch any PC reader's eye thumbing through the magazine display in Tesco while his missus does the shopping. Any idea what Will Holman is up to now as PPC died a while ago?

[lesapandre]

Works on YouTube these days. Seems a lot of fun:

[HMC]

I Just bought all 1996 pc issues from e bay, maybe last month. I bought them at the time aged 16, and Pre internet (at least to me) it was a gateway to another world.

Strangely it helped me in my GCSE technology exam that same year as although i had zero practical experience, reading a lot about various welding/ manufacturing processes made me sound quite knowledgable when certain questions came up!

[dozeydustman]

I read 1994-2000ish regularly as a subscriber. Certainly remember John Pearson and Will Holman as editors. Have bought sporadic issues since, mainly when what’s been on the cover has floated my boat. I did like the Holman era as it did move away from the MGs and Triumph sports cars and move toward the more everyday cars. Then the adverts started to take over, it soon became 2/3rds adverts and 1/3rd car content, but for the most part good car content.

One thing that grated me a little from that era was they were coming up to a significant issue; they’d not long finished their resto project (Dolomite Sprint? The one after the Zephyr Convertible), and Peter Simpson’s two garage finds, a Rover P4 80 and a Sunbeam Alpine Fastback had just started, but got taken off print a couple of editions in by an MGB project. Cars far more interesting than a Sherpa coupé.

I also subscribed to Classics Monthly for a few years around the same time, again mostly everyday cars from the 60s - 80s. ISTR a few PC writers went over to that magazine as well.