Jump to content


Photo

popular magazines reviewed


  • Please log in to reply
9 replies to this topic

#1 Hans Etzrodt

Hans Etzrodt
  • Member

  • 3,188 posts
  • Joined: July 00

Posted 04 November 2000 - 01:17

This year as every other year, on 11. 11. at 11.11 hours and 11 seconds, carnival will begin. Carnival is the season where not everything is taken too seriously. Therefore we use this occasion to look at some popular magazines; Tony Kaye (9), Hans Etzrodt (8). Did we forget any?

MotorSport
This is a magazine about pre-1970 motor racing for people who know more about pre-1970 racing than the staff of the magazine.

Motoring News
This is for people who cannot afford to buy MotorSport and need somewhere to put their chips.

AUTOSPORT
This is for people who are more interested in the sex life of the drivers than in the results of the races.

F1 RACING
This is a magazine you can buy if the Playboy magazine is already sold out.

RACER
This is the American attempt to copy F1 RACING without the sex part.

Champ Car
This is a magazine devoted to the CART series, the only English speaking magazine that would triple its circulation if it was in Portuguese.

Road & Track
This is for people who spend hours in doctors' waiting rooms with nothing to read.

Car & Driver
This is Road & Track with a different name on the cover.

Motor Trend
This is Car & Driver with a different name on the cover.

Autoweek
This is the only magazine you need to read if you want to believe the publisher.

On Track
A magazine with the best race results but which lost out against Autoweek, issuing timely reports.

VINTAGE motorsport
This is a magazine, which would please most everyone at TNF.

Vintage Racecar
This is the same as VINTAGE motorsport but not as good and costs less also.

Automobile Quarterly
This is a magazine, which hurts your pocketbook and is a meeting place for the best historians.

National Speed Sport News
This is a paper for sprint car fans. It includes SCCA reports so that it can retain its not-for-profit status.

Cars and Parts
This is a magazine for people who really intend to have a complete car one day, but only ever have the parts.

Hot Rod Magazine
This is the only magazine in the world bought entirely by people who can't read.

Advertisement

#2 Don Capps

Don Capps
  • Member

  • 5,933 posts
  • Joined: May 99

Posted 04 November 2000 - 03:24

Actually, in most cases not much of an exaggeration! :)

I recently dropped R&T after nearly 40 years subscribing to it and 45+ years reading it. Found that I really don't miss it very much.

I read Autosport for nearly 45 years and subscribed for over 30++ years but finally got sick & tired of it and dropped it.

Motor Sport is a hard one for me since I used to really like it, but the subscription -- after 30+ years and reading it for 40+ years -- is an annual debate of whether or not it is worth it, and it gets easier and easier to move towards saying 'No!' each year. I will not discuss the Tripoli incident...

F1 Racing I tried for awhile, but it was soooo bad!

Racer was a victim of just simply being expendable to me. I just never really 'connected' with it after a few years as I thought I would. Next...

In fact, the only racing magazine I still subscribe to -- and I think I subscribed to all those listed at one point or another and certainly read them all for many many years -- is On Track! It fits my needs, rarely raises my ire, and covers US events nobody else does. Regardless of what folks may feel about it, I could care less -- I am happy with it. Plus, I am an original subscriber (#227) and a holdover from the Formula and Racecar days of Paul Oxman.

#3 Jonathan

Jonathan
  • Member

  • 6,548 posts
  • Joined: October 99

Posted 04 November 2000 - 07:10

Originally posted by Don Capps

I recently dropped R&T after nearly 40 years subscribing to it and 45+ years reading it. Found that I really don't miss it very much.


Whilst Road & Track has certainly gone way down-hill since the demise of Tony Hogg & Henry N Manny III, I find that I still read it.

Do Want to sell any of your old issues of R&T ?



#4 Joe Fan

Joe Fan
  • Member

  • 5,591 posts
  • Joined: December 98

Posted 04 November 2000 - 07:27

I would like everyone to give Historic Motor Racing magazine a chance. I recently subscribed and this magazine is much better than Motorsport in my opinion. HMR editor Graham Gauld is noted motorsports author and writes articles for it as well as Karl Ludvigsen. HMR seems to have a more international flavor to it and is less British-centric than Motorsport.

P.S. I will have slightly modified version of my Masten Gregory article in issue number three of HMR.

#5 Falcadore

Falcadore
  • Member

  • 1,637 posts
  • Joined: April 99

Posted 05 November 2000 - 02:49

Australian Auto Action - Lots of nice glossy cover photos. Lots of nice glossy writing. Lots of nice glossy... square centimieters on tabliod format cover. Recently decided full frontal female nudity was acceptable for photographic publication to convey 'atmosphere'. Expectations of depth of articles, adequate race coverage and informed speculation should be left at the door in preference for gossip about which team Craig Lowndes might join next year.

Motor Racing Australia - Schizophrenic magazine with quality written articles on the art and history of racing but prostituted itself to television by having a centre section for the RPM channel ten TV show which is typically much more lightwight, and contains articles on all the motor racing Channel 10 covers but none of the motor racing Channel Ten doesn't cover (which includes Formual One) and also contains a pointless news section. As it's a monthly all the news is hoplessly out of date before it even hits the shelves.

F1 Racing Australian Edition - Even more lightweight than the RPM centre section and the AA Craig Lowndes gossip section, so lightweight it's being consideed for use in monorails as a cheap alternative to superconductors. Well cheap-ish. The Australian element is a column by Peter McKay where he does an article about what Mark Webber did that month, and then struggles to find another Australian in Formula One to make sure Webber only appears in every other issue.

Australian Rallysport News - Tabliod sized with colour cover. Excellent coverage of rallying for available resources. Sells lots of really nice model rally cars and books but at times feels like a club newsletter writ large.

Speedway World - Is a club newsletter writ large. And charges $4 for it too! Ouch!

Wheels Magazine - Authoritive motoring publication in this country. No racing in it though. Damn. The Wheels Car of tthe Year issue is always worth a read, the process of awarding is the most exhaustive process I've ever heard of. Not you're standard ring up a bunch of journo mates and get them to fill out a tick the box form. Read 'Cock and Bull', just about the best read column in the country.

Motor - Like Wheels but with comparisons of under 1.3 litre three door sedans removed in favour of WRX STi III vs Evo VI and a racing section. Has a Perfomance Car of the YEar instead of Car of the Year. Modelled on Wheels COTY but not quite as exhaustive, but more fun. Did a really nice camparo this year on the Merc AMG E55 vs BMW M5 vs HSV GTS on the Nordschlieffe with Mark Skaife and Anders Oloffsson as the steerers. Guess which won?

Street Machine - Until recently Australia's biggest selling motoring magazine. Lots of articles about street cars with more coats of paint than layers of make-up on average Hollywood starlet. Make that less than average hollywood starlet. Yeah we put a bigger V8 in it, then turbo charged it, then added another five coats of clear....

Fast Fours and Rotaries - Like Street Machine but with no Holden or Ford products in it. Preference for old Mazdas and Hyundais with more carbon fibre wings and flares than you'd find on a Ferrari F399, and just as dubiously legal. Only how is a Hyundai ever going to go fast enough for the wings to actually do anything other than create drag?

Hot 4's and Rotaries - Like Fast Fours and Rotaries but the models leaning on the car wear less. The pieces have correspondingly less depth. Although why you'd want depth on how someone took a 1.6 litre naturally aspirated Mitsubishi Lancer, put an Evo body kit on it, cut the traingle logo into the bonnet and put on a huge stereo and a huger exhaust resonator...

Unique Cars - Originally it was nothing but adds for cars for sale that didn't include anything with a capacity of under two litres unless it had a turbocharger. Now it is nothing but adds for cars for sale that didn't include anything with a capacity of under two litres unless it had a turbocharger with some petrol head orientated articles in a centre section. Believe it or not, the biggest selling car magazine in the country. Biggest readership is teenage high school males going gee-whiz over cars they could never afford to buy, even supposing they didn't loose their licences within 2 years of getting off P plates...

The Great Race - Only produced once a year, shame that, but then again Bathurst only happens once a year. The story of the Bathurst 1000 each year, the best motorsport photography you will find anywhere, excellent layout, well and thoughtfully written, enough stats to keep even me happy, although I'm not sure about Marcel. But the real winner is the story it tells. Always dramatic unputdownable rollicking good read. And it isn't fiction. It could never be fiction. No-one has this sort of imagination....

Australiasian Motorsport News - Really really really good motorsport mag. Recent revamp saw it modelled on Autosport but with less of the sex part. Although Dannii Minogue seems to be shot periodically. Reminds me of jokes about composite materials. Full colour, good balance of news and race reports with a bunch of excellent staff and contributors. Especially the guy in Queensland, he's brilliant. :p

Biased? Objective rather than subjective? So?

Jonesy


#6 Ray Bell

Ray Bell
  • Member

  • 80,051 posts
  • Joined: December 99

Posted 05 November 2000 - 10:43

National Newsletter of the Historic Racing Register (Australia). Produced by Ray Bell when itinerant voluntary writers from each state get around to sending in copy. Available for just $20 per 8 issues (about 2 years, should be one), carries 20pp text and pics covering Historic Racing and articles about historic cars and people, the odd obit, some classifieds within a nice glossy cover with ads inside and on the back, a Shane Cowham drawing below the masthead... the subscribers all seem to say it's a good read.
Maybe they're just starved...
Subs to Historic Newsletter, P. O. Box 236, Ourimbah NSW 2258

#7 elephino

elephino
  • New Member

  • 3 posts
  • Joined: November 00

Posted 05 November 2000 - 11:32

Unfortunately Cock & Bull in wheels are no more :( Still a good magazine anyway. They need to put the full COTY run down in though of the whole field, not just the winning car (and how everyone voted).

And in relation to Australian Motorsport News, the New South Wales state level reporter/photographer is excellent :)

#8 Ray Bell

Ray Bell
  • Member

  • 80,051 posts
  • Joined: December 99

Posted 05 November 2000 - 11:41

Sounds like you are familiar with said reporter/photographer...

#9 elephino

elephino
  • New Member

  • 3 posts
  • Joined: November 00

Posted 05 November 2000 - 11:58

Let me just say that I am to said reporter/photographer as Falcadore is to that brilliant guy in Queensland.

#10 Ray Bell

Ray Bell
  • Member

  • 80,051 posts
  • Joined: December 99

Posted 05 November 2000 - 12:10

That's a concise and understandable explanation... sorry I've never read or seen your work.