135 replies to this topic

[Derwent Motorsport]

I've read MN for over 40 years but it is no longer the essential read it was (on a Thursday originally). While the web and other media supply the news, I do find that it has not developed to reflect current interests. It used to have strong links to the club scene and have it's finger in the button but it seems that the staff writers in recent years are either not interested or lack any real knowledge of the sport and are happy banging in the press releases that no one is interested in ( "17 year old karting hot shot Fred Bloggs will move into Formula Jedi this year aiming for a podium finish. he will be sponsored by Bloggs the builders (daddy)). Sorry only Fred and his dad are interested!
In the eighties nearly all our motor club members read MN and it was discussed at club nights but barely a handful of members now read it.

Does it have a future?

[llmaurice]

About as much future as Autosport if those of us that go back a bit are concerned .
I'm still wondering how many people are really interested in buying the Ferrari style mobile hQ palaces that are always in A.utosport -yet people (like my son) still keep buying it !

[Mark A]

I gave up on it a long time ago.

I used to get MN on a Wednesday and Autosport on a Thursday, this used to cover everything. Some international stuff in MN, F1 WRC etc but loads of the national stuff, actually, the WRC reports were always miles better than Autosport.

When they changed the name and the national level reports disappeared I gave up on it as it really didn't do anything different to Autosport (mind you I stopped buying Autosport soon after as that turned into a comic).

I did look at it again a couple of years ago but it hadn't got any better, in fact seemed to have got worse.

The concern is though whether there is a place for the national motorsport magazine on the shelf nowadays. There was a new magazine started up a year or so ago to try and focus on the grassroots side of things but it didn't last more than a few months.

[RS2000]

Motoring News, like Autosport, is not so much a victim of the internet but a victim of a UK society that largely seems incapable of achieving an attention span of more than a few lines of print at a time?
MN was merely a general industry trade paper at one time (late 50s?) and its change to a motorsport "bible" was largely on the back of road rallying. Its authority in that respect never outlived the end of a "Verglas" rallies editor who truly had a finger on the pulse and didn't just react to press releases and a few cronies. Stuart Turner, John Brown, John Davenport, Atis Krauklis, Gerry Phillips cannot be replaced because the sport itself (and thus weekly sales) has retracted.
To an extent it does a good job with its rally section and historic page but that simply isn't enough to warrant the price for people like me. At one time the classified adverts were crucial and reflected the ordinary competitor buying and selling parts. Now cars are too high tech for such dealing (and DIY preparation) on that scale.
What made me take the step of stopping buying it were 3 cases quite close together of the most shoddy journalism and editorial oversight and the subsequent attempted denials and cover up. In the days of journalists of stature, all would have realised "Hey, what I'm hearing is total bullsh*t and I need to make my own assessment, not just print what I'm being told".
On another forum this morning you can read of a crisis in the organisation of amateur motorsport because few young organisers are coming forward to replace the current ageing ones. One reason, the same one that causes boy racers to stick to cruises in car parks or "track days" at best, is the sheer hassle of organising or competing. The nanny state has made it more difficult and the required attention span for the "due dilligence" is not drummed into individuals by education and work experience. The same reason the world's finacial system has failed by being left in the hands of a few cowboys with no oversight "in house" or outside...

[Paul Parker]

Could not agree more RS2000, my thoughts exactly.

[terry mcgrath]

Motoring News

Whilst on the subject I am chasing the first 3-4 years of the newspaper if anyone has spare copies.
I am not sure when it first started but it must have started in the late 1950's.
Lots of good snippets in early issues
freight is not a problem
terry mcgath
australia

[RTH]

You are all saying much the same thing and I am in full agreement.

There must be a niche for a new basic weekly newspaper containing objective, independent news reporting, without pulling punches, on motor racing and rallying with a bias towards national and club competition and behind the scenes insights, at an attractive cover price (which is still a big factor in sales).
F1 & WRC is already done to death on the TV and dedicated publications etc in any case has far less going on than was the case 30 + years ago when there were more competitors/ teams and technical innovation and interest generally.

Interesting TV programme last night , about News International's new ultra high speed newspaper printing factory at the junction of the M25 and the A10 which is virtually unmanned yet prints 90,000 full size daily newspapers per hour ( three times the speed of the previous best equipment at Wapping) and receives composition remotely down the line digitally and can print every page perfectly in full colour.
They print many titles for rival outfits as well. Said to be the fastest , most flexible and lowest cost per issue printing facility anywhere in the world. It was of course hugely expensive to build but has the capability to outperform the opposition for many years to come.
One would have thought despite falling newspaper sales generally modern methods mean its still a viable means of distributing news.

[Rob]

Originally posted by RTH
There must be a niche for a new basic weekly newspaper containing objective, independent news reporting, without pulling punches, on motor racing and rallying with a bias towards national and club competition and behind the scenes insights, at an attractive cover price (which is still a big factor in sales).

This was my thinking. Food for thought - a startup publication can now publish whole magazines on the internet, initially eliminating the costs in printing and distribution.

[David McKinney]

Originally posted by terry mcgrath
I am not sure when it first started but it must have started in the late 1950's

1953 rings a bell
My own copies don't start till 1963

[Simon Arron]

The first issue appeared in July 1955.

It contained passing mentions of the Le Mans disaster and Alberto Ascari's passing, but the front-page splash was something about the AA calling for a ban on flashing indicators.

Bring back the semaphore: the campaign begins here...

[Rob29]

Originally posted by Simon Arron
The first issue appeared in July 1955.

The issue contained passing mentions of the Le Mans disaster and Alberto Ascari's passing, but the front-page splash was something about the AA calling for a ban on flashing indicators.

Bring back the semaphore: the campaign begins here...

Was monthly when it started,became weekly by '59 when I started buying it.Thats coming up to 50years-think i now buy it on force of habit.Most of the info I am interested in I seem to have already seen on the web or TV.Have a pile of the last 20yrs if anyone is interested.

[Cirrus]

Originally posted by llmaurice
About as much future as Autosport if those of us that go back a bit are concerned .
I'm still wondering how many people are really interested in buying the Ferrari style mobile hQ palaces that are always in A.utosport -yet people (like my son) still keep buying it !

The last sentence is a bit ironic for me, as I gave up buying Autosport regularly some years ago, but my father still has a subscription - he's been buying it since issue 1.

[Phil Rainford]

What upsets me now is the lack of space given to Club/National Racing reports

One of the reasons for the amazing knowledge displayed on this site, apart from the fact that we are all anoraks …… is that up to the late 1980s we were able to read about drivers/car combinations in Club Competitions, as well as seeing them when they visited our local circuit

Kind regards

Phil

[Allan Lupton]

Originally posted by Phil Rainford
What upsets me now is the lack of space given to Club/National Racing reports

One of the reasons for the amazing knowledge displayed on this site, apart from the fact that we are all anoraks …… is that up to the late 1980s we were able to read about drivers/car combinations in Club Competitions, as well as seeing them when they visited our local circuit

Kind regards

Phil

Just so.
As a handicapper, I gleaned a lot of data on performance of car/driver combinations at circuits I didn't often (or ever) visit, all of which came in useful in one way or another - correlations between circuits, early warning of "new" competitors. I had a 800-1000 card index of that stuff entirely cribbed from MN's club racing results.
Mind you a lot of that data is now there on-line (and in far greater detail), so I would use that if I were still handicapping.

[elansprint72]

I bought it the other week for the first time since the 1980s (I was interested to see the Longridge piece) I could not believe how crappy it was (Edit: the paper not the article) compared to what I remembered. I used to read it from cover to cover, including the small ads; this time around I got bored before the end of most pieces, not due to a lack of attention span on my part, the writing was just so DULL. It was full of factual and grammatical errors, also it contradicted itself from one page/contributor to the next; I doubt that any one person proof-read the whole thing before it went to press.
My English master would have marked it 3/10 with a note: "see me".

[Ian Smith - Diz]

I take MN on subscription as it was marginally better than Autosport, which I cancelled a few years back. I still read Autosport though - it usually takes two minutes max, at least the bit I'm interested in does - during the "big shop" at Asda on a Friday.
Like everybody on here, I just miss the proper journalism and decent club racing reports that the likes of Ian Titchmarsh used to provide in both titles way back then. They were both cover to cover jobs. Sadly not nowadays, falling standards and all that.

I don't particularly enjoy modern F1, but do enjoy the GP reports by Simon Arron and his "column".
Top bloke that Simon.

[COUGAR508]

I was a reader of Motoring News on and off in the early to mid 1990s, and even then the trend seemed to be towards more coverage of F1 at the expense of other things.

[Stephen W]

IF anyone wants to actually influence the content of Motorsport News the best thing to do is put together your own letter of complaint and include what you think the paper is lacking.

As long as the Editor is blissfully unaware of the reasons for the lost readership the more it will change and the sort of changes that will happen will be even more detrimental. For example I understand that there will be less emphasis on reportage and more on News Stories.

[Allen Brown]

I recently bought 1971-1974 Motoring News and am reading through them looking for new snippets of information that weren't in Autosport. The overlap between the two was huge but I agree with the comment above that MN was a good read from beginning to end.

In those days anyone with the determination, a bit of talent and a reasonable amount of knowledge could get onto a F1 grid and you only needed one out of three of those to get on the back of a F2 grid. That made for better stories. It also meant the cars had real lives, moving from F2 to Atlantic to libre to hillclimbs whereas cars are now built for one specific formula and live and die in that category. To me, that's simply not as interesting. That's not really MN's fault.

[Tony Matthews]

When I worked for MN it was possible to persuade the Tee & Whiten blokes to bind your copies of the paper, on a nod-and-wink basis, cash in hand etc., of course I didn't get involved in such underhand practices, but somehow I seem to have the issues published during the years I was there - '71 to '76 - neatly bound in mid-blue, most of them with gold blocking on the spine. How did that happen...?

[RCH]

I complained to MN a few years ago about what I saw as the "dumbing down" of editorial content and a seeming total lack of any interest in International Sports Car racing. I particularly disliked what I saw as "lazy" journalism: "Questions & Answers" rather than a proper report of an interview; verbatim quoting of press releases; what seemed to me to be disjointed and chaotic F1 reports etc.

The response was we are up against the internet etc. which is true but I still don't think is an excuse for falling standards.

I still buy it though but really only for the historic page.

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by RCH
The response was we are up against the internet etc. which is true but I still don't think is an excuse for falling standards.

This appears to be the standard response when people ask 'why are Motorsport News cutting down on reports?' I supply reports on the Britsih Sprint Championship and I no longer post any details of events on the internet until Wednesday afternoon. Unfortunately the impatience that appears to be inherent in the Internet Forums means that more often than not someone who doesn't know their arse from their elbow posts a comment about what they heard in the pub!

IMHO I don't think that Motorsport News are correct in their assumptions. What is needed are longer reports, more reasoned updates on championships between rounds, more reporting on 'club events' (which quiet frankly don't get any mention on the internet forums) and finally more knowledgeable sub-editors who are in it for the long-haul rather than marking time before moving onto a better job in their favoured discipline.

Finally when I was instructed to "make it up" when faced with an incomplete story and an approaching deadline I decided that I would do no such thing.

[fines]

Originally posted by Allen Brown
In those days anyone with the determination, a bit of talent and a reasonable amount of knowledge could get onto a F1 grid and you only needed one out of three of those to get on the back of a F2 grid. That made for better stories. It also meant the cars had real lives, moving from F2 to Atlantic to libre to hillclimbs whereas cars are now built for one specific formula and live and die in that category. To me, that's simply not as interesting. That's not really MN's fault.

I fully endorse that sentiment. People ask why I don't follow any motor sports anymore, and if it's for this or that reason - usually fishing for a comment about accidents - but it's actually very simple. Thanks, Allen, for expressing it so eloquently, I hope your words are not copyrighted!?;)

[Paul Hurdsfield]

I've read it since 71' I used to travel about a lot in those days and you could allway's get it at Smiths on the train stations, very few other outlets sold it....too specialised, then I moved house and the local paper shop would deliver it...easy option ;) thirty years later we moved house again, no local deliveries, so I subscribed, now it lands on my doormat on a Wednesday after I've gone to work :
I agree It's not like it was....but what is? I like the sidebar columns, Simon, Gerry etc, the GP reports and the Historic page, even the letters page aint what it was
It's the only car related publication I read, apart from my bi-monthly Westfield Sports Car Club mag, I used to read triple C back in the 70s, Gerry Marshalls column was great. Unfortunately characters like Gerry are few and far between nowadays so the poor contributers have to write about something less interesting ;)

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by Phil Rainford
What upsets me now is the lack of space given to Club/National Racing reports

One of the reasons for the amazing knowledge displayed on this site, apart from the fact that we are all anoraks …… is that up to the late 1980s we were able to read about drivers/car combinations in Club Competitions, as well as seeing them when they visited our local circuit

Kind regards

Phil

Thats exactly it, Phil. They used to make 'stars' of certain Clubbie racers didn't they, so they became personalties in their own right.

[Derwent Motorsport]

I've tried a few times to make my views known but they seem to think they know best. They are happy to do rally reports of events with 23 entries but will not do reports on speed events where thee ntries can be arounda 100 or bigger and the major speed events in the Midlands often get bigger crowds than a British F3 meeting.
Sporting Scene is usually written by the office junior, who invariably has little idea about the sport and if he does pick up some knowledge is moved to be something like "national rallies editor" or some such title.

The historic scene is growing all the time and yet we get just one page and thatr usually has a large photo on it as a filler.

[Stephen W]

Originally posted by Derwent Motorsport
The historic scene is growing all the time and yet we get just one page and thatr usually has a large photo on it as a filler.

The Historic page is usually produced well in advance of the actual publication date.

:

[David Beard]

I started reading MN in about 1963 as a cheaper alternative to Autosport, and continued pretty continously until the name change. I was getting a bit disheartened with it by then, but the name change finished me off...if only because the petrol station from which I bought it on the way to work suddenly lost track of it, and it appeared on the shelf no more.

I've started buying it again now and then though...cos our Simon writes in it.

[fines]

Originally posted by Stephen W


The Historic page is usually produced well in advance of the actual publication date.

:

Hence the name!

[Doug Nye]

I have MN hard-bound from its launch in 1955 way into the 1990s, before I finally surrendered in bored, disinterested, unimpressed, unriveted disgust. My binder hated the job each year, since to stitch those volumes he had to wrap his arm round the whole pack and it rubbed his inner-elbow raw every time. Both my late friend Cyril Posthumus and MRP publisher John Blunsden were past MN Editors, as was the much-missed Mike Twite - a big, gentle bear of a man - who lost his life in the Vickers Varsity crash after leaving MN and founding 'Fly Past' magazine.

In the early '60s while everyone in motor racing seemed to read 'Autosport' for a good laugh, the gossip and the classified ads, more seemed to brandish 'MN' for its depth, its good connections, its insights. This was entirely down to the respected staff whose work appeared in it. At the rare race meetings I attended I'd find Frank Williams, Colin Chapman, Mauro Forghieri, Tony Rudd, everybody with their nose stuck in the latest 'MN', always in preference to 'Autosport'.

I found it fascinating since it embraced and offered huge detail on the racing world at virtually all levels, and ditto the rallying world - which in contrast 'Autosport' largely ignored below full International level. 'Autosport' looked up really after Gregor Grant's departure, and the advent of a new generation - Taylor, McNally, Lyons, eventually Roebuck etc. They began giving 'MN's people, notably Andy Marriott, Alan Henry, Mike Doodson, Mike Cotton etc, a run for their money. In combination the two weekly comics made the British motor sporting press absolutely the world's best. Importantly they were compiled by manically-focused genuine enthusiasts who could marshal facts and thoughts, and write. They were unfettered, undiluted, untainted, by journalism courses, by media studies, by some sense of being 'The Press' rather than simply blokes like us, enthusiasts who loved motor sport and who had found their way 'in' by writing about it. But they were men of their times, and those publications were the best of the moment.

For all kinds of reasons now self-evident, those times, and that moment, have sadly passed.

DCN

[sterling49]

Originally posted by Doug Nye

In the early '60s while everyone in motor racing seemed to read 'Autosport' for a good laugh, the gossip and the classified ads, more seemed to brandish 'MN' for its depth, its good connections, its insights. This was entirely down to the respected staff whose work appeared in it. At the rare race meetings I attended I'd find Frank Williams, Colin Chapman, Mauro Forghieri, Tony Rudd, everybody with their nose stuck in the latest 'MN', always in preference to 'Autosport'.

DCN

A great post Doug, I took both publications until the late '80s, when I look at MN now, on a newstand, I cannot believe that it is the same publication. MN "was" the weekly bible on all things motorsport, Amen. That "was", definitely denotes past tense.

[Simon Arron]

I promised I wouldn’t become too involved in this thread, but a glass or two of Soave can test one’s resolve…

I accept that my views might be considered impartial – I began reading MN in 1973, started writing for it in 1980 and contribute a weekly column, plus other stuff, to this day – but one point needs to be underlined. Whether or not you appreciate the content, MN is still produced – as ever – by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts. From the editor down, the current employees are as likely to be found on the Tour of Mull, or at Wimbledon Stadium, as they are in a grand prix paddock (it’s only me who attends every GP on MN’s behalf, although last year I also took in Le Mans, clubbies at Oulton Park and Lydden Hill, the Oulton Park Gold Cup, the Goodwood Revival, the Cholmondeley Pageant of Power and, yes, a couple of banger meetings at Wimbledon). Passion and diversity are absolute: they always have been and always will, but we have to accept that the world has changed…

[soapbox]When I was growing up during the 1960s and ’70s, motorsport was rarely on TV – and even the British GP would be interrupted by shots of horses walking around the parade ring ahead of the 2.45 from Haydock Park. The national press sometimes covered major races only in the event of a serious accident and to find out more about the sport I had no option but to read a) the weekly specialist press and b) books. I spent hours poring over whatever literature I could find in the local library, because as an 11-year-old I knew little of Nuvolari, Caracciola or Fangio and was desperate to find out more. Motor racing was a minority pastime that inspired curiosity.

Today, in contrast, armchair fans are bombarded by blanket TV coverage, countless websites contain a battery of statistical data and most things are almost instantly accessible. Where my generation had to make an effort to sate our curiosity – a two-page F2 report in MN was a thing to be treasured and devoured, usually while the paper was tucked under my desk during a Latin lesson – we now live in a sound-bite society that discovers things almost before they happen. It doesn’t make the world a better place, but that’s the way it is (and I feel privileged to have known it in its previous guise). [/soapbox]

There’s an old adage about not judging a book by its cover. This post has endured long enough, but I’m about to submit two columns that appeared in MN almost exactly one year ago. I could be wrong, but I thought they might have a degree of TNF appeal...

[Simon Arron]

From MN, Feb 13 2008...

September 18 1971, Oulton Park. Frank Gardner’s Lola T300 leads the penultimate round of the Rothmans Formula 5000 Championship, with Mike Hailwood’s Surtees TS8 in hot pursuit, and ten-year-old me is leaning, enthralled, against the flimsy wooden stakes separating the general public from the earth bank that lines the approach to Knickerbrook.
Early in the race, the romance of such sights and sounds is interrupted by a considerable commotion to my right. A tall, dense jet of flame rushes skywards, just the other side of Hill Top, and it wasn’t there a moment ago. The crowd starts to edge in that direction and I join the throng.
The source of the blaze is Peter Hawtin’s wrecked Cooper T90. Officials work methodically to smother the flames but there’s nothing they can do for the driver, whose lifeless body lies on the grass nearby. I’ve already lost enough heroes to appreciate that motor racing is dangerous, but this is the first time I’ve witnessed it being so. I wander back to Knickerbrook to watch the balance of the race unfold, my head filled with a shocking image that lurks there still.
Later in the afternoon I see another plume of smoke, more distant this time, in the direction of Old Hall. I know only that Malcolm Sears’s Sunbeam Tiger – my favourite Modsports car – is no longer running, but I return home none the wiser. Final editions of the Manchester Evening News confirm Hawtin’s sad passing and inform me that Sears sustained dreadful injuries in an accident at Old Hall, but beyond that? Nothing (note: I didn’t discover the specialist press until 1973). I recall Sears being mentioned about four years later in an MN snippet, which reported that he was still recuperating and would like to hear from former rivals, but for 36 years I wondered what became of him.
Recently, though, The Nostalgia Forum (an addictive complement to www.autosport.com) enabled me to establish contact with Paul Sears, Malcolm’s son, and I had the privilege of speaking to him at length. The Tiger, subsequently scrapped, was left-hand drive, an ex-works rally car, and his father bore the full force of the impact. He lost the sight of one eye and his head and leg injuries were so severe that he remained in hospital for nine years, but he is still around and now lives in retirement by the coast. He doesn’t have e-mail, or even a telephone line, but I’m going to drop him a line to see whether he’s prepared to chat about his career.
I’m grateful that 36 years of curiosity are at an end, but I’d like to know a bit more about one of the sport’s forgotten men and the car that so captured my youthful imagination.
I’ll keep you posted.

[Simon Arron]

From MN, Feb 20 2008...

“Hello Simon. It’s
Malcolm Sears…”

Not words I ever expected to hear, really, but they came as one of the most uplifting surprises of a writing career that stretches back to May 1979. To put that in context, I filed my first piece for the Altrincham Guardian when Margaret Thatcher had just been voted into Downing Street and an inexplicable number of people were buying Boney M records.
To recap, for the benefit of those who didn’t read it, this bit of the paper dealt last week with, among other things, Malcolm Sears’s Modsports Sunbeam Tiger – a car that 10-year-old me considered to be one of the finest in the world, right up there with Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell 003. On September 18 1971, however, the Tiger was destroyed in a fearful accident at Old Hall corner, Oulton Park. I was present and, although I didn’t witness the incident, I saw its fiery consequences from a distance. I knew Sears had been seriously hurt, but no more.
More than three decades of curiosity were partially sated when I recently made contact with Malcolm’s son, Paul, who supplied me with his father’s address. After penning last week’s column, I wrote to Malcolm and hoped I might hear back in due course: he made contact before last week’s MN had even reached the shops.
“I don’t remember anything about the accident,” he says. “When I regained consciousness my mind was completely blank. I’d lost the sight of one eye and doctors told me I’d been in a coma for three months…”
That was the catalyst for a slow recuperation. So severe were his head and leg injuries that he stayed in hospital for nine years. “I was able to get out from time to time,” he says, “and I used to go to the workshop where the Tiger had been based, to do small engineering jobs. When I was finally released I got myself organised and was able to find work – London Transport employed me as a cleaner in the Chiswick bus depot and I later went to Moorfields Eye Hospital as a porter, but I couldn’t do anything that involved standing up for too long. It was a bit of a downgrade.”
Previously, Sears had been involved with the filming of Steve McQueen’s Le Mans. “I developed some of the radio-control systems that were used for the accident sequences,” he says. “After my own misfortune, Steve sent me a letter to wish me well.”
Now 67, Sears finds it difficult to get around because arthritis affects his once-shattered legs, but he remains resolutely cheerful and is still keenly interested in the sport that so disrupted his life.
So much suffering, so little rancour. To make his acquaintance, finally, was a privilege.

[sterling49]

Absolutely 1st class post Simon, reminded me so much of the passionate writing in MN, when I 1st subscribed....during 1967 I acknowledge your points, if only all of the artcles were so passionately written. I have not long arrived back, from visiting my dear old mum, on the way home, i popped into the Co-Op and browsed the mags....£3.99 later, I purchased Classic Ford, would you believe on the strength of two articles, one, the mighty Boreham RS Escorts assault on The Manx Rally, and the other, an article about a rather nice RS2000 Mk 1 that I covet badly : Maybe my attention span is not as it was, but I will still shell out for media, if it contains the goodies. My usual purchases are MotorSport and Classic Ford, and some music mags (especially if it has articles on Genesis,Caravan, Floyd etc).

I remember Malcom Sears and his Tiger very well, that obviosly made the same impression on you, as the "breadvan" Ferrari did on me, a few years earlier, good to see the the bug bites in much the same way, whatever age we are My wife still thinks that I will grow "out" of cars and loud music.............dream on

[Alan Cox]

Splendid stuff, Simon. Thanks for taking the trouble to respond. Like many people who have posted here, I couldn't believe my luck when my father bought me, as an eleven year-old, the first issue of 1963 which carried the front-page headline "Graham joins the World Champions". I bought every issue for the best part of 30 years - and have kept only that first issue and the one from 1968 carrying a report of the BOAC 500 and Jim Clark's obituary - but now only buy the occasional copy, but that may say more about me and my taste in current motor racing than it does about the contents of Motorsport News.

[Paul Hurdsfield]

My twopennorth, It was Simons article that indirectly lead me to this forum
I was there on September 18th 71' stood on the inside of Old Hall when Malcolm had his accident
It was one of those things that gets lost in your memory banks after 30 odd years, but Simon's article brought it all back. I emailed Simon just to say how many memories his piece had brought back and he replied, I felt quite honoured by that reply, here's me just a punter from the other side of the fence (which Simon was then) and a respected journalist takes the time to write to me
Anyway Simon passed on my contact details to Paul Sears, who in turn contacted me to ask if I could recall any details of his dads accident, I told him what I could remember, we talked about his dad and how he is now, and he told me about this forum, so you've got an incident from 71', an article in 2008 and an email from Paul Sears to blame for and my rambles, plus a few dodgy photo's ;)

[Mallory Dan]

Great stuff SA, really excellent. I see now why I was never cut out to be an MN Journo!

My first issue was August 73, the one reporting the JYS-Cevert 'Ring Tyrell 1-2. It captivated me then, aged 10, I took it until around '85, and loved it. I always wondered who the Journos were, AH, PRB, MLC, DJT, even SA. Now I know.

[Ian Smith - Diz]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan
Great stuff SA, really excellent. I see now why I was never cut out to be an MN Journo!

My first issue was August 73, the one reporting the JYS-Cevert 'Ring Tyrell 1-2. It captivated me then, aged 10, I took it until around '85, and loved it. I always wondered who the Journos were, AH, PRB, MLC, DJT, even SA. Now I know.

Just who was LWTNS?
I know this, do you?

[Kpy]

Originally posted by Ian Smith - Diz
Just who was LWTNS?
I know this, do you?

Simon Arron. I think you've mentioned that before.

[Tony Matthews]

Mr W J Tee came into the LAT studio just as I was putting the finishing touches to my first cutaway for Motoring News, and immediately commented on the small matthews I had letraset'ed below the car.

'Ooh! We can't have that, boy, nobody is allowed to use their names, non of the journalists, it's initials only!" Fortunately, although my immediate predecessor, Andrew Brown, had used initials, I had seen a batch of drawings by Bill Bennet, with his name writ upon. I pointed this out to him, and he wriggled a bit, not happy that I'd caught him out. "Well, can't you work it in to the tread on the tyres or something?" I was horrified at the thought of such artistic license, and told him so. Eventually he reluctantly said "Well alright, but keep it small!"

[Simon Arron]

There was a time, circa 1983, when WJT finally agreed to allow full names to be used. They appeared for one week... and it tipped him into a fearful rage during the next editorial meeting, during which he denied he'd ever authorised such a thing (even though the minutes confirmed he had). By the following issue they had disappeared once more.

LWTNS

[Mallory Dan]

Do explain the initials SA/LWTNS.

[PMac]

Originally posted by Simon Arron
There was a time, circa 1983, when WJT finally agreed to allow full names to be used. They appeared for one week... and it tipped him into a fearful rage during the next editorial meeting, during which he denied he'd ever authorised such a thing (even though the minutes confirmed he had). By the following issue they had disappeared once more.

LWTNS

Aaah, fond memories of these hideous, humiliating weekly spars with Mr Tee. He'd always win every argument, then we'd go against his wishes and hope - usually with good reason - that he'd have forgotten about it by the following week. I remember certain lively debates about the cost of sustaining LWTNS, and was completely horrified when I learned how little LWTNS was actually paid. At that time (late 80s/early 90s) and I guess before and after that time, MN paid its contributors (and its staff) absolute peanuts. Hence, it was written by enthusiasts who weren't in it for the money.

The compensation for a staff member was that MN traditionally supplied a tasty company car with the job. Unfortunately at the time Mark Hughes and I took up our roles at MN (we started on exactly the same day) we were given 1.6 diesel Escorts. The outcry persuaded Mr Tee to reconsider, by which point we were stuck with our Escorts. There followed a concerted effort to break our fleet of Escorts, a feat Mark achieved first! I recall three Escorts line astern along the Marylebone Road, with the one at the rear shunting the other two!

Back on-topic, I stopped buying MN around 1996, and have only dipped back into it occasionally - perhaps once or twice a year - since. I wonder, do they still do the Christmas Road Test and Christmas Quiz? The former featured some extraordinary vehicles, while the latter was a true measure of your all-round motorsport knowledge.

[Phil Rainford]

Originally posted by Simon Arron
I promised I wouldn’t become too involved in this thread, but a glass or two of Soave can test one’s resolve…

I accept that my views might be considered impartial – I began reading MN in 1973, started writing for it in 1980 and contribute a weekly column, plus other stuff, to this day – but one point needs to be underlined. Whether or not you appreciate the content, MN is still produced – as ever – by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts. From the editor down, the current employees are as likely to be found on the Tour of Mull, or at Wimbledon Stadium, as they are in a grand prix paddock

This reminds me of an incident on the Pirelli Rally three or four years ago in Kielder............

We had organised a Corporate Weekend for some 30 customers, where they were to experience rallying “up close and personal”

On the Saturday afternoon armed with a huge bunch of Forestry Commission keys and a convoy of 4x4 vehicles, we ventured some 12 miles into a stage. We sold the afternoon’s viewing to the customers, as they were off to see a stage at a point where they couldn’t possibly be any other spectators.

And so it proved, as we arrived at the stage junction, only the marshal’s vehicle was visible, apart that was for one muddy road car.

You’ve guessed it as we clambered to the vantage point that we had claimed was inaccessible, there waiting camera in hand for the first car through,was the Motoring News photographer

Kind regards

Phil

[PMac]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan
Do explain the initials SA/LWTNS.

I hope I'm not giving away your secret, Simon? LWTNS was Simon's acronymic alias when he was working for 'another publication' but still contributing to MN. Large Weak Tea No Sugar was SA's tipple of choice, hence LWTNS.

[Tony Matthews]

Originally posted by PMac


At that time (late 80s/early 90s) and I guess before and after that time, MN paid its contributors (and its staff) absolute peanuts. Hence, it was written by enthusiasts who weren't in it for the money.

The compensation for a staff member was that MN traditionally supplied a tasty company car with the job.

My first company car was an ex-Laurie Morton MGB Roadster, very tired, but fun, it had to have a new engine after a few months and it was arranged that I would take the company Morris Minor van to Coventry and pick up a -I think - recon motor. This was lashed into the rear with rope and I set off for Lunnon, but as I drove the rope slackened gradually, allowing this big heavy lump to slide more and more with the G forces, culminating in fantastic oversteer, wierd acceleration and not much chance of slowing in a straight line.

After a prop shaft coupling broke it was sold and I managed to persuade WJT that if he bought me a Lotus Europa twin-cam in kit form I could build it and furnish MN with a whole series of articles. Lotus Cars were talked into giving 15% discount, and all we needed was a cheque from the Old Man. The weeks went by and I was getting desperate and finally decided to confont him. As I started to tell him exactly what had to be done he interupted me with "It's alright, boy, Doodson's leaving, you can have his car!"

So near and yet so far.

[RS2000]

Originally posted by sterling49
I purchased Classic Ford, would you believe on the strength of two articles, one, the mighty Boreham RS Escorts assault on The Manx Rally

I looked at that in a certain retailer this morning (for no longer than it took to read the Historic page in MN...).
I'm afraid that's another one I long ago gave up on. Partly because of the vast number of articles involving the murder of classics with modern parts but also because I consider Graham Robson has run out of Escort material and now seems to be making some of it up! Escorts on tarmac were "pretty handy too"? Not really, until the Alan Wilkinson 79 Monte Carlo "specials" of dubious homologation compliance. On Manx in particular no match for the Irish 911s when they were prepared to remotely the same standard and no contest with the Chevette HSR and Ascona (leave alone Manta) 400 once they arrived?

[Simon Arron]

Originally posted by Mallory Dan
Do explain the initials SA/LWTNS.

Mr MacLeod has already explained in part, but...

I left MN early in 1988 (on the same day as Alan Henry) because I had a wife and house and could no longer afford to survive on however little it was, plus £3 per month in Luncheon Vouchers and a nice car. When I told WJT I was off, he pulled the customary stunt of offering me another car upgrade and didn't seem to understand that this wouldn't pay the bills...

Anyway, I decamped to Fast Lane but carried on writing MN's FIA F3000 reports on a freelance basis. After a few months, the publisher at Fast Lane complained that my dual role implied a lack of commitment, so my initials were altered to conceal my involvement. LWTNS stood for 'large weak* tea, no sugar' - my staple order at Riccardo's, the Italian café across the road from MN. It's as tedious and simple as that.

* I actually prefer proper, northern-strength tea, which is what you got if you asked for 'weak'. Otherwise, it was the approximate shade of oxtail soup...

[Doug Nye]

Originally posted by Tony Matthews


My first company car was ...As I started to tell him exactly what had to be done he interupted me with "It's alright, boy, Doodson's leaving, you can have his car!"

So near and yet so far.

Typical! I didn't stay/last long enough to qualify even for the offer of a company car - joined around May '68 and away as fast as I could go in my Mark I Cortina GT (lowered) as that August began. Whattamistakatomake! (Joining them, I mean) - I admired much about the product, and my colleagues, but nothing about the company and its practises.

DCN