40 replies to this topic

[Wolfie242]

Is there anyone who have compiled an index of all the articles that have been in Autosport magazine over the years? I know it is a huge task to do it for all years since the start of Autosport but perhaps someone has covered a couple of years?

[David McKinney]

I don't know if its still happens, because I stopped regularly buying Autosport years ago, but they used to print their own detailed index at the end of each year, IIRC in the last issue of the year

[Roger Clark]

I have indexes for some six-month volumes from the 1950s up to the mid-60s. They are probably availalbe for all years. Pooks book shop used to have a supply, at £5 a volume; perhaps they still have.

[Wolfie242]

OK, thank you.

Just thought that someone with a lot of spare time had made an index on their own covering all or some years.

[RTH]

They stopped doing the index ......when they realised the sort of articles they do now - nobody wanted to refer back to .

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by RTH
They stopped doing the index ......when they realised the sort of articles they do now - nobody wanted to refer back to .

You mean something like this from the 2004 issues?

BAR, tedious feature on why the latest round of staff sackings have improved matters
BTCC, see "Vauxhall, bias", "Repmobiles, crashes of", "Thompson, James - mutant face of"
COULTHARD, David, why this must be his year January 8
COULTHARD, David, why this wasn't his year December 22
DAVID, Coulthard, year, why this must be his his
FERRARI, 8 page special claiming they're cheats
FERRARI, 8 page article saying how special and historic and romantic they are
MCLAREN, plans for season, 6 pages of Ronspeak, with English translation
PANIS, obligatory annual article claiming he's the only normal bloke in F1
PYE, Marcus - see "proper racing journalist", "enthusiast", "good writer" - what's he doing here?
REPORTS, race - see between adverts occasionally.
RAIKKONEN, attempt to interview him
ROEBUCK, Nigel -- see CURMUDGEON, EMBASSY NO. 6, JOHN PLAYER, BENSON & HEDGES, GITANES, GAULOISES, CAPSTAN FULL STRENGTH, CRAVEN A, LAMBERT & BUTLER, RANT, POLITICS
SCHUMACHER, Michael, why he is the greatest ever and it won't be David's year January 8
SCHUMACHER, Ralf, how he's not scared of Michael despite not being able to pass him, January 15
SCHUMACHER, Ralf, article with punning title something like 'Schu's On The Other Foot'
STODDART, Paul, rant about how he deserves more money
VILLENEUVE, Jacques, on being an F1 rebel no longer in F1, January 22
WILLIAMS, content-free interview with Sam Michael who's clearly being groomed to replace Patrick Head
YEAR, why this is David Coulthard's, series, January 15-March 30
YEAR, why this was Michael Schumacher's

[Vitesse2]

Ah well, the advantage of doing all those Coulthard articles is that they can just cut and paste paragraphs and quotes from the ones they did in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 etc etc :yawn:

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
Ah well, the advantage of doing all those Coulthard articles is that they can just cut and paste paragraphs and quotes from the ones they did in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 etc etc :yawn:

The first cuckoo of spring...
the 'WHY THIS MUST BE DC'S YEAR' cover....
and the 10p price rise due to 'unavoidable rises in production costs that we've delayed passing on to you for as long as possible'....

of such things is Spring made.;)

[RTH]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by petefenelon
[B]

You mean something like this from the 2004 issues?

BAR, tedious feature on why the latest round of staff sackings have improved matters
BTCC, see "Vauxhall, bias", "Repmobiles, crashes of", "Thompson, James - mutant face of"
COULTHARD, David, why this must be his year January 8
COULTHARD, David, why this wasn't his year December 22
DAVID, Coulthard, year, why this must be his his.........................................

Yes I mean exactly like this !............... And I can't find anything even remotely interesting in todays issue .

[humphries]

Wolfie

Somebody, a real enthusiast, in 1980 produced a detailed yearly index of all the articles, race reports, profiles etc of Autosport from 1950-1979 with the date of the issue and the page number! They were just typed lists on A4 paper, six pages in 1951, ten pages in 1979. These indices have been very useful to me and were an excellent buy.

Unfortunately there is no name or address of the compiler on the sheets. Perhaps his advert or Autosport's recommendation can be found in a 1980 issue of the magazine but a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and contact may not now be possible.

John

[UAtkins]

Originally posted by humphries
Wolfie

Somebody, a real enthusiast, in 1980 produced a detailed yearly index of all the articles, race reports, profiles etc of Autosport from 1950-1979 with the date of the issue and the page number! They were just typed lists on A4 paper, six pages in 1951, ten pages in 1979. These indices have been very useful to me and were an excellent buy.

Unfortunately there is no name or address of the compiler on the sheets. Perhaps his advert or Autosport's recommendation can be found in a 1980 issue of the magazine but a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and contact may not now be possible.

John

If a copy of these were available and could be mailed to me I would be happy to scan them and create a PDF document to share if that would help.

Ursula

[David Beard]

Originally posted by petefenelon


You mean something like this from the 2004 issues?

BAR, tedious feature on why the latest round of staff sackings have improved matters
BTCC, see "Vauxhall, bias", "Repmobiles, crashes of", "Thompson, James - mutant face of"
COULTHARD, David, why this must be his year January 8
COULTHARD, David, why this wasn't his year December 22
DAVID, Coulthard, year, why this must be his his
FERRARI, 8 page special claiming they're cheats
FERRARI, 8 page article saying how special and historic and romantic they are
MCLAREN, plans for season, 6 pages of Ronspeak, with English translation
PANIS, obligatory annual article claiming he's the only normal bloke in F1
PYE, Marcus - see "proper racing journalist", "enthusiast", "good writer" - what's he doing here?
REPORTS, race - see between adverts occasionally.
RAIKKONEN, attempt to interview him
ROEBUCK, Nigel -- see CURMUDGEON, EMBASSY NO. 6, JOHN PLAYER, BENSON & HEDGES, GITANES, GAULOISES, CAPSTAN FULL STRENGTH, CRAVEN A, LAMBERT & BUTLER, RANT, POLITICS
SCHUMACHER, Michael, why he is the greatest ever and it won't be David's year January 8
SCHUMACHER, Ralf, how he's not scared of Michael despite not being able to pass him, January 15
SCHUMACHER, Ralf, article with punning title something like 'Schu's On The Other Foot'
STODDART, Paul, rant about how he deserves more money
VILLENEUVE, Jacques, on being an F1 rebel no longer in F1, January 22
WILLIAMS, content-free interview with Sam Michael who's clearly being groomed to replace Patrick Head
YEAR, why this is David Coulthard's, series, January 15-March 30
YEAR, why this was Michael Schumacher's

Wouldn't we all LOVE to know if anyone from Autosport lurks here...

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by David Beard





Wouldn't we all LOVE to know if anyone from Autosport lurks here...

To be fair to this week's issue, the article on the Fittipaldi-Dingman CART team was OK. And Mark Hughes is always worth reading, so it was a relief to note that he did the Monza report instead of a colleague of his who'd only moan that none of the drivers smoke these days..... the first couple of pages were positively Jenks-esque, I thought.

[Fred Gallagher]

I seem to remember that Graham Robson produced an index back in the 80s (?). It was quite superficial however; basically the contents pages listed alphabetically.

[gdecarli]

Originally posted by Wolfie242
Is there anyone who have compiled an index of all the articles that have been in Autosport magazine over the years? I know it is a huge task to do it for all years since the start of Autosport but perhaps someone has covered a couple of years?

Not me. But I have some index of Italian Autosprint. I think 1979, 1991 and maybe 1992 but I don't recall exactly and I don't recall if the whole season or only a half. If anybody is interest in, PM or e-mail me.

I made them with old MS Works 2.0 DOS, but it's possible to convert it to a more modern format

Ciao,
Guido

[David Beard]

Not Autosport, but from a while back some of you might remember this thread about producing an index for MotorSport magazine.

http://www.atlasf1.c...highlight=index

Roger Clark and I made a start at doing it, going to some depth, but somehow the enterprise fizzled out. It's a task that takes up a lot of time, if it is to be done done properly. We hoped for more helpers, but.......

[Racer.Demon]

He should say so himself, but in 8W game days Rainer Nyberg used to have a nifty Autosport index on series like "Race of My Life" etc. Don't know whether he compiled this for the entire magazine, but we could ask...

[Racer.Demon]

Originally posted by petefenelon
And Mark Hughes is always worth reading, so it was a relief to note that he did the Monza report instead of a colleague of his who'd only moan that none of the drivers smoke these days..... the first couple of pages were positively Jenks-esque, I thought.

Hughes has been doing the Grand Prix reports all year now, hasn't he? He's usually very good - although I suspect his Tripoli gaffe will haunt him forever on TNF! - with real sentences (instead of the currently fashionable abbreviated ones) and several poetic phrases. And he still has a passion for today's sport, which lifts his reporting, contrary to that certain romantic who could not help being cynical, vitriolic, biased and overly nostalgic while reporting on current affairs in his last ten years of the job, making it a very tiring and predictable exercise for the reader. He was good in his heyday but he should go and dedicate his time to writing some books on those days now.

Great 2004 index, BTW, Pete! And spot on...

My subscription will be expiring soon - lately I only had it for the international results, which are on any series website now and in more detailed form, while European delivery is lagging since summer. I now receive my copy one week late (formerly one day late), turning the concept of a weekly magazine into a mockery. And they say they can't help it.

[/rant]

[René de Boer]

Originally posted by Racer.Demon
European delivery is lagging since summer. I now receive my copy one week late (formerly one day late), turning the concept of a weekly magazine into a mockery. And they say they can't help it.

[/rant]

Good to hear that you are having the same problem. I keep on phoning the subscribers' service line. Out of the last eight issues, two went amiss completely - a replacement copy was sent free of charge - and the rest arrived either on Wednesday or on Thursday the week after publication, whereas it always used to be there on Friday (well, 90 %, otherwise on Saturday).

From what I have heard, all magazines are being shipped to The Netherlands (some company called Peer Frederiksen in Nieuw Vennep, near Zandvoort and Amsterdam) on Wednesday evening and then being sent out to European subscribers on Thursday. Apparently, this has been the case for years and hasn't changed, so I don't understand why delivery is now always delayed...

And yes, there are AUTOSPORT people reading this forum, e.g. me, although I am "only" their German correspondent on a freelance-basis.

[Racer.Demon]

Originally posted by René de Boer


Good to hear that you are having the same problem. I keep on phoning the subscribers' service line. Out of the last eight issues, two went amiss completely - a replacement copy was sent free of charge - and the rest arrived either on Wednesday or on Thursday the week after publication, whereas it always used to be there on Friday (well, 90 %, otherwise on Saturday).

Haven't missed a copy yet but the latest I received my copy was on the Saturday the week after UK's Thursday publication date. IIRC, the trouble started with the pre-Hungary issue and hasn't stopped since. Indeed, delivery's always been on Friday, with the occasional delay until Saturday. I've been bugging their subscription e-mail address, wasn't acknowledged first time out but now they say they have identified the problem and are dealing with it. Let's wait and see...

Originally posted by René de Boer

From what I have heard, all magazines are being shipped to The Netherlands (some company called Peer Frederiksen in Nieuw Vennep, near Zandvoort and Amsterdam) on Wednesday evening and then being sent out to European subscribers on Thursday. Apparently, this has been the case for years and hasn't changed, so I don't understand why delivery is now always delayed...

Do you still have the Peer Frederiksen signs on the plastic cover? Mine have changed to TPG International , Hoofddorp, for some weeks now... Or have the TPG logos always been there? Can't really remember... :

[conjohn]

My copy of Autosport from 18th September arrived today, and as there are no postal delivery on Saturdays in Sweden anymore, I have to say that it is pretty quick. Of course, the issue before that arrived last Thursday or Friday, and that had been the norm for quite some weeks. So just maybe, maybe, your bugging them has helped....

The address insert is marked 'Urgent Priority Mail' and it has a Swedish return address, so I can't tell if it has been in Holland before that.

[Udo K.]

As I can learn from this threa I am not the only one on the continent to have Autosport arrive late
(or not at all) these days. I complained twice, got answer and the two missing copies, but still all issues arrive a week later than usual.

Today I received the following reply:

Qte:

Dear Udo Klinkel

Thank you for your email. I have been advised by the publishers that this problem has now been rectified. Autosport will be sent First Class from the Uk so you will receive it on either Friday or Monday after publication. This should be in affect from this weeks issue.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Kind Regards
--
Gemma Gobbett
Haymarket Subscriptions
PO Box 568
Haywards Heath,West Sussex
RH16 3XQ

FAX : +44(0) 1444 445599
Email: Haymarket.subs@qss-uk.com

Unqte.


So let's see what's going to happen.

[René de Boer]

@ Udo: Well, that sounds good. Fingers crossed that it works!

@ Mattijs: You are right. It says TPG on the cover, with Nieuw Vennep return address. No Peer Frederiksen anymore.

[Racer.Demon]

Continuing the off-topic side theme: delivery is slightly improving. The Italian GP issue came in today (Tuesday). Still well over par, of course.

[Pete Stowe]

Moving slightly back to the original topic (although not to Autosport), the new Classic & Sportscar website http://www.classicandsportscar.com archive page includes a searchable index to that magazines content over the years. Might come in handy. (Note that you don't have to register to enter the site.)

[Rainer Nyberg]

Originally posted by Racer.Demon
He should say so himself, but in 8W game days Rainer Nyberg used to have a nifty Autosport index on series like "Race of My Life" etc. Don't know whether he compiled this for the entire magazine, but we could ask...

I have not produced any index of my own, I did however make scans of certain years indexes, so that I could more easily find them when I needed to. So that I could use my picture-browser instead of finding the actual mag.

Btw, I can only confirm the horribly late deliverance of my Autosport as well.
I thought this was connected with the change of a mail-delivery firm. This was usually done by the good old Royal Post Office here in Sweden, but of late my Autosport was delivered by something called City Mail. So now it seems that it was not the fault of City Mail after all. But anyway the Royal Post Office is now delivering my Autosports again, still very late though...

It is rather uninspiring to read the preview of the previous race when coming up to race weekend...

[Racer.Demon]

Originally posted by Rainer Nyberg
I have not produced any index of my own, I did however make scans of certain years indexes, so that I could more easily find them when I needed to. So that I could use my picture-browser instead of finding the actual mag.

Rainer, I can see how that would make more sense than compiling your own...

[Lotus23]

OT to be sure, but the subject of late/nonexistent magazine arrivals reminded me of my first 12-month tour in Vietnam 67/68. In those days I was a regular subscriber to Playboy, and I'd sent them a change of address so that I could continue to receive it every month while engaged in "winning hearts and minds" in the jungle.

Care to guess how many of the 12 issues actually got thru to me?

Exactly two! I certainly hope the scurrilous mail clerks in the supply chain enjoyed the other 10 copies. (Oddly enough, all 12 of my monthly church bulletins made it to me unscathed.)

By the time I went back in 70, I'd dropped my subscription. Experience is a great teacher...

[Don Capps]

Originally posted by Lotus23
OT to be sure, but the subject of late/nonexistent magazine arrivals reminded me of my first 12-month tour in Vietnam 67/68. In those days I was a regular subscriber to Playboy, and I'd sent them a change of address so that I could continue to receive it every month while engaged in "winning hearts and minds" in the jungle.

Care to guess how many of the 12 issues actually got thru to me?

Exactly two! I certainly hope the scurrilous mail clerks in the supply chain enjoyed the other 10 copies. (Oddly enough, all 12 of my monthly church bulletins made it to me unscathed.)

By the time I went back in 70, I'd dropped my subscription. Experience is a great teacher...

When I got back, I literally had stacks of magazines to read since I just had them continue doing to my parent's house -- where my brother carefully sorted them out for me into stacks: Autosport, MotorSport, Comp Press/Autoweek, C/D, SCG, Hot Rod, and a few others. I had a friend -- a FAC pilot -- who would make calls on other friends at Bien Hoa -- C-141 pilots -- for the latest car magazines via California (Travis AFB). It was kinda weird at times to be in a patrol base in the middle of absolutely nowhere in the Plain of Reeds and have car magazines delivered via the USAF FAC. However, that once again merely points out the resourcefulness of that studly epitome of the American soldier, the Airborne Ranger....

For the Record: THE car magazine of choice, head & shoulders above the rest, was Hot Rod.

[Arjan de Roos]

This is what Haymarket replied to my complaint of receiving Autosport one week later than usual:

Dear Mr de Roos

Thank you for your email.

We do apologise that you are receiving your issues later than normal. We confirm that we will action a distribution complaint and investigate this further for you.

We will contact you when we receive a reply from the distributor.

Kind Regards
--
Julie Hobbs
Haymarket Subscriptions
PO Box 568
Haywards Heath,West Sussex
RH16 3XQ

FAX : +44(0) 1444 445599
Email: Haymarket.subs@qss-uk.com

[Udo K.]

The last two issues of Autosport now arrived on Tuesday after publication. They promised Friday or Monday. There still seems to be a problem.

[Racer.Demon]

Tuesday here as well for the past few weeks, so it doesn't seem there's a difference between the Netherlands (as the central European distributing hub) and the Hinterland...

[conjohn]

Tuesday as well for Sweden...

[René de Boer]

Yes, Tuesday seems to have become the norm. The same day on which Motorsport aktuell hits the news stands, with the difference that MSa includes the reports from the weekend, covering the races on which Autosport has the preview... But to be fair, the news section of MSa usually includes the news that has been in Autosport the Thursday before. (Nothing personal, I work for both publications!)

I spoke to somebody from Autosport about the delivery problems at the DTM-final in Hockenheim during the weekend. He told me that Haymarket are looking for a solution and will most probably be coming up with the following:

A password-protected area on the website where the magazine will be available in digital form (as PDF or something similar, with the possibility to browse it), with access at the same rate as a subscription price. When I asked if we would still get the printed magazine, he replied that he wasn't sure, but probably not.

Well, it's good to have the news and reports on Thursday, but then again, I still would like to have a printed magazine - maybe I am too much old school in that matter - something I can take on an airplane, to the office or anywhere else. To me, the sensation of unwrapping a freshly printed magazine will always be different from downloading any electronic document!

Well, let's wait for an official reaction from the UK and see...

[Racer.Demon]

Originally posted by René de Boer
I spoke to somebody from Autosport about the delivery problems at the DTM-final in Hockenheim during the weekend. He told me that Haymarket are looking for a solution and will most probably be coming up with the following:

A password-protected area on the website where the magazine will be available in digital form (as PDF or something similar, with the possibility to browse it), with access at the same rate as a subscription price.

Are you serious, René?

So they are "looking for a solution"? How's this for a solution - returning to the delivery time they managed to keep for decades until just a couple of months ago! Sounds a lot simpler to me... :

I agree with you that the old-school feel of a paper magazine is irreplaceable. Add the archive function to that, and you know why an online subscription in the form I expect it to be doesn't add up. On paper you will always have your own archive at hand whereas I assume/fear that the PDFs will be non-downloadable, with probably no guarantees for infinite online archiving either.

[bradbury west]

Originally posted by humphries
Wolfie

Somebody, a real enthusiast, in 1980 produced a detailed yearly index of all the articles, race reports, profiles etc of Autosport from 1950-1979 with the date of the issue and the page number! They were just typed lists on A4 paper, six pages in 1951, ten pages in 1979. These indices have been very useful to me and were an excellent buy.

Unfortunately there is no name or address of the compiler on the sheets. Perhaps his advert or Autosport's recommendation can be found in a 1980 issue of the magazine but a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and contact may not now be possible.

John

Does anyone have any update on something like this index?
I am looking for 1963/1973 incl.

Roger Lund

[Allen Brown]

Originally posted by humphries
Wolfie

Somebody, a real enthusiast, in 1980 produced a detailed yearly index of all the articles, race reports, profiles etc of Autosport from 1950-1979 with the date of the issue and the page number! They were just typed lists on A4 paper, six pages in 1951, ten pages in 1979. These indices have been very useful to me and were an excellent buy.

Unfortunately there is no name or address of the compiler on the sheets. Perhaps his advert or Autosport's recommendation can be found in a 1980 issue of the magazine but a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and contact may not now be possible.

John

John

Given the years now under the bridge, could we scan these, feed them through OCR and publish for the benefit of all?

29 years on, I'm sure the guy who did it would be happy to see his work still being useful.

Allen

[Gregor Marshall]

I've just bought full years for '78, '79 & '83 and I know AS did an annual but I think that stopped in '76??

[sterling49]

Originally posted by RTH
They stopped doing the index ......when they realised the sort of articles they do now - nobody wanted to refer back to .

[eldougo]

Originally posted by David Beard


Wouldn't we all LOVE to know if anyone from Autosport lurks here...

.

Lurking, Lurking.......

[bradbury west]

Does anyone have any update on something like this index?
I am looking for 1963/1973 incl.
Roger Lund

Any more news? The bound volumes have three detailed indexes/indices; Articles/People/Marques
sort of split. I am still looking for copies as listed above.
RL