Car Mags You Actually Miss Reading.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I’d agree with The Reverend on most of his favourite writers, but would add Phil Llewelyn and Georg Kacher from CR’s heyday . Also Steve Cropley , not just from his Car editorship but also when he set up that secondhand car mag that WTC mentioned earlier. In fact I enjoyed Quentin Wilson’s articles from that mag, which brings me onto another contentious person from the 90’s. I think Jeremy Clarkson was an excellent car journalist, his monthly column in Performance Car was the first page I turned to, much like Buckley in C&SC or Cropley in Autocar today.
One of my favourite tests ever was when he got his Dad and a some of his mates to compare the LS400 and a load of other exec cars, from memory they all chose the Range Rover but loved the Alfa 164.
I think he opened up the mainstream mags to a more irreverent , laddish approach that Steve Sutcliffe, Chris Harris et al benefitted from.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

The only bit of the Bible I can quote is;
O death, where is thy sting?

The GBU Sum up for the 1500 Spitfire.

[Broccoli]

Bloody hell. I always knew I was a bit off track but you really are making me fell like a right tosser - the lot of you!

I guess I started out on the right path. Custom car and street machine. Then American magazines as I could find and afford them, but while the cars were often ‘epic’ the editorial usually left a lot to the imagination and never a patch on UK magazines.

Then a group of guys in Weston Super Mare were starting to mess with VWs.

Being told by my Dad they were death machines (swing axel) and I was never going to be allowed one - but telling me in his second breath that they were designed originally by Porsche had me sold! More so when I saw a jacked up Baja bug.

About 6months into my interest into beetles, VolksWorld no1 came out (Custom Cars Keith Seume at the helm) and thoughts of a Baja or whale tailed 1303 went out the window and a cal look it was for me.

I bought every issue for maybe 10 years - even after scene tax stopped them from being affordable and I moved on to something called... Max Power. I’m sorry. I do feel like this is a bit of a confessional...

Much drooling over Dimma kitted 205s and wide body R5s (not to mention lady lumps) ensued for too many years. Fast car kind of took over for a while too.

For me it all concluded with Redline, where performance was king over the stuck on body kit and boobage. But sadly they stopped publishing it.

These days it’s still lusting over the pages on Classic Porsche on occasion (though my pay never quite caught up with the price of them) but mostly magazines (other than new scientists) are pretty much redundant (unfortunately) I think due to the Internet.

Shame really.

[Hooli]

Broccoli your comments on boy racer type mags reminded me of this gem given away by Fast Car in 1996, it still reads true today.

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[christine]

My dad gave me a car magazine around 74 76 i dunno what it was Car , WHAT CAR or Motor ... There was an article about a cartoonist ... One cartoon ,in colour was of early Grand Prix cars where they carried a mechanic , with oval wheels to give the speed look ..... clouds of dust from passing cars .The mechanic is looking at a burnt out spark plug and scratching his head ... with a speech bubble " Coo "
Anyone recall it ? And what mag it was ?

[mercrocker]

Possibly an article relating to Russell Brockbank or F.Gordon Crosby. Brockbank drew for The Motor so possibly it was a retrospective of his work.

[christine]

Brockbank looks a hot potato.... thanks !

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I’d agree with The Reverend on most of his favourite writers, but would add Phil Llewelyn and Georg Kacher from CR’s heyday . Also Steve Cropley , not just from his Car editorship but also when he set up that secondhand car mag that WTC mentioned earlier. In fact I enjoyed Quentin Wilson’s articles from that mag, which brings me onto another contentious person from the 90’s. I think Jeremy Clarkson was an excellent car journalist, his monthly column in Performance Car was the first page I turned to, much like Buckley in C&SC or Cropley in Autocar today.
One of my favourite tests ever was when he got his Dad and a some of his mates to compare the LS400 and a load of other exec cars, from memory they all chose the Range Rover but loved the Alfa 164.
I think he opened up the mainstream mags to a more irreverent , laddish approach that Steve Sutcliffe, Chris Harris et al benefitted from.

Phil Llewelyn certainly, Georg Kacher was a bit too German, wasn't a fan of Clarkson at all.

Sniff Petrol did a superb 'Steve Crapley' pisstake.

[AMCrebel]

I.....ahem .....er .......would like to fall on on the mercy of the assembled congregation.

I started buying that used car mag Cropley started....and then I wrote to him pointing out all the glaring errors in the buying guide.

I even stopped buying What Car because there were so many errors in their data on cars and no-one seemed to care.
Also What Car never listed stuff I cared about in their comparison data - like whether I stood a chance of fitting in the fucker and whether you could get HID lights (or aircon before it became so common).

At least Jalopy didn't pretend to be accurate (although it was often better than the mainstream mags)

I really am that anoraxic bastard.

[brandersnatch]

Hot Car and Custom Car and occasionally Car and Car Conversions. Bike magazine when it was irreverent and had an LJK Setright column. Superbike when it had tits on the cover.
I’d buy Car for Setright, Bulgin Llewelyn et all. Haven’t bought any magazines apart from BSH bikers mag for years now.