Retro Cars mag : What's missing?

[chapel]

I've been reading the new Retro Cars magazine, but I just feel like SOMETHING is missing.
What do you miss from the OLD Retro Cars that isn't in the new one?

[alolympic]

Classic engines articles?
Workshop/practical type articles?
I like the new mag but it almost feels like it is written by guys who wouldn't get their fingers too dirty.
It doesn't need to be Practical Classics but...

[scaryoldcortina]

I'm kinda missing the ability to buy it without driving 15 miles to the nearest WH smiths

[tri]

Apr 27, 2009 20:41:15 GMT scaryoldcortina said:

I'm kinda missing the ability to buy it without driving 15 miles to the nearest WH smiths

I'd agree with you, but have given up entirely as the 2 WH smiths nearest to me (2 miles and 21 miles) both appear to have stopped stocking it.

Perhaps I should subscribe..

[briandamaged]

I was thrilled when it returned. though I felt that it needed to grow out of being 'Son of PVW' in its layout.

Unfortunately a year on it still hasn't really forged its own identity, and doesn't inspire me in the way that the original did (certainly when A&S were publishing it anyway).

There's more/better on here, and RetroScene....so these days it's read briefly in WHS, and only purchased if there's something that floats my boat.

[hairnet]

i forget to buy it and buy pc instead lol

[keithyboy]

I bought the first few but it is very PVW. That always felt like it was some sort of club that I wasn't part of. It was all name dropping of people I'd never heard of and whether something was good or not depended entirely on who did it. The way it is written is a bit yoof for me too. Things like references to an angle grinder being old skool. It ain't old school or new school or any other kind of school. It's a grinder, you need one, end of.

I like car mags with some technical content. Taking your Honda to a garage to have a new water pump fitted isn't really technical enough for me.

[dugong]

Agreed, the last incarnation of RC was somewhat more hands on.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks that it reads like a new edition of Slammed VW Magazine and that I shouldn't let the clubhouse door bang shut on the way out.

There is way too much content influenced by Edinburgh Classic Cars as well - did they drop them a massive bung or something?
Can someone explain to me how a basically stock Viva with a 'not quite Dealer Team Racing lol' paintjob is a feature car?

There have been some worthy articles mind, when they bother to stop dribbling over deep dish BBS rims - the electric Datsuns and 'nana' Galant spring to mind.

The 'Through The Ages' section is trite and pointless, there's no in depth buyers guide from some obscure piece of Turbo'd toss and it's worryingly 'lifestyle' in places (get this from itbox hahaha b***cks).

I won't be cancelling my subscription just yet, but I was hoping that it would have found its feet by now.

[orangecords]

I grab it occasionally....when I see it.

I still like it a lot (200sx powered sunny this month is LUSH! and I'm not a datsun fan ) I guess id buy it more if it was more readily available but I agree a bit more how to stuff wouldnt go amiss

on another front - its starting to get on my chuff that theres so much lovely metal in this country yet a large sector of mags (NOT just retro cars) now seem to concentrate on foreign soil. I'm not against norwegian volvo powered mk1 escorts or maltese drag cars but the issues seem to be showing less and less uk machinery. one car from abroad a month would suit me better I think. my personal opinion

[BenzBoy]

Apr 27, 2009 21:06:48 GMT keithyboy said:

Things like references to an angle grinder being old skool. It ain't old school or new school or any other kind of school. It's a grinder, you need one, end of.

Nah, lowering's done on the internet these days!

Seriously though, how can an angle grinder be "old school"?! Unless lasers have come down in price lately...

I admit I haven't bought a copy of Retro Cars since its return, but I like PVW's style and was quite enthusiastic about RC being brought in as a stable-mate.

[magnumpi]

I buy it every month, but as has been said it's deffinately missing something and needs to carve itself a more obvious identity.

Agreed some more tech articles wouldn't go amiss nor would some of the interviews they used to do with ex racing drivers and car designers etc.

It's not a bad read overall, but could do with some improvements. The thing is if everyone just reads it in WHSmiths it will end up folding again which we will more than likely all moan about, so buy it once in a while at least i say

[reanimation]

I think Keithy has nailed it for me there, and dugong too. untill RR I was just an independent dude who liked 'old stuff' and I still am I just know more people who also do. I like the new RC its great but it does feel a little scene/pvw/name droppy/'cool' IYSWIM. i don't want to moan about the voice of retro cars but if there was feed back to give that would be it. Same with PPC but thats the other end of the scale, 'cool older guys' being erm cool, cos they are old and know good old fast cars, the readers rides took over, something inbetween would be awesome.
I will be buying RC though, need a fix of glossy printed retros

[alfazer]

I'll be honest, I don't buy car mags that much and I've only bought one copy of Retro cars. I used to buy one called "Retro" that disappeared after a while. Was it an earlier version or something?

Anyway, I think these car mags should look at some of the motorcycle mags for some clues. (like Bike, Ride and MCN ) More technical chat just built into many of the articles, without the article actually being a "how to" DIY piece.

Also in a mag like "Bike" you often get some really well written pieces about bike adventures, where you get a real feeling of adventure, discovery, and real man-and-machine type stuff. I was reading a thread here on RR about the guy Yoeddynz with the blue RX3 and how he went camping with a bike rack on the back. retrorides.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=readersrides&action=display&thread=37155&page=16
He had a great photo that really made me wish I had been there camping and actually doing something useful with a car instead of taking arty photos of it front of some grafittied roller door or whatever. Now that could make a great story. Maybe there were a few problems too, weather issues, curse word heater, flat tyre. Or we met and old dude who used to race one, blah, blah, You know what I mean? Really feeling a car, using it, getting some emotion out of it.

[surprisingskoda]

what all these guys above me have said so eloquently is how i feel on the issue. It certainly is lacking some things, not least of which is interest from me. The reason is simple in one sense: an article in one of the first half dozen new issues featured a Skoda S100. Lovely car, don't get me wrong, apart from being foreign and there are some nice ones here, but thats another issue... BUT, the whole article was dripping with how Skodas were a joke and now they're ok because VW owns them. Info was wrong, 'jokes' were in bad taste and there was ZERO technical knowledge evident in the columnists writing.

But although I say that, the reasons are plentiful. As said, there is limited technical knowledge. I like to think that the writers will be more experienced, hands-on and technically capable than me. This is not the case and I feel like being made to read a Primary 7 Maths textbook after obtaining an A level in the subject. I want to be taught by the university professors of car modifying.

Glossy pictures in front of a graffitied warehouse door, which, lets be honest, is a perfect stereotype and well pointed out, is only good for so long. Eventually I want to see a 4x4 Viva nose-deep in Lancashire field. I want to see a 120Y burning off at Santa Pod, not eighteen rows of pristine triumphs in a field. Basically, more real-world coolness. Not "G-star Raw" coolness, but "I buy my t-shirts in the pound shop so the wife doesn't care if i get them mucky" coolness.

When I pictured the writers of the original, and you will understand what I mean if I pick on people, but I pictured Ash, Scaryoldcortina, Bodie&Doyle etc. Messy hair, Oily hands, a love of all things diverse and retro.
Now, I picture a 25 year old, in skinny jeans, driving a '95 Civic on BBS wheels, or a '91 golf gti, using words that I don't understand, like interface, or my pet hate 'blog' (aghhhh) or even 'many thanks to xxxxx who installed this that and the other on the car and this dude who effectively rebuilt the whole car for me at a mere 35k and i don't know what a coil lead is but its ok because they made it all work for me'.
Get out of my face.

[scaryoldcortina]

OMG.... is my hair a mess?


*dashes off to hairdresser (in another reality, lol)

[leigh]

Apr 28, 2009 1:47:27 GMT scaryoldcortina said:

OMG.... is my hair a mess?


*dashes off to hairdresser (in another reality, lol)

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Gotta agree too, cant quite put my finger on it but it just isnt quite doing it for me so far yet. The old Retro Cars really inspired me (they even answered a tech question in print for me!! Alriiight!) but i find myself getting a bit, dare i say it, bored with the new version - its not the cars featured, its the way the features are put together.

I buy a good few car mags a month and some of them are great reads, some not so much. So far RC is falling into catagory B and i wish it wasnt. Still going to buy it though, i know the idea is there but it just needs a little something tweaking...........like any good retro car i suppose

[Saru]

Apr 27, 2009 23:21:49 GMT surprisingskoda said:

Not "G-star Raw" coolness, but "I buy my t-shirts in the pound shop so the wife doesn't care if I get them mucky" coolness.

QFT. (he said, with his lily-white hands and his styled hair I've got an excuse, I'm at work!)

Our mags here are the same. If I see another magenta RX-3 on 19" rims it will be (a) too soon and (b) on the cover of the local 4-cylinder performance magazine.

[gotwood]

Apr 27, 2009 21:49:12 GMT magnumpi said:

The thing is if everyone just reads it in WHSmiths it will end up folding again which we will more than likely all moan about, so buy it once in a while at least I say

Amen to that !
Personally I find it a good read , but maybe I'm biased as I also like PVW One thing I would love to see though would be something like the old Street Machine 'motorvation' drawings brought into the mags . I was reading a few of my old copies of SM the other day and the amount of retro stuff featured in there was so much better than Custom Car .

[bazzateer]

Apr 27, 2009 20:41:15 GMT scaryoldcortina said:

I'm kinda missing the ability to buy it without driving 15 miles to the nearest WH smiths

Subscribe?

[bazzateer]

Apr 28, 2009 1:47:27 GMT scaryoldcortina said:

*dashes off to hairdresser (in another reality, lol)

SH*T!!! There's another reality ?