Has anyone come across this magazine?...

Has anyone come across this magazine?...

Author
Discussion

rubystone

Original Poster:

11,254 posts

260 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
quotequote all
....received a mail in my inbox inviting me to subscribe for a year free to the Trackdriver magazine...there seem to be no catches - has anyone come across it before?


http://www.trackdriver.com/

andy97

4,703 posts

223 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
quotequote all
Hmmm, well looks like a relaunch of the old "Circuit Driver" magazine. Eve to the extent of using the same graphics/ font style. CD was a good magazine for many years (especially when Mark Hales was writing for them, & he may even have been the CD Magazine owner or "Editor in Chief" or some such title) but it went "west" when the crowd behind "Track & Race Car Magazine took over responsibility for publishing it & failed to deliver. Now TRC has gone "west" too. They tried to re launch a similar magazine to "Circuit Driver" before but using all the old CD material & I think there were legal threats. If the same people are behind "Track Driver" as "TRC", I'd be careful. I think several people lost money the last time they tried a "Circuit Driver/ Track Drver" type maazine. There used to be a long thread on PH about the last debacle but it got pulled.

Bottom line, try & findout who is running it.

Edited by andy97 on Tuesday 6th April 13:24

silverthorn2151

6,298 posts

180 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
quotequote all
Presents itself as interesting.

First 25,000 are free??? That sounds like a lot to me. How can they do that and why am I suspicious about giving them my details?

MonkeyHanger

9,198 posts

243 months

JH

110 posts

230 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
quotequote all
As some of you may already know I was a contributor on Track & Race Cars, and like many I lost out when it closed late last year (it/they owe me a considerable amount).

Track Driver Magazine however has no connection whatsoever with the above magazine or parent company, or with the directors of that magazine/Ltd company.

Mention has been made of Circuit Driver magazine and a certain Mr Mark Hales in this thread already - with good reason being that Mark is involved with Track Driver Magazine, it even says so on the website.

Please feel comfortable in signing up, it is a genuine launch offer for a credible magazine of the type that many of you have been asking for time and again.
John

andy97

4,703 posts

223 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
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Arhh, should have read the "home page" more carefully. I am more comfortable now.

Graham

16,368 posts

285 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
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I've Signed up, I've got a lot of time for mr Hales.. a good writer and seems like a genuine chap when i've spoken to him I do miss the old cirtcuit driver...

Mark Benson

7,523 posts

270 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
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About time a decent driver's magazine was available again, since the loss of CD to the semi-literate TRC crowd there's been nothing worth subscribing to.

Good luck to all involved.

juliann

400 posts

237 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
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Perhaps those that are posting on various forums expressing delight & surprise at receiving this offer to their email should perhaps declare their interest. This may even serve to give some 'comfort' to those who have had their fingers burnt in the past

stacy

182 posts

272 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
quotequote all
Hi Julian,

No scope for finger burning - this is a genuine free launch offer for the magazine. Don't believe anyone posting is directly involved, so no conspiracy.

It is utterly disconnected with anything that has gone before which was put out by The Different Company with Different Directors.

In fact the only connection with What Went Before is that some of those involved in Track Driver magazine also had their fingers burnt..

On analysis it became apparent that we could secure title of the domain and the title(sic) and so after due consideration it was decided that the good (good name) outweighed the bad (baggage).

Hope that clears things up - Expect to see you signing up shortly Sir. We are pleased to report it has taken off even better than we'd hoped.

S.
For full effect where you see italics use a Vincent Price voice..


Edited by stacy on Tuesday 6th April 19:42

RetroWheels

3,384 posts

272 months

Tuesday 6th April 2010
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I've just subscribed ,used to subscibe to the original Mark Hales Circuit Driver magazine (before it was "taken over") ,and found it to be a really informative read - one of those magazines you looked forward to popping through the letterbox.

Now that MH is back, im hoping normal service can be resumed.

Tim.C

334 posts

198 months

Wednesday 7th April 2010
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John (JH)

Congratulations on your involvement with the new magazine. Although someone further up the thread has already mentioned illiteracy, I thought I'd take the opportunity to draw a comparison between two magazines that you've previously worked on and ask that your attention to detail is in-line with the one and not the other.

I've been a long-time reader of EVO. I bought the first edition and have missed only a handful since, most notably when a couple of the writers left for 'DR' and the quality of the articles, in my opinion, went through the floor. I'm pleased to say that things on that front are very much looking up now (although one writer remains whose stuff I just can’t stomach.) As a club-level racer, I longed for TRC to be a good read. I tended to buy it in the hope that it one day might be. Sadly it never was. I used to find myself wanting to go through it school-teacher-style; ringing the mistakes in red pen. Perhaps I should have done, posting it back to the editor once I’d finished.

So, what am I asking for? Well, essentially I am pleading with you to fulfil the potential of the track-driver focussed genre by not allowing the quality of the journalism to slip below that of a GCSE English paper. Of course the subject matter needs to be insightful and interesting but I don’t believe that will be enough on its own.

I look forward to reading it. Good luck.

TC

JH

110 posts

230 months

Wednesday 7th April 2010
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Hi Tim,

As you have so eloquently pointed out, insightful and interesting is not enough on its own, which is one of the many reasons why Track Driver is a team effort rather than a one man band (see your comparisons above).
The quality of the writers involved is paramount, therefore with the likes of Mark Hales, Simon Mcbeath, Nigel Dean for example, the quality is there but just like the rest of us they can and do make mistakes, as will the enthusiasts who’ll also be contributing albeit in a much smaller way. So to complete the editorial team there’s a dedicated sub editor in place.
That team aspect also applies to the design team, the business’s management team, the sales team - no one man or women is Track Driver magazine.

Regards, John

Ps, thank you very much for the congratulations, for sure I’m a very happy bunny being part of this very exciting venture.

GBRM

953 posts

229 months

Thursday 8th April 2010
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Looking forward to the new mag; having the (mis)fortune of knowing Stacy and Mark I know there will be a lot of detail and effort put into it (the free 25k subscribers is an honest offer), so watch this space....

RetroWheels

3,384 posts

272 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
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I recieved issue 1 of Track Driver yesterday - not read it all yet ,but im impressed with what i have seen , it looks like it's back to the good old days of the original Circuit Driver.

Good informative articles that credit the reader with some knowledge of circuit driving - obviously aimed at serious Track day drivers and club racers.

Looks like it's going to be up there with Octane and Motorsport as my "must have" monthly reads.


silverthorn2151

6,298 posts

180 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
quotequote all
Oooo, was this one of the 'free' subscriptions!

If so I shall look forward to the postman.

RetroWheels

3,384 posts

272 months

Thursday 8th July 2010
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Thats right, one of the free subs

sniff diesel

13,107 posts

213 months

Tuesday 13th July 2010
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Got mine yesterday, looks a nice little publication.

silverthorn2151

6,298 posts

180 months

Tuesday 13th July 2010
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Very pleased...got mine yesterday. Looks like it will carry me across more than 1 trip to the little room, unlike most car mags!

Race Tech

19 posts

166 months

Tuesday 13th July 2010
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silverthorn2151 said:
Oooo, was this one of the 'free' subscriptions!

If so I shall look forward to the postman.
Same here. Forgot about this, but I believe I managed to sneak in as one of the 20,000.