Best car magazine...

Author
Discussion

defblade

7,432 posts

213 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
CCC
It's been a bit downhill since then though...

Vanin

1,010 posts

166 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
I have just visited my attic and discovered a heap of classic car magazines from the 1970s onwards and they make such good reading that I shall cancel all my current subscriptions!

The prices in the advertisements bring tears to the eye, but you have to weigh that against the average weekly wage or the cost of a gallon of petrol at the time.

I am amazed at the amount of them which have a red E Type on the cover.
I suppose the sales of the magazines double compared to having an Austin Allegro there instead.

LasseV

1,754 posts

133 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Captain Smerc said:
Octane.
yes

AnotherClarkey

3,595 posts

189 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Quattroruote - beats any of the English magazines by a huge margin.

Megaflow

9,398 posts

225 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Evo for me. I have almost been reading from the start, only missing issues 2, 3 and 4.

I read Practical Performance Car for a long time too, but got bored of them never finishing anything, apart from that ridiculous Reliant Robin.

I recently bought some copies of Fuel, a hot rod /custom magazine from Australia. Beuatiful photography and refreshing light on adverts.

Edited by Megaflow on Friday 5th June 08:29

coppice

8,604 posts

144 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Motor Sport- written by grown up enthusiasts for people who realise that there is more to motorsport than F1. Head and shoulders above the rest

C and SC - good read and not at all elitist

..unlike Octane which can be nauseatingly smug and elitist. Shame- it usually has some good articles

Car..how the mighty have fallen. Glib , badly written and irritating. How I miss Bishop , Setright , Blain , Manney , Llewellyn and Bulgin.

Evo- tiresome. I could not stomach reading yet another cliche drenched piece about thrashing some overpriced uber Merc around Bedford. Meaden writes as well as he drives though.

Autocar- once indispensable and now unreadable. Plodding , earnest , badly designed and dire content. At its best -60s to 90s it was THE magazine about every facet of the car world

Autosport - was terrific and covered everything . Now terribly written and hugely over priced F1 fanzine (Marcus Pye is an honourable exception- a proper enthusiast )

Top Gear - great if you have the attention span of an ant but not so good if you can read without moving your lips.

The rest - see Top Gear above

The best ever was Car in 60s to late 80s and Car and Driver in late 60s and early 70s

stephen300o

15,464 posts

228 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Quite surprised so many magazines are still surviving in this age,
I sometimes get a magazine for a coffee table browse, and Octane Looks best on the coffe table.

s m

23,222 posts

203 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
coppice said:
..unlike Octane which can be nauseatingly smug and elitist. Shame- it usually has some good articles

I'm with you there coppice yes

Love reading car mags but rarely buy Octane

Seems more a 'lifestyle' mag

Odd good article though

Robert Elise

956 posts

145 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Evo & Octane "twin pack" from WHS. Neither are worth £5 each.

Motorsport has the best content by far.

tsport

58 posts

226 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Autocar in the 90's/early 00's was just glorious - loved the Harris/Sutcliffe article re: Focus RS/Murcielago drive through Europe. Now, it just feels so mainstream.



MG511

1,754 posts

241 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
In the past I had subscriptions to loads of car magazines, but MotorSport is the only one I still have. Classic & Sports Car I still like and read regularly, Evo and Octane I get when they are doing '5 issues for £1' type deals, Car I still like and buy sometimes, but follow them on Facebook and you see lots of stuff for free. Autocar I subscribed to for many, many years but these days I wouldn't even buy it on a £1 deal, it's tedious and badly written. Auto Express on a '6 for £1' deal is okay but I wouldn't pay any more for it.

Tickle

4,915 posts

204 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
The Crack Fox said:
Tickle said:
Practical Performance Car seems to be my preferred mag lately.
Thanks smile
Your welcome, its where I seem to be at the moment with cars. Nice contributions thumbup

aka_kerrly

12,417 posts

210 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Tickle said:
The Crack Fox said:
Tickle said:
Practical Performance Car seems to be my preferred mag lately.
Thanks smile
Your welcome, its where I seem to be at the moment with cars. Nice contributions thumbup
Me to.

Also pick up a few copies of Retro Cars to.

grayze

790 posts

168 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Have a look at Readly app. tenner per month subscribes you to all of these car mags plus 100s of others.

I dont work for them.

phil_cardiff

7,072 posts

208 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
I like the motoring section of Razzle.

Maldini35

2,913 posts

188 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Obviously I agree with Phil regarding Razzle but in terms of the also rans:

- Motorsport: This is the one I look forward to most. Great writers, superb photograpy and excellent regular features. An absolute joy when it drops through the letterbox.
- Evo: is still worth a look but blows a bit hot and cold
- Octane: Agree with the comments about it being elitist but still has some good stuff and Derek Bell & Tony Dron's columns are normally worth reading
- Autocar: Not an in-depth read, all very top line. More of a weekly update from the car industry - but nobody does it better. I do enjoy James Ruppert bangernomics pieces (more my level) and Steve Cropley always makes sense and isn't afraid to give a different point of view.
- Classic & Sportscar: The best all-out classic mag. The staff cars updates and adventures strike a chord.
- Retro Cars/PPC: Not regular buys but always help reduce the tedium of a train journey.


Truckosaurus

11,273 posts

284 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
grayze said:
... Readly app. ...
It wasn't immediately clear from their website, can you read the American car magazines with the UK version of the app or do you just get the UK mags?

grayze

790 posts

168 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Truckosaurus said:
grayze said:
... Readly app. ...
It wasn't immediately clear from their website, can you read the American car magazines with the UK version of the app or do you just get the UK mags?
Any mag. US, UK France German they have a subscription with.



Truckosaurus

11,273 posts

284 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Cool, I shall sign up and check out the latest issue of "Mini-Truckin'" magazine.

grayze

790 posts

168 months

Friday 5th June 2015
quotequote all
Truckosaurus said:
Cool, I shall sign up and check out the latest issue of "Mini-Truckin'" magazine.
enjoy, try lowrider too wink