Practical Classics Technical Accuracy - Not!

[Scotty2]

Is it just me but recently PC magazine has had some shocking errors in the articles?

Last month one article quoted an engine with "Triple SU carbs" when the picture showed a pair...

This month - The write up on the Lotus Esprit Turbo is wrong about the turbo and carb set up. it does not compress the fueled mixture it is fairly standard pressurised carbs setup - the photo even shows the route.

Finally the one that made me write - On car electrics is states "+12V is usually coloured black with the earth usually brown". Not on any car I've worked on! Black=earth and brown is usually live

Total muppets and almost making me think of not buying any more. If it's wrong about these things what else is wrong in their articles.

Anyone else notice?

[mgeee]

and some of the 'classics' they do articles on, makes me think our very own loveoldclassics works there.

[StevenB]

Brown is earth on all the VW audi etc, group cars

[john2443]

I gave up buying it years ago, it was full of technical inaccuracies then as well.

One of my favourites was the staff member who put a Dolomite axle on his Minor to get a higher diff ratio, which was fine, but the Minor studs were on a slightly different pitch circle so he was going to file the holes oval so that they would fit

[GoneAnon]

The earth's in my Ford Sierra are brown.

[Huntsman]

Porsche have brown earth too.

As it happens, my old Healey 100/4 was featured in C & SC a while ago, cover shot too, one pic showed the 4 banger with twin SU's and the caption said 'triple carbs'....

[Simes205]

Does anyone actually proof read It. It before printing? there are many errors and have bee before years.

[mwy1964]

British Standard Wiring Colour Code... You can see the whole lot here...

http://www.autosparks.co.uk/index.php?content_page...

Brown = Main Feed

Black = All earths

Pretty much every old British car I have owned has followed this... Even my old Land Rover which had a pretty interesting combination of PO induced wiring colour thoughts and combinations..

Mark

[LotusOmega375D]

I rarely get through an entire classic car magazine without finding some mistakes in it, whether they be typos, incorrect captions or downright factual errors.

Sometimes articles end mid-sentence and they have missed out entire paragraphs and on other occasions the same paragraph will be duplicated.

They must be under so much pressure to get them printed that no-one has time to read them properly.

There's always plenty of correspondence for the Pedants' Corner section.

To be honest, many of the journos aren't exactly enthusiasts: they just move around from publication to publication. Caravans one year, Classic Cars the next. The guy who tested my car for a magazine treated it like a modern TDi: banging through the gears and changing up at 3000rpm!

[vixen1700]

mgeee said:

and some of the 'classics' they do articles on, makes me think our very own loveoldclassics works there.

[Yachtworker]

vixen1700 said:

mgeee said:

and some of the 'classics' they do articles on, makes me think our very own loveoldclassics works there.

[varsas]

Simes205 said:

Does anyone actually proof read It. It before printing? there are many errors and have bee before years.

I see what you did there.

[stuarte]

Yachtworker said:

vixen1700 said:

mgeee said:

and some of the 'classics' they do articles on, makes me think our very own loveoldclassics works there.

Yes, I've stuck up for him on occasion - but

[na]

never let a jurno within a 100 yards (metres) of your car let alone drive it no matter how much it strokes your ego

I've no technical knowledge but I still saw glaring errors about 5 years ago when I last read a classic magazine and some of the errors were the same as the errors I read years before

bear in mind who owns this site and the jurnos that run it

ETA: loveoldclassics shows the true spirit and passion of a classic car enthusiast the fact that he's not an old fart like me and lots of you means that he also considers younger cars than those of us that left school last century, last millennium

Edited by na on Tuesday 19th June 14:40

[A911DOM]

I agree there are a multitude of errors in the magazine, but I still find it the most entertaining car related magazine on the market.

I think it strikes a good balance between light humour, information, some techy stuff, good range of cars for sale at all budgets, and you can easily skip past the corporate advertising.

I personally enjoy it's 'down to earth' approach, and they aren't afraid to admit to their errors in the following edition.

[230TE]

Scotty2 said:

Finally the one that made me write - On car electrics is states "+12V is usually coloured black with the earth usually brown". Not on any car I've worked on! Black=earth and brown is usually live

This wasn't in the context of 1950s or earlier vehicles, was it? My 1959 Land Rover has a positive earth system, i.e. the + terminal on the battery goes to earth. So on that vehicle (and most other British cars of the same era), +12V is indeed black. Never worked out why it used to be done that way, I'm sure there is a reason.

[S0 What]

Black is live on all fords from the 70's and earth is brown, i know that much but then they aint really classics, retro maybe.

[graemel]

They ran an article on a 300 SEL 6.3 that I owned a good few years back. Nice chap, GOOD with a CAMERA drove the car. Then I took him for a little drive. He was a little gobsmacked or should I say worried as to the performance of the big old Merc. Still cocked up the facts in the piece he wrote.

[na]

S0 What said:

then they aint really classics, retro maybe.

eh, what, classics to me and probably loads of others

I think it's part of a jurnos job to mix facts and names, I given typed notes before and still they've printed their own misinformation notes

wonder whether garlick and crew will post here in defence of their counterparts

[MJK 24]

The article was about the German system of wiring (DIN) and indeed on any Volkswagen, Audi or Porsche I've come across, the earths are brown as per the article!