Free temporary access to Autocar digital archive - 129 years

[AnotherGuy]

Courtesy of a post I spotted on hotukdeals.com - hadn't seen this posted on PH yet.

https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/from-the-archiv...

Until Tuesday 24/09 5pm, you can get access to Autocar digital archive covering 129 years of motor history. There are 6200 magazines dating back to 1895 until the present day.

Examples :

• 02 November 1895 - The first public demonstration of cars in Britain is held and Autocar begins.
• 13 April 1928 - Autocar invents the road test, its first subject the hugely influential Austin Seven.
• 10 February 1939 - Germany unveils the Volkswagen, whose maker will in time become a global force.
• 28 August 1959 - The Mini, an "incredible new breed of small car", arrives and "gladdens many hearts”.
• 24 March 1961 - The Geneva Motorshow, in which the E-Type was unveiled.
• 24 June 1966 - Ford breaks Ferrari's domination at Le Mans in the golden age of sports-car racing.
• 17 July 1976 - The arrival of the Ford Fiesta, for decades to come Britain's favourite car.
• 14 October 1987 - We meet the Ferrari F40, Enzo's last car and an era-defining wonder.
• 04 September 1996 - Our first drive of the Boxster, the sports car that will save Porsche.
• 30 May 2007 - We pit the Bugatti Veyron against rivals in the fastest ever group test.

[mcflurry]

Perfect opportunity to look at the specs and reviews of cars my father used to drive when I was young - e.g. a Renault 12 for £1100 (inc. purchase tax and seatbelts?)

[carinaman]

Thanks.

[SweptVolume]

I hope their servers are up to it. When Ford first made their vintage brochures available to view online the service struggles to service all the demand.

[Pistom]

Will this be a paid for service in the future?

Looks great - thank you.

[kevinon]

Thanks for the tip OP.

They have made it relatively intuitive to access the hoard.
Clicking thru to the issue you want is easy. You can use search within a particular issue - it even finds search terms within the adverts at the back.
And they have a 'breadcrumb' trail to allow you to back.

Good work; if they do give this for 'free' or package in some way (as suggested upthread) I can see it being a draw, for car nerds anyway.

[williamp]

got I love it. Its amazing.

I can really see the value!

[carinaman]

13 Aug. 1965 - once into the editorials - cars getting more capacity and more torque but let's not forget about lightweight and materials. Editorial also mentioned the state of the M1.

Next article was a piece on the Marconi speed monitoring system and doppler and angles to the curb.

I didn't know Coventry Climax was a subsidiary of Jaguar cars.

Edited by carinaman on Friday 20th September 20:25

[Mr-B]

Pistom said:

Will this be a paid for service in the future?

Looks great - thank you.

I believe it is available to paying subscribers as part of the subscription.

[carinaman]

AnotherGuy said:

• 13 April 1928 - Autocar invents the road test, its first subject the hugely influential Austin Seven.

Third letter in 6 April 1934 issue:

https://ocean.exacteditions.com/issues/106736/page...

[carinaman]

Maniac!

[fourstardan]

This is brilliant.

Example of costs;

Stumbled over a 1.3L Metro cost in 1987 edition



In todays money this is apparently £22k...for a Metro!!!!!

Such a shame this isn't a free archive, it can't cost too much to store this stuff and surely isn't likely to get pummelled for access.

[croyde]

Awww, found a few pieces about my first car.

A Renault 6.

[cerb4.5lee]

I went straight to the road test of the Fiesta RS Turbo. It was a car that I couldn't afford to insure at the time, but it is also a car that I've wanted to own ever since though.

[williamp]

There is some really interesting ready from the WW2 editions- in 1939, its full of driving better, how to find (and use) alternative fuels...

...by 1940 they are talking about keeping old cars off the road in the best way..

[Hub]

Thanks for the heads up, this is great.

It works best for just browsing through old copies - the search function is very rudimentary. Long term it would be better if they could somehow categorise the pages so you can filter by road test for example, or filter out adverts. I suppose that is a lot less straightforward than just simply digitising it.

[AC43]

I searched on Alfasud and was taken straight to the 1980 series III. Identical to one which I had. Then various earlier ones. Fascinating.

Then I tried "Sud Sprint" and found quite a few hits. Great cars in their day. Loved mine.

[Drive Blind]

thanks for this

I read Autocar pretty much every week in the 92-94 period. Good to read some of the 80s stuff.