Wednesday 14th February

PistonHeads has arrived on The Intercooler!

We've teamed up with some old friends for your listening pleasure. And some serious gavel banging

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We couldn’t be prouder of what we've built here at PistonHeads over the last 25 years. Let’s not forget that no corner of PistonHeads is the product of external development; everything you see and click and read and make use of is the result of a small team beavering away like car-obsessed beavers. It has always been this way. It is the way we like things. It is thanks to this approach that PistonHeads has remained a touchstone for UK car enthusiasts come what may. You are us. We are you. The only real difference is forum admin privileges. And T-shirts that say ‘Staff’.

And now, to complement the No.1 performance car marketplace in the UK, we've launched an auction platform. As we are fond of saying, we built the platform to do better. Much better. Obviously to do that, we’d like the word to spread like wildfire - not just among the PH faithful (who can always be trusted to note our frozen sausage of change) but also the wider car-buying British public, which is typically well aware of auctions in general and PistonHeads in particular, though not necessarily that the two have been brought together in glorious union. Like Lotus and Vauxhall. But longer term.

As a result, we’ve chosen to partner with The Intercooler, recently awarded the title of Best Automotive Consumer Publication, and the producer of what we like to think is the nation’s finest car-based podcast. To say that Ti sings from the same hymn sheet as PH is like saying BMW makes decent rear-drive cars; we know it for a cast-iron fact because Mr Dan Prosser, formerly of this parish, is the snake-hipped driving force behind both its inauguration and its recent success. And since we gave him his first writing gig, he owes us big time.

Moreover - and just to make doubly sure that we could come together like two greased drive shafts in a differential - we sent RacingPete, resident old boy and PH director-general, along to break the ice and explain to Ti’s listeners why the PistonHeads’ marketplace is the only one you really need for premium, performance and collectable cars. If you’d like to listen to what his nibs had to say, then you can catch the podcast in all the normal places - or make straight for the YT video above. But rest assured this is just the start for both our Ti partnership and our gavel-based growth spurt. Watch this space.

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Exclusive PistonHeads offer: Start your six-week free trial of The Intercooler here today and then save 20 per cent on their monthly subscription using coupon code PH20

[Twinair]

Idk guys. Wish you all the best with it. But the ‘motor trade’ (of which I have been a part of, in several countries, for most of my life, is not really all that ‘admired’ by people who actually buy cars.

It’s a pretty grubby endeavour - I think you may be crossing a rubicon - that could diminish your brand.

I guess you know what you are doing, but… the road to ruin - is paved with good intentions, right?!

Good luck with it, all the same…

[JakeT]

I like PH, I like TI. I’m for this, that said I’m probably not a good person for auctions as I buy and sell old rubbish.

[Vsix and Vtec]

I really hope you've not gone all in on this car sales thing to the point where if it flops you put the site in peril. I've never encountered The Intercooler, as my main consumption of things automotive tend to be covered by Harry Metcalffe, Tim Burton and James Martin, but I'm sure they do a decent job if you've decided to work with them.

I would like to be wrong, but I still can't see this car forum rivalling Auto Trader. I don't buy my cars from Ebay for the same reason I wouldn't use PH. Tell me what you want for the car, and if I think it's fair I'll pay it. I won't haggle, I won't argue. If I pick up a couple of faults and you offer to fix them for the sticker price, that makes it more likely not less that I'll buy it.

[Nish Gnackers]

That word "subscription" will have most PHers running for the hills.

Not implying that we are all cheapskates but ...

[Jon_S_Rally]

I suspect this makes sense for all involved. TI are in the ascendancy, but it won't hurt them to have some additional exposure through a brand as well-known as PH, while PH could benefit from associating itself with a brand that's on its way up. They can share content too, which is what the automotive media space seems to love. A shame in a way, as it means the same handful of names end up writing for nearly all of the platforms. Regardless, I can't say the partnership will drive me in the direction TI to be honest. I have tried it and, while there has been some good content, it all just feels like it takes itself a bit too seriously, almost like one of Richard Porter's parodies.

[Fishy Dave]

Good luck with this, provided it makes Pistonheads stronger, I approve. A subscription isn't for me though.

Here to comment on the main photo used in the article, where I appear to be studying the new paint job I'd done the week before, on my Corvette Brembo.

[Bushi]

Some big names there that seem to be onboard, but £60 a year to enter and read a website and listen to podcasts....no of course not. There is so much quality content out there already, the numbers up for this must be incredibly small.

[ballans]

Interesting collaboration and keen to see where this goes.
I’m a big fan of both PH and TI (subscriber) but they have very different approaches to motoring journalism. PH is free content and wide open forums whereas TI is premium content for premium subscription. Fortunately both models seem to work.
Just hope the “how much” “who signed that off” and general whiney handbag comments don’t seep onto the TI forum. Paywall should keep them at bay.

[ballans]

Bushi said:

Some big names there that seem to be onboard, but £60 a year to enter and read a website and listen to podcasts....no of course not. There is so much quality content out there already, the numbers up for this must be incredibly small.

TI seems like a natural progression from glossy mags to digital format. It still has very high quality journalism but they appear to have mastered the transition better than most. If you think of it like that the £60 is much more palatable.
I enjoy it, particularly the insider views from industry professionals like David Twohig and Ian Callum.

[samoht]

Another member of the intersection of PH & TI here. I justify the TI sub as it's writing on a par with the best car mags, so for a similar cost as a magazine sub it makes sense.

There are two great things about TI; writing from 'classic' motoring journos of the last few decades, and the pieces from a handful of top engineers. As a random example, it's one thing to read that the Alpine A110 isn't sold in the States due to "crash legislation" - it's quite another to read the Chief Engineer, David Twohig, personally explain what it takes to pass US tests with unbelted occupants, and how that would necessarily compromise that car's size and weight. Dr Uli Eichhorn on why the last Ford Escort was so poor and how the Focus was made so much better; Ian Callum on how Aston nearly went mid-engined in the 90s and the whole Aston/Jag crossover (at one point he was chief designer at both companies simultaneously!). You're getting a much more detailed understanding of the forces that shape the cars we buy, first-hand from the people who were in the room when the decisions were taken. It's the sort of thing I've not found consistently anywhere else.

[dunnoreally]

I can see the appeal of TI, but I've already got enough digital time sinks.

[V41LEY]

Is that Davros at 21:54 on the video clip ?

[poppopbangbang]

Fishy Dave said:

Here to comment on the main photo used in the article, where I appear to be studying the new paint job I'd done the week before, on my Corvette Brembo.

I'm in there too stood around my 911 no doubt chatting mileage

[leef44]

Oh dear, I've never heard of The Intercooler. So much for calling myself a pistonhead.

I quite like it and I may subscribe subject to finding the time to read all the material which I have already got subscriptions for.

[Conscript]

Bushi said:

Some big names there that seem to be onboard, but £60 a year to enter and read a website and listen to podcasts....no of course not. There is so much quality content out there already, the numbers up for this must be incredibly small.

I'm not a subscriber to TI, but the podcast is free and I listen regularly, along with Smith & Sniff (#otsot)

[Yarlsberg]

Not sure about the appeal of podcasts of someone droning on about whatever automotive topic.

[911Spanker]

I am a TI subscriber.

This is a shame - hope PH doesn't pull TI down to its level.

[kmpowell]

I really, you know, struggle listening, you know, to The Intercooler podcast. Purely because of, you know, this one thing... and that's Andrew Frankel saying "you know" in every response/opinion he makes, you know, not once, you know, but, you know, several times.

I've really tried, but once you've heard it, you can't unhear it. Such a shame, because he is so interesting and full of stories and insight.

[Beethree]

Any way of using the PH20 code if you’re already a subscriber?

[Conscript]

kmpowell said:

I really, you know, struggle listening, you know, to The Intercooler podcast. Purely because of, you know, this one thing... and that's Andrew Frankel saying "you know" in every response/opinion he makes, you know, not once, you know, but, you know, several times.

I've really tried, but once you've heard it, you can't unhear it. Such a shame, because he is so interesting and full of stories and insight.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this. For ages I couldn't get past it, but now I've just kind of learned to drown it out (or he's started consciously doing it less).