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My old man has picked a copy up as there is an XJ-S article in there (he's got a big 5.3 monster to do) and there was also an article about beetles.
Now I've read it, and I have to say, what a load of complete tripe, I mean do they purposely write in the style of "Mr Buffer, I love my MG and all others are rubbish" or what?
No knowledge of the cars whatsoever, terrible journalism.
Forgot to add, they also credited the design of the Datsun 240Z to a german designer fella, who was actually sued by Nissan/Datsun for this claim, the 240 was penned in house.
Sloppy.
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The lurker formerly known as Cappuccinocruiser.. or wedgedout..
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It's incredible how quickly that magazine has gone down the toilet after losing the majority of staff to PPC. It's become what it used to be about 15 years ago, a slightly dull overtly brit-centric magazine, but without any modicum of humour, flair or style in the writing. The much heralded performance Beetle feature is just a big advert for bloody Funkenblitz, features on anything but MGs are riddled with mistakes, even the back page feature has been replaced with an in house advert. The desperate strapline "still the cheapest" kind of says it all... Shame.
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Aug 16, 2004 11:01:34 GMT
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Just wait for my angry letter that I sent in to get to Practical Classics, hopefully it'll be in for next month. It was a reply to some old fart who was saying that Skodas, Ladas and the like weren't classics and that we should all be like him with his Wolseley, so I ranted about how pointless his British is best attitude is and how all those old middle class farts should just curse word off and give us all peace. Look out for it in next month's PC, I'll be writing under the name C. McArthur, of Inverclyde, Scotland. With any luck it'll get the old farts' blood boiling! ;D ;D ;D
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Aug 16, 2004 11:04:59 GMT
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Fully agree with the above comments!
For the last couple of years PC had been improving, with far more articles geared towards people like us!
With the last change of editor it seems to have gone right back to old buffers with MGs etc and people who only like to shine their Jags rather than drive them!
I'm not much of an expert on bugs, but the feature did seem to be a bit off the mark - it did seem like a big ad for funkenblitz - and it was like it had been written in a very "secondhand" style.
Also the feature on J cars seemed to have some very odd choices - again, I don't claim to be an expert on these things, but surely there were some more interesting or leftfield choices that they could have made!
What are the chances of the editorial team taking notice of us though? Obvioulsy, decisions have been made somewhere that the mag should be competing with other "buffercentric" mags like classics and sportscar, and they will leave the interesting stuff for Retro etc. Surely though there was space in PC for all tastes. Maybe not, but my subscription has now been firmly cancelled!!
Can anyone who has worked on the mag confirm just whats been going on? (I know there are former members of the editorial team who are known to frequent here on occasion).
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Aug 16, 2004 11:08:15 GMT
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A mate and I went to a Rover P6 owners club meet years ago, in his lowered, alloyed, tinted window breathed on engine super cool P6. The stuffy owners who all try to make their cars 'factory' couldn't quite believe it! Anyone would think a space ship had landed. Some twerp crawled about on his knees wondering how on earth my mate had got a twin exhaust set up. Rover never made it so how come you can? attitude. Er, I just welded the pipe up.
Point being, like the old duffer in PC, they don't look beyond their own noses. Just the attitude that saw the British bike and car industries fail to catastrophically in the 60s and 70s. Wake up guys, take the tweed off, the pipes out and get inventive!!
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Peugeot 307sw - Suzuki SV650S - MX5.
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Aug 16, 2004 11:18:51 GMT
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You'te right, didn't Will Hollman sign up, I saw his name in the wanted ads. (funny, while he was at PC I wrote in and had a fight with him about his views on Volvos! That was fun! ) Don't worry, I mentioned the state of the British car industry in my last letter. I said something like "If the Soviet car industry was so bad, and the British motor industry so good, why is it Ladas, Skodas and Moskvitches are still in production, and British companies can only re-badge Hondas and Tatas?" That'll get the old fogeys real curse word ;D ;D ;D ;D While on the subject, did you hear TVR are now under Russian ownership? That'll give the old 'Rule Brittania' mob attacks
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Aug 16, 2004 11:25:49 GMT
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Not a Fan of Practical Classics either, I mean its been on sale for god knows how many years and I don't think i've ever read something that really interests me in that mag ever, it was Mags like Practical Classics and Classic & Sportscar that nearly sent this impressionable teen to the darkside of Max Power, Revs and Fast Car thank god Retro Cars came along and rescued me from the brink of a life of adding bits of plastic to Corsa's, now my immediate Auto Ambition is a Rally Arched MK1 Fiesta with a 1.4 Zetec lurking under the bonnet or in the future a Cortina Woody done in a Surf Wagon style!
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Aug 16, 2004 11:33:19 GMT
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The worst one has to be Classic and Sportscar. They think we're all interested in millionaires farting about in Aston DB5s and Ferrari Daytonas, and turn they're noses up at real, dependable, peoples cars that you don't need to remortgage to get spares for!
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Aug 16, 2004 11:37:08 GMT
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Even if I was a Millionaire I don't know if i'd have a Super Car, ok so maybe one bust rest assured i'd have an outbuilding full of Imp's, Fiat 500's, Anglia's, Beetles, Renault Daphnes, Datsun 510's.....*Trails off into the Distance*
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Aug 16, 2004 11:40:22 GMT
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Same here! I wouldn't even think about a Lamborghini or Ferrari, I'd have hundreds of Imps of every kind, just about every post war rear wheel drive Volvo, and every interesting retro Soviet car I could get my grubby mits on! ;D
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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Aug 16, 2004 11:44:05 GMT
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I'd have a nice early Porsche, or a 73 Carrera RS Other than that, it'd haev to be something thats loads of fun, cheap (you can't stay a millionare if you give your money away) and properly interesting.
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The lurker formerly known as Cappuccinocruiser.. or wedgedout..
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Aug 16, 2004 11:46:39 GMT
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Super Cars have no character yes they are "conventionally" beautiful cars but if you see a few say....Ferrari Daytona's in a row i'd bet after about the 3rd one you'd be thinking "Bloody Hell how many more are there" but if you put a group of Cortina's together you can spend hours looking at them all (as I did the other day at the Cortina MK1 Day) because everyone has a different take on them!
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Aug 16, 2004 11:48:20 GMT
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The worst one has to be Classic and Sportscar. They think we're all interested in millionaires farting about in Aston DB5s and Ferrari Daytonas, and turn they're noses up at real, dependable, peoples cars that you don't need to remortgage to get spares for! That is their target audience,.. People for whom the Goodwood Festival of Speed isn't an event to go and drool over exotic machinery,.. more like a car super market. They serve their readership well, glossy magazine, good photography, well written. Practical Classics is attempting to serve its market as well, buffer and duffers. If you don't like what they have to say, don't buy them. Practical Performance Classics and Retro Cars are both more than up to the niche we occupy. Classics magazine has its moments as well.
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Aug 16, 2004 12:01:58 GMT
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Myself and my brothers buy about 8 mags a month and PC is in serious decline since Will and Co left. Retro Cars and Classic Ford are excellent and Classics has come on a lot in the past 12 months.
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Aug 16, 2004 12:05:16 GMT
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Then again Retro has a new editor, lets hope he can keep up the quality,.. To get your Simon Wooley fix you'll need to be investing in Chavtastic Fast Ford
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Aug 16, 2004 12:08:42 GMT
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Yeah I read that, is the old one taking over at another Mag if so which one? Seemed a bit of a weird descision to me considoring Retro has become one of the best Mags within a year but then again I don't the circumstances like Pay etc, good luck to him in the future anyway!
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Aug 16, 2004 12:09:42 GMT
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Simon is off to Fast Ford,.. and new editor is Paul Wager from BMW World,..
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Aug 16, 2004 12:12:48 GMT
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Aren't Fast Ford, Classic, Ford, Performance Ford and Retro all owned by the same publishers?
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Aug 16, 2004 12:13:01 GMT
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An excellent choice - although I might be a little bit biased!
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Aug 16, 2004 12:14:43 GMT
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It's just a shame that a good magazine has went downhill. I grew up reading Practical Classics, and I always thought they had enough modified retro stuff, but lately they've only included modified stuff as a big capitalist advert for big tuning firms who're probably waving chequebooks under their noses to promote them. At least Classics magazine are a little better, I'm not losing intrest in them, and Retro Cars and PPC are great. Oh well.
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"He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!"
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