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a lot of them are also the sort of car that Hot Car would have featured in it's later years, and the sort of car you're also likely to see in PPC (surely the modern equivalent of HC). But it's more towards C&SC on the swingometer at times (like featuring a standard Citroen DS, for example), unless they plan to feature more radically altered vehicles. Isn't it enough that it is what it is, without having to be 'the new [something]'? They feature a broad spread of cars, from subtly to radically modified, because that's what the majority of readers want. I know I do. They don't owe you the magazine that you think it should be...
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Retro Cars is my favourite magazine as it caters for a wide range of vehicles. This includes some that are relatively simple, but very effective which I like to see as it shows how a great car can be made that doesn't have to have loads of money thrown at it, or be an award winner. It shows how any retro car can be cool, and many can still be accessible - even in times where money is short. The fact the magazine exists at all to a community like us is brilliant, and something we should support to keep it going.
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Aug 12, 2011 10:04:26 GMT
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a lot of them are also the sort of car that Hot Car would have featured in it's later years, and the sort of car you're also likely to see in PPC (surely the modern equivalent of HC). But it's more towards C&SC on the swingometer at times (like featuring a standard Citroen DS, for example), unless they plan to feature more radically altered vehicles. Isn't it enough that it is what it is, without having to be 'the new [something]'? They feature a broad spread of cars, from subtly to radically modified, because that's what the majority of readers want. I know I do. They don't owe you the magazine that you think it should be... Agree whole heartedly. It's a great mag with great cars in it, some are not always to my taste but it's the variety that makes it appeal! It is what it is.
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Nathan
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,649
Club RR Member Number: 1
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Retro Cars mag - Sep 2011Nathan
@bgtmidget7476
Club Retro Rides Member 1
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Aug 12, 2011 10:20:41 GMT
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That GT is giving me dirty thoughts!!!
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bryn
Posted a lot
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Aug 12, 2011 11:10:03 GMT
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That GT is giving me dirty thoughts!!! GOOD What makes me smile is the standard road car tests, shonky new product reviews, poor photography, terrible repro and other things that people forget about older magazines. I too remember fondly waiting for my Street Machine to arrive each month, going through a decades worth of hand-me-down Hot Cars and scanning the shelves for a title I hadn't bought that month. Times have changed and we couldn't be having this discussion if they hadn't
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Volvo, Buggy, Discovery and an old tractor.
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Aug 12, 2011 11:16:52 GMT
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Oh, and Bryn... first refusal on the 'B if you decide to sell yeah? ;D
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bryn
Posted a lot
Posts: 3,913
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Aug 12, 2011 11:36:52 GMT
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Oh, and Bryn... first refusal on the 'B if you decide to sell yeah? ;D I'll bear that in mind Although it's my name on the logbook, Mother Bryn and myself are discussing shipping it out to Tasmania as a surprise for my sister... So it might never appear on UK soil, she begrudgingly left it in Europe when she went so it would be quite sweet to sort it out.
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Volvo, Buggy, Discovery and an old tractor.
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Aug 12, 2011 11:39:02 GMT
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Oh yes, that's a much sweeter idea. Do that. She'll love what you've done to her interior...
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Last Edit: Aug 12, 2011 11:39:56 GMT by dbizzle
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Aug 12, 2011 11:52:03 GMT
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Isn't it enough that it is what it is, without having to be 'the new [something]'? Isn't that the whole raison d'être of what r*tro (note asterisk) is about? Old paint in a new tin? In all seriousness, I guess it's the difference between those who remember the scene as it was before, and regard the 'r' thing as just another bemusing buzzword, and people who are just getting into the whole car 'thing', and are just getting the first exposure to it. No doubt in 20 years time, they'll be saying the same things about how it's all changed. I love a lot of the cars being built now, but the culture and some of the mags spawned by it? Hmm, not so sure about that. Old school thinker in a new world order, as the song says.
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Aug 12, 2011 11:57:10 GMT
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I'm sure you're not doing it intentionally, but I feel kind of patronised by that, like you're saying you appreciate the scene on a higher level than I do... Anyway, doesn't matter - I like a magazine, you don't, no biggie. We agree on other things occasionally, so it's all good.
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Aug 12, 2011 12:02:10 GMT
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I'm sure you're not doing it intentionally, but I feel kind of patronised by that, like you're saying you appreciate the scene on a higher level than I do... No no no, I apologise if I've come across like that, but you have to appreciate that I have a lot more mileage under my belt, so have experienced more things. I envy you, for you have it all to discover. It's all about perspective.
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Aug 12, 2011 12:03:56 GMT
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Alright, easy. I'm 29. I wasn't around in the seventies, but I'm hardly a teenager.
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Rob M
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,915
Club RR Member Number: 41
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Retro Cars mag - Sep 2011Rob M
@zeb
Club Retro Rides Member 41
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Aug 12, 2011 12:35:53 GMT
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Alright, easy. I'm 29. I wasn't around in the seventies, but I'm hardly a teenager. Oh, but to some of us, you are!! ;D I think you both have fair points. Bryn does hit the nail on the head regarding the "shonkyness" of some of those publications/features, perhaps if he had prefixed those words with " In those fabulously carefree and innocent days of our hobby..." the following critique would have had a greater context. The will never be another Street Machine or Hot Car again and the days of being inspired by what you saw in them have, to a greater degree, gone too. We live in a computer age, all the inspiration comes from websites like this and the Magazines have no real choice but to feed off of them and follow suit, to a point. it would, however, be refreshing to see magazines not all to ready to jump into bed with forums because "its the thing to do" RC is a very good mag, Bryn is the finest motor journ out there and there are still things it can do and deliver that forums cannot, its just finding that happy medium and, quite honestly a standard DS is as to do with automotive porn as a heavily modified Astra, isnt it? I think that is where RC may have the lead, its not frightened to mix things about , for someone like me who appreciates the standard and the modified, thats ideal. I'd actually like to see the word "Retro" deleted from the English language, no word has been so over used, mis used and meant so little to this hobby. Its about Cars, plain and simple.
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Aug 12, 2011 13:14:20 GMT
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As the man says - "it's all about the cars"...
I don't know much, but I do know a little about screwing a car mag together and it's not easy. A balance on content has to be struck to entertain readers and keep the advertisers happy.
Anyone who thinks they can put together a car magazine and please everyone is deluded, but with the right decisions (not to mention backing from your publishing house) you can please a lot of the people a lot of the time.
Yes, looking back at SM it was p*ss poor on the repro/photography at times but to me it was dead exciting. That's not to say that car mags aren't today, the thing is that times have changed as we've stated here. My only contact with that kind of world was SM and I was part of that community when my Dad picked it up on the way home (come on, I was only 10 when I started reading it). Now, the 'scene' is accessible in so many ways, internet, social media etc and mags don't have the allure they used to where their purchase means you're in the club. It's like they're an add-on now and the internet has taken over with forums such as this one.
But do I love car mags for their failings and the fact they can't possibly cover as much detail as the web, hell yeah! Oh, and what else does 4 or 5 quid buy these days?
You shouldn't buy something just out of habit and if you're not keen on it, but if you can overlook the bits you don't like now and then, then car mags will remain. In the current economic climate and with the shift in media consumption, if you don't use 'em, I can guarantee you'll lose 'em!
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Aug 12, 2011 13:27:18 GMT
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Alright, easy. I'm 29. I wasn't around in the seventies, but I'm hardly a teenager. U iz well old blud!! Seriously though, things change, things evolve, I mean, I look back at pictures of race circuits from thirty-odd years ago and wish they were still that way. I wish all cars could still be fixed with a spanner and a mallet, I wish you could still pick up T&T'd cars for £50, but you can't because that's just the way the world is now. Whether that's for better or worse is debatable, but the simple fact is we don't live in the same world that people lived in in Street Machines heyday so obviously the magazines aren't going to be the same. Enjoy your seventies and eighties mags for what they are, a fantastic insight to a bygone era.
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Brian Damaged
West Midlands
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 9,554
Club RR Member Number: 33
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Aug 12, 2011 16:37:20 GMT
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GOOD What makes me smile is the standard road car tests, shonky new product reviews, poor photography, terrible repro and other things that people forget about older magazines. I too remember fondly waiting for my Street Machine to arrive each month, going through a decades worth of hand-me-down Hot Cars and scanning the shelves for a title I hadn't bought that month. Times have changed and we couldn't be having this discussion if they hadn't Custom Car have been trawling back monthly through their own archives for a while now, and it's one of the most entertaining sections of the mag! AMAZO and I are probably of a similar age, I remember the very first SM back in April '79 (I was 14). Everyone's seen the cover with Henry Hirise (Stu Vallance's 427 Chevy-powered Mk2 Consul) on it, but who else remembers the interview with then British Darts Champion John Lowe and a How-To article on making your own plastic wheel trims? Selective Nostalgia's wonderful. I miss SM, but Retro Cars is a more than worthy replacement. Especially this month, I'm chewing over the offer of a '78 MGB Roadster at the minute and Bryn? You haven't helped one bit, amigo.
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skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 5,606
Club RR Member Number: 11
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Retro Cars mag - Sep 2011skinnylew
@skinnylew
Club Retro Rides Member 11
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Aug 12, 2011 16:41:22 GMT
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Picked it up today in WHSMiths, always a good read
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Aug 12, 2011 17:41:06 GMT
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AMAZO and I are probably of a similar age, I remember the very first SM back in April '79 (I was 14). Everyone's seen the cover with Henry Hirise (Stu Vallance's 427 Chevy-powered Mk2 Consul) on it, but who else remembers the interview with then British Darts Champion John Lowe and a How-To article on making your own plastic wheel trims? Selective Nostalgia's wonderful. Didn't they also have a feature on how to make a rear wing, about 15-odd years before everyone stuck one on their chav-wagen? ;D I'm doing myself a disservice here; no-doubt some on here think I walk around with a big hook 'tasche and aviators, rollerskating down the street. SM, CAR, with great writers like LJK Setright, George Bishop Mel Nicols et al, (with the occasional Hot Rod thrown in when the local newsagent could be bothered to stock it) were the automotive mentor of my formative years. With the exception of HR, those other mags are gone in that form. One of the reasons I came on this forum in the first place (as Seth will attest) was to bring this sort of stuff out of the darkness and under the spotlight of a new generation, to show stuff they might not be aware exists; hell I did something I used to ridicule people about - blogging - and now think it's the best way to impart car stuff. Don't get me wrong; Source Interlink's mags (Hot Rod, Car Craft etc) are great reads (and a handy size to take to the #ahem# reading room ), but they are backed up by websites that can be enjoyed without ever having to read the mags.
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Aug 12, 2011 17:58:35 GMT
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I havnt bought it in a very long time, But bought it today, and am glad i did. Made a nice little read at lunchtime, But ill make a proper effort to read it tonight. Cheers for the headsup
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Aug 13, 2011 11:38:38 GMT
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What a great issue...and Bryn, the MG is looking pretty awesome in print. I'm assuming 'that' interior is still being worked on/tweaked/refined hence why no shots? Also, the first car to grace the new Area 52 'cool wall'.
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