Street Machine

Yeah, I miss SM. The thing I cant understand is that Custom Car is now the only U.K. mag catering for hotrods and customs - which is a big scene in this country - yet it is still so thin and lacking in substance!

I'm loathe to criticise magazines because I know that keeping one going (let alone starting one) is very hard. But, as I've said in the past, CC seems to lack soul and passion - surely two key ingredients.

Glad I'm not the only one that feels like this afterall!
Picked up CC a few months back and aye, it was $hit. Retro Cars went some way to filling the void and then it went tits up too!
Regards the book idea, it would be brilliant if Bryn could get a quarterly published in the same vein as The Rodder's Journal!

I've got a load of old SM that i may be putting up for sale soon, 92 onwards.

I must admit i miss the magazine as well, was the 1 magazine i looked forward to every month, and featured a lot of the lower end custom scene, and had some good project cars (Bottle Rocket) as well as some dodgy ones (Dole Money Cruiser).

Why cant someone bring out a magazine to replace SM and Retro Car

RETRO MACHINE!!!!!

STREET CAR!!!!!

Spooky, I could have written exactly the same!

I miss it as well.

It was the magazine highlight of the month for me as well, always looked forward to it.

The project cars were in the main, well chosen and interesting.

DMC was probably ahead of it's time as such when you think about it.

Colin Burnham's project cal-look Beetle was a very nice car that followed the style but included a more personal interpretation of the look.
The Skoda Rapid was also pretty neat, and using a Skoda at the time was quite different.

Don't remember which year I first bought SM, but probably around 83ish?

I was 14 when i picked up the( May 79?) first issue. It was fresh, exciting and it had cars featured that I could identify with. Hot Car wasnt bad, CC was too far up its own anus and Hot Rod and Custom was too bland. It was probably responsible for raising the bar on customising in this country, jacking up the rear ends of MK1 Cortinas, painting the axles gold and fixing a rear fog light to the underside to illuminate, was no longer seen as acceptable.
It probably died because, like the Dinosaurs,it couldnt adapt.
I buy magazines still but none have magic of those early issues of SM.
If only somebody would realise that the whole movement has become so fragmented, it would take just one magazine that could cater for all Retros, Rods, Customs and the like. It would make a killing, and save the rest of us from forking out an arm and a leg every month on umpteen mags, when we would only need one.

Yes indeed.



Most likely it wouldn't. I've very much been doing the maths on this for the past year and a half.

It needs a different approach now to launch a magazine.

Me three (raises hand...)