Street Machine

I think I was late 1982 with my first issue (November?), it's still around somewhere. It was the issue that showed that completed B on the cover (complete with free pack of Mentadent gum?) and it had loads on the Cortina which was just in the process of being replaced by Sierra so there were some drawings for that too.

There is one car in that issue that is still pretty much perfect in my eyes, and it stood out to me back then - a very clean, simple 2dr Mk3 Cortina, lowered and sitting on Wiremags IIRC. From early '83 I bought the mag pretty much constantly, paid for out of my paperboy then Tesco Saturday job wages. CC was certainly never quite the same, and it doesn't fill the void now.

Thanks for refreshing my memory SL
I definitely bought that issue as well, so my earlier guess of 83ish is slightly later than I thought.
I think the gum was Dentyne? (spelling could be wrong)

That's it! Knew it had the word dent in it. I remember cars better than gum...

Time to post this again!

See I remeber that bit, and the issue that they painted it yellow/purple. Was yellow at the front and purple at the bag with the "rip" at an angle coming down from the roof iirc?

Matt

There must be a fair few of us on here the same age!

I was 14 in '79, I remember buying Issue 1 as well (anyone else remember the TV ad with Henry Hirise leaping through the SM banner??)!!

Back then CC was the late 70's equivalent of Max Power at its most irreverent and poked fun of SM at every opportunity (Bleat Machine, Weak Machine etc etc), HR&C was the 'serious' mag (probably why it died a death after about four years, I still have a few stashed away though).

SM was brilliant up until it lost its way in the mid-90's, but the advent of the Interweb has killed off a lot of specialist car mags.

I still subscribe to CC but it's more out of habit than anything, an hour sees it read from cover to cover.

Wicked and Merry xmas to you too ;D

James

my best one's were Gary ellis feature mag and beardmore's pick up one

That Henry Hirise Consul was something else!! I googled that and found a couple of pics, its certainly a child of its time but its still boss. It would be so at home on this forum.
I agree with you Mr Briandamaged, CC really went to town on SM and in particular, one of the staffers, Mike Collins. Thats why I hated CC, too many injokes, name dropping and smarta r s e comments, everything SM wasnt.
I admit to not buying it so much from the late 80s, I thought it had become stale, too many Vee Dubs and after seeing the eightyfourmillionth customised Ford Pop featured, I decided to stick to PC, which I still buy regularly.
PPC is probably the only magazine I buy that deals with modified cars.
This site seems to have the same ethos and style as the early SM, I just would love to be able to buy a magazine that echos that too.
I think the good old days really were just that, perhaps SM is no more suited to 2007 than a Dinosaur.
Pity.

I remember seeing pics of the P5B on a farm yard or some similar scruffy unit, up to its axles in weeds and looking like it was about to fall apart with rot. Shame.

Mind you run the plates of many of those old project and feature cars and most have gone the way of all flesh now.

I thin kone reason early magazines were "best" is because we were all young andf full of enthusiasm then. Now we have become older and somewhat jaded. Less forgiving as well in a lot of cases. For the younger lads NOW is the golden era of car modifying, not the 70s or the 80s or whenever we think it was. You make your own nostalgia...