What is the worst car mag currently on sale?

[waynne]

Looking at the ever growing number of car magazines, filling ever smaller niches which ones deserve to fail?

If market forces are left unchecked I'm sure we will see "Silver Audi owners magazine" and "Cars with leather seats weekly".

What would you say is the worst car magazine around and what made you come to this conclusion?

I would say that Fast Car is going the tabloid way of MAX power. In fact any magazine that gives away "free stickers" deserves to be ignored!

[paulgolding]

scary . . I was gonna put up a post asking which car magazine people read, but I forgot !!!

I agree with you, I gave up Max Power when I was 18 and got a mk1 GTI (£200 to insure back then !! lol) . . at that point I moved on to The Golf. Great magazine.

Never bothered with fast car. I generally like subtle modifications on the outside, I'm not one for huge spoilers etc. But each to their own I say.

Nowdays, I enjoy reading Vw camper or Volksworld. Sometimes I'll get performance vw/bmw and every now and then I get tempted by the jap ones

I think deep down inside there's a surfer wanting to get out

[HDi fun]

Escort readers' wives edition - oops sorry, wrong forum

[blacklineninja]

Fast Car has actually improved over the last six months to the point where I've bought three of the past five for the first time in over five years. Max Power was starting to get really good under Rich Beach, but now Guesty's gone and ruined it all.

I've got a subscription to Lowrider Magazine from the States - absolutely top notch!

[pgarner]

Originally Posted by HDi fun

Escort readers' wives edition - oops sorry, wrong forum

its alright we wont tell the wife

Agree with paul on this ,golding not anderson, max power was good when i was 17-19 but its all a bit in your face for me. occasionally get performance VW to try and find cheap parts or so i can budget if im wanting anything

[herb]

well i gave up on maxpower around 2000 when jap styling started to become popular (bumpers, side skirts, and spoilers all to big for the car and graphics ) nowadays i get top gear as my parent get me a yearly subscription every xmas practical classics, practical performance car, performance vw, total vauxhall and basicly any mag that has an interesting car in it


heres another question how many of you keep the magazines and why????
i keep them mainly for reference and proof take for example i have told numerous mates about a mini pickup featured in fast car years ago with a 0-60 time of 3 second and it was only a 1.4 and if they dont belive me i can dig the mag out of the loft

[old-git]

Originally Posted by HDi fun

Escort readers' wives edition - oops sorry, wrong forum

Is there a web site?

[old-git]

Originally Posted by herb

i keep them mainly for reference and proof take for example i have told numerous mates about a mini pickup featured in fast car years ago with a 0-60 time of 3 second and it was only a 1.4 and if they dont belive me i can dig the mag out of the loft

And you believed it?

[HDi fun]

"Is there a web site?"

Probably! Let's have a google fest and see what we can unearth.

[herb]

Originally Posted by old-git

And you believed it?

cant see why not when you read the spec

[old-git]

Originally Posted by herb

cant see why not when you read the spec

Using Car Test 2000, I can only get down to 4.78sec (in ideal conditions), a far cry from 3.00secs.

Was this time done on a track with the timeslip shown in th emag, or was it just mentioned in the article?

Unless proof is provided, I don't believe it. Been around far too long to fall for optimistic claims and boasts unless proof is supplied, which it very rarely is. Very few of the cars featured in Fast Car, Max Power, Redline etc, mention actual performance details (I always look). If they do, it is in the form, "when it is properly set up, we reckon it will hopefully run....." etc.

I only believe timeslips and competitions like TOTB, not hearsay, mag articles (a friend's daughter is in the business and you wouldn't believe what they get up to in order to fill the mags).

[old-git]

Originally Posted by herb

cant see why not when you read the spec

Ooops, just realised that the figures I used are for your car! What a wally

OK, give me the mag spec for the Mini and I will run through the program.

[Prince]

I started reading Max Power after I bought my Civic...it was good until recently. Until it turned into more of a men's magazine with pointless crap shoved into it.

[old-git]

Originally Posted by Prince

I started reading Max Power after I bought my Civic...it was good until recently. Until it turned into more of a men's magazine with pointless crap shoved into it.

Has it reverted to how it was a few years back? When it started, it seemed that it was written by 14 year olds for 14 year olds. However a year or so back it became more of a car mag and less of a juvenile slut mag. Same with Fast Car.

[HDi fun]

0-60 in three seconds is hard enough to achieve with big bikes.

If the 1.4 mini had a serious dose of supercharging / turbocharging and nitrous then you might achieve 3 seconds but God only knows how you cope with the wheelspin!

But a vehicle that needs nitrous and 300psi of boost pressure to achieve its performance is slightly pointless for road use. You could get similar figures shoving it off the edge of a cliff

[herb]

ok ive dug the mag out and i have misread it sorry but its still a nice car so take a look yourselves and hopefully you can see how i misread it

[HDi fun]

'What Diesel Car' is a pointless publication. Years ago it would perhaps have been more aptly titled 'Slow Car' and put alongside 'Fast Car' on the sheves.

[Prince]

Originally Posted by old-git

Has it reverted to how it was a few years back? When it started, it seemed that it was written by 14 year olds for 14 year olds. However a year or so back it became more of a car mag and less of a juvenile slut mag. Same with Fast Car.

It was better without the girls to be honest. Ok, yes they're hot and all, but I didn't buy it for it that...I want to read about cars! I always like reading questinos sent in by readers, but they scrapped that in favour of posting letters sent in that have nothing to do with cars! A car magazine should be all about cars, but Max Powers seems to be going more towards being like Nuts or Zoo. I started reading it to gain knowledge on something I have a great interest in, now the only feature worth reading in the past few months was one to do with styling your engine bay. Another point is that I don't want to see a smoothed over MK2 Golf with air bag suspension every time I read it. They are nice cars and all, but there are more cars out there than Golfs and BMWs!

[old-git]

Originally Posted by HDi fun

0-60 in three seconds is hard enough to achieve with big bikes.....But a vehicle that needs nitrous and 300psi of boost pressure to achieve its performance is slightly pointless for road use. You could get similar figures shoving it off the edge of a cliff

Right......
Acceleration off cliff would be 32ft/sec/sec. So, after 3 seconds the car will is travelling at 96feet/sec = 345,600 feet in an hour = 65.50mph. Good guess!!!

As a matter of interest, Beachy Head is around 535feet high. So it will take approx 5.5 secs to reach the beach with a terminal of 119mph

[old-git]

Originally Posted by herb

ok ive dug the mag out and i have misread it sorry but its still a nice car so take a look yourselves and hopefully you can see how i misread it

How could you possibly mis-read it? Not the sort of thing I would ever do

14.78sec quarter and 160bhp equates to approx a 6 sec 0-60mph time. Quite quick back in 1994.

[HDi fun]

Acceleration off cliff would be 32ft/sec/sec. So, after 3 seconds the car will is travelling at 96feet/sec = 345,600 feet in an hour = 65.50mph. Good guess!!!

It was a qualified and quantified guess to be honest. Long time ago (not quoting George Harrison btw) when my arithmetic was up to speed along with physics and classical mechanics. Not fab, mind!

[steve09]

Originally Posted by old-git

Right......
Acceleration off cliff would be 32ft/sec/sec. So, after 3 seconds the car will is travelling at 96feet/sec = 345,600 feet in an hour = 65.50mph. Good guess!!!

As a matter of interest, Beachy Head is around 535feet high. So it will take approx 5.5 secs to reach the beach with a terminal of 119mph

lol... sure you figured that out.

[pgarner]

bunch of smart asses

[HDi fun]

Isn't it interesting that OG and I are still working in old money? None of this metric stuff!

[old-git]

Originally Posted by steve09

lol... sure you figured that out.

Yup. Sometimes I wonder whether I should have something better to do