Art & Inspiration What's up with Hot Rod Magazine lately?

Frieburger is an idiot. Listening to him each year at the drivers meeting @bonneville was painfull.

 

My subscription lapsed....................do you or does anyone have a link to this deal?

 

And speaking of streamliners... fresh news from Hemmings this AM. Gary
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2017/...ion-to-its-original-configuration/?refer=news

 

Great post Sutton, I thank you for getting us all back into perspective. Your point about the changing world for everyone cannot be overstressed. I can easily envision there being no more print media of any kind being published within a decade. The things my generation grew up with; Harley Earl styling renaissance, TOTALLY new and exciting car styling EVERY year, the birth of performance engineering in every aspect of the automobile from engines to transmissions to aerodynamics to tires, EVERY car at the drag strip trying something radically different, looking forward to a new innovation being revealed in EVERY issue of Hot Rod, Rod & Custom, Car Craft, etc., etc., were the norm but are all gone. If you poll the ages of the ones lamenting on this thread I would guess we are all well over 60. The world has sadly but necessarily passed us by. I can't appreciate what is passed off as music today, there are practically no scripted TV shows that interest me in the slightest, I don't even like watching sports much and I was an award winning high school football player and played college ball. Your Rod & Custom sign-off literally brought a tear to my eye. I wish your enterprise the best, fight to keep it kicking whatever you need to do. That's the American way.

 

I like the magazine a lot. It's much better than it was.
Especially if I view the words "hot rod" as a verb.

I think many traditional hot rodders define the words "hot rod" as a noun.

So when traditional hot rod folk open up hot rod magazine and see such varied content They're often thinking "nope, that's not a hot rod... neithers that... this magazine sucks.

While if you see it as a verb your perception changes to "yep, look at all them hotrodded cars. This magazine just packed full of hot rods"

.

 

I remember Hot Rod when they had columns like Up on 2 Wheels, Drive ya Buggy,and tried to cover all aspects of automotive interests. Had a lot of stuff inside through the 60's and 70's. Good stuff.

Ahh....Vans....VW's not so much but my original work truck was a 1960 VW van. 0-60 in 90 secs.

I think too many old guys get caught up in the BOM syndrome. Bitter Old Man. Crap...all this stuff about dyno's, nitrous, and fuel injection. I remember back in the day we used to.....these young guys don't.....I hate all this.

Most young guys have never owned a car with points and a carburetor and don't care about tradition...because they have no reason to. They can't relate unless they read about automotive history.

I hate shop tours and the endless pimping for sponsors that is the new Hot Rod. But that seems to be the trend now days. Sap every buck and be a 'ho for Fiat is the main effort for Hot Rod. But I still subscribe knowing full well that they are pimps because there is still good information on what's happening. And I don't know about you old duffers but I want to stay on top of technology and not remain mired in the past.

 

Hot Rod has been selling parts for sponsors since the beginning....someone has to pay the bill, right?

This turned into an interesting thread, thanks for all the thoughtful comments.

 

Now, now Tman, Frieburger brought back the print car magazines from the brink of death. And at the Drivers Meeting, what can you really say about George and the other guy after they have won the Hot Rod trophy for six years running (and in the future)? And I do give him props for the Red Hat he has.

 

I bailed off the wagon sometime during the pro-street years. Or maybe it was the 'everything has a blower' years. Or maybe it was the ridiculously way more adds than features years. Might grab a copy from the sounds of things here lately. I'm way more tolerant of bullshit than I used to be.

 

...I still like Hot Rod even tho it has a lot of new stuff in it, ...every once in awhile it has some really cool car feature or article that makes it worth getting,...it is one of the most reasonable to subscribe to. I like the Power Tour and Drag Week articles. My first and still favorite mag was R&C,...I can grab an old issue and tell what some of the articles are in that issue by lookin at the cover.
I still miss R&C, but really like the way Hot Rod Deluxe is going.

 

I want to argue the hot rod 'verb' versus 'noun' absolutes that have been proposed. I submit that classic hot rodding is both strong verb and strong noun and quite different from today's no-boundaries verb interpretation. True a classic hot rod is obviously a strong noun. Hard to define but as they say, 'you know one when you see one'. However it was a VERY strong verb in the day also; as opposed to today's action of bolting on aftermarket upgrades which constitutes hot rodding your car, back then it meant getting a core (usually a junk yard or rust bucket one) then finding an engine core, transmission core, suspension core and doing MASSIVE 'verbiage' hot rodding converting and assembling each part into a coherent noun hot rod. Back in the day the effort put into hot rodding was mostly restoring and modifying junk yard parts, whereas nowadays the effort is buying and bolting on admittedly killer and usually superior parts.

 

HRM started with a strong advertising base and the continuation of that base is evident today. Look at the first 12 issues and you'll find more than a few stories based on how to do it with advertisers' products. The junk yards in San Diego have been long gone thanks to EPA rulings and and sky rocketing land prices. I often times think you could write a great Twilight Zone episode based on the time warp that seems to enthrall HAMBer's

 

No 'Zone episode required; we are living it in real life! It is time for me to head off to Trembling Hills and shut up, & learn the finer points of shuffleboard. My usefulness has been expended.

 

Glad you mentioned this... I like Hot Rod Deluxe, too. But it is too pricy for me. For that price it should be a monthly or twice as thick. After all, all the good stuff they are running is old / vintage info and photos and it doesn't cost them a dime to hire photogs or new writers. R&C has been my favorite since high school in the early 60's, OT wise. Gary

 

...the price of Hot Rod Deluxe is about what you'd pay for one lunch, and it lasts longer;...I enjoy re-reading them in a few months or a year, you can't re-eat your lunch very well.

 

Or two gallons of gas and not having to walk 40 miles. Comparisons like this are pointless. A buck is a buck, you determine the value, all by yourself. Gary

 

Sorry Tony, never liked the guy nor his angle on things. Now, Ganahal or Baskerville, great writers, no gimmicks

 

I like where Hot Rod mag is going these days but I have always liked to read Car Craft. I just renewed and got 2 years for something like $20 bucks. Can't beat that.

It seems to cater more to the home built and backyard car guys which is what appeals to me.

Y'all should get a subscription as a lot of the ideas apply to all areas of Hot Rodding.

 

I just got an offer in the mail for 3 years for $20. I pushed the cart for my mother at the grocery store as a 12 year old for the chance to get Hot Rod as a kid. I subscribed for decades because they covered Nascar, B-ville, NHRA, new cars like the '67 Camaro, high tech engines like Indy, everything I wanted to know. I gave up on them about 4 years ago when it was all Power Tour and junk yard builds. Haven't decided if I will take the offer.

 

Sure! Get a current issue. There's a ad card in it. The free hat deal pops up fairly often. Just gotta keep your eyes open. On a side note, I just got this months issue. 10 pages of vintage dragsters and a Max Wedge powered Model A sedan! You can't beat it.

I've got a cure for all the ads in magazines. TURN THA DAMN PAGE!

 

OK Squirrel, it's all your fault. I spent $20 last night for three years. I'm sure I would not have done it had you not started this thread.

 

Every issue has a 20% off coupon at HF, my subscription pays for itself every month, every week sometimes.

 

I hope it meets your expectations! My expectations are not very high, but I often find interesting stuff in there to read about, anyways.

 

Well Squirrel, I got my first two issues today. As a 65 year old I like it, lots of old stuff that I remember from when I was a kid. If I were starting over as that 12 year old again I'm not so sure. The only thing that would probably interest me is the '17 Camaro article. They had me hooked back then with tech articles about cam timing, header science, etc. , stuff I couldn't read about anywhere else. And the race coverage was superb, USAC, Nascar, NHRA, Pikes Peak and B-ville. I'll definitely read the 2.5 hp per cubic inch article too.