hot rod magazine is it worth .55 cents

The problem with Hot Rod, which I have subscribed to for year,is not the cars that are in it. It is with the hotrodders who have lost touch with reality.

Way back , way way back, it didn't make much difference what your car looked like, it was how it ran, and how it sounded when running. that's all

Then came the car shows and the hotrodders saw all of the money that was being spent on those cars, and thought that they had to do the same thing .

Ergo, they went for show and not go!

And, the HotRod followed the hot rodders in reporting on the good looking cars.

Now you lose the poor ,medium rodder who can not afford the $5,000 paint job, all of the chrome, and he loses standings among the hotrodders.

Ergo, we get rat rodders, because they are less expensive. And we have the division of the sport.
Live with it, enjoy your part of it, and admire those you admire.

traderjack

 

yea, there are just too many niches fo hot rodding today - and HoTRod attempts to cover all
rod and custom is really the only mag of yesteryear that i still subscribe to and read cover to back - but even that has so much advertising it gets old
at this point the niche zines are worth far more IMO - rod and kulture seems to always have my interest. the rat rod zines - vaguley interesting to look at, just overplayed - wont waste my money anymore - and im a magazine addict - though speedway and otehr catalogs are better throne readin - and free

 

I agree! .....and some of the folks here have a 'traditional' chip on their shoulder and believe that all things traditional are the only things that are cool and that every piece of modern machinery is a load of crap. If they had nothing but the cars/articles that we preferred in the magazine every month they would have been out of business years ago....need proof? ....the struggling of the 'niche' magazines that cover our interests is a perfect example. Not many of them last more than a few years before they are sold, renamed or just burried in the landfill.

HotRod magazine IS where this all began (thier phrase) and without that magazine the hot rod industry/lifestyle would not be where it is now. Not even close. They always have covered the 'out there' cars, they always have covered what was new and modern for the times and they always covered a good mix showing most/all facets of the automotive world (old and new) at that snapshot in time. ....and THAT SNAPSHOT IN TIME is the key. Some of us "get it" and realize that is what the magazine has always been about and there are other narrow minded folks who believe the last good rod was built in 1932, the last good Corvette was built in 1967, that the car world changed for the worse after 1972 (and stayed that way) and that the world is flat. HotRod magazine evolved as time went on and if it had not changed as people's taste/interests changed it would have been just another of the many automotive rags left for dead back in 1960's.

Nothing is perfect. HotRod magazine surely is not but I think its always been worth the read over the past 33 years I've been subscribing to it.

-Bigchief.

 

The point is, if you're a gear head, you'll read anything about automobiles.[/quote]

Well said! I read it to keep up on the new performance stuff coming out (though I will never buy a new car) and it's the only decent mag in the airport (I travel ALOT). I will continue to buy about 6 a year at full price, read and leave behind at one of our fine airports in the US hoping some "lost" kid will pick it up discovering our hobby, but never subscribe because I have better things to do at home....

 

i like the fairly recent push to "use your car". i think Freiburger is responsible for that though...

 

Well worth the subscription price..............I just wish there was a least 1 real "hot rod" in every issue.

If you can't swing .55 cents a month, how do you justify the cost of electricity for your PC?

Maybe that's why when you look at the magazines at your local store there are 8000 female type magazines and 9 car and gun magazines for us guys.......A bunch of cheap mf's!

 

I've had a subscription for most of the time since I was 12 and that adds up to 48 years.
No I don't find every edition as exciting as I did back in my teen age years when I would read every printed word in the magazine and study every photo and every add for car parts and pieces.
I still have the issue with Deans RP in it stashed out in the shed.
At you younger guys don't have to suffer through vans and gocarts like Dean and I did. Yep, they really did feature sinbins and had plenty of features on gocarts in the gocart heyday.
I did decide that I wanted to buy my 69 Cutlass S after seeing a lead photo of one in Hot Rod while sitting in a bunker in Viet Nam in the fall of 68. Rick Danzi and I spent many hours deciding what options we wanted on our cars and we both ordered one.

In the past 48 years there have always been a few issues a year that don't have a lot going for them and there have been a few great issues every year. My favorites always tend to be those with the Bonneville coverage and the issues with the big indoor shows in them.
Even though I have no interest in owning 95 percent of them, I still like to read about a lot of the new performance cars coming out. It's just a gearhead thing and any car that will run 13's or quicker off the showroom floor has to be somewhat interesting to read about.
Yes, I'd like to see more traditional type cars featured but the drag race boys would like to see more serious drag cars and the mullet brigade would probably like to see more pictures of mid 70's Camaros with blowers sticking through the hoods. The good thing is that it usually has something for everyone. The bad thing is that it usually has something for everyone.

 

fuck, ray charles could get 55 cents of content out of hot rod.

 

And he's dead! ba-bump -

 

I gave up on Hot Rod and most new mags until I saw Hot Rod Deluxe. It is what I imagine Jalopy Journal would be if it was in a magazine. Build your own straight axle Vette, Modifying wheelbase on Gasser type drag car, Lots of old cars and lots of old pics in each issue. Plus this issue has article about Blown Flathead from H&H. They do go through the whole Hot Rod archives and publish old pics or never published pics which is nice. So far there are only 3 issues out so I bought backissues and now have all of them.

 

There is a difference though without Freiburger I think, but still worth my subscription.

Wasn't he going to do an online mag? Is it done and if so what is it?

 

www.carjunkietv.com

 

Of course HRM is worth the price. Is it the same as we old guys remember? No, and neither are today's hot rods. Suppose there was a magazine comparable to Hot Rod pertaining to the music industry. How would issues of that publication from back in the day of good old rock & roll compare with the huge variety of musical styles out there nowadays to cover? The whole god damn world has changed and we haven't. Been to a drag race lately? Or watched a major football or basketball game recently? HRM tries to cover all bases and does that well; it's just that most of us aren't interested - just the stuff WE like.

 

I've been buying car mags since early 50's. Will not buy HRM any more. A number of you
have it right, more issues sold equal $$ for there advertisers. In the old days car guys
were involved in mags, not anymore. I read TRJ and Hop-Up from cover to cover. Still
read SRM and R&C however not always sure why! Just my opinion. Bob

 

My subscription expired several months ago but they keep sending me new magazines, so I am DEFINITELY getting my zero money's worth!
I do enjoy reading through it, but all of the infommercials are getting to be pretty annoying. Since when is comparing a bunch of crate motors or cams from the same retailer a "test"?
Here's frickin hint, Hot Rod: pick up a bunch of Chevy 350 crate motors from different sources and compare those in the same car! Get a bunch of cams from different manufacturers, put each of them in the same motor, and tell us those results!
I know this will never happen because 1) it would not be a big, full-color ad for some retailer disguised as an "article," and 2) it might cost them some ad revenue from the companies whose products don't perform as well. #2 only matters if you care more about ad money than cars. #1 only matters if you care more about ad money than cars. Magazine publishing companies care more about ad money than cars.

 

hot rod dised my home town big time a while back and I aint picked one up since.

 

I have subscription to about 10 magazines Hot Rod being one of them,and it is definatly not a saver,skim through it some times there is something good in there but it usally ends up in the bathroom at work.

 

.....and they dun disrespected my sister too!

 

It might be free at the library, but it will cost more than .55 cents to drive there.

 

You guys have got to be kidding me. Yes it might get rough for a while since Frieburger left but I think so far Chris Campbell and Rob Kinnan are holding down the fort just fine. How can you argue with features like Dare to be Different, Homebuilt Heros and In Their Own Words? BTW the flat green 70's Camaro project was badass no matter what anyone says.