how many of us read Hot Rod mag to learn ?

After years of subscribing I just cancelled my subscription a couple of weeks ago.

I've put up with the crap that they've printed through the years but I just couldn't take anymore "NEW" Rustangs and those butt ugly Camaros.

I can learn more off of places like the H.A.M.B. and I know the info found here isn't influenced by corporate money.

 

I don't even read hot rod magazine anymore.

 

Learned a lot from Hot Rod but back then they had writers like Racer Brown, Barney Navarro and Roger Huntington. Besides there was no internet then. Things are better now even though times have changed.

 

HOt rod, for the most part, and most other car magazines = toilet paper.

 

Yeah, I've stopped buying them. So little content worth reading in most of them.

 

Unfortunately bullshit sells. Look at how many guys buy E3 spark plugs because they read in HR or saw on TV that they increase horsepower. Well you know what they say.... There's an ass for every seat!

 

They have good atricles in the Broke Back Garage section.

Now on a lighter note if you are reading Hot Rod magazine to learn mechanics ignore this current issues article about the ford sent to Westech for repairs. Well read it and keep in mind that the distributer drives the oil pump and not that the oil pump drives the distributer.

 

The days of patiently waiting to pick up a Hot Rod magazine at the local newsstand has long since passed for me and I suspect for many of you.

I remember when it offered substance relating to what I was interested in,,times change ,taste change,,the roots of hot rodding and customs are what does it for me,,not squeezing 1000HP out of a 2012 Mustang.

I don't bother with the magazine anymore,,even when they offer it for near nothing. HRP

 

A friend of mine just retired from teaching English to 6th and 7th graders for 30 years. He says that he always encouraged kids to read car magazines because it meant they were reading something.

 

Exactly - my youngest son get R&T and C&D subscriptions every year for Christmas. He's a computerized kid - that's where and how he lives, but he actually sits down and reads every page. He loves my hot rods and stuff, but he's a 'new age' guy that can (as most of us could at his age) quote you hp/torque/0-60/¼ mile times/etc on most hipo cars of more recent years.
As with your teacher friend - I'm just happy he picks up a book once in awhile.

 

Hot Rod is probably how I learned to read. My Dad has them in annual binders, dating back to the late 60's, and to this day, I get an annual sub. for Christmas from him. I also get Car Craft, it's dirt cheap, and there's usually at least one interesting thing in each month's issue.

 

There is still good info in Hot Rod; if not always on my car, it's on currnet stuff and what may be comming. This months article on direct injection was interesting and the section " hot rod to the rescue" about the 347 in a late Mustang was a warning to those who think the offshore junk might be usable. I also watch Hot Rod TV and find useful info there. The car mags are just like the internet forums; you have to sort the BS and keep the good stuff.

 

Do you run E3 spark plugs too?!?!

Just askin'

 

Read-em hell I couldnt read when I was that little it was 1962!!!! But the pictures man the pictures... still have some of themstuck in my mind...........................I think its where the love of Kustom shit comes from...

 

My dad wrote a note for me to give to the stern high school study hall teachers that it was OK for me to read Hot Rod / Car Craft/ R&C/ C&D / R&T. He was not the least interested in, or knowledgeable about cars or motorcycles, but wanted me to read and did not believe in censorship.

I'd say about 80% of the tech info back then was correct.
In the late 60s when Pepe Estrada said leaving out the small flat keys (most parts books call them inserts, key plates) from under the synchro sleeve for faster shifting he may have been right for Muncies. When he said it would probably work on Saginaws too he was just plain wrong.

I pretty much learned to read on comic books and old WWII era Look, Life, and Esquire magazines left by uncles and older cousins at my grand parents family cottage. That was in an age when comic books were under fire as mind rotting, since TV had barely begun. Guess they were right.

 

Take any automotive mag for what it is...a vehicle to help sell their adverstisers parts. The mag gets donated (free ) parts and then trys to "educate" you why the parts are the best thing since sliced bread.

Why else would Hot Rod be printing a test on (of all things) flat head intakes, when the flat head probably makes up less than .1% of all street rod engines?

 

Subscribed to hot rod when I was 11 and had paper route $, its been 25 years, learned a lot as a teenager. Past 10 years or so there's very little tech mostly installation of advertisers kits. Oh well at 1.25 per magazine on subscription and an avg of 1 hour looking thru - its cheap entertainment

 

Why did you have to go and fix the title ?
I was way more fun as Hot Roy.

 

I got a set of E-3 spark plugs to test when they first came out for free. I put them in the 454 in my newer truck. It spit, sputtered and died. Took them out and threw them away. They asked for my opinion of them. I sent it. It was never printed. As for HR magazine, Its either Rat Rods or Mega Bucks Rods. I find little that interest me.

 

started reading HOT ROD in 1972 when I was 12. I remember reading articles and having no idea what they were talking about but I read them anyway and figured eventually it would make sense.

one that sticks in my mind is reading how cubic inches is calculated. before I read that I didn't really know what it meant. Bought every HOT ROD from 72 - around 1990.

 

What I've learned reading Hot Rod is I've got to market a bathroom floor tile that replicates scattered subscription cards.

Make tidying up the shitter a snap.

 

I used to like it better when some of the pages were still news print. The full color pages are too slick, same with the monkey wards catalog.

 

I've been reading(looking at the pictures) since 1965!! My wife is a special ed teacher!! Thats all I got!! Pete

 

Hey Pete.... We're talking about Hot Rod not Playboy!

 

I still have every Hot Rod magazine I've ever owned, including the July 1957 issue I borrowed from my Jr. High School library. As well as many other titles. From the little books which were a quarter to many Annuals.
I still use 'em for reference books and to take trips back in time.

 

Bought my first "Hot Rod" mag in 1958 priced at I think.35 or .50 cents a copy.Read it for years. Have a 3 year sub now and found that I will never be able to afford anything they show now.Lot's of tec but nothing we can relate to here. Sorry to be so negative about them but just trying to tell the truth.Anyboby else feel this way?

 

Hot Rod mag is about $20 for 2 years. I figure that during the 2 year period, i will discover something that is worth the price. So far i haven't been disappointed...jack

 

i know that if you don't have something nice to say you shouldn't say it.

But i can't take it anymore.


99.9% of all automotive magazine "writers" are sellouts. It's sad and weak and unbecoming of an adult man. And i think it says something about our society as a whole.

It's just sad. You think all those guys risked their ASSES for us in WW2 just so we could be lame. We should be ashamed of ourselves.

 

Learned a lot of stuff i didn't know from picking up issues of hot rod, especially helpful whin i used to run a SBC in my cars.

 

How many automotive writers do you know on a first name basis? First tech story I wrote 50 years ago was in R&C on hot rod radiators. Didn't get so much as a free hose clamp! Did get a check though. I know plenty of writers that have been given stuff and quietly returned it to the vendor because it didn't live up to the claims. Do you have a clue as to how many WWII vets helped start the speed equipment industry? Too put it bluntly, you don't know what you're talking about.