how many of us read Hot Rod mag to learn ?

With all due respect, i meant "writers" now and up to 20 years ago although the quality started trailing off long before that.

2) What does starting an equipment company have to do with lame writing?

3) i stand by my assertions because it's too clear to be denied.

4) Again, i repeat, hotrod=toilet paper.

Our society IS dying.

 

I quit reading it when they built what they called a "Budget" motor for $6000.00.
Those people are totally out of contact with reality.

 

Yeah I got a subscription to Hodrod every year for Christmas starting in 1960. I learned a lot back then from the magazines. There were reader questions in the back that I always read. Now the only information passed on is the web site to buy some over priced kit.

I built a T frame from blue prints in Rod action (I think?) I mated a wood trimmed aftermarket steering wheel to a 39 banjo hub from an idea in a mag.. I think it is still on the truck. With out the magazines this would not have been accomplished. The magazine supplied the idea but I built the stuff in my garage and did not order it with a credit card from a web site.

I converted a Mallory early flat top dist. to electronic ign. A couple of them actually. My buddy did it actually but it was using an article in a magazine. Hot Rod Mechanix

Yeah I got a lot of learning from the magazines. I was once a magazine junky. Its been years since I bought a magazine. Nothing in them for me now. I really miss going to a news stand to buy everything that just came out. Yeah I checked out the playmate of the month too.

 

Such drama!
I learned a lot from magazines, still read some of them.
Seems like some people can't get that times change,it's not 1963 anymore.
God, lighten up !

 

Pretty well gave up on crap like Hot Rod and Motor Trend when GM started 'buying' their way into the winners circle with every single issue in the 60's and 70's.

As others have stated they sold out long ago -most of the things that have been printed are so heavily skewed and twisted that a person hasn't be able to trust or believe a single word written between those covers for going on 40 years.

The sad part is that generations have grown up worshipping and believing "article" after article of revenue based "real winners" to such an extent that they have no clue as to what real horse power and/or automotive/racing history was/is/or ever will be.



nuff said




.

 

Actually I know and have known quite a few, I have been editorial staff on a couple of magazines (now defunct) as well. Free lance writers are normally the most stand up guys that you are going to run into in the Publishing business there only dictates are the story. Once you get into the editorial or management end of it, the business changes drastically, you have to cater to your advertisers to keep the pages rolling off of the presses. I think that there are times that a ballance is hard to maintain, you should also be catering to your readers. Once you get into the big corporate thing like many of the mainstream magazines you have to also shuck and jive for the powers to be, who often know nothing about what the magazine is all about. They are bean counters and nothing more than that.

In all honesty there are some writers/editors that struggle trying to maintain a ballance and others are just whores. I cannot name or would not name names as that just shows a total lack of integrity, I have known a few that maintained their integrity and known others that were just whores. I have always had the utmost respect for those that have integrity and when I was in a position to do so I put the others out on the street where they belong.

 

Hot Rod tech articles peaked in the nineties, and have been sliding HARD in the last few years, I hope they have hit bottom, cause its hard to imagine them being much worse than they are now. Articles like the recent gem "How to Buy a Swap Meet Holley" set the bar pretty damn low. Engine Masters mag started strong for the first couple years, and has been dumbed down CONSIDERABLY in the last few years. SS/DI had some very solid tech writing just before it died, and Circle Track magazine was very strong in the nineties as well. Overall, I would say Circle Track probably had the best tech articles out there. There seems to be a real "dumbing down" across the board in the last few years. Probably just a case of 'giving them what they want" I suppose...

 

It has a lot to do with how most of these articles come into being. I think alot of times what happens is some manufacturer calls up one or more of the magazines and says something like "Hey, I'm dynoing a motor with eaglerocks new heads on it, why dont you come by and sit in and write an article?" And you can imagine how that goes. Also, the journalists are no-where NEAR as smart as the engine builder doing the testing, and its REALLY easy for the engine builder to skew the results.

 

Current issue page 98 "How to Buy a Used Wheel" next month how to buy used rocker arms.

Whne they get to "How to Buy Used Head Gaskets" I want to read that one so I will know what to look for next time Speedy Bill has some for sale.

Actually after reading the article on the SBF that didn't work right I think they got Stevie Wonder douing their proof reading.

Ok who we gonna beat up next???

 

How about you Porknproofer? You "douing" your own proofing??

 

NOTE: my intent is not to stir up fire or be argumentative for arguments sake. But the subject is much too important to ignore.

i think that i DO very well know what i'm talking about and i invite you to furnish examples of good writing. Fair enough? If i'm wrong, i'm wrong.

2) i think you may have misunderstood me (perhaps i need help in writing department as well, but at least i have some shreds of integrity.....) What i meant was men (real men) physically risked their hides for us in WW2. And what did we end up doing? We became lame, that's what. i didn't say WW2 vets couldn't write. i didn't say they didn't contribute to hotrodding.

3) If you look at what passes off as automotive writing within let's say the past 30 years. If you REALLY look at it, it's shameful. It's laughable. It's guys trying to sound cool. Trying to fit in. It's SAD.

But please provide examples of good writing. Yes, i know R. Huntington was (is?) good. But who else?

 

Yup did i that on purpose.

 

if you need hotrod mag. to learn,your in big trouble

 

hot rod=shit

 

I believe most of us graybeards read & learned a great deal from Hot Rod magazine in the 50's & 60's,,

Sadly today it lacks the luster it once held for the old farts like me,,or has HRM really stayed true to it's original roots and continues to cater to the ideas and types of cars that the majority of the current generation are interested in.

How to get more HP in your front wheel drive by tuning your computer ,,stuff that has absolutely no interest to Hambers.

I remember reading Hot Rod Magazine in the T.L. Hanna High School Library and one particular article still resonates with me.

A fellow had written the editor to complain that the magazine was going in the wrong direction and that he had subscribed since the mid 50's and all they promoted was muscle cars and had forgotten about the guys building the 30's and 40's cars.

I believe it's pretty much the same today,,the magazine is cheap and occasionally they have something I find interesting. HRP

 

I recenty decided not to renew my subscripton to HotRocks, so I didn't send payment, within 60 days I began to receive notices from a Collections Ageny stating that my HotRocks account was delinquent and to send payment immediately. I've since received another on, has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

There's nothing of any value in ANY of the car/hot rodder mags these days, unless you're an advertiser. What a racket. Pay $8 to read adverts disguised as "tech articles" on how to build a '55 Chevy for under $200,000.00- sandwiched between ads for cheap chinese billet auto-loc crap.

Thanks, I'll pass. I learn more on here.

 

I only read my new issues...79 and back....

 

I read Hot Rod in the late 50's thru the 60's when I was a kid and was trying to learn about cars,I remember only hearing anything about NASCAR in Hot Rod back then.
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It's actually HOT ROD MAGAZINE or HRM. Or, are you referring to cars often times referred to as "hot rods" here on the HAMB?

 

I do not read HRM. I get my education here on the HAMB.

 

Was it really necessary to dig up a year old thread to bring us this brilliant piece of well considered insight?

 

hey stude- thread is only a few weeks old...

 

hot rod = shit

car craft = shit

Anyone associated with the above magazines is a phony sellout.

 

Why are people afraid/unwilling/reluctant to go into detail about anything?

i mean cars are technical and complex, why not write that way?

But no, instead they all want to sound cool and witty and they're NOT.

Why are people afraid of detail?

Would this detract from sales? If so, how?

i would think people interested in cars realize they are complex---thus needing lengthy and detailed explanations concerning them and their components and would appreciate this.

Are we really this lame? We need things dumbed down? Is this the best it can get?

 

P.S. i'm mad because this is 100% completely avoidable bullshit.

It's weak.

Are we men or children?

 

Close this thread...it's difficult matching wits with an unarmed man.

 

Speaking of "unarmed," i have made several requests for the furnishing of examples of good, detailed automotive writing. Yet, i have not seen any. i don't say they don't exist. They just don't exist in most magazines published within the past, say 35 years.


The problem is not selling advertising space and pushing products. There's nothing wrong with that.

But if you're going to push a product on me, then get into damn detail as to why i should buy/use the product. Instead of smiling and trying to show how "cool"/ funny you are. You ARE NEITHER.

Somehow this message got lost somewhere along the line. People are afraid to think/act outside the box for fear of being thought of as "weird."

Well screw thinking and acting inside the box forever.

P.S. i'm not a "man", but thanks for giving the credit.

 

C-10 simplex...I've sent you two PM's listing a nember of writers so as not to clutter this thread. Let's start with Ray Brock, Jim McFarland, Ro McGongel, Tex Smith, Tom Medley, Dave Frieburger, John Dinkel, Ken Brubaker, Roger Huntington, Marty Schorr, Jim Davis, Gray Baskerville, Bud Bryan, Jim Jacobs, and the list goes on. In one of the PM's, I pointed out that a number of writers have quietly returned parts that didn't live up to the manufacturer's hype and never got so much as a column inch of editorial space.

There are countless reader surveys showing that the advertising in special interest magazines is just as much of interest to readers as the editorial content.

Again, your ignorance of the special interest publishing business shows through on all of your posts.

 

C-10, hot rodding isn't following a recipe out of magazines or anywhere else. It is inventing it. If you are looking for the magic recipes to solve all of your interests, that's the beginning of your problems right there. Sorry, but real hot rodding is a little harder than that. Take a step back, get some form of anger management and open up your own imagination. Sounds to me like you are your own worst problem. If you don't think the written world out there isn't cutting the mustard, feel free to take advantage of the opportunity to show us how to get it done the right way.