which magazines, online forums do you follow?

[chrisb]

This months' beloved MotorSport is rather good, I always thought Joe Dunn capable of a decent job and this month seems to support that sense, and the cover picture showing the gorgeous E-Type says so much. Good articles and again highlights points we've raised, about Ferrari, the future of motor racing, the fabulous 'lunch-with' and many other good and readable articles. 

I have also followed a little bit more the recent online MS forums and reflect that the articles are pretty good, I was not keen on Mark joining MS but that has evolved as I feel Mark has into a very good journalist, and his knowledge is on a par with the best from the past. Mat Oxley is also proving an excellent writer and their patience with the stupidity in some of the responses is very impressive. Although at times you can see the irritation boiling through. It has not prompted me to return to its folds as, whilst the likes of Bill, Ray and a few others are enjoyable to read, the sad ones whose prejudices and stupidity do mar it and I have no desire whatsoever to get into a needless debate with someone whose intelligence is questionable, but they are 'right', irrespective of any information. But what bugs me the most is their prejudices, be they Rossi, Hamilton or Vettel, and they will not encounter any other discussion, including facts other than their assertion that they are right. 

Autosport has also raised several good points, in amongst some dross it has to be said, but highlights the plight of British and American riders in MotoGP and 2/3- wonder if they are checking up on us? 

I stopped getting MCN a few months ago, it just seems to have lost direction but RIDE its sister monthly magazine is very good and is far more appropriate to anyone who doesn't ride a sportsbike.

What magazines do you chaps read and what are your thoughts? 

 

[Jamie]

Interesting Chris, I read the following on a regular basis (never miss an issue):

Motorsport (subscriber since 1992)
Racer (American magazine)
Automobilsport (recent subscriber)
Practical Performance Car (spiritural successor to the much missed ‘cars and car conversions’)

Magazines I read regularly but will skip issues if nothing takes my fancy:

Autosport
Octane
Classic and Sports Car
Classic Cars
Engineering
Various kit car mags

Non-racing related mags:

The Sky at Night (subscriber)
Focus
New Scientist
Amateur Photographer


I read too many magazines........

I agree on the latest MS Chris, it’s a good one. Still too much road car and car buying / marketplace stuff though. I I was very disappointed with the Dario Franchitti sports car test last month however, very flimsy and an opportunity missed.

[Deleted]

I follow the bike magazines: Bike, Ride (both good), Motorcycle Sport & Leisure (my favourite), MCN most weeks. I download online Cycle World (I used to subscribe more than ten years ago; Kevin Cameron is outstanding), Road&Track (on both mags I miss Peter Egan’s columns, retired), Rider Magazine (with Clement Salvadori) and Motorcyclist.

I like Octane, in-depth features and very good columnists in the first part of the mag (Derek Bell, to mention one). Never miss Race Car Engineering and Ricardo Divila’s opening column (recently he has also produced some good feature articles).

Scientific American monthly (same publishing group as my wife’s), and New Scientist most weeks.

Newspapers, download Corriere della Sera every day, I follow some of the columnists.

Online, I follow several forums on Advrider.com, I am a “dormant” member (“Alaskan Wolf”! ), registered but never posted. I check occasionally gpx.it, an Italian forum, a bit slow, very few members but sometimes with interesting finds.

Recently I started to look at the twitter feeds, often with very good finds: Mario Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Damon Hill (great guy), Richard Williams (music critic, motorsport – The Last Road Race – and The Guardian journalist) is always interesting.

And I am a Mat Oxley’s fan.

[robmarsh]

MotorSport only. My days of reading magazines has dropped vertically in the last two years as I find a lot of the articles very superficial and I wasn't learning a lot. I invested that time into books rather. I like Mark Hughes and Matt Oxley and their views. I subscribed to MotorSport since November 1970 but didn't renew my subscription this year though I have brought copies up to September but I haven't read them.

[Jamie]

Forums....apart from the obvious

GTM owners club
MS occasionally
SELOC (lotus drivers forum)

[René]

Motorsport Magazine. Changed to 'digital only' subscription a few years back and have to admit I don't read all editions now. Used to read everything when I had the printed version.

Autosport website. I have a subscription so also access to the Plus items. Still some very good items on here. The last Autosport printed version I have is probably more than ten years old!

I used to have a subscription to Dutch magazine Autorensport. Very good but no longer exists. The same goes for Grand Prix International.

I still buy printed magazines when it looks intersting; RTL Grand Prix (Dutch), Auto Motor und Sport (German) and sometimes Autosprint (Italian, don't really speak the language but I do understand the captions and just like the mag).

And of course several websites. Grandprix.com, Gpupdate, F1today and more. 

[Carl]

No wonder all of you are so goddamned well-informed! In the 1960s and 70s I subscribed to Road & Track, Sports Car Graphic, Car and Driver* and the motor racing specialist monthlies Racer and Formula Magazines.  I often read the domestic oriented Car Life and Motor Trend and one or two motorcycle monthlies, and as many English general automotive and motorsport magazines as I could find at the better newstands.  I still have several ancient issues of Motor Sport and a few Motors and Autosports.

Then, as David Bowie wrote in Five Years:

My brain hurt like a warehouse

It had no room to spare

I had to cram so many things to store

Everything in there

These days I subscribe to MotorSport and Autoweek, formerly "Competition Press and Autoweek", on whose pages Chris Economaki presided, and keep all my personal archives dusted and organized so my brain doesn't hurt.

*Car and Driver had wonderful columnists assembled by brilliant editors such as Karl Ludvigsen and David E. Davis, an actual leprechaun.  The redoubtable Brock Yates and wonderful Warren Weith, Gordon Jennings, Charles Fox and well chosen guest columnists each month made for great reading.

[Deleted]

I used to read Car and Driver in the second half of the Seventies and all through the Eighties, my parents bought it for me in Switzerland, especially reserved together with Road&Track and Hot Rod. I recall Pat Bedard’s (one of the columnists) attempts at Indy (photo below), which ended dramatically on the wall (he survived). I recall I liked Csaba Csere technical articles. It gave me quite a bit of insight on the American racing scene of the time.

Karl Ludvigsen is the best auto historian at work today, the fact he is American and has worked for Fiat, in Italy too, gives him an insight and lack of prejudice others don’t have. His technical biographies of Colin Chapman and Ferdinand Porsche, among many other books he's written, are very nearly masterpieces.

[Carl]

I had forgotten about Patrick Bedard's spectacular crash at Indy, which convinced many readers that rather than dabble in the big league, writers should remain in the press box.

[charleselan]

Sorry Chris I missed your excellent thread here while I was "off line" over the past few weeks.

Good to see that you all are keeping the paper industry honest, and that we haven't all gone digital.

I do not subscribe to anything these days, and to be truthful seldom have any inclination to purchase any magazines. The only one I do buy is the French quarterly "Auto Diva" which majors on the history and historical racing; it has some really good features and one of the journo's does a regular test each quarter of a historical race car.

When over in the UK (approx three times a year) I did buy Motorsport but have no desire to do so now, I think I have just moved on and that is it.

I do still have everything I ever bought regarding magazines of the past, some archive indeed, fortunately the great majority survived the burst pipe in the store where they have been kept in France, but some have ceased to be.

Most of the current writers leave me quite cold, just not inspired by any of them.

I grew up with MCN for obvious reasons and used to wear the print out of each copy each week, but it was a very different newspaper back in the late 1950's thru to the 1980's. In those days it was a proper news medium featuring all of the motorcycle sports each week with virtually nothing on road riding or bike tests. I did go back to it in the early 90's when i returned to riding bikes but it was very different and in the end I let it go. The magazine "Ride" was very good indeed with some superb and very useful features and product tests; good to hear that it is still going strong Chris.

[mikael]

I have not taken out subscriptions on motor racing magazines for very many years; rather, I like to buy directly the magazines I find interesting.

As to Motor Sport Magazine publications, I like their special issues, such as "70s in Focus", "80s in Focus", "90s in Focus", "100 Greatest Grand Prix",  "Great Racing Cars", ..., of which I have them all, basically.

There is a large number of motor racing magazines available here in Japan. Among my favorites is a publication called "Racing On", of which any issue is a "theme issue" on some classical event or car or driver. A recent issue, which I couldn't resist buying, deals with the Porsche 917 and its competitor, the Ferrari 512 (first photo). Apropos of the present banner image (Jody Scheckter in the Wolf WR1), another issue of this year deals with the F1 "kit cars" (as the magazine calls them) of the 1970's (second photo). A great magazine, but a bit expensive (about 1500 JPY / 15 USD per issue). 

There's a similar magazine dealing with motorcycle racing, called "Racers". A recent issue, which I got, portrays the Suzuki motocross factory team in the period 1975-1984 (but it briefly goes all the way back to beginning, in 1969). This is an issue I really have enjoyed. 

[René]

That is very cool Mikael. Those look like great magazines, good enough for the pictures only by the looks of it. And I agree about the special Motorsport "in focus" issues, they are great.