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Post by charleselan on Sept 23, 2020 12:53:19 GMT
Last evening I had a quick scan through the latest copy of Motor Sport via my new App (Readly), I haven't read anything in depth as yet but it looks far better than some recent examples I have seen.
I was not impressed with the feature that went along the lines of the 30 "Cult" figures, although the subject did have mileage if handled differently in my opinion. If you are going to do something like that then you give each competitor equal billing and not have some in small inconspicuous panels of print and others in full page speeds. O.K. I am biased obviously but Ronnie in one of the small sections and Gilles; Stefan Bellof and Jochen in large full page spreads, do me a bloody favour.
Back in the early 1980's when I was publishing my little magazine my original business partner and I had often discussed the idea of producing a book titled "The Crowd Pleasers" which would have featured all the drivers that instilled that special emotion in fans. Going back to the MS feature I am appalled that neither Pedro Rodriguez nor Tom Pryce were included, shameful in fact.
Incidentally I have in the past referred to a weekly motor sport newspaper that I always had which was called Motoring News, back in the day it was an associate publication to Motor Sport. Apparently it is still going but now in the hands of another publishing organisation (I think Motorsport.com). It has much more emphasis on club racing than some of the other titles but does have international coverage as well. Last weeks had a good feature on Tiff Needell and his career which was a good and interesting read, his comments about Mo Nunn's Ensign team and cars were compelling. He was also asked as to who he got along with the best in his racing career and he mentioned Nelson Piquet, he also said that Nelson was a lot of fun.
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Post by chrisb on Sept 23, 2020 18:45:05 GMT
Yes I shared that sense of things elsewhere John I do not like this 'besty 30' odd thing, for me it is crass and how can you say subjectively Jochen is the number one cult figure? when you have the likes of Senna whose following is immense, let alone mentioning the drivers from the 50's and 60's. Just how do you evaluate that? what or who is a cult figure, Jimmy must have one of the biggest followings in the world, as obviously Gilles and Ronnie have, as the magazine is downstairs at the moment I don't recollect seeing Mike the bike or Bill or even Sheeney - no not happy with that, although it was a nice little tribute to Jochen.
but as you say the rest of the magazine is pretty good, especially enjoyed the lunch with - although irony was a book review of Rofgo's history without Adrian Hamilton having an advert in this months MS.
Motoring news, was a good little paper that was always worth an occasional read, especially when Autosport went through it periods of sounding full of itself- may have a look out for that, without Autosport one loses touch with the grass roots and I miss that,
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Post by charleselan on Sept 24, 2020 11:44:09 GMT
We appear to be living in a cult orientated world these days Chris!
Absolutely crass if you ask me, and not worthy of such a magazine. I can only imagine what Bill Boddy and DSJ would have made of it. The bike racers bit was very poor; no Mike Hailwood or Jarno Saarinen let alone no Bazza or Foggy!
Incidentally this new incarnation of Motoring News (or Nudes as we jokingly used to refer to it) it is called Motorsport News and comes out on a Wednesday; the latest copy out yesterday and had a big feature on Mike Broad talking about his days as a rally navigator especially with Russell Brookes.
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Post by charleselan on Oct 2, 2020 17:51:37 GMT
I have been reading bits of the latest copy of Motorsport and noticed that Damien Smith is writing features once more. I was under the impression that he had decided to take up the teaching profession after relinquishing his role as editor of the magazine a while ago.
I believe it to have been him who has written a piece on Olivier Gendebien in the current edition. The author claims that Olivier was the greatest Belgian driver which does bear comment. No doubt that Gendebien was a great driver particularly in sports cars but to say that he was greater than Jacky Ickx is absurd. No one comes close to being the greatest Belgian driver of all time than Mr Ickx, he was quite simply on another level to anyone else from that country.
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Post by chrisb on Oct 3, 2020 9:45:07 GMT
yes I've noticed that and I think he has also written a few things for autosport, Olivier was an amazing driver, his le Mans wins and his occasional drives in F1 are stuffs of legend, but the greatest Belgium I would struggle with and am surprised DS made that kind of statement, certainly up there with some of the greats but the best, no sorry, Mr Ickx holds that one for me
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Post by charleselan on Oct 16, 2020 15:53:44 GMT
As I am enjoying my magazine App currently I am able to read so many magazines, its almost like old times standing in the local Newsagents. Anyhow I finally succumbed to having a look at the current (last weeks) Autosport which I haven't seen for years. It certainly has changed and is really quite unrecognisable from what I remember.
In this edition they had the results of a poll they had conducted on the "Greatest race car of All Time". The winner being the Lotus 72, something I cannot argue with for many reasons from a design and concept perspective. There was quite a big feature on the car giving details of its history etc, with anecdotes from surviving driver Emerson Fittipaldi and team members of the time.
Emerson says it is best car he ever drove, obviously has a special place in his heart. His former engineer also mentioned that Emerson eventually got fed up as he felt that Peter Warr favoured Ronnie in 1973 something that I would have conflict with seeing Warr's reactions towards Ronnie in the film "If You Aren't Winning, You Aren't Trying". Emerson did also say that Ronnie was his best friend in both F1 and F2 and they had a great relationship.
Another point raised was with regard to the Lotus 76 which proved unsuccessful. It's designer Ralf Bellamy says that he was given a brief by Colin Chapman to design a car lighter and more up to date than the 72 which he initially did only for Chapman to insist on throwing other things at the car like the semi automatic gearbox; twin pedal braking system; all of which added to the cars weight and creating other distractions.
Ralf Bellamy also said that the reintroduction of the ageing Lotus 72 in 1974 wasn't as inspired as thought, the performances of the car particularly at Monaco were all down to Ronnie and his ability to hustle the car. This made up for the fact that the car could no longer work the tyres produced by Goodyear that were essentially designed for Ferrari and McLaren.
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Post by charleselan on Feb 27, 2021 16:44:06 GMT
I was in my local Carrefour supermarket earlier today and had a quick look at the news stand where often i find some interesting motor sport magazines. I found a special edition of Auto Hebdo celebrating the history of Ferrari which was quite interesting and had some good material. It was quite thick with a soft cover and square bound spine, coming in at RRP €10 (ish).
I did not buy it myself as I could not really justify it, but any Ferrari enthusiast I am certain would like a copy. It not only featured the cars but also devoted a large section to the drivers as well. Gilles had several pages and surprisingly considering it is a French publication only one page for Didier Pironi. I did not like the pictures included of all the main accidents like Niki: Gilles and Taffy, just cannot stand that kind of thing especially in a serious publication like Auto Hebdo.
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Post by René on Feb 27, 2021 17:22:50 GMT
I was in my local Carrefour supermarket earlier today and had a quick look at the news stand where often i find some interesting motor sport magazines. I found a special edition of Auto Hebdo celebrating the history of Ferrari which was quite interesting and had some good material. It was quite thick with a soft cover and square bound spine, coming in at RRP €10 (ish). I did not buy it myself as I could not really justify it, but any Ferrari enthusiast I am certain would like a copy. It not only featured the cars but also devoted a large section to the drivers as well. Gilles had several pages and surprisingly considering it is a French publication only one page for Didier Pironi. I did not like the pictures included of all the main accidents like Niki: Gilles and Taffy, just cannot stand that kind of thing especially in a serious publication like Auto Hebdo. Sounds very interesting but I'm also not a fan of including the accident photos. Yes they were part of the sport back then but still... I have this very nice book by Peter Nygaard about Ferrari's F1 history. It includes a lot of pictures I had never seen before which is always nice but there's is also a very sharp picture of Gilles laid out in his coffin in the book. I found it quite shocking when I turned that page for the first time I can tell you as I didn't expect it.
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Post by mikael on Feb 28, 2021 14:26:15 GMT
Sounds very interesting but I'm also not a fan of including the accident photos. Yes they were part of the sport back then but still... I have this very nice book by Peter Nygaard about Ferrari's F1 history. It includes a lot of pictures I had never seen before which is always nice but there's is also a very sharp picture of Gilles laid out in his coffin in the book. I found it quite shocking when I turned that page for the first time I can tell you as I didn't expect it. René
I saw that Peter Nygaard has published a largely extended version of his (earlier) book on Ferrari in F1. It appeared just before Christmas (2020). The new version is very similar to his large "Formel 1" from 2018, in that it is in large "coffee table" format, and has a bit more than 700 pages. As far as I understand, it is, pt., available only in Danish; but I imagine that an English version could appear a bit later.
Best
Mikael
Some reviews (in Danish):
A photo from the book.
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Post by chrisb on Mar 6, 2021 6:42:38 GMT
Gosh Mikael those are fabulous photos, that book must be exceptional,
slightly off track, this month's MotorSport is ok, some very good pieces by Mark as usual, but for me the best bit is an interview with Herbie Blash, what an amazing person, if he has or is going to write a biography it would be memorable, and one brilliant bit was his assertion who is the best driver he ever saw, now I was quite surprised by this as he has seen drivers since the early 60's to the current crop from Jimmy, Jackie, Jochen, Ronnie, Niki, Gilles, Senna, Prost, Piquet, Michael, Lewis etc, so if anyone has a good handle on who he felt was the best it is Herbie.
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Post by charleselan on Mar 6, 2021 17:59:10 GMT
Gosh Mikael those are fabulous photos, that book must be exceptional, slightly off track, this month's MotorSport is ok, some very good pieces by Mark as usual, but for me the best bit is an interview with Herbie Blash, what an amazing person, if he has or is going to write a biography it would be memorable, and one brilliant bit was his assertion who is the best driver he ever saw, now I was quite surprised by this as he has seen drivers since the early 60's to the current crop from Jimmy, Jackie, Jochen, Ronnie, Niki, Gilles, Senna, Prost, Piquet, Michael, Lewis etc, so if anyone has a good handle on who he felt was the best it is Herbie. I take it that it was Jim Clark then Chris . I haven't read my digital copy yet, so must open it up and have a look. I did read this weeks digital copy off Motor Sport News and in it they had a poll on the greatest British drivers, of course Hamilton won. I think they had Jim in 6th place and JYS something like 20th, bloody morons is all I can say.
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Post by chrisb on Mar 7, 2021 10:41:03 GMT
John, what made you think it was Jim? ......of course it was, who else,
as for modern polls, they are tasteless and wasteless, pathetic, I do rage about that sort of moronic stupidity, it reminds me of an argument and it was an argument, I had with a doctor I worked with, he was also a Man U supporter so below the pale for me anyway and he was raving about Michael being the greatest ever, needless to say we disagreed for about 5 years I think, funny enough we no longer communicate
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Post by charleselan on Mar 7, 2021 12:22:11 GMT
John, what made you think it was Jim? ......of course it was, who else, as for modern polls, they are tasteless and wasteless, pathetic, I do rage about that sort of moronic stupidity, it reminds me of an argument and it was an argument, I had with a doctor I worked with, he was also a Man U supporter so below the pale for me anyway and he was raving about Michael being the greatest ever, needless to say we disagreed for about 5 years I think, funny enough we no longer communicate I read the article in bed this morning Chris featuring Herbie Blash and sure enough Jim is in his rightful place . It was an interesting piece indeed and thoroughly enjoyable and Colin Chapman's foibles are certainly illustrated within it, loved the bit about Herbie through tiredness forgetting to put the drain plug back in an oil tank he was filling on a Lotus 49 and the content running over Colin's nice suede shoes.
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Post by René on Mar 7, 2021 18:40:15 GMT
Sounds very interesting but I'm also not a fan of including the accident photos. Yes they were part of the sport back then but still... I have this very nice book by Peter Nygaard about Ferrari's F1 history. It includes a lot of pictures I had never seen before which is always nice but there's is also a very sharp picture of Gilles laid out in his coffin in the book. I found it quite shocking when I turned that page for the first time I can tell you as I didn't expect it. René
I saw that Peter Nygaard has published a largely extended version of his (earlier) book on Ferrari in F1. It appeared just before Christmas (2020). The new version is very similar to his large "Formel 1" from 2018, in that it is in large "coffee table" format, and has a bit more than 700 pages. As far as I understand, it is, pt., available only in Danish; but I imagine that an English version could appear a bit later.
Best
Mikael Some reviews (in Danish): A photo from the book.
Sorry for late reply Mikael, been busy last week. This looks like another great book and a 'must have' for sure. Great photos!
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Post by mikael on Mar 7, 2021 18:57:30 GMT
No worries, René
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