Say goodbye to Road and Track

[Erik Hoseid]

I picked up the latest issue at Barnes & Nobles and it took less than a minute to thumb through it. Pretty sad. I remember anticipating every issue with dad - went straight to the classifieds to see if there was anything close to us that justified a road trip. I recently found 1958-1962 R&T in binders at a flea market for $20. Great reading!

[Roy Lock]

Maybe I am a bit old fashion. I use to wait at the news stand for the latest issue of Road & Track to be put out. I could never afford to a subscription, so I hung out at the news stand and waited to read it there. It had the right mix of new car info and competition news. Road & Track along with Competition News were my two favorite magazines.
Today, Road & Track is just a clone of Car and Driver or Motor Trend, both those publications are devoted to just new car stuff and what helps manufacturers sell their products. If you take away the covers, you can not tell them apart.
I inherited a collection of Road & Tracks from about 1949 to about 1980ish. I guess I will just have to re read all of those when I need a fix.

[Jack Walter]

That is really sad news - I've always preferred R&T over its main competitors. I was turned on to sports cars in general and Porsches in particular due to issues of Road & Track that were shown to me by some kids who had just moved to Atlanta from California in 1966. I've been a subscriber since 1968.

[Richard Higley]

Sorry to say adios ifn R&T is heading for the pits. I always started reading it from the last page to see their amusing pics. Having worked in Newport Beach for many years, it was amusing to see the interesting cars that the R&T guys would be tooling about in. Their offices were up in the area of town inhabited with scads of independent auto repair and restoration shops.

It was a sad day as well when Briggs Cunningham moved his museum out of town too.

Rick Higley, #727

[Vic Skirmants]

Technical correction: Cunningham didn't move his museum.
He died, and Miles Collier bought it and moved it.
Picky, picky.

[C J Murray]

I am pretty sure that the collection was sold some time before Briggs died. Briggs was sick and at home under nursing care for a long time before he passed. Pretty sure but not absolutely positive.

update after Google search-museum closed 1987, Briggs died 2003, in his 90s

[Richard Higley]

Correctomundo Cliff,

I met Briggs during the Laguna Seca Monterey Historic Races in the early 1980s when the Cunningham cars were the featured marc that year. He was lounging about his pit area where several of his famous specials were on display.

Being a naive young fellow then, and a novice vintage racer, I stopped by his pits and we began a conversation over one of the Cunningham Le Mans cars. He introduced himself after we had chatted for a few minutes and we ended having an iced tea under his awning. I recall we shared our thoughts about how time seems to greatly slow when one is at speed and it seems like one has all the time in the world to late brake,(ifn the car has settled down after lifting over the approach hump), down shift and throw oneself down the corkscrew.

A very gracious and kind man he was.
KTF,
Rick Higley
#727, 1958 Speedster

[John Allen]

My wife started working for the old Peterson Publishing Co. 30 years ago. She has seen the
company sold many times. It is currently owned by Source Interlink. Hot Rod, which was Robert Peterson's first magazine, first published back in the early fifties, is still the signature title of the company.

She has been a production and managing editor in the Outdoor Group (Guns and Ammo, etc.) and the Automotice Group. Car Craft was one of her titles for years. She currently is managing editor
for three titles in the Automotive Group.

She would tell you that it's all about the ad revenue. The editorial is secondary. If the number of advertising pages drops below a certain level, the publisher will "kill" the magazine.

Besr,
John

[Wil Mittelbach]

My wife started working for the old Peterson Publishing Co. 30 years ago. She has seen the
company sold many times. It is currently owned by Source Interlink. Hot Rod, which was Robert Peterson's first magazine, first published back in the early fifties, is still the signature title of the company.
She has been a production and managing editor in the Outdoor Group (Guns and Ammo, etc.) and the Automotice Group. Car Craft was one of her titles for years. She currently is managing editor
for three titles in the Automotive Group.
She would tell you that it's all about the ad revenue. The editorial is secondary. If the number of advertising pages drops below a certain level, the publisher will "kill" the magazine.
Besr,
John

John-
Also much miss the demise of R&T of which I was a subsciber for many years.
A bit of topic trivia: Petersen's first Hot Rod mag was Jan`48, and first Motor Trend mag Sep`49. Still have issues of both from when a teenager and car enthusiast.
- Wil

[Edwin Ek]

The latest issues of R&T have been especially lousy. No road tests; must be too expensive. Last year I renewed for a few years. Shouldn't have done that. The magazine can't last. Oh well, I have been a subscriber since 1976 or so.

[Sebastian Gaeta]

And yet Hearst's staff is growing because of the rise in mobile app development.

From today's Ann Arbor News: http://www.mlive.com/business/ann-arbor ... cart_river

[Brian R Adams]

Who owns the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles now?

Brian

[Larry Brooks]

Hearing that R&T is headed for it's final pit stop saddens me too. But it's a lot like hearing that an old friend from high school has passed. What was once an important part of my life long ago, but haven't thought about in decades.

I grew up in a small town where the only foreign cars were an occasional VW. I remember having to order a set of Metric wrenches and sockets from the local NAPA store because I was tired of using my dad's SAE tools that almost fit. Took awhile for them to get the tools too.

I didn't have much money, but always managed to scrape up enough for a R&T subscription. I tried Car & Driver, but preferred the writers and editorial style of R&T. It was always a happy day when it showed up in mail (often a day or two late because someone at the post office was reading it). Sadly, I haven't read a R&T for a long time, letting my subscription lapse at least 20 years ago. I got tired of advertorials and the articles became less and less pertinent to me.

I can't say I'll miss it, but sorry to hear of its demise.

[Paul Kust]

I was a subscriber for decades and after enduring the format change and the unending truck and minivan road tests said goodbye and never bothered to buy again, Peter Egan was the only thing left that was any good and I related to him as he and I had nearly all of the same cars and experiences with them.
In the past it was 25% ads to 75% content, that was a standard formula, it went down hill when that was thrown out.
Also what didn't help was all of the niche mags like low riders and old skool rods, you can't be all to all any longer.

[Larry Coreth]

Adam,

The source you cited is from May 2013,yet R&T still lives on and I cannot find anything on-line to suggest that it will be dead any time soon ! Despite changing editor and moving to Ann Arbor, MI, serious culture and climate shock to the California boys and girls, no doubt, it still isn't what it used to be, i.e. the bible for Euro centric cars, technical info and racing!

Now the R&T I knew since the early '60's has been gone for years but it seems its final demise is not yet in the wind.

Anybody heard anything more specific ?