Say goodbye to Road and Track

[Frank Leonetti]

I am a very long term reader and subscriber and used to keep all my issues but haven't done so for awhile. I miss Peter Egan. There is now so much that is like other magazines and so many articles about cars I could never afford. But still too bad if they cease-they've had a good run. I occassionly dig into my very old issues. I really liked the car ads in the back.
One car for sale, probably late 1960's, was a Ferrari GTO for $15,000. I'll have to find that ad again. Of course it makes you sick now to see how cheap the used-up race cars or any Porsche sold for in those days.

[Randy Cook]

Still read C&D, though not sure why. The 'advert-articles' are out of hand. If I wasn't careful, I would have thought the C&D staff simply LOVED the GM Malibu... This behavior has gone on for a while. Back in the 90s, we were making boards that allowed you to capture video, digitize it, and edit it on a Macintosh. Yes, it took a $4K boardset (plus very expensive disks and Adobe software) to do what you can do on your smartphone now. In any case, we were part of a shootout of similar products at a very high end videography magazine in their New York city offices. Our product worked flawlessly, impressing the tech reviewers. Of the other two competitors, one couldn't even get useable video out of their boards, and the other continually crashed the computers. At a lunch meeting, the Editor and the Advertising manager pitched us on the benefits of advertising in the magazine. Well, we didn't have any budget to do that. The other two competitors decided advertising was better than fixing bugs, and signed up for an ad.

In the product comparison article, we lost the shootout. That was my introduction to magazine industry.

[Adam Wright]

Back in my magazine days we called it "Advertorial" and it was forbidden at our magazine, except for an occasional fluff piece on a shoe company, but never about music, which was the focus of the book. Would have made my job selling ads a lot easier, but I had to do it on charm and determination.

[Vic Skirmants]

" I had to do it on charm and determination"
I can see why that effort failed.

[Adam Wright]

Vic-
Next time I see you I will tell you the story of how I won the heart of my wife, it is an epic story of charm and determination!

[Tom Roos]

That article Adam posted is dated May of 2013. II remember reading it at the time. How many of those predictions have come true? I keep waiting for Volvo to disappear.
(I let my R&T subscription lapse when Peter Egan retired)
Tom

[Dennis ODonnell]

It pretty much has but the name survives. Volvo Cars is owned by the Chinese Geeley corporation which bought it from Ford. Most of its models are built on Ford platforms, some are still assembled in Sweden. Like R&T the quality has plumetted.

[Haig Haleblian]

Vic, Adam's story on how he charmed his way to his lovely wife Jessica is, well, classic Adam.

[Matthew Devereux]

My love of European cars was partly fueled by reading my Dad's R&T mags in the early '70's before I was a teenager. High School friends got me into muscle cars. Muscle car prices rose enough that I was able to sell my 'Cuda and have enough to buy my first Porsche. I have read the magazine maybe twice in the last 20 years. The new stuff doesn't interest me too much.

[Sebastian Gaeta]

It was the advertorials that got me. Fooled once, I said if they keep doing it I'm done.

They kept doing it and It got to the point I could not tell the difference between a real article and an ad. I haven't subscribed to any mag in years and haven't bought one off the shelf in a few.

The Registry, Pano and Google is all I need now. Too bad, those were great days.

Matthew, great story about selling the Cuda to get your first P car. Any pics of it you can post?

[Vic Skirmants]

"Any pics of it you can post?"
They would have to be in Off Topic

[Sebastian Gaeta]

I am fine with that. Matthew could start a thread in the Off Topic forum called "The car(s) I sold to buy my first Porsche" !

[Matthew Devereux]

I don't want to go off topic in the off topic forum and endure the wrath of Vic. I might need transmission parts one day or some advice on my latest engine issue

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37855

[Adam Wright]

It was the advertorials that got me. Fooled once, I said if they keep doing it I'm done.

S-
I remember when I picked out my first one in the 90s. Automobile Magazine trashed the new Jag, the one that was built on the Ford Contour platform, they said you could tell who had been driving it because they were limping around the office, they cramed a 5 speed into a car it didn't belong, and when you pushed the clutch your knee slammed the dash.
The next month there was a two page ad spread on same said car, and about 10 pages later a glowing write-up.

[Larry Coreth]

Do I understand correctly that R & T and C/D are going digital via a subscriber on-line service, thus out of print ? I've been googling this subject and have read references to this change over but nothing discrete or about a change over date.

No doubt neither magazine is the technical source it once was, shame. Being a plain-Jane engineer I have no direct magazine insight other than as a reader but it would seem to me that if you keep losing readership, it must be due to the content or lack thereof, so by adding advertising pages would only worsen the situation, i.e. spiraling the drain hole !
Or is it the latest generation of sports car gearheads are getting their latest info all from the internet ?