Hagerty Magazine Nov./Dec.

Link?

Don't know, I've got the actual physical magazine, writer-guy . I looked on the website, and couldn't find it.

Sorry.

@edsnova posted:

Link?

I think this one is the one he was referring to, Ed.

Two comments regarding the article and Haggerty's editorial staff:

1) The article was super interesting. Jaguar has it going on in the "continuation" game. It seems as if Porsche would want in on the action, but they seem to be doing just fine without.

2) Secondly (and tangetally), Haggarty has just about cornered the market with good automotive writing-- first with Jack Baruth (Avoidable Contact), then with Sam Smith (Smithology). Baruth and Smith formerly wrote for R&T, which is a bit like saying Michelangelo painted for the Medicis. Baruth in particular is an animal behind a keyboard, and somebody who's shoes I'm not worthy to untie. Both are easily the equal of anybody who wrote for C&D in the '70s and '80s (which is saying something), and far better than my former contemporary favorite Peter Egan.

But back to the '70s and '80s C&D: those writers used to sparkle with excellence-- Jack Kerouac-esque characters who were truly "Intelligent, Independent, and Irreverent" (especially in the Ziff Davis days before Hearst Publications purchased and subsequently neutered them all in 2011). I was a bit too young for David E. Davis in his prime, but reading his older stuff and comparing it to the pap C&D or R&T puts out there now is like comparing the "The Brothers Karimozov" to the "Twilight" books.

Sharon Silke Carty (C&D's new editor)?!? Please. She might have been Jean Shepherd's admin assistant (when they were called "secretaries") back in the day, but probably not. She's got zero background in cars-- none. Annie White (on staff at C&D) also adds many scintillating comments regarding cupholders and whatnot.

R&T currently has Zach Bowman and Kyle Kinard-- for reference, read the June 2020 article, "Escaping New York" (in a Kia) by Kinard. They are nearly unreadable-- like 7th-graders writing for the middle-school newspaper. The sad part is that they are the best thing in print right now.

Everybody thinks Jeremy Clarkson is all that-- but he's just an over-caffeinated and cynical Brock Yates wannabe, 50 years too late. He can't drive, he can't write, and he's not really funny. He does a nice job wrecking stuff, though.

I think an Edward Erikson syndicated car column is something the world needs right now.

At this point, Hagerty is your only huckleberry, which is odd in it's own way. I'll never get used to toggling over to an insurance site to read good autojournalisim.

Read 'em before they go even further under cover.

Good article, Stan, but not the one I referenced. I don't think it's online yet. The article is by Sam Smith though, entitled "Homage to the Tribute Car".

And I always liked Brock, and especially Peter Egan.

Totally agree, Jeremy Clarkson is and always has been a real ass. I always preferred "Fifth Gear" rather than "Top". Tiff is my favorite whiny, cranky, witty, old-guy who can DRIVE.

I gotta agree with El Presidente.  The Hagerty magazine is the best one I get now, by a long way.  Ed, you should see if they're hiring.

EDIT: By the way, I believe that you can join the Hagerty Car Club and get the magazine and other benefits whether or not you insure a car through them.

@Stan Galat posted:

Everybody thinks Jeremy Clarkson is all that-- but he's just an over-caffeinated and cynical Brock Yates wannabe, 50 years too late. He can't drive, he can't write, and he's not really funny. He does a nice job wrecking stuff, though.

I think an Edward Erikson syndicated car column is something the world needs right now.

At this point, Hagerty is your only huckleberry, which is odd in it's own way. I'll never get used to toggling over to an insurance site to read good autojournalisim.

I totally agree, Stan. Hagerty is the only thing I regularly read now. It struck me that your 100% accurate comment that Ed should be a syndicated car columnist could also apply to you and @Sacto Mitch. What a powerhouse team that would be!

@Lane Anderson posted:

I gotta agree with El Presidente.  The Hagerty magazine is the best one I get now, by a long way.  Ed, you should see if they're hiring.

EDIT: By the way, I believe that you can join the Hagerty Car Club and get the magazine and other benefits whether or not you insure a car through them.

Thanks. I had no idea there was a print version of what they offer online, nor could I decipher from the site how to get one.

Back the writing. I'm serious-- Jack Baruth and Sam Smith are the Brock Yates and P. J. O'Rourke for the 21st century. Sparkling writing that just happens to be about cars.

Spot on Stan.

Back in the day I had a copy of C&D on me at all times.  I still remember an article by Jean Shepherd where he wrongly attributed a Jonathan Swift quote to Charles Lamb resulting in the best one line to the editor I'd ever seen.  It read, "I understand the Shepherd's fondness for the Lamb, but it would have been swifter if he'd checked his sources."  This also convinced my 7th English teacher, Mrs. Small, that I wasn't reading tripe just because it had car pictures.

I also concur on Clarkson. To use his home vernacular, what a twat.

Clarkson is a twat, but Top Gear beats Fifth Gear every time.

Back in the day, Top Gear was a lot of fun to watch, even with Clarkson being a twat.  He makes a good baffoon.    Always Liked their humor, and of course... their crazy stunts

.

@Michael Pickett

Mike, thanks for the nod, but Ed's a trained professional and I'm a trained seal.

Although, come to think of it, I DO have Clarkson's lack of understanding of mechanical things, James May's ability to drive any car too slowly, and Hammond's boyish good looks. Maybe that's enough to pass for an automotive 'journalist' today.

The last time I read any car magazines regularly was when Yates was in his prime. He accurately predicted what lay ahead for the US auto industry, and clearly described just why and how the end would come - at a time when imports had just ten per cent of the US market. And, at a time when Business Week and the New York Times were completely missing the story.

I'm a little older than Stan. I remember reading David E. Davis. It was his famous review of the BMW 2002 that changed my mind about getting an MG for my first car, and about cars in general.

Today, googling about a particular new model of car inevitably leads to an online CD 'review', but, for me at least, they all read like Consumers' Reports - only with less humor.

For some reason, I've become addicted to watching Doug Demuro's YouTube reviews of all the new SUV's and faceless hybrids - not because I admire his work, but because I can't quite fathom how anyone could be so fascinated by the latest changes in touchscreen displays, heater controls, and cupholder technology.

How could cars have devolved into this? How could reporting about them?

If I think about all of this very much, I eventually realize how I came into owning and caring for and putting up with this stupid, plastic car that's now in my garage.

When reality starts to intrude into my bubble a bit too much, I can pump the gas pedal a few times, fire it up, and head for the foothills.

.

@Sacto Mitch posted:

Ed's a trained professional and I'm a trained seal.

Mitch fancies himself a trailed seal, but I can confirm that I'm an untrained ape.

Again, to recap for the kids in back:

Me:

Ed:

Mitch:

We're the @Michael Pickett Dream Team. He needs loftier reveries.

@Stan Galat posted:

Mitch fancies himself a trailed seal, but I can confirm that I'm an untrained ape.

Again, to recap for the kids in back:

Me:

Ed:

Mitch:

We're the @Michael Pickett Dream Team. He needs loftier reveries.

I admit, I did pick you BECAUSE of your pictures. Still my dream team!

@DannyP posted:

Good article, Stan, but not the one I referenced. I don't think it's online yet. The article is by Sam Smith though, entitled "Homage to the Tribute Car".

And I always liked Brock, and especially Peter Egan.

Totally agree, Jeremy Clarkson is and always has been a real ass. I always preferred "Fifth Gear" rather than "Top". Tiff is my favorite whiny, cranky, witty, old-guy who can DRIVE.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'd watched the series for a couple of years before I realized what a racer Tiff was. I was watching old racing films on YouTube and Tiff was listed as a driver. LeMans, I think.  

FWIW, there's a Goodwood Revival video out there of Tiff doing a 360° in someone else's million dollar car, then carrying on as if nothing had happened. A Lemans DB3 or Lightweight XKE or something.

I have been a Road & Track subscriber for more than 50 years but lately have given some thought to letting my subscription lapse.

I have been a Car & Driver subscriber for less time but feel some affinity to it because it is located here in Ann Arbor. Also, David E. Davis had an office in a building where I attended a monthly gathering until the pandemic hit.

I also subscribed to Autoweek for more than 50 years since it was Competition Press.

I also subscribed to Automobile before it died.

I get way too many magazines each month.

@Michael McKelvey posted:

I also subscribed to Automobile before it died.

Wait-- "Automobile" died!?!

I guess I picked a good time to let my subscription lapse.

Me too, Mike.  At this point the only new car magazine I get is Car and Driver but I don’t think much of it with the latest changes.  The only other choices that I’m aware of are Road & Track or Motor Trend, so pickings are kinda slim in that genre.

EDIT: Yes Stan.  It too had fallen in quality, but it was still better than the others.  I had them as well and was going to drop CD until Automobile bit the big one.  

I used to occasionally see some good writing on Jalopnik. I remember there was one guy who went apeshit on Ferrari, calling them out for how they tuned the press cars to the 9s so they were way better than regular cars, even though he knew they'd never give him one to drive again. I am not as much of a student of automotive writing as most of you guys though.

Much thanks to @Stan Galat and the others who think I belong in the ranks of your favorites. As a high school student it was a dream of mine to write for Car Craft, but dig it:

Instead of another piece about how bolting on these headers got us 40 more hp from our 350, I would write about the real stuff that actually happened when you tried to bolt on those headers.

I had it all worked out. My articles would describe how this header does not fit, and how to modify it or make something else that would allow it to work. I'd write how this Weiand manifold and that Holley carb did not actually improve your power and follow-up with things that did.

I was halfway through college when I learned how bad an idea this was, given the relationship the parts makers have with such magazines. 

I wonder if part of the reason Hagerty's mag is good is because it doesn't rely on car companies as sponsors.

Ed, I love what you write. Don't ever stop.

@DannyP posted:

Ed, I love what you write. Don't ever stop.

^ That. All day long, that.

Ed wrote: "I was halfway through college when I learned how bad an idea this was, given the relationship the parts makers have with such magazines.

I wonder if part of the reason Hagerty's mag is good is because it doesn't rely on car companies as sponsors."

This is what really turned me off to most of the so-called "enthusiasts" magazines.  It started with C&D and Road and Track having a penchant for certain imports and how Motor Trend seemed to be owned by General Motors for a long while there.  Then I noticed how some advertisers in Kit Car or Hot VWs never seemed to get a review even slightly disparaging of their product.   Everyone knew that Tom McBurnie and John Steele were kind of on the shady side, but the mags they advertised in loved them.  WUWT?  After a while I just didn't get any car magazines anymore.  I threw out stacks of my old C&D, R&T, Hot Rod and Hot VWs that I found in my Mom's attic when she passed and don't miss any of them.  That's also why the "Hokey-Assed-Message-Board" (HAMB) , which started out as a huge Email list in the 80's, became so popular with the Hot Rod crowd - Lots of truthy facts and no advertising.  If something sucked everyone soon knew.  If something was great, everyone knew that, too, and WHY it was great.

It's interesting to see the reader comments a month or so after an article comes out in Hagerty.  They published a Mustang article which talked about the good stuff (1971 Mach I and the real recent models) and the bad (1974 Mustang II or, really, ANY Mustang II) and some guy who likes his Mustang II even though it can't get out of it's own way and things tend to fall off writes that he's cancelling his subscription or something.  Really?  At least Hagerty keeps offering good, well written articles for the "Restivus".    

The Mustang II. Sad story, and ironic given what its front crossmember and steering rack became to the hot rod hobby.

@edsnova posted:

The Mustang II. Sad story, and ironic given what its front crossmember and steering rack became to the hot rod hobby.

"Mustang II front end" sounds so much better than "Pinto front end".

Yeah.  I was thinking that, too.  Hard to imagine that it was over-designed, though.

@Gordon Nichols posted:

Yeah.  I was thinking that, too.  Hard to imagine that it was over-designed, though.

That's the beauty of it-- decent geometry, very compact, nothing over (or under) built.