Project Car still exists, we get it at the bookstore where I work. They tried going to a monthly format for a while but that didn't really work out so they're back to a bi-monthly publishing schedule.

I won't grieve the loss of import tuner or modified. I picked up D-sport for the first time a couple of months back and loved it. I have a grievance though with d-sport. None of those little subscription cards and the book is hard to find. If I am lucky I can beat the other guys to the local Wal-mart to snatch it up. I would happily subscribe to d-sport and grass roots to if I knew where to locate them.

I miss SCC greatly, while yes it was focused to the masses (read HONDA), every now and then it would would have the occasional flash of brilliance, I have the copy where they profiled the BALLISTIC SHITBOX, loved that, or the issue where they profile the dodge Daytona turbo. SCC was focused on the tech. I am 32 years old, I have the hot Asian girlfriend, I buy magazines because I want tech stories, I want to hear about the project RX-7, I want to read Coleman's writing, (for a mechanic he excels at satire and humor) I am typing this here and now and not surfing porn because I am into cars. That's what car magazines should be about. Not raves, Not bimbo's in bikini's. I picked up the most recent issue of import tuner because it came with a calender. I wasted 7 bucks, imagine my surprise when I discovered that it wasn't a calendar with an all carbon fiber creation RX-7 but women in lingerie.

Um, SCC was not at all Honda biased, in fact it had relativly few Honda type articles and project cars. Coleman is not a mechnic, but an Engineer. He was even back in the SCC days.

I believe you mike, your 300zx is proof as was project RX-7, but SCC also had project tsx, an rsx, and couple of project civics. A tsx, really? Why not a galant? Why not a taurus sho? Because a taurus sho, or a galant are not sporting cars. A tsx is not a sports car, a silvia, wrx, evo, those are sports cars. I just felt like many of your readers desired more than what was offered.

I would have liked then to have seen a V-6 Camaro or mustang because around here they are a dime a dozen, rear wheel drive, and have plenty of aftermarket support for their chassis. For the life of me, I still can't figure out why people aren't tuning on these cars, the potential is there (at least as much as a d powered civic), and the price of admission is cheap. I have heard many editors of import rags explain that its because there was no interest in these cars. Well I say as publishers, you have an incredible influence on what interests people. Try telling me that Coleman didn't drive up interest and desirability of the 240sx.

Uh... The TSX is a very fast and capable track car. Despite the 4 door body, chassis-wise it's easier to work with than an RSX and is the faster car if you are allowed to remove weight from them. Come to think of it, I can't think of too many race series out there where the TSX isn't an overdog in its class.Once they get a few more years on them (and the prices come down) I expect to start seeing more of them show up in HC as well.

As for V6 Mustangs and Camaros, we do have a fair few of them in our region running in Improved Touring type prep. They're pretty reasonably fast too (usually pretty close to the Miatas and CRX's in ITA). Though I have to admit, they are pretty boring to look at.

 

 

SCC wasn't as much focused towards the masses, as it was focused on vehicles with some aftermarket support and potential. I 'm also 32 and have a SCC collection dating back to 1997 when I was a novice who paid other people to do basic modifications to my car. SCC was mainly used as a reference for me to make informed purchases based on qualitative data.  Articles such as “call your friend a liar” (if I remember correctly) and Suck Squish Bang, Blow were instrumental in my progression to the capable mechanic I am today. I think SCC and other tech related mags of its kind have been replaced by internet forums/sites that also contain much of the same information.  

So many things have changed since then; imports were the underdogs and people enjoyed being domestics at their own game with less cylinders.  Remember when NOPI was actually the number one source for performance related parts or the insane claims that GUDE claimed on their head packages.  These were times when consumers actually spent good money to modify their vehicles and when America were excluded from many of the cars we enjoy today (WRX, EVO , GTR, ETC).
Frankly most of these current offerings today far exceed the driving ability of their owners. Why buy expensive modifications that rarely meet the increasing strict emission standards when you can buy 9/10s of what you want directly from the factory.
Furthermore vehicles are becoming increasing difficult to work on, requiring complicated devices to tinker with most of the electronics devices that govern them. 



 I don’t think Coleman had any real contribution to the popularity of the 240sx; if so I think that the XS 240sx turbo project would have sparked interest much sooner. I think this credit should mostly go to the military personnel who had the pleasure of serving overseas in Japan for a few tours.
 

I would have to credit hot rod and scc both with encouraging my interest and providing me information and motivating me to become a wrench. I have no bias versus import and domestic, I just want my car to the most fun it can be. My first car was a Merkur Xr4Ti, which I loved. Then I had a 93 Plymouth Colt, that car was hysterical. The unfortunate fact is neither of these cars lasted, and were ultimately replaced with a 3/4 ton Chevy pick up and then chevettes. They were all a lot of fun to drive. Each had there own strengths and flaws. The Merkur was the fastest, the colt made a damn fine off road/ rally vehicle and the chevettes, well their clutches were all but unbreakable and you could hammer the snot out of the car, I credit my first chevette with teaching me the finer points of steering by throttle on ice snowy roads. If you broke it , you got a new one for 50 bucks.

The point is, cars are my passion. I am not dumb enough to be brand or nationality specific having owned a European, a Japanese, and American. Cars should be fun, and I want to read more about cars I have yet to experience. I want more options. I prefer rear wheel drive cars because that is what I grew up with for the most part and I believe that is the truest form of sports car.

Addressing the awesome cars we have today, its true that most of those cars are capable of more performance than most drivers can use. From what I know of the Evo, its a very forgiving car and is fairly easy to drive. That said however, I am a father of an 11 year old boy and the fiance has two boys about the same age. Those boys are going to college, I will make certain of that. They need a roof over there heads and clothes on there back, so I really can't foresee spending 30k on a sporting car. What I believe is far more likely is a moderately tuned silvia conversion, perhaps a miata or a 6 cylinder camaro which can see use as a track car and be parked during the week or tuned daily driver which I can charge on-ramps with and cruise with the wife on a friday night.

Growing up rural I have never had much opportunity to try road course racing, and most all of my race experience comes from 1/4 and 3/8 mile dirt track racing and holding our own personal back road/dirt road rally's . Wrenching on everything from 4 cylinders to small block modifieds has been a great educational experience for me. I can't wait to move to Austin, there are a couple of road courses in the area and that is where the new Formula 1 track is to be built. If the scca or another club racing body sanctions a racing event there, I will be there.

Posted By alen on 10-31-2010 02:30 PM
I would have to credit hot rod and scc both with encouraging my interest and providing me information and motivating me to become a wrench. I have no bias versus import and domestic, I just want my car to the most fun it can be. My first car was a Merkur Xr4Ti, which I loved. Then I had a 93 Plymouth Colt, that car was hysterical. The unfortunate fact is neither of these cars lasted, and were ultimately replaced with a 3/4 ton Chevy pick up and then chevettes. They were all a lot of fun to drive. Each had there own strengths and flaws. The Merkur was the fastest, the colt made a damn fine off road/ rally vehicle and the chevettes, well their clutches were all but unbreakable and you could hammer the snot out of the car, I credit my first chevette with teaching me the finer points of steering by throttle on ice snowy roads. If you broke it , you got a new one for 50 bucks.

The point is, cars are my passion. I am not dumb enough to be brand or nationality specific having owned a European, a Japanese, and American. Cars should be fun, and I want to read more about cars I have yet to experience. I want more options. I prefer rear wheel drive cars because that is what I grew up with for the most part and I believe that is the truest form of sports car.

Addressing the awesome cars we have today, its true that most of those cars are capable of more performance than most drivers can use. From what I know of the Evo, its a very forgiving car and is fairly easy to drive. That said however, I am a father of an 11 year old boy and the fiance has two boys about the same age. Those boys are going to college, I will make certain of that. They need a roof over there heads and clothes on there back, so I really can't foresee spending 30k on a sporting car. What I believe is far more likely is a moderately tuned silvia conversion, perhaps a miata or a 6 cylinder camaro which can see use as a track car and be parked during the week or tuned daily driver which I can charge on-ramps with and cruise with the wife on a friday night.

Growing up rural I have never had much opportunity to try road course racing, and most all of my race experience comes from 1/4 and 3/8 mile dirt track racing and holding our own personal back road/dirt road rally's . Wrenching on everything from 4 cylinders to small block modifieds has been a great educational experience for me. I can't wait to move to Austin, there are a couple of road courses in the area and that is where the new Formula 1 track is to be built. If the scca or another club racing body sanctions a racing event there, I will be there.

 

Cars are also my passsion. I cut my teeth with VWs moving on to Chevys, Nissan, Honda, Mazada but I drive mostly european vehicles (BMWs and Volvos). Looking back at project Silvia, I can remember comparing dyno charts to the new (at the time) 350z thinking how I could get the most bang for the buck! Over time with the help from some true friends and locals from Jim Wolf and Mossy Nissan I was about to build a vehicle that performed much like project Silvia. I thought that I had create the very best performing vehicles (wirth the 13k I had invested in it) I could show my tailights to EVOs with no problem on Palomar Mtn Rd. Overall the car was much too difficult to maintain, overheating problems followed by SMOG worries and very real chance of the car being stolen was over bearing. It only took a near fatal accident to end my affair with Nissan moving me to BMW.

 

Currently I own two 318ti(s) both with S52 M3 engines in them. Being a military member for over 13 years I'm certainly able to buy/build cars in the 30k range, but none would even compare to the cars I have now. These cars are fast 12.7 1/4 mile (with no internal engine mods), reliable and will pass any and all emission testing (obdI). Since these two cars are mostly complete I have decided start a small collection of various cars from my past instead of dropping a wad on something costing more money (think Porsche GT3) . So here is my plan. Make a list of the top 5 cars from various platforms and spend no more than 10K on each.

1. B-13 SE-R (non turbo) VVL only

2. Miata with a F20

3. MK1 Gti 1.8T

4. Datsun 510 Wagon RB20DET

5. EK Civic K20

As time goes on I hope to add more and more cars and hopfully build at least one example of every car I have owned.

 

Being a parent myself I can understand that our kids are our top priority, but we don't need to give up our passion completely (do we).

Now back to the topic of this thread. Why are all of these mags dying? Low sales right? Why aren't people buying them?  Lack of any substantial content. I still refer to my SCC mags from time to time,why because they contained infomation that I could use. The only mag that I subscribe to today is Grassroots. Great tech, with featured cars that I would want to own and I can afford.

 

Give me a mag that brings things back to the basics.

Show me how to properly equip my garage with tools and introduce project cars that I can afford to build with my kids and still be able to send them to college. 

Give me insight on the technology and improvements on current perfomance vehicles like  direct injection and variable valve timing etc. Test every car you feature with dyno charts, skidpad testing etc.

Every month choose a car from the past and compare it to the current generations. Both cars should have the same relative price. pick a car that is now i.e. the new Mustang Gt and compare it to another car from the past that has the same amount of money invested (34k shootout). Even better build project cars that are less expensive versions of current models. (Remember Project MR2 that went agaist the Lotus, classic!) CRX vs CRX    5.0 battle old vs new.

Have a debunk series where you test products for real world improvements: top tier gas, various motor oil, watere wetter, etc.

Have a fab section that caters to those who would rather build their own parts/tools: engine jigs, exhaust systems, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

And how about an 8 great rides buyers guide. Revisit the old winners and compose a new one.

Future Cult section: This is where my 332ti would fit in, along with some others.

a few additions, I loved SCC's used car buyers guides and the how to hybrid series. I want a magazine who targets all aspects of used performance cars. Whether that be a mustang or a civic Si. Include older cars but the catch for the older cars is this, it has to be a new idea. A tubbed fox body with a big block is not a new idea. Its been done before. A tuned diesel jetta though, that's interesting. Have a section each month for cars that run alternative fuels. From what I understand, E85 has a higher octane value, show me how I can tune for it. Have a bi annual contest where 2 editors are given 2000 dollars each and a staff to buy a wreck and race it. The rules are simple, you may not spend more than 1000 on the actual car purchase and can spend no more than 100 dollars in beer. Better rule, you have to spend 100 dollars on beer and you have a weekend to complete your car. Kojima versus Coleman, Omni versus Festiva, ...and once the competition is done, auction the cars and donate the cash to charity.

Posted By alen on 10-31-2010 10:19 AM
I believe you mike, your 300zx is proof as was project RX-7, but SCC also had project tsx, an rsx, and couple of project civics. A tsx, really? Why not a galant? Why not a taurus sho? Because a taurus sho, or a galant are not sporting cars. A tsx is not a sports car, a silvia, wrx, evo, those are sports cars. I just felt like many of your readers desired more than what was offered.

I would have liked then to have seen a V-6 Camaro or mustang because around here they are a dime a dozen, rear wheel drive, and have plenty of aftermarket support for their chassis. For the life of me, I still can't figure out why people aren't tuning on these cars, the potential is there (at least as much as a d powered civic), and the price of admission is cheap. I have heard many editors of import rags explain that its because there was no interest in these cars. Well I say as publishers, you have an incredible influence on what interests people. Try telling me that Coleman didn't drive up interest and desirability of the 240sx.

 

We only had one project Civic, a TSX, RSX and a shit load of other things.   Good posts by the way!

Posted By alen on 10-30-2010 08:26 PM
I won't grieve the loss of import tuner or modified. I picked up D-sport for the first time a couple of months back and loved it. I have a grievance though with d-sport. None of those little subscription cards and the book is hard to find. If I am lucky I can beat the other guys to the local Wal-mart to snatch it up. I would happily subscribe to d-sport and grass roots to if I knew where to locate them.

I miss SCC greatly, while yes it was focused to the masses (read HONDA), every now and then it would would have the occasional flash of brilliance, I have the copy where they profiled the BALLISTIC SHITBOX, loved that, or the issue where they profile the dodge Daytona turbo. SCC was focused on the tech. I am 32 years old, I have the hot Asian girlfriend, I buy magazines because I want tech stories, I want to hear about the project RX-7, I want to read Coleman's writing, (for a mechanic he excels at satire and humor) I am typing this here and now and not surfing porn because I am into cars. That's what car magazines should be about. Not raves, Not bimbo's in bikini's. I picked up the most recent issue of import tuner because it came with a calender. I wasted 7 bucks, imagine my surprise when I discovered that it wasn't a calendar with an all carbon fiber creation RX-7 but women in lingerie.

just go to thier websites, dragsport.com and grassrootsmotorsports.com

 

I'm sure I've said this before, and it doesn't completely match the detailed insider analysis of Mr. Ferrara linked above, but from my consumer standpoint I do believe the reason you see many of these magazines dying is because the market got flooded by the fad crowd. Plain and simple. The fad crowd left just as fast as they came, and during their stay the major publisher(s) had hedged their bets on products appealing to them (and weakening, changing, or cancelling the others in the process).

The true base was always there and still is - the proof is the rise in readership of mags like GRM and DSport during this time (don't forget MotoIQ! though not print-based); if the whole industry was really dying we might have seen them maintain levels at best if not wan off as well.

p.s. hey I'm also 32 with kids.

Truly I do not think Source Interlink Media has been good to the cause. I remember the glory days of SCC at 275 pages, and Modified (pre SIM) right up there also with it's glossy pages...Now we get weak pamphlets 95 pages printed on newsprint wasting space on the newest video game coming out instead of real content.
I was blown away by SIM's fishing attempt with " They are going to outlaw mods." Every SIM mag has on the cover The government is going to outlaw modifications...Really? The aftermarket industry is a multi billion dollar industry, are they really going to just pack up and go home because "The Government" wants to not allow automotive modifications. And what would replace the billions in tax revenue, and the millions of jobs? I do know we are constantly trying to be regulated and I guess for a lack of a better word suppressed, but to outlaw modifications...that dog won't hunt.

How much does it cost to print a monthly magazine anyway?

I must be one of the few people to want my car magazines to have nothing but cars.

I'm not all excited to see pretty asian girls dressed up like 12-year-old school girls...If I want to see girls like that, I'll go buy a porn & see all of them!

I liked Sport Compact Car because of their content & subscribe to Grassroots Motorsports because they have the content I want to read. GRM is a spring rate mag, versus an appearance drop mag.

DSport's DVD's are pretty cool & I enjoy most of the content.