(Stroking long, white beard) Remember magazines? In the pre-internet era, when ink on paper ruled, magazines were essentially your only entrée to the gated worlds of everything from fancying cats to semi-pro sewing, from building model airplanes to fishing competitively. And of course, the full scope of cardom beyond whatever was rolling around your hometown was available at your favorite newsstand, if not arriving directly in your mailbox once a month.
As I’m sure was also true for many of you, Car and Driver and Road & Track were staples in the Vieira household. Those subscriptions were re-upped faithfully, and Motor Trend was added to the mix whenever a good subscription deal presented itself, or whenever individual issues caught Dad’s eye. As a model builder, I picked up Scale Modeler and Auto Modeler on the regular, and as soon as a 1974 Super Beetle became my daily transpo to school, Hot VW was frequently read over a bowl of cereal before heading to Seekonk High School.
As the internet grew and magazine sales slumped, I held onto good ol’ ink and paper longer than most, probably because I was in the magazine-making business by then as a staffer at RC Car Action – and also because in those pre-smartphone days, lugging a laptop into the bathroom was a real hassle.
Today, The Autopian is in my pocket wherever I go, as well as all those print titles that transitioned from paper to pixels. We get our car news, entertainment, and info as quickly as it can be reported, and there’s way more of it, as there’s no limit to virtual pages. I’m glad I got to experience both worlds, the disconnected one we all knew before 1996 or so, and the modern realm of unlimited information and instant access, for better or worse. But I do miss the thrill of finding a fresh glossy magazine curled in the mailbox.
Your turn: What Were / Are Your Favorite Car Magazines?
Top graphic images: Model Cars; Petersen’s Kit Car; Hot VW; Car and Driver; Road & Track
Autoweek. Back when a troubling short attention span meant that I absolutely couldn’t go more than seven days without reading new stuff about cars.
Long time Road & Track subscriber; even holding on now that it’s artsy.
Subscribed to Autoweek for a few years and devoured Hot Rod, Car and Driver, and Motor Trend whenever I went to the library.
No mention of beautiful, hardbacked Automobile Quarterly that I irrationally paid for for two years while I was a starving college student. Photography and journalism were amazing.
Autopian Print Edition would be my favorite. If the Onion can do print, so can you 😉
Practical Classics and I say that as an American
I have a mid length all white beard these days. From the late seventies until mid eighties I had subscriptions to Car and Driver, Road and Track, and Motor Trend. Over time I dropped Motor Trend, then Road and Track. Added Automobile alongside Car and Driver for a few years, then dropped Car and Driver. After David E. Davis passed away, Automobile turned into an exclusive dining and resort road travel magazine, so dropped it back in favor of Car and Driver. In time I discovered all the on line sites such as Jalopnik, The Drive, AutoExtremist. Dropped Car and Driver at this point as it was now redundant, plus it had their own on line site as well. Jalopnik became so strange that it was fun to read for the sheer stupidity being slung by both the writers and the readers. Thank the gods that those at Jalonik who were still there for things vehicular jumped ship and created The Autopian.
Although not related to things automotive, nor a magazine, I have to add the daily Bloom County comics as one of the greatest contributions to American culture in the 1980’s. Bill the Cat and Opus in 2028!
In some sense Jalopnik was what Car and Driver was back in the 70’s.
In the beginning very much yes, but then it jumped the shark over only ev’s good, all hybrids a waste of time, ICE bad.
Hot Rod, then Car Craft, roadkill magazine was excellent if short lived. Growing up I also subscribed to a lot of military history and aircraft magazines. Got My AARP paperwork at 8 years old!
Hot VW’s and Automobile with Car & Driver taking up the 3rd place spot for me.
Had the opportunity to meet David E. and Rich Ceppos and sat in Jean Lindamood Jennings office that same afternoon as well when I was on a job for GM near Ann Arbor.
Good times. So many things have changed.
David E. was always the perfect gentleman.
Cartoons, Four wheel and Off Road, Hot Rod, Car and Driver, Road and Track occasionally, Automobile (til it went under), and Autoweek.
I have boxes and boxes of Mustang Monthly in my basement, somewhere…
The last Hot Rod magazine I bought (for $8 or $9) at an airport took me about 10 minutes to read cover to cover and was very dissapointing!
The Haggerty Drivers Club magazine is fantastic, I look forward to it. Great articles, great writers, I wish they published it monthly!
Cartoons magazine
It ran from 1959 to 1991
Basically an automotive satire like Mad magazine.
I remember reading through a bunch of those a few years back, I don’t know if it was new or if they were re-publishing older issues, but it was good stuff.
I can’t remember the publication but as a kid my dad would get superbike magazines that always had a “Fred Gassit” comic in the back that were way too inappropriate and bike related for 6 year old me to get, but I loved them!
Automobile. Dick Berggren’s Stock Car Racing (best technical magazine ever). Collectible Automobile Magazine.Those would be my top 3 of the 18+ magazines I used to buy every month. I’m not sure there are even 18 physical magazines available anymore even if you went to annual publications.
When I was in college (in the before times), I almost always had 5 magazines in my bag; Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Forbes, Game Informer, and SAE. Add on to that the daily campus newspaper, and I was seldom wanting for reading material.
I’m a Brit, so CAR Magazine. Especially in the Russell Bulgin era
I don’t read the Autopian on my phone. But I read it almost every day on my computer. I’m catching up now on my laptop after two days on the road.
At my peak, I subscribed to C/D, R&T, MT and Automobile. So many good columnists. Sure, reading the reviews was fun, but it was the commentary that kept me subscribed for a long time. I also bought editions of GB-based CAR magazine at the local Barnes and Noble store as recently as four years ago. That was almost self-flagellation. Reading about cool stuff we were never going to be offered in the States.
Peter Egan was epic. R&T, Cycle World, and Flying magazines. All three were my interests. And my company had an office near Madison, WI where he wrote about at times. My kid went to law school at UWM. And I always wished I could meet Peter on my visits there. No such luck. There was a weekly meet-up at some restaurant in Madison that he had mentioned in one of his columns and the one time I had time to go there, Peter wasn’t there. 🙁
I read Road & Track for the Peter Egan column. I miss Hot Rod, the shop where I worked had a subscription. Always fun.
The Autopian is the only car publication I’ve ever paid for so I suppose YOU are my favorite.
There, I said it. Happy now?
I’m still subscribed to it: Car and Driver. Will always prefer print media when it’s an option- even if it costs more.
The UK tuner magazine Max Power! Borderline porn mag with some of the most ridiculous end of 90’s tuning cars… I could only muster up the courage to buy 2. Read a few more in the shops where possible… (in Finland not many shops had imported magazines)
Speaking of cheeky British mags- Streetfighter was absolutely awesome. It spawned a whole new genre of custom motorcycles.
Car & Driver, Popular Mechanics, Kit Car, Sport Compact Car were my co to magazines. I al also old enough to be excited seeing a monthly copy of Car & Driver arrive in my mailbox.
Mainstream:
Road & Track. Great coverage of sports cars and cars that mattered.
Autoweek. My weekly addiction.
Specialty:
Grassroot Motorsports, which kind of split, becoming secondary Classic Motorsports. Performance cars and projects for the non-rich out there.
AutoItalia. Yes, it’s a British publication, but does a great job of reporting on both vintage and new Italian metal. I’d go to Barnes and Noble to read one occasionally. They’re prohibitively expensive magazines.
When I was a kid, my neighbor across the street picked up on my interest in cars. So, every month he would bring me his Car and Driver from the previous month. I read every word in every one of them and when I moved away got a subscription of my own. I’ve maintained that and will do so until they stop publishing them. It’s just a part of me at this point.
Thanks Terry, that was a really cool thing to do for a kid whose dad wasn’t around.
Car Craft was my go to. I loved looking at all the builds and how-to articles. They also did dyno stuff and compared lots of parts and variables.
Still have my print subscription to Hemmings Motor News, and enjoy it very much. I’m afraid the days, in that format, at least, may be numbered. They’ve just recently killed off my other two subsciptions “Muscle Machines” and “Classic Car”, both of which were also favorites.
That’s my last one, too. I’ll keep renewing until they stop printing them.
Swedish Magazine Klassiker.