Hot Rod magazine going quarterly

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Just saw this on that other car site. 4 issues a year and $30. So long old friend.

[DanStokes]

Just saw this on that other car site. 4 issues a year and $30. So long old friend.

Man, that's tough. I remember reading HRM in 1960 or so then taking them to HS starting in 1963ish so I could study them inside my geography book ( it was large format) in Study Hall. So I grew up with it. So sad that print media is in trouble but it is so I guess this was inevitable. I don't have to like it.

[silver_bullet]

[Loren]

They went nothing-ly to me a few years ago after nearly a lifetime of interest. Another article with a writer/telling about an owner/telling about how he found/the shop to build his car. Not interesting, didn't help me enjoy my hobby. The last issue I have around had like three of those in a row and nothing at all otherwise to make me care, Hot Rod.com also has pretty-much evaporated. Sorry it has to take another step down the hole but it needed to be in the hands of actual car guys, not somebody just putting free parts in his truck forever and thinking that was creative. Apparently the management couldn't tell the difference, so goes it. Maybe some day they can sell the title to someone who gets it.

Edit: With that, I think I'm still going along w/ a friend to their West Coast Power Tour in December...we'll see how that goes.

[2020 mustang]

Just saw this on that other car site. 4 issues a year and $30. So long old friend.

Depends, if this ends up being like the old special year end thick mag with worth wild stories and tech . Great. If it is 4 mags that are an eighth inch thick , then it die quickly.

[langleylad]

Man, that's tough. I remember reading HRM in 1960 or so then taking them to HS starting in 1963ish so I could study them inside my geography book ( it was large format) in Study Hall. So I grew up with it. So sad that print media is in trouble but it is so I guess this was inevitable. I don't have to like it.

I can relate , I work in the envelope manufacturing industry

[Monster]

I think I'm still going along w/ a friend to their West Coast Power Tour in December...we'll see how that goes.

I'd like to read your trip report on that one.

[studemax]

I subscribed in high school (the 70's) and off and on throughout adulthood. The last time was about 8 years ago, and when I could get through the whole thing in less than an hour I realized it was killing itself. It's basically been dead man walking for a long time.

[BBR]

IMO they need to add coordinated content with their MT channels. That's where the potential readership base lies. Provide more info, behind the scenes info, stuff that didn't make it to the TV/YouTube shows.

Magazines thrived for years because they were the only real source for features and tech info. With the internet, that sort of exclusivity is now gone. They can still include the normal HRM content, but they need to add some exclusive MT stuff to generate the "hook" that sells magazines, and ultimately for them, advertising.

It's right there in front of you, get up and ride that wave HRM!

[DanStokes]

My vision of HRM was that it arrived at your door and I'd read thru it once then it made its way out to the shop where whoever came in looked thru it and after a while it was dog-eared and had greasy fingerprints all over it. Then the new one came and the process repeated (I never collected mine). It hasn't been that mag in a while and they're pushing the quarterly as a "coffee table book". Maybe I'm a dinosaur but I miss those times. I know time marches on......

[Loren]

I remember when Hot Rod would have these one-page articles on owner-built show or drag machines written by an interested guy who cared and knew what he was talking about (ex. Gray Baskerville), tech articles on real drag or other race cars from the range of top-line to backyard-built...you'd just be hit with interesting thing after interesting thing. Much later, it was far different when Freiburger and Elana Schorr had it, but even my wife read the magazine to get their takes which often really drew you in. Canning Marlan Davis was where they "jumped the shark", cutting their core from beneath themselves and showing the world they didn't need guys like me reading anymore. Pretty photos of pro-built cars are nice but take one second to scan over then you turn the page. Articles about guy's car collections (look at me, I can drive a different muscle car every day!) felt, as a longtime Hot Rod reader, like an insult to my intelligence.

I'd like to read your trip report on that one.

30-day weather outlook predicts sunshine anyhow. I expect to be shotgunning either a '70 SS-396 Chevelle or a 6-speed Hellcat Challenger, whatever my buddy chooses at the time. We go back to 1980 w/ the Chevy and drove all over the place back when, but the Chall has been more reliable lately.

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

My vision of HRM was that it arrived at your door and I'd read thru it once then it made its way out to the shop where whoever came in looked thru it and after a while it was dog-eared and had greasy fingerprints all over it. Then the new one came and the process repeated (I never collected mine). It hasn't been that mag in a while and they're pushing the quarterly as a "coffee table book". Maybe I'm a dinosaur but I miss those times. I know time marches on......

Maybe??? Just saying...

[SuperBuickGuy]

It's what happens when you tell people what they want to see rather the giving people what they want to see. Grass Root Motorsports is a good example of that

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

It's what happens when you tell people what they want to see rather the giving people what they want to see. Grass Root Motorsports is a good example of that

Is Grass Roots Motorsports still being published? I haven't seen it at B&N in a while. Like many people, I've gotten gun shy of magazine subscriptions. Too many over the last decade folding and we're up feceskill without an outhouse stalactyte structural destruction implement. (Dan influenced me to rephrase sayings, so blame him...)

[2020 mustang]

I don't know why they just don't do a monthly hot rod magazine t.v. show on motor trend. Like motorweek only covering the hot rod world. Hell make it bi-weekly.