[Magazines] Motor Sport magazine

[ghinzani]

Anyone seen this months Motor Sport? great articles about Jerry Grant in teh Eagle doing 200mph, and the Dodge Charger plus a superb photo story of Innes Ireland accompanying BRM to a GP in 69.

But answer me this question, why as Motor Sport gets better and better does Autospurt continue to slide downhill? Its becoming such a cliche of itself. Or at 31 am I just becoming too old? I thought I would have been Autospurts target audience! They did have an article about the Kojima this week tho...

[Ray Bell]

One of the things that disturbs me about Motor Sport is the number of pages in it for the amount of actual content... there are all those huge photos and so little text with some of them... while the mag weighs half a kilo, it can be read in about two hours!

I gave up on Autosport in 1967.

[allez_jacques]

What are the opinions over here about F1 Magazine? I tend to like it much more than Autosport, although IMHO it has too few historical articles and the road tests and "F1 lifestyle" sections should be skipped. Anyone else?

[ghinzani]

well Autosport is written these days by too many wannabe racers who are bitter at other peoples success. Thats not what I want from my magazines... Never read any of the specialist F1 mags, they always look too much money to read about another rentadriver and his toys in Monaco - especially when they dont know anything about the history of their sport as they usually dont!!

[TimD]

I still buy Autosport for the weekly race results - but it's proving less and less use with every passing season. Motor Sport, on the other hand, is going through quite a pleasant renaissance since the dark days of the late 1980s, when page layout and picture editing were almost the death of the title.

What I really want is something with the information of Motorsport News, but in an archive friendly format. Ever actually tried to file newspapers?

A copy of Autosport from the late 1960s can quite easily have the same amount of text covering a small club race at Snetterton, let's say, as today's Autosport editor thinks he can get away with to describe an entire GP weekend.

[ghinzani]

Unfortunately my Autosport collection is only really complete from 87 onwards, the few issues I have from the 70s and early 80s are far more interesting as you say. How do you store Motoring News?

[Rob29]

Mine's just stacked in a pile in the store room!

[WANHER]

The coverage for a grand prix is I think overall
reduce to a few lines it seems reluctant also
in french revues like sport auto and l'automobile
is this progress ? I remenber the articles from
from 'Jabby' Crombac 10 pages .

[luigi2]

I have not read Autosport for a long time, but during the 70s, when I was a race mechanic, we all read it every week to keep up to date. Is it still as useful in that way?

[Kojima_KE007]

>They did have an article about the Kojima this week tho...

Can somebody kindly tell me which issue of Autosport this was?http://www.btinternet.com/~K_Nvfr400/

[verglas]

IMHO Autosport has become a shadow of its former self, and many of the 'stories' printed within its once hallowed pages are merely promotional items that are usually quite irrelevant and which clever marketing people promote . Is there a market for a true motor racing magazine that covers club and national and international motor sports which Autosport did admirably for many years any more?

[carrera]

Motor Sport is THE motorsport magazine.

[Rob29]

Originally posted by carrera
Motor Sport is THE motorsport magazine.

For history,which this forum is about I would agree.In fact it is the ONLY magazine I know of.The weeklies seem to provide less of what I want to read about.Autosport too much F1.Motorsport news too much rallying.Not suprising the drivers have trouble getting sponsors when no one is publicising their efforts.

[C R Box]

Like my father before me I take Motor Sport most months. The problem with it, is that virtually all of the editorial expounds on what happened in the past. The new idea of road testing great racing cars, is great.But why not some club race or historic rally, in depth reports? These events are relavent to active competitors today and also readers who may someday get involved.
I think it's current position is difficult. Imagine if there were no adverts and no articles about drivers who are no longer with us, there wouldn't be much left.
Motor Sport needs to cover todays events and stories with more coverage and get out of the museum.

[Andrew Kitson]

I agree. It would be great if Motor Sport carried in depth reports of historic race meetings in the way that Autosport used to do club meetings, as pointed out by TimD above. The way they cover the Goodwood revival is how it should be done for all major historic meetings. As the two are both Haymarket magazines, would that be too difficult? Have the basic report (as now) in 'Autosport', but expand on it with more photos in 'Motor Sport'.
Autosport has improved in some ways - eg. full colour throughout, but it has become more of a magazine for the casual F1 fan - I met one the other day who thought Jim Bamber's Autosport cartoons were hilarious ( he can be on occasions) until I showed him the 'Catchpole and the F words' and 'Brockbank's Grand Prix' cartoon books. Now they are hilarious. I suppose we just have to accept we became hooked on motorsport in a different (better?) era.

[ss_collins]

I just love the content of motorsport... the pictures are incredible... and usually theres at least 2 brilliant articles

[D-Type]

I love to see photos of historic racing, but I have no interest in the results. The cars that are raced now are so divorced from those raced in period (e.g. 2 litre ERA's, 1.2 litre Lotus XI's and Lola Mk 1's, 3.8 litre XK120, C and D Type Jaguars, 2 litre BRM's and Lotus 24's, etc.)

I subscribe to Motor Sport as much for old times' sake as anything. It takes less time to read than it used to in the old days, but it is a VAST improvement on what it had sunk to before the relaunch.

I thoroughly enjoyed 'Historic Race and Rally' and 'Historic Racing' (if I remember the titles correctly)and was sorry when they both folded. They gave the right mix of cars, personalities and racing history.

I bought a copy of 'Octane' to read on holiday. It was very readable but I feel it needs a bit more depth before I'll buy it regularly.

Whilst 'Autosport' is a dumbed down shadow of what it was, it's all we've got that covers anything other than Formula 1. Even their Formula 1 seasonal summaries are not what they were. I mean both the special publication that succeeded the Autocar one and the pullout they used to include just before Christmas.

[TimD]

Oddly enough, while I miss Historic Race and Rally, Historic Motor Racing et al, one of the things I so liked about them were the contemporary event reports!

Seem to recall a lot of them were written by some McKinney fellow. Wonder if he's doing anything lately....?

[RAP]

I too miss Historic Race & Rally etc. It had some very informative articles written by experts. I've given up on Motor Sport because of the low written content, as others have said, and because a lot of what there is seems "pot boiler" stuff. Also, an this is obviously purely personal, too much '70s. It really didn't seem value for money.

If you want reports of current historic racing try Historic Motor Racing News www.historicmotorracingnews.com
pricy but quite comprehensive.

I still take Autosport mainly as an archive of results. In my view it was at its best in the late '60s and '70s when it was less F1 focussed and had good coverage of both club racing and the lesser overseas events.

[simon drabble]

I agree with Tim and Andrew, an indepth report of the premier historic races and race meetings in motorsport would make it complete. I differentiate because sometimes (like the British GP) there are historic support races.

[C R Box]

Historic Race and rally was without doubt the best magazine of its type. Maybe it was ahead of it's time although only a brave fellow could orchestrate a relaunch.
I have three prized issues. Does anyone know how many issues were produced?

[Jeremy Jackson]

I've got nos 1-6, and I believe that's all there were. July-Aug 1992 -> Oct-Nov 1993

[carrera]

Is Thoroughbred and Classic Car still going? It is/was another great mag.

[TimD]

Yes it is - but it has now dropped the "Thoroughbred and" bit, and several of their better staffers have gone across to Octane now.

[Andrew Kitson]

I too have the six issues of 'Historic Race and Rally'. I also have six issues of 'Historic Racing' ( Aug/Sep 94 - Feb 95). Does anyone know if there were more than 6 of these published? I was doing a lot of work in Germany at this time and bought it each month at Frankfurt railway station and never saw it here in the UK and do not know how long it ran for.
Great reference material in both magazines from my point of view. Especially the track test in HR&R of Lotus 72/6 with great close up detail shots. Keep an eye on the art forum for the end result!