have you seen the "NEW" hot rod magazine?

I really enjoyed the article on Carroll Shelby. Its an okay mag if you enjoy all types of cars. If you read the article the whole point to the RR is a promotional piece for the Business, it wasn't made to drive

 

I agree....
I think that Hot Rod has made vast improvements lately. I have been getting it for many years and the issues for the last year have been some of the best.
Dave
PS: The fact that my 56 Corvette is pictured in the latest issue has nothing to do with my opinion.

 

What is it that you guys miss from the Hot Rod magazine of olde? The monthly "Up on Two Wheels", maybe the column on go carts?
Most successful magazines promote their advertisers wares, and attempt to appeal to as large a crowd as possible.
I hadn't got HR for years but 3 or 4 years ago I started getting it because it is so cheap. I always glean some information from each issue. I would like more "how to" articles, but that segment of readership may not be that large.
I don't want to pay book prices for a magazine, and I don't like the mags with the skirted, dyed black hair, dark red lipstick "lifestyle" girls. So what other choices are there?
I accept the fact that they have figured out how to appeal to a large group and I'll take my tidbit where I find it.

~Alden

 

i got 3 year sub for $20. i figgerd during that 3 years i would learn something worth at least $20. i got my $20 worth of info after only 90 days. i admit i have a lot to learn. maybe some of you are smart to the point that you don't need to learn . keep posting on the HAMB. i can learn from you, too. thanks to all for your time and advice...jack

 

I've got subs to both Car Craft & Hot Rod and probably will for a long time to come. If your buying like two issues a year at newstand prices you coulda had a subscription for the year and thrown away the rest. I gotta say as much as I like the build styles from the 50's & 60's and all the stuff we got going on here on the HAMB, I can't imagine ignoring all the other cool stuff going on in the hobby right now just because it doesn't fit some self imposed narrow window of what's cool. Sure, there is stuff in the magazines out there that I dislike but even here with all the neat threads we got on the HAMB I see stuff that makes me question why. You never know where your next insperation is gonna come from so it pays to keep an open mind. Just be happy that we have all the mags out there to choose from. Even if they ain't all great, they still beat readers digest.

 

Don't you hate it when they print magazines on shiny paper? Makes it really tricky to wipe your arse with them.

 

These are what I read

 

I've had a subscription since 1960 and the magazine has always evolved and put was supposedly the hot lick hot car thing of the moment in print. Hell, you can bet that the billet boys are bitching when traditional cars with "heaven forbid" 70 year old skinny steel wheels and Cast aluminum parts get featured and the 60's/70's super car brigade whine when they only get a page or two about some restored big block rig.

Some months I read it cover to cover and some months I look it over once in the can and it goes in the tub to be put in the shed or into the pile to go to the indian health clinic so the young guys will have something to read rather than the women's magazines that are usually the only reading material there outside of the health pamplets.

I'm another one who is a bit of a magazine whore. At one time I bought over 20 magazines a month that covered a wide variety of subjects but I've cut down a lot in the past few years. Now days Rod & Kulture is about the only one I just grab and stick in the basket without opening. Others have to have some content that I actually want to read before I'll buy them.

 

been thinking about adding these to the mailbox. Currently getting Hot Rod, ESPN, Maxim and Mens Health. We are cutting cable at the new house and my reading levels may go up!

 

You show a big misunderstanding of what they are doing. Even the cars we love on here more often than not can use some rejetting and some love to the ignition curve. Why did the factory lock that power away? Not to mention that they're usually correcting to take advantage of an exhaust or a throttle body or some other performance part they bolted on. Your argument just really does't hold water.

 

You took my comment out of context. To me hot-rodding involves turning a wrench. Making metal things work with other metal things to produce horsepower and torque. I completely understand WHY they're remapping fuel systems etc., I don't disagree with the overall theory and practice of remapping a computerized engine after bolting on performance parts, but I wouldn't call it hot-rodding is all I'm saying. Hell, I had MY OT Saab remapped after a few little upgrades, but I wouldn't call it a hot rod, nor would I ever expect to see what I did appear in Hot Rod magazine.

I guess MY first criteria in considering anything a hot rod comes down to one word; carburetor. It's just an opinion I've formed over the past 23 years, and I don't care if anyone agrees or disagrees. I'm not looking to change anyone's mind, and frankly, anyone who wants to call ANYTHING hot-rodding in their opinion is welcome to, and I won't argue with it. That's why it's an opinion.

 

No I didn't, you lack an understanding that THEY ALREADY TURNED THE WRENCH. Just like most of your posts I think you just like to ramble on. Yeah it's off topic here EFI and engine management can be a wonderful thing, it may not be hot rodding like here on the HAMB, but it is indeed hot rodding, no mistaking that.

 

if you don't believe it, go on Drag Week some time with an archaic carb'd GMC blown engine...and watch the guys with efi and turbos go 5 seconds quicker than you

 

Been a reader/subscriber since '56. I've always liked the magazine; what I don't like is the made up drama like buying a pos in another state and driving it back to the coast and the adventure they encountered or swapping an engine in the Summit parking lot in the cold, BORING.

 

Same with dyno tuning using a sniffer. Huge difference even with a carb.

 

If you're gonna put a Desoto hemi on the cover the TRJ at least it could be a FIREFLITE.

 

There's a Roadkill video on Youtube of them driving the two cover cars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rArpyMXT2ew

 

the video of that trip is interesting, I just watched it recently. They stopped in Bisbee, and got a tour of Jay's place...and we even got to see the 39 chevy I built years ago and sold Jay in the 90s.

 

Nothing like changing jets in the carb or the weights/springs to adjust the timing curve, right?

When I read the old issues of Hot Rod, Hop Up, etc. I see people doing the most with what they had available. I don't see evidence of building to a certain style other than they were building to meet a certain goal, be it lakes racing, street customs, etc. I don't see the fear of things that are "different" as I do in some of this thread. Nothing wrong with recreating an era, which is what we do here, but we can't expect HRM to cater to us or to set that era as the only definition of a hot rod. I like that era/style. Don't be blinded by refusing to look at other things, though. Hot rodding wasn't that insulated when it started, and I don't think it helps to do it now.

I think we are stuck forcing all to fit our ideal spot in the wide field of hot rodding. I may not want a Camaro but I still think I learn things from HRM articles, even it is just some neat little detail. I like the troubleshooting articles where they solve someone's problem and give how they did it in detail. HRM's had these in the last few issues.

HRM did say that (1) they were paid to do the RR for the sponsor, and (2) the first thing they did was have the suspension redone so that it was mechanically sound.

I guess I'll go back to reading about rusty feature cars with taped on gauges (see the book of the 1st 12 issues of Hop Up) or the go-carts in old issues of R&C, or. . . They're in the traditional magazines, right?

 

I think this is a video of that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rArpyMXT2ew

 

I remember about 40 years ago, some HRM editor stated that "putting mags on a late model stocker does not make it a hot rod".

I kinda like the new format. It's what Road & Track or Car & Driver could be with interesting articles and cars.

Although I'll miss the 'old' HRM, I realize that magazines have to go after the advertising dollar and the 'traditional' hotrods, streetrods and ratrods are no longer where the advertising money is at.

Like that old HRM editor must now realize, times change.

 

I have a subscription. The latest had a bunch of good reads in it imo. I dont mind hot rod at all. Every mag has its issues

 

Hotrod Magazine ruined my high school cruise spot back in 1975. They did it by announcing they were taking the pics at our local cruise and over 300 cars, never seen before, showed up on a Firday night. None of the 20 or so locals were aware they were coming out. So Hotrod Crap-ozine took a few pics of some car owned by Mr Gasket and left. No pictures of the local cars. Then the 300 cars left, side by side burning a ton of rubber down the street and leaving a ton of trash behind. When the local police showed up, we local hotroders got the blame. Even though we were already cleaning up the mess we were rewarded by being told to never to return again. True story.

 

not impressed........

 

Its good shitter material...clearly they aren't trying to cater to us. I still have the subscription, cause its 10 bucks or so a year and I'm still clinging to the name!

 

The only reason I'm looking at it is pretty much the same. Got a Hot Rod wall clock, with a year's sub. for $10. It seems to me like they are trying to combine a little from Motor Trend, a little from R & C, and a little from Car Craft to make a magazine. It definitely isn't the old Hot Rod magazine I used to read in high school in the 60's.

 

I like it. It's more like the original old HOTROD magazine before it tried to be an "old hotrod magazine" by pretending to be a nostalgia magazine.

 

but those are what he reads...

 

Hot Rod's better than Super Chevy/Car Craft/Popular Hot Rodding by FAR. BUT, an article with a POS rat rod and a Lambourgini together? Who gives 2 shits?