Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Every month I'll take a trip to the Barnes and Noble book store in West San Jose.

They have been cutting down on the number of their locations.

Like the defunct Fry's Electronics stores, they have a large wall of periodicals, which feature quite a few automotive titles. 

There are all the major American titles, along with European based magazines. There are the enthusiast mags for the prestige makes; Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, Jaguar, and Mercedes.  

Muscle Cars still retain their popularity, so there are still several titles like Hemmings still on the shelf. There are still some rod/custom and lifestyle mags around.

I have subscribed to automotive magazines for over fifty years. A couple of years back I finished my multi year run with Jaguar World and Octane. 

Now my only subscription is to Hot Rod magazine. I'm on a kind of on an auto renewal program. I was going to cancel my subscription, but it has become very cheap. It's the only commercial magazine that I  read. However, I do still receive the in house magazines from The AACA and the Riviera Owners Association.

I will peruse the selection, carefully looking through the issues, I hate the careless guys that dog ear a brand new mag, that's why if I do decide to buy one, I always get it from the back of the stack! 

I can't say that I buy one very often. The last one that I bought was a Motor Trend that featured the new Ford electric Lightning P/U. As well as a comparison of the Mustang Eco Boost four and the new Nissan 370Z.

I occasionally like to read about some of the newer models on the market. 

Generally though, I don't buy anything. 

After fifty years of messing with cars and reading enthusiast rags, there isn't much that I haven't read already. I mean, I lived through the original muscle car era. I was barely old enough to drive, and couldn't buy a new car, but I read everything that I could. I was already subscribing to Hot Rod magazine as well as Motor Trend. 

As the 70's progressed, I added custom car mags like Rod and Custom, Street Rodder, Rod Action, and the original Low Rider magazine. I also bought many of the Petersen Publishing specials and Hot Rod Yearbooks. 

Well into the '80's and '90's I subbed to Classic Truck, Custom Rodder, and one of my all time favorites, Car Craft under editor David Frieburger. I think that this era of Car Craft, under his leadership, was the most connected to the needs and desires of the actual "hands on" gear head. It really was a golden era for CC.

Of course I also subscribed to motorcycle magazines. I started with the legitimate titles like Cycle World, Cycle, The Motorcyclist, and touring oriented mags like Road Rider and Rider.

As I developed an interest in modified bikes, I started out with Choppers magazine and Big Bike, as well as  the milder Street Chopper. Then I took a walk on the wild side with a long term subscription to Easyriders. 

That's a lot of reading material over the years. 

So, unless I'm checking out a new mag that is testing a current model, I could say that I've pretty much seen it all. Already. 

Been there, read that.

It's especially funny to look through the muscle car magazines, I read road tests of these cars when they were new! It's the same thing with traditional hot rods. How many ways can you build a '32 or chop a Merc?

I wrote once that automotive magazines were a way to keep a car guy's level of enthusiasm  up. They fed into his desires and his dreams. They helped supply the motivation and provided the gumption, they also made him feel connected to a community of car builders. Sometimes the car hobby can feel kind of lonely.

I suppose that is still true. When I became interested in Rivieras I found the ROA and their club magazine helped to build and sustain that interest. 

The intensity of my personal desires and dreams has cooled off quite a bit over the years, but I'll keep checking out the magazines at Barnes and Nobles every month. Just in case.

Maybe they'll find a new way to tell the same old story.