Wheel Chock
Well-Known Member
I am a current subscriber to 11 automotive magazines. There, I've admitted it, I'm an addict! My tastes are ecclectic; the list includes: Mopar Action, Popular Hot Rodding, Hot Rod, Car Craft, Street Rodder, Rod & Custom, Muscle Car Review, Muscle Machines, JP, Grass Roots Motorsports and Mopar Muscle, I also buy Hot Rod Deluxe on the news stand. The reason I bring this up now is that my latest issue of Mopar Muscle came with an overlay on the cover announcing that this was my LAST ISSUE!! and warning of the dire consequences if I failed to renew immediately!
Their timing could not have been better, economic realities and constraints on my time require that I analyze all of my on-going expenses and make the best use of what time I have available (no, I'm not dying in the near future, that I know of, but I am 57). With that in mind, I went over my recent issues of Mopar Muscle and unfortunately for them, came to the conclusion that I could in fact live without their magazine. Like many of you, Iam not in the position to pull out the platinum card every time I see a new product that strikes my fancy and instead have to figure out how to achieve my automotive desires at the least possible cost and make up for my lack of cash with with planning and sweat. What I appreciate most in a magazine is in depth hands-on tech, thought provoking feature articles that not only show interesting subjects, but provide insight into the motivations of the owner/builder. Unfortuntely MM's idea of a tech article is a picture of Dave Young grimacing as he removes a 3rd member to be relaced with the contents of the latest UPS box from Randy's. The April issue had a cover blurb shouting, 15 PROVEN POWER COMBOS, the "article" consisted of a lead shot of Dave grimacing followed by 5 pages of pictures of pretty crate engines and Dave listing the many reasons why I should pull out the gold card. As an added bonus they devoted 4 pages to group photos of smiling engine builders in the Amsoil/MM engine challenge. Any decent builder with unlimited resources can build a mega HP dyno bomb. I know, they've done features on several members' cars (congratulations), but for the most part, there feature car articles are dull. I appreciate the efforts of Randy Bolig to bring a little reality to MM, but he's wasting his time, MM emphasizes pretty pictures over content. Bye bye Mopar Muscle, I will miss Steve Dulcich's
Performance Clinic, but since he's free lance, I can read his work elsewhere.
From now on each of my magazines will be subjected to the same analysis of the value that they bring to my life before they are renewed. (Mopar Collector's Guide bit the dust last year)
BTW, don't think that this means my addiction is cured, I just signed up for a year of Classic Motosports.
Their timing could not have been better, economic realities and constraints on my time require that I analyze all of my on-going expenses and make the best use of what time I have available (no, I'm not dying in the near future, that I know of, but I am 57). With that in mind, I went over my recent issues of Mopar Muscle and unfortunately for them, came to the conclusion that I could in fact live without their magazine. Like many of you, Iam not in the position to pull out the platinum card every time I see a new product that strikes my fancy and instead have to figure out how to achieve my automotive desires at the least possible cost and make up for my lack of cash with with planning and sweat. What I appreciate most in a magazine is in depth hands-on tech, thought provoking feature articles that not only show interesting subjects, but provide insight into the motivations of the owner/builder. Unfortuntely MM's idea of a tech article is a picture of Dave Young grimacing as he removes a 3rd member to be relaced with the contents of the latest UPS box from Randy's. The April issue had a cover blurb shouting, 15 PROVEN POWER COMBOS, the "article" consisted of a lead shot of Dave grimacing followed by 5 pages of pictures of pretty crate engines and Dave listing the many reasons why I should pull out the gold card. As an added bonus they devoted 4 pages to group photos of smiling engine builders in the Amsoil/MM engine challenge. Any decent builder with unlimited resources can build a mega HP dyno bomb. I know, they've done features on several members' cars (congratulations), but for the most part, there feature car articles are dull. I appreciate the efforts of Randy Bolig to bring a little reality to MM, but he's wasting his time, MM emphasizes pretty pictures over content. Bye bye Mopar Muscle, I will miss Steve Dulcich's
Performance Clinic, but since he's free lance, I can read his work elsewhere.
From now on each of my magazines will be subjected to the same analysis of the value that they bring to my life before they are renewed. (Mopar Collector's Guide bit the dust last year)
BTW, don't think that this means my addiction is cured, I just signed up for a year of Classic Motosports.
