In this column a few weeks ago I bemoaned the fact that I receive such little direct email feedback from readers. What were we doing well, I wondered - and would readers let me know so that then we could do more of it?
In response there was a flood of email - here's just some of it.
I've just finished reading your editorial and have been inspired to write to you and let you know what I think about your magazine. I was a one-time subscriber to Fast Fours & Rotaries, as I own a RX3 and a Series 2 RX7, and a one-time subscriber to Zoom magazine. When Hot Fours started to take off I was quietly pleased; finally a magazine for car lovers whose idea of a modifying a vehicle is the fitment of ridiculous body kits, huge mufflers and stereos - leaving Fast Fours & Rotaries and Zoom to cover performance modifications, with the standard 'extreme vehicle' article per issue. This didn't last long, and soon the name of FF&R was changed. Dropping the rotary was a poor choice, supposedly to fit in with the current trends. The amount of kitted stereo'd wankmobiles was almost equal to Hot Fours. So I let my wallet do the talking, and started buying only Zoom. Then I noticed that the amount of articles featuring the 'Boys' from Japanese Motorsport in Adelaide was on the rise. Don't get me wrong, I love Jap import vehicles, my wife owns a very tidy 180SX, I just don't want to deal with the way these guys act like dickheads. Now where was I, oh yeah, your editorial was a real eye opener. The articles I have enjoyed most recently have been:
- Eliminating negative boost.
The way it was written was easy to understand and humorous, and applicable to just about any vehicle.
- The second hand muffler comparison.
Brilliant idea, not everyone has the money for expensive Jap and local performance mufflers.
- New car tests.
Fantastic. Unbiased, informative, detailed and useful.
These are just a few of the many articles I have read, and I plan on reading many more. Keep up the good work.
Ahh, I thought - he's one of our great supporters. Then the next line was a bit of a shock:
PS I fully intend to subscribe to Autospeed, I have a few bills to pay first though.
Now the praise is pretty nice, but after telling me of all the magazines that he used to spend seven bucks an issue on, he's not willing to pay for full AutoSpeed access? Strange...
No doubt your last editorial will generate a large number of replies so I'll keep this one short. What I like about AutoSpeed, and what convinced me to subscribe after nearly a year of reading the free articles, was the honesty apparent in your articles. If an attempt to improve the airflow through an Audi didn't work then that was reported - not glossed over. In having the integrity to publish failed experiments/product tests AutoSpeed differentiates itself from most other publications. Simply put - the low bullshit factor is one of your prime assets. This is most apparent in your technical articles such as the series on intake systems and exhaust systems.
The least satisfying articles for myself would have to be the feature car reviews where the author occasionally fawns over a car without discussing the difficulties, expense and technicalities of the cars in question. I realise this is difficult as one is assessing somebody's pride and joy and rough treatment of car owners could reduce their supply substantially. In any case it is only a minor issue.
The point about feature cars has been covered previously in an editorial. Effectively, our feature car stories - as with every other modified car media in the world - will always be largely positive. If we didn't think that they were good cars, we wouldn't be covering them.
If I haven't said it before, a job very well done! It's good that you have a very wide mix of all car types and the car selections you do make are generally not the same as at least 5 different mags sold on the street. Which means people interested in cars - not cylinder-specific cars - can enjoy reading about their interests without reading loads of tripe about some micro cube popular only in Japan. Once again a job very well done, and I've sent this to you rather than the message board cause you have taken the time to email me back in the past much to my enjoyment. Keep up the good work, even if you don't always get told about it!
And another one...
I'm a second year mechanical engineering student at Monash and I reckon your tech articles absolutely rock! As soon as this semester's exams are over I'm going to subscribe so I can get the rest of the articles. Every magazine has "351 stroker with hi-comp pistons, Crow Cam with a zillion degrees of duration blah blah blah running on avgas blah blah blah billet axles, Ford 9 inch diff" or "2JZ-GTE, Greddy T06 turbo, HKS this and that, TRD, Trust, Tein, Apexi, 5Zigen" but it all starts looking the same after a while. Your tech articles/features/essays and other special features separate your's from the rest. I'm sure some others out there are also attracted to this side of your publication. I've spent quite a few nights reading your free articles till the sky starts to get bright again and it's articles like "Finding Negative Boost", "Edward the Elephant" doing exhaust testing, old car reviews and buildups that keeps me reading. I hope this convinces you to keep writing "boring" essays and "low-tech" upgrades.
But then again the praise would have a bit more worthy with the expenditure of AUS$3.30 a month, wouldn't it? The writer likes us, but if every reader were like him, there would literally be no AutoSpeed...
I know you've probably got a fair few of these kinds of emails since you wrote the "From the Editor" in the current issue, but I thought I might put in my two cents worth.
I loved the story on taking good photos, I have actually been reading some photography books and trying to understand all the talk about lenses and shutter speed etc. So seeing what you wrote has made me think about it some more....and made me wish I could afford that Nikon D1 Digital Camera I played with!!! Anyway....I like that kind of story (especially cause it had a picture of my car!!!!!!!!!).
For some reason I don't really like the stories Greg Brindley writes, he always seems to be writing it from a Shop perspective....more like an advertisement....I'm not sure what it is, maybe it's his writing style or something, but I do like the stories on the big horsepower Jap cars...always entertaining!!!
All of the other stories were pretty much what I like about AutoSpeed....variety. Like a saying that is very common among my friends right now....."It's All Good!!"
Note that the feedback - good or bad - on specific writers is always welcomed.
I write as one who found AutoSpeed to be a relevant and reliable resource in tuning my 1989 Nissan Silvia.
Each time I arrive at a question, it seems always to be an AutoSpeed article in which I find the answer or at very least a better direction in which to look. There are (I hope) many of us who quietly go about making our cars quick and able using information provided by AutoSpeed. It is unlikely to be a vociferous group. I am not against a huge catalog of "bolt-kit-engineering" pieces being stacked together on top of a car; I wish I had the opportunity to do so. I am sure it gets pretty good results. The parts always look so beautiful in the photos too. It is a great pity that the last 10-20% of performance is often sacrificed to those very same looks. ;)
Please take this as encouragement. There really are people out here trying to absorb and use the more technically challenging articles. Some of us even look forward to them.
And another...
I thought I'd pipe up with my .02 of a dollar worth. I thought that the detailed articles on car tyres and rims and the big benchflow test on different mufflers (I think you guys did one on intercoolers too) were the best, as they give readers metrics they can use when comparing products; few print mags cover things like this. Also, the style of the articles in general don't seek to sensationalise a given topic or car, but rather go into a bit of depth as to the different paths people have taken when modifying cars. Something which you guys have avoided getting involved in the 'this car is better than that car' debate, which I can only say is a good thing to stay out of - all vehicles get reviewed on their relative merits which is good :)
And yet another:
Just a quick note to comment on your latest editorial. Keep to the path! I'm a great supporter of AutoSpeed, even though I'm not even in Australia (I'm in Canada). I refer people to your publication all the time. AutoSpeed has a great mix of technical and great write-ups on cars all across the spectrum. I appreciate the cars that I've never heard of too. I really like the publication and quite frankly wouldn't change a thing. Well, if you could do some kind of article on the Subaru Vortex and the ER27 that would be great! (Yes, I'm one of those weirdos that loves the Vortex/Alcyone VX/XT-6). :)
Seriously though, a couple of articles on building your own adjustable strut assemblies would be good. "Strut Stuff" touched on it but I'd like to see a couple of detailed cases about making your own struts. If it was based on replacing the air suspension on a Vortex/Alcyone/XT even better! :) Just a thought.
Hmm, can't actually see us doing a build-your-own air suspension replacement for the Vortex - but it's always worth asking!
Spurred on by your editorial this week, instead of posting the usual "great article" etc in the forums, I thought I'd give a more in-depth idea of what gets me going (don't get too excited ;) Before I start, however, I have to say that I am incredibly impressed by the quality (and value) of Autospeed articles in general. It's pretty rare that there is an article I don't enjoy.
I really enjoyed the article on the GT-R this issue, for both the obvious reason that I own an R33 myself (GTS25t), and that I, too, like a car to be a good, overall package, rather than something that excels in only one area. I also enjoy seeing a car with as much detail as this actually used on the road - I personally view a "street" car that doesn't see the street as fairly pointless.
The RX2 is something I like... there's something about oldish cars that new cars just don't have. I don't mean the factory aircon through the cracked door rubbers, or NVH levels resembling that of sitting directly behind a 747 on takeoff (okay, slight exaggeration), more the fact that it takes a bit more effort and dedication to get an older car to a standard befitting of a feature article. Getting the fit and finish to an acceptable level after 20 years or so of mistreatment is not an easy task, nor is taking a car built to the standards of the times to a point where a new car owner would feel at home. My favourite cars by far are those where it is immediately obvious that the owner has spent plenty of time planning and executing their ideas, and making sure they're right - where the quality jumps out and grabs you. Although my own project car (VC Commy) is different in many ways to the RX2, my basic aims are the same, hence it still holds a great deal of relevance to me. Also, I like old cars with new running gear. Apart from what I've already stated, these hold great sleeper value, provided it's not a Mazda of any kind or a Datsun 1200/1600 of course :)
Articles like the oil pump one are very useful. They give a great deal of insight, at least to the depth that the article covers, and in many cases have led me to do my own research into an area that interested me. Often I find out a few things I didn't know on a subject I thought I knew fairly well - when I first started getting into cars, I thought you could just bolt up a turbo to any old motor (didn't even consider manifolding, oil feed lines, intercooler plumbing and fuelling issues etc) and run 50psi. It didn't take long for that little theory to be blown away!
Thank you for the article on ADR'ing - having recently bought an import, and with all the hype around at the moment about the "dud" compliancing that had been going on, it is interesting to see what is actually done.
Finally, I have to commend you on the photography (and the photography article too). I know this is an area you're quite proud of, and justifiably so IMHO. Many of the pictures are used as backgrounds... actually, before I forget, is there any chace of making 1024x768 (or 800x600) high quality bitmap versions of the pictures available for backgrounds? Now I think of it, I believe this question has been asked before, but I can't for the life of me remember how the conversation went.
...And that's as far as I've read so far! Whoa, I've just looked over what I typed... I didn't realise I'd put in so much info... sorry.
Very interesting feedback - why the reader likes each article, rather than just 'I like' or 'I don't like'.
I've just finished reading your 'From the Editor' article and thought I might offer you my thoughts... you've been doing a great job. Having a weekly mag makes it great since if I don't like the articles in one week, I can simply wait for the next week to come round! :) Personally, I enjoy a wide range of articles... basically it would be easier for me to tell you what I don't like than what I do. I'm not really interested in old Commodores and Falcons that have been done up, or in-depth technical articles (although I like to think I would be interested in them, and I do read them, but often the information won't ever come in useful to me).
I've also had great support from the AutoSpeed shop, which is great. My favourite articles are generally the ones I can relate to my current car project which is building an SR20DET clubman... so suspension design, a 200SX, any clubman, turbo improvements, etc etc. BTW, could you run a series of articles for the 200SX (well, at least for the engine!) like you did for the WRX? It would be great to know what is out there for me to use. Also, articles on how to check a Japanese import engine's condition might be handy for people as this is becoming a popular purchase.
Anyway, hope I haven't bored you to tears... keep up the good work.
And another email...
In response to your editorial, I would like to say the following. The main reason I subscribed to this magazine was the balance of high tech and simply common sense that was applied to motoring. You don't stick to one make of car although the Japanese makes seem to be mainly featured, but that's to be expected as they fit the price/performance requirements of your readership.
I thought the series on the WRX was great, as this is a cult car and I will probably own one day. Good to read about the Saab as I believe there is great performance value in the turbo Volvo. The price for an 850 T4 94 model stacks up very well against up market grey imports, and they are reliable. Maybe an interesting story?
I currently run a VR V6 ute. I have been playing with improving the simple things, cold air, breathing, etc to get a feel for what I have been reading. Being an electronics tech by trade, I'm enjoying getting into the engine management side of things. Trying to get hold of an ECU is hard. Wreckers want over $200-00 for them, considering there is only about $50-00 worth of components, I have been able to justify getting one to "play" with. Maybe another interesting story? I would also like to see some information on CNG as a fuel for vehicles.
And yet another - I began to wonder if they'd ever stop!
I'll keep it relatively short and sweet as I know you are a busy man.
I am a very loyal fan of your work, and your work with the particular magazine that you are working with at the time (there was often no other reason to purchase it). The last issue of FF & R that you wrote in was the last I purchased...and more recently Zoom has followed the same fate.
If there is one thing that you never change, make it your no bullshit attitude to manufacturers of both motor vehicles and aftermarket parts. You and your team consistently look at the good AND bad aspects and aren't afraid to let your readers know. Many other editors out there edit magazines to ensure that they do not offend advertisers, sponsors, their mother, etc, etc and bow to commercial pressure.
The new car reviews are good, as are the reviews on well modified road cars. I don't care much for Batmobiles in which the driver wears their Undies on the outside of their tracky dacks. Some of the wilder features you have included are also good for interest sake (and to spice things up a little). The second hand car reviews, and your detailed stories on the GT-R and purchasing your new toy were also top notch (this also comes back to the well modified late model street car theme I prefer).
My only two complaints - you have too many free articles available to entice new readers (you guys should get paid more for the work you do, not give readers the entree and mains, then only have them pay for desert), and I don't have enough spare time to read what you have written!!
Phew! Thanks for all of that - and the positive feedback was very much appreciated by everyone who works here....
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