the demise of australian automotive magazines,

[cicca_294]

so just read that autosalon will be finishing up in march,
or they rekon will stop publishing but remain online.

saw it coming a mile away, been on and off for so long now, and
anyone who knows autosalon know that their website has always been bullshit, and so im seeing this as ultimately its death.

granted was at times very, very, very ricey, but i will be the first to admit i loved sitting down and hitting Kha control, and the early DIY's were terrific.

credit their silvia, got me into this unfamiliar 'drift', and i guess somewhat down the track on to here.

another one bites the dust in my eyes,
joins speed and the short-lived others,
leaving hpi as soul contender.

for me, sad day

[Chaos Theory]

HPI is the only aus magazine worth reading.

[Sam-Q]

I am still a Zoom magazine man. However their technical content seems to be getting more thin these days. The funniest one has to be Autospeed. The latest "issue" is 3 articles are if I am not mistaken 2 of the articles are recycled

[Gunner]

Zoom is by far the best true car mag, always has been always will be. As for autosalon, its shit, always has been, and always will be, the shows are a failure, the race series was a failure, it was just one big failure.

[Frak]

I rarely buy an Australian car magazine, I find they are a 5 minute read, with many errors and mis-truths, you have no idea how much time I've spent on the dyno trying to re-educate people who are bought up on a diet of these magazines!

[Frak]

Zoom is by far the best true car mag

Zoom was good in the early days when the original editor was on board.

[xero]

zoom great up until the new look zoom, that became the waste of space BOOST, then back to zoom...
i agree sam, zooms tech articles were getting worse and worse each issue.. now its just plain garbage.
autospeed was the business back in the day, went down hill very very quickly..

[Richard]

zoom, autosalon, HPI and fast fours are what i buy every month.

bummer autosalon in the past year its been like one issue every 3 months. unfortunatly some ricers in there but some nice cars with good photos too.

Zoom not a big fan of the holden/ford. rest is good old skool stuff was better.

HPI is great mag but wers all the under 200kw n/a machines?

Fast fours always a good mag but still based on alotta drag machines made from druggo's who built there rx3 in just 3months duno what its running but its fast with a autotechnica steering wheel

[Gunner]

Didn't hot4s or fast 4s get their hands on zoom, in 2007? thats when it started going down hill from memory.

[redsprinter]

just want to mention drift battle . awesome mag . to bad the support wasnt there.

HPI is alright , but gets boring quick... you can only write so much about a skylines and silvias. was alot better in the earlier days but thats because imports was still new and fresh. and now its a pretty much like auto salon mag.

what autosalon and the new HPI crew misses out is imo the writers might love cars just as much as all of us BUT the readers dont have anyone to look up to anymore .

Ben Ellis , Alexi Smith. these guys made hpi and drift battle alot more fun to read and it made sense . a drifter / weekend racer / performace shop owner writing for the like minded ppl .

ive been reading top gear mag . its not bad even tho 90% of the featured cars i will never see or own .. but its always good to dream

[hachirusto]

since the internet the doom of these magazines has been impending, I use to buy HPI everymonth now I just buy 1 every couple of months so ive got something to read on the toliet

[xero]

Didn't hot4s or fast 4s get their hands on zoom, in 2007? thats when it started going down hill from memory.

no, hot4s was purchased long before that..
hot4's and fast fours were owned by the same company and produced by different publishers.
unfortunately there has been a lot of shit fighting going on behind the scenes at the HPI/zoom/hot4's camp for a long while. part it was the reason the mags suffered, part of it was staff turn over.

either way its a grim outlook for the print media.. they are the perfect thing for reading on the bog.

[JUG-HEAD]

HPI is the only one i buy, theres always one in my toilet for those long hours spent on the shitter :P

[shift_rook]

yeah i buy zoom, fast 4's and hpi, fast fours and zoom aren't as good anymore and neither is hpi but... it's still defininately an entertaining read

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

Only AUS mag I'd read is HPI.

I have a few of them but they only seem to just give a general idea of the feature cars.

SPEED, Auto Salon and Zoom where a lot more technical.

True, Auto Salon has 'Rice' but it is better then HOT 4's.

I was given an Auto Salon when I entered in 2008 and it was in fact quite good.

Had a segment on race spec track cars and their layout magazine designs are very nice.

The rest of the AUS mags are all Holden and Ford.

Anyone know why they axed SPEED?

That was a decent magazine, had good cars and segments...

[cicca_294]

Anyone know why they axed SPEED?

That was a decent magazine, had good cars and segments...

pretty sure same deal, the money stopped coming in, the magazines stopped going out

[H8CHIR6KU]

i my eyes zoom and hpi are the same mag. this is the first month since issue 21 that i havent raced out and bought a mag.

ive lost count of how many times i read the latest issue of zoom and then read the exact same articles in hpi. the tech sections these days im sure are just repeats or the same thing reiterated.

they have both gone down hill since the new editors. if i was to pick up a ben ellis issue i would easily read it for twice as long.

now i just read drift tengoku. by far better than all the aussie mags put together. even the adds are more interesting. i think alot of aussie mags could learn something from reading drift tengoku

[Slimer86]

I can't afford to fart at the moment, so It's the 3 mag's for the price of one HPI issues to keep me busy on the throne.
Got too many doubles now, but all good, just give them to mates.

[Chaos Theory]

Zoom focuses on drag racing and therefore it is shit.

[slydar]

theyre all dieing and thats a good thing. print magazines are a waste of paper. whats the point, if you have half a brain you can learn anything you need to from the internet.

if you dont have half a brain, the info's not gonna sink in anyway. anyway of the writers worth their salt can get work in the internet industry. so i dont see the harm.

[driftke70]

i tend to agree, my fav aus mag is motor magazine.

[Course_Out]

As has been said teh print media has been dying a slow death for a whiel now, and I for one am pretty sad about it. I remember when Speed came out it really forced the other magazines to try a bit harder, then when it left Auto Salon sort of picked up the ball, with high quality photography and interestign features.

The main issue with the online media I would suggest is a lack of exclusivity. Back in the day I remember heading down to the newsagent to pick up Hot4's because a mate's car was on the cover (it was rice, but this was a long time ago, lol). It was exciting and there was a fair amount of pride in the fact that the car had been deemed good enough to be worth the cover and a 6 pages spread. Now anyone can put up a blog and have a heap of people see there car (or opinion), regardless of whether it is shit or not.

I guess Speedhunters are one avenue that maintains quality in its content (for the most part) and I personally hope that that trend spreads so that the good quality cars and events will still get the recognition they deserve

[Dom86]

I've been subscribed to HPI or PI now, for about 2 and a 1/2 years, and the mag has definately gone down hill since the new editors, the old editors were pretty bad too, but at least they were entertaining.
The main thing that shits me atm about PI is the really stale articals.
For instants the second last issue (Dec 09) had an arctical on the last round of the WA 09 drift championship in April, this month there is an artical on the JP Super lap from last year and this years is just about to start.
The other thing is the grammatical errors. I'll be the first to admit that I'm crap at "English", so if I'm picking mistakes, there is something seriously wrong.

On the others, Autosalon has always been too rice, but they do have some great cars at times.
Zoom just doesn't grab me because I've usually read it all in PI, haven't really looked at on recently.
Fast 4's is a little too fast and furious.
What keeps me going back for more PI is it's the best overall mag we have, and the feature cars are mostly owner built and most importanly driven and raced, not just built to look good.

[Frak]

i tend to agree, my fav aus mag is motor magazine.


I also have to agree, I think Motor is probably the pick of Aust mags.

Zoom was originally started by a friend of mine, Julian Edgar, if you get the first few years of zoom whilst he was editor, you will find the magazine quite good. Julian also went on to write 21st Century Performance(I also get acknowledgment at the front of the book ;) ) Later Julian was ousted from the magazine in the Great Martin Donnon vs Julian Edgar battle, Martin took over as tech editor and Julian went on to do Autospeed, which up till lately was quite good, Julian has taken a job else where and due to money flow from Autospeed has cut back on content.


HPI used to be very good, when it first started I really enjoyed reading tests of standard or MILDLY modified import cars, now all the cars are autosalon spec :(

I too also enjoyed Speed magazine.

[racsov]

been a long time fan of hpi since mid 30 issues, it went downhill once ellis stepped down, still subscrive but its getting pretty annoying how lame they are and how their event coverage is 6 months behind.

drift battle was the best magazine ever.

[sotiros86]

Once Ben Ellis and Alexi Smith left the business it went down hill. Whilst i know Alexi still writes articles, its just not the same as seeing him try to dodgy his exhaust on the "GO-180" so that he could pass rego haha. I also noticed the terrible grammatical errors in many of the magazines, and whilst i may not be fantastic at literature, it is extremely mind boggling when you read a sentence that makes no sense.


Long gone are the days of Drift Battle and good ol' HPI, and now we have one more to add to the list: Autosalon.

Now what will i read when im taking a shit???? Womens Weekly?

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

pretty sure same deal, the money stopped coming in, the magazines stopped going out
As in ppl stop buying the magazine, which lead them to stop production?

[Beau]

yer.. my Trueno was suppose to be in the Issue #86.. Oh wellz..

get on www.driftkulture.com cause anyone can start a blog/e-zine

[xsoarerx]

drift battle was the best out of all of them, i used to get HPI as well untill i was given a years subscription a few years back. i went from looking foward to getting it to almost throwing it out cuz i thought as much of it as a avon catalog or that RACQ road ahead mag.

personally not being a fan of the typical imports i got sick of reading about them. theres only so many Rb20det turbo build ups, only so many boring silvia's, only so many supra's with 2jz's with big turbo's hannging off making 600kw's and running STD suspenion i can take.

save your money, get japanese mags. Gworks, Drift Tengoku, Vip style, even Kei car mags shit over anything we have here in OZ.

[Robo86]

yer drift battle was cool! enjoyed it

[driftke70]

i have a japanese friend send me option and car trading magazines

[Dom86]

As in ppl stop buying the magazine, which lead them to stop production?

Apparently it's the amound of subscriptions that makes or breaks a mag.
I remember Ben Ellis saying there was not enough subscriptions to Drift Battle and he payed out of his own pocket for the last few issues.
So if you like a mag, subscribe to it.
Its cheaper, and you get them delivered, and you do a little bit to keep it going.

[spiderman]

Once drift battle died I stopped buying modded car mags, for the most part. Except for Street Machine, 'coz deeeep down inside I'm still a bogan :embarassed:

[Dom86]

BOGAN! ^^^^^^^^^^ Lets get him!!!!!!!!!

[spiderman]

I wear flannies and blue singlets, too
In reality it's a cunning disguise needed to survive in Bogan Central, NSW, where the children are inbred and the beer is VB

[Dom86]

Ahahahah.

[trikzlane]

DB and HPI are the best

[Breaka]

I'll only ever buy the odd HPI.

[hilux05]

well thank fark for that..i thought i was the only one who thought hpi and zoom were starting to read a little simmilar to fag4's.. i only wish they could get ben ellis back as the editor back in the sub 100 issue era..the mags were a joy to read then..
Now they dont seem to tell you much about whats actually in the car just some 10 minute speel about how the owner got his shoelace caught in the door or some shit like that..

but i reckon ill still buy em, gotta read something while im taking a shit..

[jaz_ae86]

I've given up on all the other except RACE.
Good articles and tech that makes you THINK
It is race/grip orientated but tech is tech.

http://www.racemagazine.com.au/

Unfortunatly not easiest to find but I highly recommend.

[Mr Awsome]

ehh id only buy the uk mags and the american custom mags mostly coz you get decent cars/bikes and decent bitches with there tits out.

and

yes jap mags tho i cant under stand a fucking word of them.

[Frak]

I've given up on all the other except RACE.
Good articles and tech that makes you THINK
It is race/grip orientated but tech is tech.

http://www.racemagazine.com.au/

Unfortunatly not easiest to find but I highly recommend.

I started getting RACE, but found a bit lame, also a dik from another forum had a few stories in it and that was enough!!!

I find the UK mags better,

also two american(yes you read correctly) mags I get are Engine masters and Hot rod, the reason I get both of these, especially Engine masters is the shear volume of dyno testing, even though V8 stuff, an engine is an engine!!! Some of the tests they do are fantastic and EVERYTHING goes on the dyno :)

[Frak]

Jap mags are like porn mags......I just look at the pics ;)

[Tim.duncan]

I started getting RACE, but found a bit lame, also a dik from another forum had a few stories in it and that was enough!!!

I find the UK mags better,

also two american(yes you read correctly) mags I get are Engine masters and Hot rod, the reason I get both of these, especially Engine masters is the shear volume of dyno testing, even though V8 stuff, an engine is an engine!!! Some of the tests they do are fantastic and EVERYTHING goes on the dyno :)

engine masters is the best mag ever!! bit pricy though
even though they are v8s if you look at the hp per cc they are pretty sick

can learn allot from that read

[Kid Karola]

Jap mags are like porn mags......I just look at the pics ;)

Haha you said it! Option & Drift Tengoku, Car Boy, Battle Magazine (the OG drift mag!) all worth getting sent over and paying the extra $ for. The V-Opt, Doriten & BM/HV dvd's are great to watch (was so hard to get these vids 10 years ago!) And of course Levin & Trueno Magazine - got all 21 issues and wish it was released more often then twice a year!

As you mentioned, ZOOM was very good back in the day (remember Julian's GTR ;) ) Hot4's wasn't bad either when Ellis was ed, glad he started HPI which was even better being dedicated to Jap cars and really took off in the late 90's. And Drift Battle covered the Drift well both locally and from Japan thanks to Ben and Alexi's dedication. (All these were published by the same mob, so you'd often see similar formats, contributers and shared content occaisionally).

I blame the demise on Donga :DD He milked the cow dry then ate it LOL like tabloid journo's writing articles "creatively" to sell papers, rather then writing factual informative pieces. But there was some good mixed with the bad, so it was generally acceptable. The car scene has changed a lot in the last 10-15 years and with the rise of the web, its not surprising that people won't pay to read something, when there is better and more diverse stuff available at your fingertips 24/7 for virtually free.

I've probaly flipped thru more aussie mags while waiting to pay bills at newsagent then I've bought because the price has doubled and maybe only 1 car or article worth looking at in any of these mags today. Last time I looked they were selling old issues in double/triple packs to clear them out! Hey who remembers when Fast 4's & Rotaries actually featured those cars in it? :P

I often get Racecar Engineering (a proper technical periodical, but dear! $20 odd) and Race Tech isn't bad either. Octane (Vintage sportscars and Motorsport), Retro Car and Banzai get a look in (also from the UK) and the occaisional Porsche specific mag (approaching my mid-life crisis kids ;) )

[Frak]

I forgot about the Old Racecar enginneering, we used to get a subscription at school for one called Race Engine Technology, but each issure worked out to about $50 and I was the only one reading it! Octane is excellent(pommy mag) my older bro buys this every month then hands it down.

Years ago, between myself and my two brothers we used to buy just about every car mag every month, as you could imagine this ended up getting expensive as we'd double up. Now we have set magazines we buy and just sawp them around, so every month we read just about every car/bike mag aust/uk/us, per month I probably spend about $100 on car/bike mags as do my brothers.

[Frak]

ZOOM was very good back in the day (remember Julian's GTR) ;)


remember!! If you get the issues of ZOOM where Julian first buys this Aust delivered GTR back in the day then drops into see his friend who then goes on in detail to describe every facet of the car, and the the obligatory first road test with Julian.....guess who the friend was ;)

One must remember GTR's are quite common these days but back then the only ones on the road were the Aust delivered.

[Frak]

I blame the demise on Donga :DD He milked the cow dry then ate it LOL like tabloid journo's writing articles "creatively" to sell papers, rather then writing factual informative pieces.


I had to laugh once, I read an article done by Mr Donnon he was commenting on how the GTR ceramic turbos WEREN'T that fragile, as someone had bought the old editor of ZOOM's GTR many years later and it still had the original turbos on it.......I laughed my arse off, the original turbos had been sitting in my spare room for years after one had failed!!!!

He also wrote an article slaying Mr Edgar as Julian had written articles about the massive oversteer of the original R32's, Mr Donon put it down to the ATTESA system needing bleeding and all the bad press Julian had written basically came down to his lack of knowledge, what Mr Donnon didn't know is, Julian had the car back to Nissan many times(this is early 90's) to have the ATTESA bled etc. An R32 GTR will oversteer it's arse off, many an R32 GTR have gone backwards into something!

[Kid Karola]

haha well when the car and the driver both have brains one of them is bound to snap and kill the other :DD

Aus delivered GTR's (only 100 of them to qualify for Gr. A racing) were over 100g when new in 91/92 and still command high prices today despite the abundance of Jap imports around. I know a guy that bought new 90 grand 300ZX twin-turbo in 93 then spend 20g (I shit you not!) on audio. I remember asking him what drugs he was on when he decided to do this (as he's a pharmacist :P ) when he could of easily had a GTR + mods! He was an interesting character I'll give you that.

[Delazy]

haha well when the car and the driver both have brains one of them is bound to snap and kill the other :DD

Aus delivered GTR's (only 100 of them to qualify for Gr. A racing) were over 100g when new in 91/92 and still command high prices today despite the abundance of Jap imports around. I know a guy that bought new 90 grand 300ZX twin-turbo in 93 then spend 20g (I shit you not!) on audio. I remember asking him what drugs he was on when he decided to do this (as he's a pharmacist :P ) when he could of easily had a GTR + mods! He was an interesting character I'll give you that.

youngish guy down here in tassie had an AUS delivered GTR...was pretty mint...i remeber was blown away to find one of them sitting in a garage in tassie back when i was a youngster...the things ive found/seen hidden away in sheds since...

[Frak]

...the things ive found/seen hidden away in sheds since...


I know exactly what you mean, a friend took me around to his uncles place, sitting in the shed was a mint Sierra Cosworth(white) which hasn't been driven in probably 10 years and an ex group A RS500 Sierra Cosworth, of course I had to sit in the Group A car and do a couple of gear changes etc ;)

[Delazy]

I know exactly what you mean, a friend took me around to his uncles place, sitting in the shed was a mint Sierra Cosworth(white) which hasn't been driven in probably 10 years and an ex group A RS500 Sierra Cosworth, of course I had to sit in the Group A car and do a couple of gear changes etc ;)

walk into a shed recently to find 2 white lambos and a black r35 sitting pretty...i knew of one lambo...:wub:

[Frak]

walk into a shed recently to find 2 white lambos and a black r35 sitting pretty...i knew of one lambo...:wub:


friggin cool:jdmsmile:

[hkspwr]

I agree with hpi not being as good as it used to be, im tired of reading about their ideal spec list for a evo, gtr, s15 etc...

[ae71]

2 da max is where its at (or used to be)... quite average chicks with there tits out laying on some bagged CRX with 20"s, whats not to love.....



but seriously, back in the day i loved 'speed'. for me that WAS the shit. it was a mix of jap and euro with well read articles that i would actually look forward to reading. i sometimes buy magazines, but the latest ones i have brought i cant read even if i wanted to (champ road, option etc..) lol

[Konakid]

Old hot 4's had plenty of good tech info 2000 - 2004 Denzo - Donnon era. Heaps of S.A drift and street drift stuff.

Always kind of had a Motor subscription.

RIP SPEED, was a good read.

[Eason]

I have to say Australia magazines are just out of date, most articles talk about cars from last century.

Buy some options u will find out more than half are about gtr evox 370 tunning etc, and all jap hongkong taiwai editions are available from local book shop

[Tim.duncan]

dude gave me all of these the other day

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/2/9/37729.jpg

1/2 zoom 1/2 hot 4's

out of 93 mags only found 4 ae86 articles, 1 of which is a drag car so not much 86 left of it

http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/dcimages/2/9/37730.jpg

strange these cars were not more popular over the years?

[Sam-Q]

I have hot4s number 1 and 2, might they be worth anything?

[Richard]

Nice Tim just having a look there im missing that rx7 sr20 zoom issue...biatch.

Oh, what a feeling...almost. I like them to say that now. CUNTS

[Tim.duncan]

do you want it??
i really have no need to hold onto all of them

[letsgohunting]

paper is fast becoming a luxury niche for specialized publications, the internet is now the norm.

I still love a good paper publication.

[Richard]

i dont really need them but if you wana throw them my way im more than happy to take em :)

[xero]

as well as other mags, i normallly read street machine each month.
this USED to be the bench mark of modified car mags, but over the last 12mths it has gone down hill at a slow steady pace... there are still the odd interesting car featured (the recent green EK holden 2 door coming to mind..) but the rest are all stale and lacking in imagination or flair. they all seem to be a try USDM style crossed with sex spec but with a v8 in there (febs street machine cover car definately fits this bill...)

the same can be said about most 4cyl/turbo mags as well. back when i was at school (over 10 years ago now..) hot 4's was the business.. now any wog and his dog can get his riced up, chrome tempe wheeled, 11ty thousand dollar shtereo in their lancer/pulsar/hooooooooonda/corolla/kia in the 4cyl/turbo mags.

what i feel is lacking in the aussie mags is quality content. no quantity, QUALITY. there a heap of the same cars all painted in similar colours with similar leather interiors all done at only a couple of workshops.
each time i hear the phrase "nobody has done this before, its a first for australia" i cringe because i can guarantee its been done before. maybe not to the specific car, but almost everything has been done before.

also DIRECTLY copying other styles (USDM/JDM/sec spec etc) is not new and original. certainly being influenced by (in the case of JDM in australia anyway) is perfectly fine, but copying a already well known car but painting it a different colour is not original.

this is what is lacking in australia.
as has been said before, with the advent of the internets, forums and blogs its much much much much easier to see some really cool cars the world over.

i say we go back to the way it was 10 years ago where the world of car mags and covers was reserved for the ultra elite cars. back in the day if someone got their car in hot4's/fast4's they were king shit (for a while), i say bring that back only feature cars that meet a strict number of high criteria before being eligible.

[Richard]

Agree totally Adam. i remember wen i bought hot4s years ago and it was harder to get features and u would see a feature car on the road and go wow that was in febs 1998 issue or something like that.

100%hatred for hot4s now.

Ignition dvd had that stupid feature this is never been done before.

like (queer wog accent) "Habib just got his P's and aquired the keys to a new GL mitsubishi lancer and wasnt long till the modifying bug bit. its now deck out with full ice soundwave 15in subs, full custom cream leather interior and 18in all around vault crystals" never has it been done before! HELLO ITS BEEN DONE AND OVER KILLED

[(OO)SKYLINE(OO)]

Apparently it's the amound of subscriptions that makes or breaks a mag.
I remember Ben Ellis saying there was not enough subscriptions to Drift Battle and he payed out of his own pocket for the last few issues.
So if you like a mag, subscribe to it.
Its cheaper, and you get them delivered, and you do a little bit to keep it going.
Really?!

I would like to subscribe to HPI or any other mag that interest me, but I'd read it once and it ends up in a pile.

Although mags are not published online as they want you to buy it not just read it for free, but there are other ways of finding out information about the car you like.

We have car forums and web blogs and the entire internet to search about info on cars...

You'd understand why ppl would not subscribe for that reason.

Like you said, it is good to subscribe to a mag and get it cheaper and your supporting local AUS magazine industry.

BOGAN! ^^^^^^^^^^ Lets get him!!!!!!!!!
:DD

[Richard]

i dont subscribe because you dont get the doubles or ones u missed out on or the occasional extreme mag. u can also miss out on the free keyring

[racsov]

serious question : does 90s sex spec fat pizza hot 4s style even exist anymore? you NEVER see those cars on the road in qld anymore, everyone has moved onto trying to be jdm but only being influenced by the local scene

[Driven_Snow]

I had to laugh once, I read an article done by Mr Donnon he was commenting on how the GTR ceramic turbos WEREN'T that fragile, as someone had bought the old editor of ZOOM's GTR many years later and it still had the original turbos on it.......I laughed my arse off, the original turbos had been sitting in my spare room for years after one had failed!!!!

He also wrote an article slaying Mr Edgar as Julian had written articles about the massive oversteer of the original R32's, Mr Donon put it down to the ATTESA system needing bleeding and all the bad press Julian had written basically came down to his lack of knowledge, what Mr Donnon didn't know is, Julian had the car back to Nissan many times(this is early 90's) to have the ATTESA bled etc. An R32 GTR will oversteer it's arse off, many an R32 GTR have gone backwards into something!

L-O-L
street_tuna
Snnnniiiiffffff