pro touring magazine
 

who else would like to see a magazine specifically dedicated to road racing, auto crossing and pro touring. 100% g machines and real muscle? you always see the circle track, car craft, super chevy and all that jazz.. how realistic would it be to get some one on the scene and get them to put a pro touring dedicated mag? or does one already exsist and i just havent seen it?

There is Grassroots Motorsports ... but they dont really know of the "Pro Touring" gig.

I inquired about one on the PT site and it got shot down. I'll subscribe!

To me, popular hotrodding is the best magazine dedicated towards the PT-gmachine movement. I think PHR gets a lot of inspiration from this site as well as others for their articles.

I think if you do a magazine like that you'd have to do something "more". I think it'd have to be about more than just the cars, more of a G-Machine Lifestyle. To a lot of car guys I think cars are a big part of their lives. Take a look at a few of the tuner magazines (I know to some it would probably burn their hands and cause temporary blindness) and check out the format, it's about cars, clothes, basically a lifestyle and I think this has a lot to do with why the japanese car culture has exploded and is so appealing to the target audience. I'm just thinking out loud here. How about a G-Machine culture magazine? Why not? The unique thing about a typical g-machine is that it has more than one purpose - you can road race, autocross, drag race, take it to the local cruise in and even run the honey-do trip to the store (the married guys know about this LOL!). I'd think you could have a lot to put in a magazine - heck start out with a quarterly? G-Machine Quarterly? This kind of magazine with the right vision could help take pro-touring to the next level.

Just my thoughts, I'd definately subscribe!
John

well said. Those are good points.

I think PHR does a pretty good job of including the pro touring crowd. After all almost every issue has lat-g members rides in it. I just got a new one today and it has a several page right up on Scott's white 71 chevelle with the twin turbo LS1, including a 2 page picture!! April 2007. Looks like Steve's new ford on the cover. What is our culture? Going to car shows every chance we get? The available mags cover a lot of them. Go to cool junk yards? I remember a cool article in PHR about junk yards and included my favorite one. Memory Lane. I know that I just work, check out what shows and races I can, work on my car, hang out with friends and fam, and dream of someday going on power tour. If a new protour mag came out I would no dought subscribe, but I think it is already pretty well covered. Just my opinion.

I don't know how much "culture" you're going to pry from a bunch of gear heads. Here's some of mine; T-shirt, jeans, Oberon, barbecue, heavy metal, football, hockey, porn. That about sums it up. :captain:

Still, not a bad idea though. I too was kicking the idea around of starting a G-Machine based magazine and I even bought some books on how to start up a rag a few years ago. My thoughts were to make it more like Maxim magazine where the articles were more subjective and...yeah...it would touch on some other stuff like music, movies, gadgets, etc. You know...make the magazine look and feel different than the traditional car magazines. Up until about a couple of years ago, you could have swapped the covers of Chevy High Performance, Super Chevy, Car Craft, Hot Rod, and a few others and not been able to tell the difference. I think Hot Rod has changed that though. Their magazine does have a different look to it, and PHR has definitely upped the quality of their photography.

I will say this though...for it to succeed it has GOT to be about the car features. Less tech...more cars. Today, people buy car magazines for the cars. They get their tech (all the tech they're ever going to need, in fact) from the world wide web.

My $.02 anyway.

I think Popular hotrodding has taken the first big step on pro touring. And that is the one and only reason i renewed my subscribtion.I think mule series started it all. :lateral:

"I don't know how much "culture" you're going to pry from a bunch of gear heads. Here's some of mine; T-shirt, jeans, Oberon, barbecue, heavy metal, football, hockey, porn. That about sums it up."

wow, that's ridiculously accurate (at least for me). i'd like to see a half and half deal myself. when PHR calls 20K a "budget" i can't help but scoff at them. i'm not ignorant enough to think that it doesn't take that kind of money or way more to build the cars they feature but that's what i mean by half and half - half high enders built with money and half customs built in some guy's garage that are actually budget cars. 350 hp isn't as lame as they say when they're building 10 thousand dollar engines and I'm scratching parts together in the junk yard. i guess all i'm saying is, show me some cool stuff that people are doing at home that doesn't get much page time normally that I could actually afford to do myself. maybe they aren't as fast as the jillion dollar cars on the road course but they're still fun.
then again, PHR will show a car that has ripped seats or something built for 10 grand and i say, that's what i'm talkin about cause it's realistic for me.

I am always excited to get my new issue of PHR :D .

David

so basically its feasible but i agree with all of you for the most part.. i just wanna see a mag with a focus on one particular style of cars.. you see drag racing, you see circle track, you see muscle mustangs.. i love camaro performers.. i want to see the pro touring circuts, track reviews, tons of diy articles.. realistic budgets and price ranges, events, parts, tips tricks.. basically the discussions that come up alot on all the pt boards.. i think next month im gonna dig my nose into all that i can and see if i could come up with a whole magizine full of stuff and see if i can lay it out and propose it to one of the bigger name magazines.. hell even if it was only quartely it would make me happy.. i realize there would be a few rewrites on old topics but the ppl that are new to pt havent seen em..

I totaly agree with John and Tony's points.

Glossy lifestyle magazine with good photography revolving around PT cars of all kinds and I mean everything that falls under the PT umbrella from a hardcore track day car or even a real roadrace car and what makes it tick to low-buck cars that work to in-depth features about high end cars like Johnson's Cuda or any number of Trepanier cars that some magazines are afraid to touch for fear of backlash from readers who get inferiority complexes about the big-dollar rides. Do these guys write to Playboy to tell them the models are too pretty? It's the same thing! Just because she won't go home with you, doesn't mean you aren't going to look.

I'd also like to see some good event coverage from GoodGuys shows, track days, Run Thru the Hills, ALMS races for some diversity, etc.

Oh, and of course there should be a sketchpad article about a different theme or subject every month!

If it's anything like that, I'll pay for a year right now!

I second the movie notion too. Even if it isn't strictly about PT, the cars could play a slightly larger role in the movie than the good guys daily ride that will inevitably get crushed at the end.

PHR for sure is covering the PT scene but could go a little more in depth. I like the low budget cars they show and some of the high dollar items aswell. I would likt to see some more stats like et's and braking. I know its hard for some guys to get on their greatest creation so hard but I think its a must. Every time I drive my 73 camaro I cant wait to find an open road to rip the tires. I would also like to see more Turbo cars. There are a ton here but not so much in the mags.

PHR has done a wonderful job covering our corner of the hobby. But now that a certain Editor from Hot Rod has his hands in the cookie dough, don't be surprised if you start seeing less and less of our cars in there. Perhaps the time is now for a magazine dedicated to the g-machine.

I agree, Tony. PHR has become the PT Bible. I couldn't be happier with what they are doing... More pages, bigger features, hometown hotrodding (basically a Projects section), and the addition of a featured artwork page. I think it's great!

IF you're reading this post and you're not a PHR subscriber, you need to drop the $14 (or less) for a 2 year subscription. :thumbsup:

...and their photography (and sometimes the writing) is far better than the other Primedia mags. The only exception being the work of whomever Hot-Rod sent to Bonneville, great photos. Occasionally Frieburgers intro piece is really great.

How could I forget the photography? Hunkins is amazing. Wes Allison also does an incredible job (I think he's a freelance photographer?). I wonder how many covers he's shot for Hot Rod? His motion photography is the best there is in the automotive world.

Twist has grown to the point that I just quit my day job in motorsports print publishing. :willy: I couldn't be happier. When it comes to niche markets such as the automotive aftermarket, print publishing industry sux. Out in the real world, if your title doesn't pull at least 200,000 actual readers per month, it gets swept under the rug and stomped on. The only magazines with real clout are the ones that women buy on the supermarket checkout line. The magazine distribution industry is imploding. That's why it's so difficult to find your favorite titles on the newsstand. No love. Popular Hot Rodding has consistently lost circulation ever since Primedia messed up and then pulled the plug on PHR TV. Circ approached 200,000 then. Latest ABC statement has PHR at 122,000. But the ad rates continue to go up. No one is happy.

Cable TV started the decline of small niche magazines and the internet is the grim reaper. For a tiny segment of the hot rod industry, there is no hope for a pro-touring only magazine. I estimate that there are no more than 20,000 pro-touring enthusiasts in a total aftermarket populace that runs in the millions. That's tiny.

THIS right here--Lateral-g.net--is your "pro-touring only" magazine--one of 'em. It just looks different. It is printed on a different medium. New millenium. New medium.

.........yeah I remember Steve and I kinda discussing this issue before. As much as a lot of us on here would buy it would there be even 100,000 subscribers? Like Steve is saying probably not. OK, thread over, next! LOL!
Maybe PHR could do a once a year Pro-Touring issue that compiles all the G-Machine features and tech? Liek a Popular Hot Rodding Presents...Just a thought.