Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Sherman McCoy's avatar

I have always believed, perhaps as an artifact of my age (I’m 34 and started seriously reading car magazines in 1996), that it was Evo Magazine that really set the bar higher for atmospheric photography - the Caterham R-Whatever straining against the rain-slicked North Yorkshire Moors as Harry or Dickie raced a foreboding cloud back toward the inn, etc. The name I most associate with this photographic style is Dean Smith’s.

But in looking back at the CAR Magazine’s 1980s archives, it seems that the entirety of the British Isles lived under a grey sky for the duration of the decade, as evidenced by the photography accompanying this comparison test, which I believe to be the high water mark for automotive writing:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/triggerscarstuff/4368195632/in/album-72157623336033493/

Expand full comment
Ice Age's avatar

The things that always bugged me about automotive journalism were stuff like:

1: Making the prose too cool by half.

2: Declaring every car a bargain, be it Chevy or Koenigsegg.

3: Acting like the reader gives two shits about trim levels on a fucking Lamborghini.

4: Excoriating American cars for subjective crap and faults they casually dismiss on Euro iron.

5: The endless parade of blowjobs, handies and anal they give the M3.

Did I miss anything?

Expand full comment
511 more comments...

No posts