Dear Friends and Readers, I was as surprised and concerned as you all were when the word about the Motorsport Marketing Inc. buyout of British Car Magazine started to spread on the web. After all, I have been a writer and later on the Editorial Board since Dave Destler started the publication over 100 issues ago. I was just as surprised when Dave sold the magazine to Gary Anderson, but having known Gary and Genie for over 20 years through the SF Bay Area Healey Club and our Palo Alto British Car Meet, I knew that we were in good hands.
The internet is a wonderful communication tool that has the ability to get ahead of itself, and since I am on most British car lists, I get to see the buzz from all over right away. Gary called Monday to say he was sorry that all of us had to hear the info before we were personally contacted - but that's the way the web is woven. As I understand it, even though British Car Magazine was getting creatively and journalistically better with each issue, a ceiling had been reached and the magazine had pretty much been built to it's potential. They had acquired most of the interested subscribers that there were, all of the advertisers willing to put their money into a hobby builder, and a size (amount of pages) that this level of participation could commercially support. I have edited club pubs, local neighborhood pubs and put in my time as editor, feature editor and production editor at Convertible Magazine, Collector Car News and Victory Lane vintage racing magazine. I know how much production costs and how limiting a tight budget and smaller pool of enthusiasts can be. Two of these mags went belly up while I was working there (damn, maybe it's ME!) and the other was bought out and changed while I was off to organize the California British Car Meets. I came back to find a bunch of strange staff in the office and my trusty Mac replaced with a PC and a new production editor to operate it!!! I talked with Editor Gary at length and what I got from the conversation is that we are in good hands with the new owners and we will be able to do more and better work with what we have been doing with our British Cars plus get the additional information about similar, competitive cars from other parts of the world. This merger of the minds and editorial policy is based from the editor's interest in vintage racing, where a primarily British lineup is augmented with cars from around the world. These are the cars that competed in the marketplace, on showroom floors and race tracks around the world. Just because the new Classic Motorsport will now include cars from other countries than the UK does not mean that this will become a scattershot, all marque affair with hot rods, '57 Chevys, and moody dark reflective pix of late model Ferraris and babes lounging on Porsches. The new mag is to feature classic Porches, Alfas, Datsun roadsters and 240Zs. Maybe I'll be able to sell them a VW/Morris Minor comparison article. I personally have owned a number of BMWs, Citroens, Datsun 510s and a Peugeot along with my MGs, Rileys, and over 50(!) Morris Minors - these cars are all fun and quite similar (except for the Citroen DS21 - I think that it was designed on Mars!). American cars will be more like classic Corvettes, Z28 Cameros and Boss 302 Mustangs, the cars that went fender to fender (OK, wing to wing!) with our Jags, Cobras and Sunbeam Tigers on the track. We enthusiasts have to realize that as the old car hobby condenses into a smaller group that will then break again into show-ers, racers and backyard tinkers and then again into smaller groups of rodders, restorers and modernized cruisers, we are going to have to combine certain aspects of the hobby to maintain our special interest publications. This one should be painless. Please don't winge about the loss, be happy about the fact that we are still here and are going to be bringing you more and better info on your favorite Britiron as well as additional info on cars from other parts of the world. Thanks for listening - the Official Word is included below. Cheers, Rick Feibusch writer/editor/show coordinator/local politician (more business cards than W.C.Fields!) Venice , CA ----------------------------------------------------- Press Release Ormond Beach, Florida, January 31, 2003 Motorsport Marketing, Inc., Publishers of Grassroots Motorsports, has announced their purchase of British Car Magazine on January 30. British Car will be relaunched this spring as Classic Autosport, with British Car's Gary Anderson as editor. Classic Autosport magazine will offer classic car enthusiasts more depth in its technical coverage and a wider range of classic performance automobile coverage, British, as well as European, American, and others. Classic Autosport will be all-color, perfect-bound and will start with at least 100 pages. >From his office in Los Altos, California, Gary Anderson, editor and publisher of British Car Magazine since 1996 said "I'm really looking forward to editing the new magazine. With the strong technical and publishing resources of Motorsport Marketing, we'll be able to provide more detailed information on our favorite British cars while covering the other marques that were so much a part of the sports car hobby as we knew it in the fifties, sixties, and seventies." In making the announcement, Tim Suddard, president of Motorsport Marketing and publisher of Grassroots Motorsports, said "As classic car enthusiasts ourselves, we have had a dream for over ten years of adding a classic car magazine to our activities. With the acquisition of British Car, we have the core around which to create the kind of magazine we have always wanted ourselves, in the same way we have built Grassroots Motorsports." The expanded magazine will give British Car readers more tech features, emphasizing ways to improve reliability, safety, and performance of classic cars. In addition, Classic Autosport will be building its own project cars like those that Grassroots Motorsports is famous for building. Classic car meet and vintage racing coverage will be expanded. All of this will be added while the magazine will still maintain the enthusiasm for classic cars that British Car readers have come to expect. The first project cars planned for the new publication include an MG Midget and Porsche 911, while the magazine will also campaign a pair of vintage racers: Publisher Tim Suddard will continue to run his Triumph TR3 at East Coast events, while Editor Gary Anderson will campaign an MGA on the West Coast. The April/May issue of British Car will be the last one to carry the old name and logo. British Car readers will see no interruption of service, as they will be the first to receive this new and expanded publication. The first issue of Classic Autosport will be mailed in late May and on the newsstands by 3 June. For more information on the new magazine, a sneak preview of the new editorial calendar, and an opportunity to chat with the staff, as well as to find subscription information, check the Web site, www.classicautosport.net. /// [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list /// Send admin requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool /// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive /// Send list postings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// Edit your replies! If they include this trailer, they will NOT be sent.
