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HOT ROD vs Car Craft magazine

20K views 35 replies 29 participants last post by  davedeltadog 
#1 ·
I've subscribed to Car Craft for a few years now and have recently subscribed to HOT ROD.
at first HOT ROD seemed pretty cool, but then in came the Hondas
boats and whatnot.

I just wonder what you old school rodders think of the new 'out with old in with the new' style of HOT ROD?

or what the young guys think of the traditional style of Car Craft?
 
#3 ·
I dropped my subscription to Hot Rod this year. No more for me. I still have one with Car Craft. They're doing a pretty good job. I also think Popular Hotrodding is doing a great job these days. They seem to cover all american makes, not just Ford or Chevy. (no offense to the Chevy/Ford crowd.);)
 
#5 ·
I have subscriptions to Hot Rod and Car Craft. I like Car Craft better. Hot Rod seems to always have articles about new cars that people don't wrench on. I mean, how is it a Hot Rod if it hasn't seen a wrench since the assembly line? If I wanted to see articles like that I would get Road and Track or one of the yuppie car mags.
 
#6 ·
I havent read either of them for years unless I go on a plane flight.Then I buy those and the latest issue of Playboy.I have been reading.....

High Performance Pontiac
Pontiac Enthusiast
GM High-Tech Performance
American Handgunner
Handgunner Tactical
and Score magazine(big bust babes)
 
#8 ·
Not Rod

I get Car Craft for the obvious reasons. The Rod mags are cool for pictures but Car Craft has actual project info. Not Rod has lost my interest all together?? There are tuner mags for the jap crap, those guys from Not Rod didn't have to do that to a good Rod Mag!

Keeping with the changing times my butt! They can buy their own garbage then!!


Tazz


Rat Rods Rule!
 
#9 ·
Chuck used to have boxes and boxes and boxes of car magazines. Car Craft, Hot Rod, Muscle Car...and the list goes on.:rolleyes: Then there were the boxes and boxes of motorcyle magazines. Still have a few of those too. Then there are the boxes of old Popular Mechanics from the 1940's. My next door neighbor (like a second father to me) gave them to him when they decided to move into a senior's residence. He recently went through them all and has only kept the ones that he deemed worthy (but will NEVER part with the old Popular Mechanics ones, they are worth something!). I have been known on occasion to sneak down to the basement and read them when he's not looking:p I particularly liked the Car Craft mags...expecially the old car craft point. Anyone remember that? The ahem...unique...way the people featured in the article had of pointing at whatever it was they were discussing, always a source of amusement and I even learned stuff.:eek:

Chickie.
 
#14 ·
A buddy of mine had a whole box of old mags. He had the first or second issue of HotRod from way back in 1947? He even had the issue of HotRod where they introduced the SBC. I also learned from his collection that CarCraft used to be called "Honk!". It was like going back in time reading through those old mags. I guess we really shouldn't have been thumbing through them with our bare greasy hands, but we didn't know what he had. The coolest one was where this machinist made a small scale V8 that ran and had to have a three pound flywheel to idle at a reasonable speed, that was in a 1953 issue I believe.

My first ever and current subscriptions are CarCraft and Super Chevy. For the whole year that I've been subscribed so far, it's been pretty good reading when I get the chance. No complaints from me.....
 
#15 ·
I'm even more cynical than the rest. Only subscription I maintain is Rod & Custom, just because I always have since 1960. Over the years I have had one year subs to Hot Rod, Car Craft, etc., but never maintained them because there was lo little useful info in them. Hot Rod Mechanix was worth it but it only lasted a couple years. I look at all the mags at the news stand and maybe buy one Hot Rod or CC per year if it has a worthwhile article. You will find that they simply rerun the same set of core articles on about a 10 year cycle over, and over, and over. To that they add boiler-plate 'how to' articles that are poorly disguised advertisements for after market stuff that give precious little info except for purchasing instructions. I have such a huge collection of old mags (in boxes set side by side they stretch about 25'. Includes woodcarving, Willys club, wood working, and model making mags too) that I can reproduce just about any article I see nowadays. There is that occasional gem about a Willys, or a junk yard part adaptation that I haven't seen before and makes purchase worthwhile.
 
#16 ·
I stopped buying HOT ROD magazine in the early '60's when they switched to features about Factory "Hot Rods". The earlier issues had great 'How To' articles such as setting up a dropped axle or installing a late model rear, 'C'ing or 'Z'ing a frame, etc.

I will state that the cover (don't remember which month) of a 1953 HOT ROD magazine got me started on this life long quest.

I still get Car Craft, Rod & Custom and Street Rodder magazine as well as Chevy High Performance. I belong to the 'Good Guys' street rod association as well and receive their publication.
 
#17 ·
I think Jeff is right about the repeating projects, and to sell aftermarket parts. I would like to see some V and inline 6 build ups in Car Craft.

I had a sub to 4 wheel & off road, that mag had some good tech info. but is way cramed with ads.

I had MotorTrend, but you don't learn anything from that.

I got a year of Rod & Custom, but I can't afford 99% of what's
in it.
I like Rat Rods anyway.:p
 
#18 ·
I like them both. Nothing get's me going more than reading an article on a daily driver Nova with a big block and six speed that turns 11's. I love the classic cars and very usefull tech articles. I think Hot Rod is doing a good job, because there are people wrenching on newer cars. You can still add headers, exhaust, super chargers, bigger fuel injectors, different throttle bodies, intakes, higher/lower compression pistons, better clutches, Limited Slip Differential's (RWD and FWD), tuned coil over suspenions, etc. on most new cars or "ricers" as some like to call ALL of them. I used to be an "anti rice" person before purchasing my new car. I scoffed at every import I saw and was fully against them being in Hot Rod mags. After meeting meeting some respectable imports at the TRACK and on the STREET, I have full heartedly opened my mind, and began a new learning curve. No I'm not talking about the 15 and 16 sec cars that are out running around during the winter, I know a few guys with 12-13 sec imports with full interior, AC, and a good stereo for tunes to boot. There's even a guy running around Boise with an 11 sec. Turbo'd integra, he did all the work himself. But like I said before nothing beats the roar of a healthy un-smogged V-8.
 
#20 ·
#21 ·
6567GTO said:
Well I subscribe to the first 2 on your list Chief. I also get a rag called Car Kulture DeLuxe... http://www.carkulturedeluxe.com/
and Rolls and Pleats. http://perso.wanadoo.fr/rolls.pleats/magazine.htm

BBB - definately check them out again, they're trying harder.
Thanks for the heads up!! Car Culture Deluxe looks like my kind of mag. !! (wish it was monthly though!)

I never read Hot-Rod anymore but I do have a current sub. to Car-Craft, Rod and Custom, and soon....Car Culture Deluxe!!:thumbup:
 
#22 ·
How long have you been reading them 67GTO?They are my favorite bathroom reading materal plus they help with the winter blues.
LOL - I know what you mean about the winter blues! I've been subscribing to HPP for areal long time and just started with Pont. Enth. recently. You a member over at Performance Years BB?

http://forums.performanceyears.com/6/ubb.x



Thanks for the heads up!! Car Culture Deluxe looks like my kind of mag. !! (wish it was monthly though!)

It's a real cool mag. You gotta get it! R&P's is great too. R&P's is a small mag, just a little bigger than TV Guide. Both are kewl!
 
#26 ·
Adrenaline_Fiend said:
I like them both. Nothing get's me going more than reading an article on a daily driver Nova with a big block and six speed that turns 11's. I love the classic cars and very usefull tech articles. I think Hot Rod is doing a good job, because there are people wrenching on newer cars. You can still add headers, exhaust, super chargers, bigger fuel injectors, different throttle bodies, intakes, higher/lower compression pistons, better clutches, Limited Slip Differential's (RWD and FWD), tuned coil over suspenions, etc. on most new cars or "ricers" as some like to call ALL of them. I used to be an "anti rice" person before purchasing my new car. I scoffed at every import I saw and was fully against them being in Hot Rod mags. After meeting meeting some respectable imports at the TRACK and on the STREET, I have full heartedly opened my mind, and began a new learning curve. No I'm not talking about the 15 and 16 sec cars that are out running around during the winter, I know a few guys with 12-13 sec imports with full interior, AC, and a good stereo for tunes to boot. There's even a guy running around Boise with an 11 sec. Turbo'd integra, he did all the work himself. But like I said before nothing beats the roar of a healthy un-smogged V-8.
There's a difference between tuners and ricers. Sounds like you discovered some tuners. The ricers are the people who bolt on a coffee can muffler, a crap load of stickers and the obligatory HUGE wing and think/pretend to be racers. There are quite a few tuners here in Houston that put a lot of V8 American muscle to shame, I'm like you, NOTHING beats the sound and look of a healthy American V8 car or truck.

Hot Rod is a shell of it's former self, but with the internet making access to the info so easy to get, they and a lot of other publications are trying to do whatever it takes to draw readers. This means doing articles on cars that would have never been featured 10 years ago.

Take this site for example. There is more info here than in any magazine. Plus it's hands on, real time info and you can relate to the person or persons who post it. It's hard to take in the Hot Rod article about dropping a big block in a Camaro when they skip steps or tell you how they got the blower setup from a friend or how they did it in 1 hour with $5,000 worth of tools and a huge shop.

Now, every now and then, they do have a good feature car or story, but it's hardly worth the cover price of an issue. Like I stated, I got a 2 year subscription for $15 bucks! That's about 60 cents an issue. Those guys are hurting.
 
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