[Magazines] Autosport Le Mans 2008 Supplement

[Aysedasi]

OK, this is a blatant challenge to AvdB to tell me why I should continue the habit of nearly half a lifetime (quite literally) and buy the forthcoming issue of Autosport which will (presumably) contain this year's Le Mans supplement.

Will it

1. Be out the week preceding the pre-race week as it always was prior to 2007?

2. Be the sensible format as it used to be or still the small (A3ish) size that we've had for the last few years?

3. Be the essential piece of kit that it always used to be for the back parcel shelf on the way to Le Mans?

Come on Andrew, I want to know if I should be saving my pennies for it or am I going to be hugely disappointed 2 years in a row?

[AvdB]

1. Yes, as I stated on a previous thread the supplement has been moved back to its old publication date ie it will be included in the June 5 issue

2. No. Like all current Autosport supplements it will be the A5 'Guardian Guide' format. Much more modern and user-friendly than the old-style size. This is a publishing decision, but I don't see a return to the old size in the near future.

3. Of course. It's packed full of exclusive, unique content that will make for informative and entertaining reading.

And for just £3 it makes fantastic value. What else can you get for three quid that will last you an entire weekend?

[sceptic]

Originally Posted by AvdB

What else can you get for three quid that will last you an entire weekend?

Five packets of Jaffa cakes...

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by AvdB

1. Yes, as I stated on a previous thread the supplement has been moved back to its old publication date ie it will be included in the June 5 issue

2. No. Like all current Autosport supplements it will be the A5 'Guardian Guide' format. Much more modern and user-friendly than the old-style size. This is a publishing decision, but I don't see a return to the old size in the near future.

3. Of course. It's packed full of exclusive, unique content that will make for informative and entertaining reading.

And for just £3 it makes fantastic value. What else can you get for three quid that will last you an entire weekend?

OK.

1. Thank goodness for that!

2. Bah humbug - may be modern and user-friendly to you, but give me the old format any day. The new one makes it look smaller and cheaper, IMO.

3. Reserving judgment.......

Looking forward to it though.

[Knowlesy]

It is certainly more modern, modern times dictate we have everything in some pamphlet form for some reason.

It's not really user friendly though. Especially when you like to keep these things, they are a pain to store.

They do give the impression of being less in-depth than a proper sized supplement too. Which is probably because they are.

This is by no means an Autosport specific problem by the way, it is a complete publication disease. Similar to magazines insisting on putting large pictures all over every page to accomodate the expanding mentally retarded market.

[JamesRamone]

I prefer the smaller supplements, and i would argue they are no more difficult to store than the old A4 ones. Put them then in a shoe box as opposed to an A4 binder ?

[chunder]

Lol funny comments, when you reaslie how much it actually costs to put somehting like this together and also how much time has to be spent writing copy for a large supplement then please have a go yourselves!!

I am not the biggest fan of AS but having worked on mags before and done things like RAC supp's I realise that writing for a supp aswell as your normal weeky workload is not easy!!

And they are hardly asking for a tone of cahs for it are they, plus it will fit nicely in a rucksack should you really wish to take it with you to teh most boring place on earth!!

Give me a break, after an hour of racing there most of you wil,be asleep anyway! LOL

[Aysedasi]

I don't read it at Le Mans (which is why it was such a pain having the supplement late last year). And (for the sake of correcting the suggestion only) I stay awake throughout the night.

But the whole point (for many of us) is change for the sake of change*. There has 'always' been an LM supplement which used to be highly desirable - now many of us think it isn't as desirable as it used to be. Andrew knows that and is well able to argue his corner. Whether it is easy or not to create a supplement was never the issue in this thread.



(*or perhaps we're just bored with meddlers.......... )

[AllonFS]

If you see the free Club Arnage guide which will be out soon and is in its third year, I'm afraid it puts the Autosport supplement to shame. Okay it won't have an exclusive spread on Audi, Pug or Aston but it has all the information you need to go, choose where to stay, know the cars, rules and regs, and really get a feel for the whole event. Clearly it has a different (those already in the know) audience, but the depth of the work is fantastic. The only drawback is the size of it once printed on A4 paper, but if it was published and printed pofessionally it would knock the socks off the Autosport one.

[Nordic]

Originally Posted by AllonFS

If you see the free Club Arnage guide which will be out soon and is in its third year, I'm afraid it puts the Autosport supplement to shame. Okay it won't have an exclusive spread on Audi, Pug or Aston but it has all the information you need to go, choose where to stay, know the cars, rules and regs, and really get a feel for the whole event. Clearly it has a different (those already in the know) audience, but the depth of the work is fantastic. The only drawback is the size of it once printed on A4 paper, but if it was published and printed pofessionally it would knock the socks off the Autosport one.

Thanks for the postive comments about the CA guide.

If your worried about the size, then you can pick and choose which pages to print, so if you want you can just have the Grp C entry list, (will AutoSport have that?) or the main race guide etc.

True the CA guide does not have the spreads (PR Release's?) from Audi or the other main teams, but it does have first hand accounts from Rollcentre and Spyker and many others as well plus a unique insight ( )into the toliets!

The Autosport guide was once a 'must buy' but as time has gone on Le Mans seems to have slipped down the priority list and the guide has suffered as a result. (IMHO)

[ensign14]

Originally Posted by AvdB

And for just £3 it makes fantastic value. What else can you get for three quid that will last you an entire weekend?

The product of a former sponsor of Surtees, perhaps?

[Aysedasi]

I have to say that it is probably unfair to even begin to compare the CA Guide with the Autosport supplement. The CA Guide is just about as comprehensive a guide to the world's greatest motor sport event as you could wish for. If you need to know something about Le Mans, it's almost certainly in there. And well worth a suitable contribution from every single person who downloads it.

The Autosport guide is OK. It's too small (I know, sorry I'm boring.....), too glossy and simply isn't the same kind of supplement that it was when I first started going to Le Mans in the mid 80s. Time has obviously moved on, whereas I probably haven't! As it is, I read it in my lunchbreak on Thursday. It'll go away in the drawer with my other 22 Autosport LM guides, but it has little more significance than that......

[Pete Fenelon]

The LM guide is something that does keep me coming back to Autosport even after I stopped buying it regularly. Is it definitive? No. I can get as much information from t'internet. Is it a handy little bit of fun reading with some interesting summaries of the teams and a few thought provoking articles? Yes.

[Aysedasi]

There you go then, I guess that's perceived as job done.

[rdjones]

Talking of Autosport, did anyone see any copies on sale in the village this year as I couldn't fine them.

[Adam43]

I don't think Autosport have a (retail) presence at Le Mans anymore.

[rdjones]

Don't think they have since they stopped backing Radio Le Mans. But I seem to remember picking up a copy at the Alex Reade shop last year.

[Aysedasi]

I thought the supplement issue was on sale there last year?

[sceptic]

I saw enough people with Autosport/MN/F1 Racing carrier bags to make me believe there was some Haymarket presence there.