New race car magazine about to be launched.

[Tim Wilkinson]

I got mine this morning too. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but did find the trackday listings which are very useful - saves hunting around umpteen websites to find out what's on and where, so someone is likely to get some custom from me as a result of that.

My first impression is that it's very professionally put together.

[vjay48]

Mine arrived yesterday, well put together,good content,deserves to do well and suceed.

[Copperbottom]

Not got mine yet

[Minicross424]

I filled out the online form but nothing yet

[MiniMadness]

Same here, but then I'm still in the US, but I'm back in blighty on Friday.
Looking forward to Lydden.

[snowen250]

Mine came today, very impressed.

Well written, informative and overall very good.

One thing that i think could improve it, how about a spot light on a different series each month? Like they have done with the cars but for a championship.

Just a thought, overall its very good.

Simon

[andy97]

Mine arrived on saturday & I was impressed. Simon - they did spotlight a Championship - Monoposto.

[RushyRacer]

Nothing in my mail yet !

[chunder]

There is very little single seater content, but to be honest its just a patched up CCC

Track day monthly which might be usefuol to those people that can afford to ramp around tracks every few weeks, but nothing much more

Well put together though and nicely presented. Just could do with more content that isnt primarily focused on one dying area.

[GORDON STREETER]

I did fill in the online form but as yet it hasn't arrived, Mmm I wonder what address I gave ?

[jh-]

Originally Posted by chunder

There is very little single seater content, but to be honest its just a patched up CCC

Track day monthly which might be usefuol to those people that can afford to ramp around tracks every few weeks, but nothing much more

Well put together though and nicely presented. Just could do with more content that isnt primarily focused on one dying area.

Chunder,
Many, many thousands can afford to 'ramp around tracks every few weeks', that's one reason why we publish a trackday diary.

However, i'm rather confused by your comment regarding the magazines content being focused on one dying area - which one would that be then?

John

[chunder]

Apologies John, what I meant was circuit racing, which as you must know is in very poor health with so many series pushed together. The growth area is the super rich historic scene i guess and enduro type events that are better value for money.

The track day scene is in good health. I was thinking that a mag devoted to pretty much anything four-wheeled might have broader appeal rather than simply bracketing it with track days. I just feel it's all been done before with CCC and others, but your market research must make sense to you. These people have good time and money to spend.

More variety might get you even more ad revenue and readers perhaps? Especially if you are looking at subs only and paying for most of that through advertising. there is a hugely diverse market waiting to be exploited out there, and I know for a fact there are massively untapped areas of ingenuity, skill and engineering aswell.

I am impressed with the quality, paper is good, pics are fine. And Hales is always good value and superbly written. He of the wagging tail!

[jh-]

Originally Posted by chunder

Apologies John, what I meant was circuit racing, which as you must know is in very poor health with so many series pushed together. The growth area is the super rich historic scene i guess and enduro type events that are better value for money.

The track day scene is in good health. I was thinking that a mag devoted to pretty much anything four-wheeled might have broader appeal rather than simply bracketing it with track days. I just feel it's all been done before with CCC and others, but your market research must make sense to you. These people have good time and money to spend.

More variety might get you even more ad revenue and readers perhaps? Especially if you are looking at subs only and paying for most of that through advertising. there is a hugely diverse market waiting to be exploited out there, and I know for a fact there are massively untapped areas of ingenuity, skill and engineering aswell.

I am impressed with the quality, paper is good, pics are fine. And Hales is always good value and superbly written. He of the wagging tail!

A bit of a sweeping statement saying racing is dying - for sure the recession has taken its toll on some grids, but that doesn’t mean it is anything more than an economic blip.
Undeniably issue one was compiled with readership participation at the forefront, but that doesn’t mean to say that it won’t cover the 'less frequented' areas of our sport in future issues.
Which particular sector are you referring to?
Best
John

[Al Weyman]

I hav'nt got mine yet John but isnt there a write up on Dan Ryan's 'Historic' Mk 1 Escort, it sounds like you have a good balance to me and are also incorporating Histo racing which is something I personally know you have a good interest in having raced against you in the old Lancia and even if it is a 'patched up CCC' so what I enjoyed CCC. Also I just paid what was it £2.70 for a newspaper style Motorsport News but what you are offering is a mag delivered free to your door so how bad is that! Well done guys a splendid effort and concept and I wish it a rosy future.

[andy97]

Originally Posted by chunder

There is very little single seater content, but to be honest its just a patched up CCC

Hmmm, apart from the article on Classic F1 cars & Monoposto.

You can't cover all series/ types of racing in issue 1!

[andy97]

Originally Posted by chunder

Apologies John, what I meant was circuit racing, which as you must know is in very poor health with so many series pushed together.

Is it in very poor health, in general, or is it just a few series that are struggling? Perhaps because they no longer offer what the customer wants? I know of several series that are positively booming - several grids at each meeting or full grids with numerous reserves.

It is far too simplistic to suggest that the recession is killing some series, or that circuit racing is dying.

Perhaps this is a good basis for an article, why do some series succeed & others fail?

[Al Weyman]

They go round in circles Andy, this years flavour of the month could be dead as a Dodo next year.

[andy97]

Agreed, Al, but it is way to simplistic to say that circuit racing is dying. There's 150+ series, for god's sake. Way too many, I agree, & there are several struggling for decent grids but that is still a hell of a lot of licence holders going racing.

[medius]

Got my issue this morning. Haven't had an in-depth read yet but from first appearances, it looks *very* well put together and some of the photography is stunning.

Can't wait to see how it evolves during the year. Great work guys and girls.

[Al Weyman]

BTW that may have come out wrong when I said they go round in circles I wasnt talking about the cars but the popularity of the championships.

[andy97]

I understood!

[snowen250]

Ah yes cheers Andy managed to miss that entire bit! Whoops!

Nice bit about Vickers' RX7, looking forward to seeing that car again

Simon

[chunder]

JH

Thanks for taking on board the comments.

From my point of view I used to be a huge fan of circuit racing many years ago. But have mroe recently digressed into off road motorsport which in some cases is booming, as the circuit scene became more dilted, ironically perhaps through the boom in track days!!

I am sure your research pointed you towards the track day scene as would previous CircuitDriver experience, this is an obvious market and is what the then boss (not editor) of CCC told me when they changed tack in the late 90's and went all track day when I was at an interview!!

What I don't understand is the huge boom in historics and the relative lack of grids in normal racing other than perhaps 750MC which have always been big due to their desire to appeal to the more budget driver. Have these people simply got more desire to race old cars or is there no series they want to get involved in in current championships?

Historics must be far dearer to run and build? All it says to me is that either these people are attracted to driving older cars coz they are older or the championships are not as time consuming and they have lots of money to simply turn up and drive!

Or, more worryingly, there are no championships that these guys want to race in modern cars.

As for other series well I for one am more than keen to write about other series, off road, oval, rally, but I guess that doesnt suit your reader profile. there are some fascinating people/cars involved in speed events also that might be interesting. There are also things like time attack that can be interesting and pull in a whole different set of perhaps more youthful readers.

Oh and Andy, I wasnt complaining about lack of single seaters, just a comment from an earlier poster.

[greenamex2]

Got it today and read it.

If it was on sale in Smiths and I saw it whilst waiting for my train I wouldn't have bought it. I buy magazines for specific (usually technical) articles and there wasn't anything that would have grabbed my attention this time apart from the write up on Stacey's car.

The format was a bit corporate/high quality club magazine, I'm guessing it will take a while to develop a unique 'look'.

I can see myself skimming through each issue and cherry picking articles but, and probably most importantly for yourselves, glancing at the adverts on the way through. Normally I would buy a car magazine once every three months or so, I guess by advertising in your magazine a company would now be reaching me three times as often as all the car magazines in Smiths put together!

[Stacy]

Evening,

Without wishing to state the bleedin' obvious, as Andy97 has said it seems a little odd to try and nail the scope of the entire mag by the contents of issue 1. There are only a certain number of pages one can fill..

So while I'd contend that the pureplay track scene is far from dying (there are unquestionably burgeoning grids in many contemporary series as well as historic) John, Mark and the team have been, and are, planning and executing future articles drawn from the wider community. It is certainly not focussed solely on circuit racing.

Have to say a big thank you to all those who have supported the venture too. Greatly appreciated. I'm pleased to report the whole thing has really taken off and it made Track Driver a significant player before it even went to press. Now it's started to land there's been another rocket fuelled boost.

The decision to be free has paid off, so even more thanks to Al from this parish. He was the man we imagined reading it on the shelf and leaving it there, moaning about the cover price, and then complaining on the internet that there wasn't enough of whatever content he wanted in each issue. How do you get the toughest customer to take it home? Then there were the now immortal words; "Why don't we give it away?". It was the only solution we could come up with.

All the best,

S.