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Login to post Forums » Grassroots Motorsports » Anyone else get Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car magazine?

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Dec. 29, 2011 2:29 p.m. racea911 New Reader

Oh my gosh, what a piece of crap that magazine is. I subscribed in the past, but didn't renew as it was so crappy. Then I get an offer to renew for the year for like $10, so I thought how bad can it be?

Well, it's bad. They feature some of the most bizarre/undesirable/goofy cars around. I can literally get through the entire magazine in "one sitting" if you know what I mean. I can't do that with Excellence, Bimmer, Panorama, Roundel, Road and Track and especially Grassroots Motorsports.

And the inaccuracy of many of the articles is just laughable.

I can honestly say that this is one magazine that 8,10,12 issues of are not worth the $10

Sorry, just had to vent. Avoid this turd of a publication like the plague.
Dec. 29, 2011 4:08 p.m. jimbob_racing Dork

I actually enjoy the variety of the featured cars much more than Classic Motorsport. I'm just not into British cars and expensive touring events but I do like exposure to the oddball stuff.
Dec. 29, 2011 4:10 p.m. BoxheadTim SuperDork

I'm more with jimbob on this one - I kinda like their features of oddball cars and I quite like the magazine, too. Plus it provides decent filler material for those months when I don't get a new issue of CM.
Dec. 29, 2011 4:11 p.m. Streetwiseguy Dork

I like the fact that its a bit goofy...maybe thats why I hang around this site.
Dec. 29, 2011 4:22 p.m. BoxheadTim SuperDork

In reply to Streetwiseguy:

I can't figure out why you would say such a thing .
Dec. 29, 2011 4:29 p.m. DrBoost SuperDork

I like the cars they chose to show. This month the cover has the Merak and SM. Talk about two cars I'd love to own. I hate some of the writing though. I think they are required to get out a thesaurus and chose words with 4 or more syllables. I'm all for intelligent writing but some articles are very hard to read.
I've thought about writing down every word that makes me scratch my head (I have a decent vocabulary BTW) and write them a letter using all of them.
Dec. 29, 2011 4:46 p.m. Karl La Follette Dork

Its great when you are sitting around watching for deer or hogs to cross I read about old races and race tracks . Engine engineers from yester years ago . Weird ass cars and who built them , just read about the french and british built Salmson this morning on a lonely stretch and it was awesome . Hustler penthouse swank biggens its all good . Enjoy the variety and be thankfull you have a magazine to read in your hands instead of a screen.
Dec. 29, 2011 4:52 p.m. SyntheticBlinkerFluid Dork

Yeah I just looked at some copies at my bosses shop. Very interesting selection of cars. The one that I just looked at had a Callaway Alfa GTV (I had no clue they made these) on the cover. It had a pretty cool 70's Celica and covered a bunch of vintage Japanese cars. I liked it. The oddball stuff is cool.
Dec. 29, 2011 4:53 p.m. racea911 New Reader

Well, I must be on my own then. I normally read those articles and look at the cost to purchase a Citroen SM, or to restore a Fiat 850, or the one off Volkswagen 1957 Wendler coach built, or look at the 1987-1991 Volvo 750 Buyers Guide and think of all the bad assed, proven performance vehicles I could have, buy or build for the same money.

I guess my focus is entirely on canyon corner carving and doing track days and their focus is on something that remains out of focus for me.

Their auction report this month on the '73 911S and the '73 Carrera RS were so off target dollar-wise it was laughable. I even sent a letter to the editor

Evidently, YMMV
Dec. 29, 2011 4:59 p.m. racea911 New Reader

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

Yeah I just looked at some copies at my bosses shop. Very interesting selection of cars. The one that I just looked at had a Callaway Alfa GTV (I had no clue they made these) on the cover. It had a pretty cool 70's Celica and covered a bunch of vintage Japanese cars. I liked it. The oddball stuff is cool.

The article on the Alfa was cool and interesting, but, they only made what, 30 of those. Why not an article on an 80's Alfa GTV that one of us could actually find and some performance upgrades that the owner has done to it. But I will never complain about ANY article on an Alfa Romeo.

What was even strange about their coverage of the Japanese Classic Car event in the last issue you mentioned is that Datsun 510's make up the largest segment of cars at that event traditionally. Those and the Datsun Z's. And those are the cars you see at the track all the time too. Yet there was no coverage or photos of the 510's (except I think one of a 510 Wagon. There are some WICKED 510's at that event and they skipped over them in favor of their typical oddball choices.
Dec. 29, 2011 5:28 p.m. DrBoost SuperDork

Building a race car is expensive, so is buying an SM. It's all relative.
Dec. 29, 2011 5:30 p.m. DeadSkunk Dork

I'm in the "Like it " camp, too. I find many of the restoration articles very good.
Dec. 29, 2011 5:35 p.m. Sultan Reader

I get it and I get both GRM and CM. Most of the cars don't do much for me yet the part of the mag I do love is the stories they do on icons of the automotive history. I have learned a lot from those stories. Yet at times the mag feels like non car guys publishing a mag. I know that isn't totally true as some of the writers do own cars:-)
Dec. 29, 2011 5:49 p.m. racea911 New Reader

Sultan wrote:

Yet at times the mag feels like non car guys publishing a mag. I know that isn't totally true as some of the writers do own cars:-)

I feel that same way. I also feel like they are isolated in Vermont and their choice of cars to feature has traditionally been extremely limited. They are straying outside their general area more and more lately.

You also can get a feel for their mentality when you look at the cars that the entire staff owns in their "The Fleet" section. I had more of an issue with them years ago when their editor's only "interesting" car was a rusted out 60's Range Rover....... I don't know...... that mag just makes me scratch my head.

I wonder all the time if those 17 people who are interested in the car they chose to feature are enjoying the article, and apparently they are, AND they post on the GRM forums.
Dec. 29, 2011 5:51 p.m. racea911 New Reader

DrBoost wrote:

Building a race car is expensive, so is buying an SM. It's all relative.

Yes, but hopefully that race car won't look like the south side of a north bound horse.
Dec. 29, 2011 7:08 p.m. wlkelley3 Dork

I subscribe to GRM, Classic Motorsports and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car. Enjoy them all but each targets a different type of reader. We all know what GRM targets and most of us know what Classic Motorsports target. Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car targets the type of user that likes the history behind a brand and restoring to original. Mostly someone that doesn't race their classic sports car and mainly drive it on weekends and to/from shows. Several of my friends are avid HS&EC readers and don't understand CM because of the racing content. They aren't racers or into modifying cars. And they are mostly into old Brit stuff.
Dec. 29, 2011 8:02 p.m. Woody SuperDork

I really like that magazine. It's different than any other car magazine. In a different way.

Plus, they have Satch.
Dec. 29, 2011 8:08 p.m. SyntheticBlinkerFluid Dork

racea911 wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

Yeah I just looked at some copies at my bosses shop. Very interesting selection of cars. The one that I just looked at had a Callaway Alfa GTV (I had no clue they made these) on the cover. It had a pretty cool 70's Celica and covered a bunch of vintage Japanese cars. I liked it. The oddball stuff is cool.

The article on the Alfa was cool and interesting, but, they only made what, 30 of those. Why not an article on an 80's Alfa GTV that one of us could actually find and some performance upgrades that the owner has done to it. But I will never complain about ANY article on an Alfa Romeo.

What was even strange about their coverage of the Japanese Classic Car event in the last issue you mentioned is that Datsun 510's make up the largest segment of cars at that event traditionally. Those and the Datsun Z's. And those are the cars you see at the track all the time too. Yet there was no coverage or photos of the 510's (except I think one of a 510 Wagon. There are some WICKED 510's at that event and they skipped over them in favor of their typical oddball choices.

You've made one thing obvious with this post:

You don't like oddball stuff.

While I like 510s as much as the next guy and I could say the same thing about them passing up all the SA, FB, and FC Rx-7s, but it is refreshing to know that someone out there cares for the starlets, bluebirds, coronas, crowns, and other stuff we don't see normally.

And about the Callaway Alfa, I didn't know that they even existed. I knew about Alfa GTVs, but not Callaways. Who cares if there were 30? Its virtually an unknown vehicle.

It sounds like you want a builders magazine with common vehicles.
Dec. 29, 2011 8:20 p.m. Javelin SuperDork

I've never done more than thumb through HS&EC, but I've been a subscriber to Hemming's Muscle Machines since Issue #1 and have read every issue cover-to-cover. It and GRM are the only 2 magazines I do that with and keep every issue.
Dec. 29, 2011 9:29 p.m. DrBoost SuperDork

OK Javelin. I subbed to all the Hemmings mags for a while but Muscle Machines lost my interest in just a few months. They just couldn't seem to stray away from Chevelles, tri-five chevys, and just about anything else GM made in the 60's and 70's.
Dec. 29, 2011 9:47 p.m. Javelin SuperDork

DrBoost wrote:

OK Javelin. I subbed to all the Hemmings mags for a while but Muscle Machines lost my interest in just a few months. They just couldn't seem to stray away from Chevelles, tri-five chevys, and just about anything else GM made in the 60's and 70's.

Give them another try. In the last year they've featured some sweet AMC's, a bunck of Buick's and Oldsmobile's (even G-bodies!), and loads of off-beat cars. Haven't seen a Camaro or a Chevelle in months. This month just landed in the mailbox and it features AAR Cuda, T/A Challenger, and 71-72 GTO's. Their project car is a 4.6L stroked I-6 injected Spirit AMX!!
Dec. 29, 2011 10:03 p.m. 60mga New Reader

I love the mag! It's the only mag I subscribe to. All the others have lost my interest. I don't have house with a garage with to do a makeover and I can't afford to go on multi thousand dollar trips to drive cars and I'm not interested in building a vintage/modern race car. I like the fact that they're highlighting old Japanese and oddball cars I've never heard of or know little about. And most of the contributors own junkycars like I do. It's a down to earth mag and I like that.
Dec. 29, 2011 10:08 p.m. Maroon92 SuperDork

I can't stand muscle machines, but I like the occasional S&EC.

I like variety. Reading about the same 911s, Big Healeys, and MGBs gets old quick.
Dec. 29, 2011 10:23 p.m. carguy123 SuperDork

I've been going to post about them for a few months a keep forgetting to. I have a 100% opposite reaction to them than you do. I love them. They are my #2 favorite.

They are quirky with some of the cars, but they definitely have the GRM attitude with a different set of cars. They build, they shop for, they explain, and they love cars. This is definitely not the type of cars or articles I expected from Hemmings.

My wife surprised me with a subscription for Christmas last year. She subscribed based totally upon the name. She said with a name like that they just had to be interesting, and she was right.

I like it better than Classic Motorsports, but I can't tell you why. They cover many of the same types of vehicles.
Dec. 30, 2011 5:29 a.m. ddavidv SuperDork

jimbob_racing wrote:

I actually enjoy the variety of the featured cars much more than Classic Motorsport. I'm just not into British cars and expensive touring events but I do like exposure to the oddball stuff.

I don't get either, but I agree with this. I ceased CM because it just didn't do it for me. Seemed it was geared toward a guy with a much higher income than I. The occasional free issue I get hasn't changed my opinion. When I get a free copy of Hemmings S&E I tend to read far more of it's content.

The British mags are somewhere in-between (I have a guy who gives me his discarded copies). Sometimes there's a lot of good reading, and other times it's a real ho-hum.

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