Coming soon: more tech articles in the magazine

Like this one by Carl Heideman:

And don't forget that you can now buy a one-year subscription for just 10 bucks!

Now that I know Carl H. is good at stuck fasteners, I'll have to send him under my Miata with a torch and pliers at our next autocross.

can't happen soon enough

Glad to see it. Tech & How-To are my favorite articles!

Good plan.

Some good old fashioned "how to" for something deeper than how to choose the correct oil from this one company that bought a whole article would be swell.

I miss the days when I could read about people fashioning a makeshift transmission or scratch building a megasquirt.

Start maybe by hacking up that freaking McLaren. Put a cage in it.

Awesome! This is my favorite stuff...

kazoospec wrote: Now that I know Carl H. is good at stuck fasteners, I'll have to send him under my Miata which a torch and pliers at our next autocross.

Little known fact---- that wickedly fast Miata that Carl's son Jack has been running, used to be a GRM project car!

Turbo terror

Huckleberry wrote: Good plan. Some good old fashioned "how to" for something deeper than how to choose the correct oil from this one company that bought a whole article would be swell. I miss the days when I could read about people fashioning a makeshift transmission or scratch building a megasquirt. Start maybe by hacking up that freaking McLaren. Put a cage in it.

Dude, they buy the whole article that's PROOF it's the right oil :)

Actually, we're quite proud of our tech and the objectivity thereof. If ever we seem shilly about something it's usually because we're actually really excited about it and just love talking about it. One of the super cool things about the market space we occupy is that we kind of have personal relationships with pretty much all of our advertisers. There's a lot of smaller companies—even smaller than Flyin Miata—that only advertise with us. Even some of the bigger companies we deal with, like the tire and oil companies, it's because we have a personal relationship with people at those companies.

Honestly, I'd have a hard time sleeping at night if we were selling a lot of ad space to companies that I personally had trust or reputability issues with. I mean, I'd be up all night polishing my helicopter with my several pet tigers, but I'd still feel bad about it (I would totally give all you guys helicopter/tiger rides, though).

Wait, you didn't get a helicopter?

Awkward....

I mean, I'd be up all night polishing my helicopter with my several pet tigers, but I'd still feel bad about it

If there was a buy something button directly under that sentence, i would have clicked it.

Anyway, SUPER happy to hear about more tech articles. That's how i got my start. I started reading car mags at about 10y/o (thanks again, Grandma) which was a few years before the internet was accessible and useful for such things. I learned quite a bit about how things worked before i ever touched them, which was immensely useful. Gran Turismo 1 and all of its text sidebars did a similar thing for me before i started performance driving IRL (seriously). I know we have the internet now but i'm fresh off a long-ass post lamenting how the internet seems to be getting worse for learning about such things, and the magazine will always have something that the internet usually won't: PROFESSIONAL EDITORS AND PROOFREADING.

In fact, if there's a volunteer tech article focus group being formed, sign me up.

Vigo wrote: In fact, if there's a volunteer tech article focus group being formed, sign me up.

Me too!

I learned about cars about 4-5 grade. I had a couple performance car magazines, but I was complaining to dad (who can't tell a socket from a screwdriver) that the mags were great in telling me how to pick or tune a carb, but I didn't know what a carb did or where it went.

So naturally (for him), he took me to the library and we rented an auto mechanic class textbook. I spent the whole summer reading it over and over, and after that the mags made sense. Thanks dad!

Tldr, even a few sentences of really big picture at the beginning of tech articles can really help the beginners and won't slow the advanced users much.

How about one on making your own vacuumed bagged fiberglass or carbon fiber parts. Grm style vs how the pros do it would be great. And not just flat panels.

I am about to under take this myself to re-close in the trunk from the engine compartment on my fiberlass kelmark kit car.

I know, er, we'll hope, I will be done before an article is written, but it will still be great to see how my backyard hack compares to what you guys would write.

In reply to JG Pasterjak:

I can think of a few people I wish I could offer a tiger ride to.

I haven't seen an Advertisement Article (you know the ones that masquerade as a legit article just with "advertisement" at the top) in GRM yet so you're easily the most legit publication out there.

Huckleberry wrote: Some good old fashioned "how to" for something deeper than how to choose the correct oil from this one company that bought a whole article would be swell.

Excellent post, I type from my Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga, while drinking my COSTCO coffee from a high-performance Tervis mug (a staff favorite!).

Seriously, I noticed the other day that the CRC Brake Clean is twice as expensive as the Wal-Mart stuff. I mean, GRM gotta pay the bills, but twice the price? I'd read an article testing CRC vs generic stuff, and GRM could prove it's worth the mention...

This news will get me to renew my subscription. Felt like GRM lost their way there for a bit. Also, who's doing the proofreading? Red star for them.

And of course the McLaren tire test...

In reply to Osterkraut:

I always get the CRC. If for no other reason it supports GRM AND it is a good product. If I read a how to or get help from people here on the forum on things (both car related and life related). I am more than willing to support them any way I can. I have saved tones of time and money due to things I have learned here over the years. I would probibly have to by a hundred cases of CRC products versus the couple dollars I would save on the no name stuff and not get close to equaling the benefits I have taken away from here and the entertainment I have had reading the magazine.

David S. Wallens wrote: Wait, you didn't get a helicopter? Awkward....

How's JG gonna react when he finds out Tom got one on the day he went from intern to full-time staffer?

Oh, and since nobody beat me to to it, I call "shotgun" in your helicopter...

Love it!

Please do feature stories on some of the builds on here.

The Jalpa, in particular the megasquirt electronics would make a fascinating read.

Nohome's Volvo, too.

I'm glad to hear this. I like the tech/how-to articles. Probably my favorite part of the magazine other than Say What and regular columns.

I love the idea of tech articles coming from reader builds. Now might be a good time to tell us the ins and outs of writing and submitting articles for the magazine(s).

Osterkraut wrote: Also, who's doing the proofreading? Red star for them.

Uh, depends... is a red star good or bad? I grew up on the gold/silver star scale.

Margie

Marjorie Suddard wrote:

Osterkraut wrote: Also, who's doing the proofreading? Red star for them.

Uh, depends... is a red star good or bad? I grew up on the gold/silver star scale. Margie

What kind of American Patriot™ even has to ask that question?! Red stars are bad, you commie.

This is GRM, if you guys are getting helicopters, we expect Autogyros made from scratch in your garage with how-to articles!

Then we expect you to race them..

In reply to Osterkraut:

Duly noted. The image above is actually from our first-round proofreading, so nothing's been corrected on it yet. And we've recently added some manpower to the proofreading team, so hopefully we can at least bring it up to blue-star level. (That's good, right?)

Margie

Apexcarver wrote: This is GRM, if you guys are getting helicopters, we expect Autogyros made from scratch in your garage with how-to articles! Then we expect you to race them..

I 2nd this provided no tigers are harmed during the process.

Yes, bring on the tech! You can eliminate event coverage to make more room.