UTCC - Am I the only one?

I mean this to be a topic of discussion about our favorite magazine. It's not intended to be a flame. But I have to confess: I don't find the UTCC coverage to be at all interesting. 90% of the cars are not grassroots. The one paragraph blurbs about each one tell me nothing particularly useful. It takes up a huge portion of the magazine and takes about 5 minutes to read.

Now, I do get that collecting a bunch of random race cars and putting them through their paces is a great way to find editorial fodder for upcoming features. The in-depth articles that follow throughout the year I read and usually do get something out of even if the cars are way-not-grassroots. But this issue felt about as useful as those annual new car buyer's guides. Just me?

It has never been my favorite either.

I prefer the project cars, but haven't been as interested in the current ones as much as some of the older ones.

I agree that the cars are far from grassroots but they and the competition are of great interest to me. If I win the lottery I'll probably build such a car but in a small bore version.

I keep meaning to go to the event, I suspect it will be a lot more interesting once you have been a part of it.

I find it pretty interesting... but that's probably because i have aspirations to enter this event within the next few years.

I bought two copies of the IMSA Challenger edition, just because I couldn't wait for my subscription to arrive. I like the articles, kinda like I enjoy reading about Ferraris. Won't ever own one of them, either.

I really enjoy the UTC coverage because it's the event I really want to attend (yes, even over the Challenge). I agree that the coverage could be better, but mostly because I want to read more about the cars! Like how in the heck is Danny Popp's Vette so fast...

I love the UTCC coverage. No, it's not grassroots in the sense that you can build one for $1,200 but it is grassroots in that you aren't building for any one specific class and in the competition you get to see how several classes or types of cars compare.

Notice that a lot of the cars weren't all out mega dollar cars.

Some of the cars I see as more like doodles coming to life.

And since many readers race this is a way to learn some things that might help with there less than ultimate track cars.

This comes back to the definition of grassroots. I know I'm in the minority, but the whole stupid $200x challenge boars me rigid. I find the UTCC far more interesting. Those challenge cars that interest me are due to their overall coolness, uniqueness and general awesomeness and I would find just as interesting if they'd cost 5, 10 or 20 times the silly $2k limit.

The Reily may not be grassroots, but I was happy to read about it.

But how could you not count a home built NASCAR powered GTP clone as grassroots, that's the epitome of grassroots to me and I'd love to see a full feature in the magazine on that one. Ditto older cheaper sports cars like the Radical clubsport. I love the variety of machines that it brings out as well. Everything from spec Miata's to what's effectively a Daytona prototype.

I say loose the $200x challenge and expand coverage of the UTCC

I like both, but definitely the $200X better. The UTCC is out of my price range, but I enjoy reading about it. I do wish the blurbs about each car covered their technical aspects better, instead of just basic stuff about the driver or whatever. If I had to choose one it would be the $200X, but by no means does that imply that I don't enjoy the UTCC coverage. More specifics of the technical stuff would be cool, though.

I enjoy the UTCC coverage ... somewhat ... I like to read about the Riley and some of the other top cars ( the Hemi from yrs past ... and others ) but mainly I skip to the back enders.. I know what I've run at VIR ( with the STS CRX ) and sorta guess what I'd turn with good tires.... and try to figure where I'd place .. for the last 2 yrs it would NOT have been DFL maybe someday I'll apply for a spot and see if I know what I'm talking about

That old Chevy (?) truck was pretty epic. That's the kind of stuff I enjoy reading about. And seeing as how almost every car in the $20XX challenges are just that epic, I enjoy the coverage (and concept) of that one more.

I think the issue with th e UTCC for me is that the magazine needs to go more in depth for the print version and combine it with some sort of video presentation. I'd really like to see the cars being put through their paces and then I can read more about the particular ones that interested me.

Last year the few videos that were available really helped keep me interested and I was happy to read the articles on the cars, drivers and teams.

The same can be said for the $2k challenge. Help the folks feel like they are there and then we can fill in the gaps in our imagination and connect better with the articles. Otherwise the articles will need to be quite a bit longer to get close to that sort of depth.

The video projects you've done so far have been pretty good and I hope you continue and take it to the next step, maybe speak with the contestants to provide copies of their videos/pictures from the events to help tell the story and the contestants get more recognition in print, etc.

I can't imagine how hard you guys work and I know it's a labor of love, plus we're not exactly easy to please, but I hope you take this as constructive criticism from people who love the magazine and want it to continue to be the best in the market place!

When asked by my wife how it was going when I called her after the 3rd on-track session I said "If I stood in a blast furnace pulling $100 bills out of my asbestos wallet and watching them burn, it would be about like this"...

~Next~ year, though, I'm gonna have a good time.

Twin_Cam wrote: That old Chevy (?) truck was pretty epic. That's the kind of stuff I enjoy reading about. And seeing as how almost every car in the $20XX challenges are just that epic, I enjoy the coverage (and concept) of that one more.

+1.

I tend to like odd things....as long as the UTCC features Sanford and Son themed race trucks, "Battlewagons" and other zaniness, I'm interested.

So I'm pretty much the only one. That's okay. I can just ignore that one issue a year (and only half the actual magazine, if that) and enjoy the rest. It's not a deal breaker in a "I'll cancel my subscription!" way, but I wouldn't pay money for it from the newsstand, either. Still my favorite car rag by far.

I like both the UTCC and the $20xx challenge, but neither one is exactly what I want to do. Still enjoy reading about them a fair bit.

It'll be a while before I'm likely to pull off anything that belongs at the UTCC, but I also don't quite want to be restricted to $2k, because that results in some compromises I may not like and a substitution of cubic hours for dollars beyond what I'm prepared to do. I'll go so far as to suggest that most teams, given the option, would find it easier to come up with $3k or $4k and not spend a week building replicas of over-the-counter parts (which they may have bought for reference anyhow) so that only materials wind up in the budget. (EDIT: I said most, not all, and as long as there are teams who can only make it by keeping the cost down to $2k plus hours... well, I'd hate to see them excluded. Maybe this is the closest thing to a level playing field...)

I do wish there were a playground for cars more, um, creatively motivated than what falls into most autox/roadrace stuff, and I bet if I looked some of the time trial stuff would provide me that option, but I digress...

I'd like the UTCC stuff more if there were more emphasis on neat or strange cars. Not that I don't love a really fast Subaru, but I can go see one of those in person this weekend, no problem. Maybe not as fast as the fastest Subaru at the UTCC, but it won't be all that different. But old or strange cars with reengineered chassis are much more exciting to me.

So, color me as more interested in features on the most interesting UTCC (and $20xx) cars, while being okay with an issue given mostly to an event overview to each just to set the stage.

Upon the release of each UTCC and $20xx Challenge overview issue, should we start a thread in the Feedback section voting for the cars we most want them to track down and feature?

I love the UTCC, but then again, I am part of it. Reading the magazine a couple of months lets me learn about the cars, which I don't have time to do while working all weekend. More in depth coverage would be appreciated.

I'd be curious to see the UTCC with some classing based on money invested. Something like under 5K, under 10K, under 20K, under 50K, under $75K, over $100K, etc. I wouldn't expect someone to have documented receipts, so it would be kind of a loose budgeting system, but it would give you an idea of how fast you can go for $x,xxx.

I'll read about anything if there's enough creativity & in-depth tech to it.

I agree. I would love to attend the event, but find the print coverage lacking in some way. I guess there needs to be more of story to it. Personally, I find the $20## coverage to have the same problems.

Both are huge events for the magazine and are heavily promoted and arguably hyped, but when reading articles it's hard to visualize being there and watching the action, which is what a good story should do.

Perhaps there could be more of a story in the magazine with the car profiles moved and expanded as online content.

I loved it and the coverage. I also was amazed at how many real cars made the top 20. DDable Corvettes and Mustangs were amazing. Keep it coming.

In reply to Adrian_Thompson:

Im curious if you've attended a 20xx challenge. Because before I attended I sort of thought the same way.. It took me over a year to actually "get it" Not too crazy about drag racing, like road racing much more than auto-x..... But once youre there.. Put it this way- no magazine coverage can re-live what its like actually attending.

As for the UTCC.. look at our entry this past year. We showed up with the challenge car with our twisted broken down trailor, amongst alot of really insane racecars, and alot of people with alot of money... Wayy out of our league.. I can speak of this event in the same way (besides the heat lol) You just have to be there.

jay

I enjoy the coverage of the UTCC mainly to see how the cheaper-built entries stack up against the more expensive, purpose-built race entries. I will confess that I am more interested in the cheaper, "less expected" vehicles. I am anxious to see the future article on the Sanford and Son truck. I love the truck.

More in-depth coverage on the engineering of any of the vehicles would be welcome. But then again, we all have different interests and any publication must try to appeal to many different types of readers and tastes.

As a person who is more interested in the building of cars than anything else I don't even read the bits of the turn key race cars (ie the fastest ones) but the stories of the fairmont wagon and that dodge thing that no longer looked remotely like whatever it was (challenger? I don't remember) I enjoyed quite a bit.

The results are usually the same. Buying a ready to go race car is usually faster than building a street car up so nothing is really a suprise.

The UTCC is a triumph of dollars over ingenuity. The Challenge is ingenuity and determination over everything else. I prefer to read about the challenge cars and their interesting modifications but understand that they don't sell magazines as well as corvette buyers guides or BMW chip shootouts or other things I skip past.