foolhandy

Two of the websites I visit most often are CAR Magazine and Sniff Petrol.

CAR Magazine used to be my motoring magazine of choice. I bought every copy from about 1990 until I moved to Seychelles and it became too impractical and costly to still buy it. The writing and style was excellent and I treasured each one. Since the mid-nineties though all the star writers they had have either died (Russell Bulgin, LJK Setright, Phil Llewellin) or defected (James May, Paul Horrell, Jamie Kitman). Only Gavin Green (who left for a while anyway) and Georg Kacher remain but they are overwhelmed by the bland mediocrity elsewhere. So sadly in recent years it has moved so much up its own posterior, in an attempt to distance itself from Top Gear Magazine and compensate for its relative lack of writing talent, that it’s promotional blurb reads like minutes from a marketing focus group meeting :

CAR Magazine puts you in the driving seat of the world’s best cars - first.

We’ll take you to exotic destinations in the most sensational motors, or parachute you into group tests of key new models. CAR delivers true insight on upcoming cars, sensational scoops and the inside story on the design trends, technology, people and issues shaping your next car.

Every month, CAR is packed with stunning photography and the best, boldest writing, with 20 pages on the big stories. And we are Britain’s best designed magazine, having won two top industry awards in 2007. CAR has true pedigree as Britain’s oldest motoring magazine: we invented the group test, pioneered the drive story and coined the phrase ’supercar’.

If you’re an unconventional thinker who is fascinated by everything from supercars to city cars, and wants to access all areas of the industry, get CAR Magazine.

What nonsense…

Sniff Petrol is quite different. It’s now in blog form and features spoof adverts and articles about all things automotive. Not up its own posterior at all. Just fun. And cutting.

There was a time when I’d have been up in arms about Sniff Petrol’s attacks on CAR Magazine. But not now…

When a magazine for “unconventional thinkers” updates its website with interactive features it must expect an unconventional response. Click here to read how CAR Magazine, the most coffee-table of all coffee-table magazines had ‘Cillit Bang’, ‘Bum Gravy’ and ‘Prostitutes in the Ipswich area’ on its home page.

As a PS, I would like to mention Russell Bulgin again. So much of a hero of mine is/was he that I can even forgive him his dislike of convertibles. 43. Such a shame.