Drift mags.

[YorkshireRam]

Originally Posted by Dori Mat

i "think" there was a mk4 escort cabby in redline a couple of months ago i say think because it was so over the top i couldn't actually tell exactly what it was stavros maybe able to confirm what it was ,it was beige with brown interior and range rover rear lights

That 'car' belongs to a guy local to me, dreadful but each to their own.

Does drifting ever get into Motorsport News? Don't think I've ever seen it listed in there. Drifting is still viewed as a 'chav' motorsport by the majority of on-lookers at the moment, that is, everyone I speak to about it anyway! They don't deny the skill but they often dispute the point!

I'm not interested in magazine coverage myself as my 'sponsors' are mates and we do it for a laugh on a sunday with a cheapo car. I know it's different for a majority of the lads in EDC and it's important that we can widen the spectatorship (is that a word?! lol!) so it can be taken more seriously.

Any coverage is good so long as it doesn't mis-inform imo. Video does drifting so much more justice than images even though we're lucky to have to some devoted and talented photographers. TV for the win.

[Dori Mat]

yeah true suppose he likes driving it

as i've said to stav on here before there always seems to be one car in redline to spoil the mag until this month where it seems to have turned a corner for the better

[Dan Goodyer]

Cas> Thanks for your individual responses. Its cleared a lot up. I have to be honest I did think you and others were aiming comments directly at me, and that's part of the reason why I think people need to be specific about their criticism. You are probably right in your claim that you could write a decent feature provided it was on the right subject matter. I was pencilled in to write the article on Phil's S14a for the cover of J-Tuner. In the end Phil wrote himself and I have to admit it was one of the best articles on a drift car I've read.

Maz> I have to agree with much of that. Hopefully I'll end up as the editor of a mag one day and will be able to implement features in that way. Funnily enough I'm planning a photoshoot on a certain well-known drift car for next week and I plan on focusing on how extra steering angle has been achieved.


Mat> The Mk4 reference might have backfired on me then! lol. I'll have to check that.


I was simply trying to say a couple of things - that people should be specific and quote mistakes/errors/bad articles and not generalise.

Also, that people are being put off of drifting because of certain people/influences. To be specific I have spoken to two magazines in the past week who have told me they are no longer looking to feature anything to do with drifting. hell yeah TV will help 'spread the word', but mags will still help. Despite what people think I sincerely doubt they will die out. I'm just passing information on.

Hopefully peace can now be restored to DW? lol.

[SteveC200]

Originally Posted by Carolgees

To be specific I have spoken to two magazines in the past week who have told me they are no longer looking to feature anything to do with drifting.

Did they say why?

[Stavros]

Any bollocks here, pls disregard, im fricked, been out all night, but now im getting on my high horse, lol

Two mags dont want to feature anything to do with drifting?
What mags are they Bobby? Spanish Homes and Simply Knitting? Thas madness if they performance car mags!
Deffo wont be Redline anyhow, its unlikely there will be a single issue without anthing drift related (SVA challenge feature in the next issue BTW! And a REALLY cool drift car while ill admit id never heard of before the issue after that, which i love longtime, G.I.), and now more so than ever.

As per what DoriMatt said, im sure anyone whos read Redline for that last, I dunno, year or more, have noticed its a lot more tech and performance than the other mainstream ones by FAR, but not totally.
For the last 6months or so its been even more so, but at the same time theres always been one bloody car each month that totally goes against the grain and is some chavvy tack-tastic motor, as per the aformentioned cabby, etc.
Dont get us wrong, weve noticed this too, and none of us think its a good call, even the suits.

Shortly, even tho we more technically correct than most the "serious" mags already (seems to me a lot of the "serious" mags use a lot of fancy words and good rep to make people think they right, but they often far from it), we are shortly going totally serious, not turning into some old fart mag, still being fun, but no more fanny and childish layouts, no more chav spec shit, JUST performance and nicely done stuff, which basically, what we in to.

Regarding freelancers, i gotta admit, many have no idea, but thats exactly the same as many staff writers, there no difference, freelancer or not.

Cant really differentiate between freelancers and staffers as most freelancers USED to be staffers anyhow, but chose to go it alone.

Basically there a lot of people who do well in the biz due to their writing skills and convincing people they right, regardless of if they are or not.
And on the flipside there ones who may not be as good a "writer" as such, but actually have a clue what they on about, no bullshit, just have the knowlege. And when it comes down to it, they the folk you really want, surely.

Smaller mags use freelancers a lot more, so suffer worse from this.
I rememeber J-Tuner had a few features written by freelancers that was utter dogturd, and they were never used again, but it was a shame, but kinda unavoidable unless you stick with a proven few.

Some freelancers really know their shit, thinking off the top of my drink/drug affected head, BobbyC (ie Carolgees, above) knows what hes writing about and is really into cars, and Carlin Gerblich (or however you spell his name!) is great IMO, actually knows his shit, but unlike me, lol, can actually write really really well too.

Same with actual full time staff members of mags, some know stuff, some dont. Always had a LOT of respect for Ben Birch for example as he genuinely into cars and knows whats going on, not just pretending like most.
Neil Hunt (maxpower i think at mo) is another who really really knows the crack, seems a clever guy.

At our mag at mo I think we got a good setup TBH.
For example im the most geek-spec tech person which is useful as we strive to be the most correct in that manor, but on the flipside my spelling and whatnot sucks ass, lol.
Overall we all genuinley knowlegable (whitey knows some right bizzare random stuff, if you need to know anything wierd about obscure cars, ask him!), if anyone unsure of something technical they gonna write they wont jus blag it, they will ask someone who DOES know, to make sure its correct.
And in the same way, certain jobs are given to certain people, whoever knows the most about the subject. I know frick all about ICE and show cars, so I wont get anything like that, for example, as if I do, it will just look as fake and shit as the writeups in other mags.

A big advantage too generally if we talking about the overall feel of the mag, is the "boss" Renton is mega into performance (owns a Scooby, R32GTR, Cossie track car, Cossie E36 BMW, etc) and was a mechanic originally, not just some journalist who happened to get a job on a car mag (ie MP editor!).

When it comes down to it, the main thing is you, the readers, or maybe most of all the POTENTIAL readers, are not mugs, and as many fancy words and claims as mags use, its easy to see straight thru em when the actual content is utter bollocks.

Hardest thing is to convince people back in to show that thats true! (and IMO why bagged mags are gay, need to be able to flick thru in the shop, then people can see its quality, and buy it).

Amen

[LiGhTnInG]

Originally Posted by Carolgees

Funnily enough I'm planning a photoshoot on a certain well-known drift car for next week

you'll have to give me more notice than this......it'll never be ready in time

[rad_brad]

I have actually regarded Redline as a serious magazine for quite a while. While of course you have the odd chav spec motor which doesn't really appeal to me, and little mess around articles like the Granny races which are normally quite amusing and a little light relief i have to say I am quite pleased with the magazine. it provides good coverage of high performance cars (Sumo Power skyline in this issue for example) and also things that relate to the general pulic such as the TrampDrift 1000.
if you say you are becoming more serious i certainly look forward to seeing the outcome

[spin-king]

OOOPS i seem to have opened up a can of worms with this topic.

Must admit its made good reading and i didnt know had writers on it for good mags.

I only asked the question about driftmags as i am trying to get into it abit more and wanted somthing else to read in work i dont know alot about the oily bits of cars as evertime i try to fix mine it gets worse so i just keep otherbist of my car and leave the oily bits to people who know what thety are doing anyways on topic.

I read banzai as this likes to cover alittle bit of drifting and was woundering if there is another mag that does it which i now know there isnt but never looked at redline as it seemed to be like maxpower which is a good mag if you are 12 so i will now be buying Redline aswell from now on.

Would nobody consider doing a small quarterly drift mag/topic that covers the seasons drifting or it there already somthing like that could be somthing that could be put up on the bards as sombody said earlier on thet forums are the way forward.

I would do it but as you can prob tell my English is crap thats why i got a F in school.

[Dan Goodyer]

Originally Posted by tupac

OOOPS i seem to have opened up a can of worms with this topic.

Yes but it's good to discuss things, despite the online fighting it often causes. Sorry for playing a large part in taking your thread WAY off topic!

The two mags I've spoken to simply aren't interested in drifting. I won't say any more because mags are entitled to privacy regarding their content. It would be unproffesional of me to say much more, but one in particular would probably surprise you.

[jap-si]

imho

i was hard on the mags on the early page but (to be fair) i was right to have my say as after all i am the reader.

BUT i have the latest copy of redline and i was presently supprised, i did find the car spec was informed and not just what you could see from the pics.

i also found the editorial informed if a little over designed and dis-jointed in places.

i would actually be inclined to buy the mag if what stavros says is correct. i found the lack of tits and ass to be a good decision but the "text in" pics and messages and the fills all over the place to be crap.

the main thing i felt was the clash off glossys articles wit the features. the articles blended in too much with the adds, (obvious the adds want to attract attention but this ment the ads blended into the articles and 190 pages blended into 1 long page).

in the main i was comparing j-tuner (i thought this had a good mix) with banzai (not factual enough) with japanese performance mag (nicley tech but dull cars(great, another boring scoob))

thanks to dan white from redline, you did as you promised (the DVD as well made me think as you guy more as human and people who care about the topic rather the media peeps in it for the kudos).

plus i think i have worked out the secret location

[Dori Mat]

stavros, all sounds good to me ,looking forward to seeing the improvements

[DavidRuston]

Carlin Gerblich = Carlin Gerbich top bloke, and uber car fanatic

Came for a passenger ride with me at Lydd - was in hesterics when I stuffed it into the tyre wall ha ha

[spin-king]

Thought i would give this thread a bump.

Has been a while since i posted it up and was woundering if anything has happened since i started this think its been a year now.

Driftings getting some good coverage (apart from one crappy itv thing on boy racers) so maybe a mag might start a drift mag or is there anyone mag that covers drifting well???

Banzia do some coverage but its only a page.

[cromwell]

thought this was a new topic, lame!

[LiGhTnInG]

Holy old topic kick batman!!!

[Ed.]

Originally Posted by spin-king

Thought i would give this thread a bump.

Has been a while since i posted it up and was woundering if anything has happened since i started this think its been a year now.

Driftings getting some good coverage (apart from one crappy itv thing on boy racers) so maybe a mag might start a drift mag or is there anyone mag that covers drifting well???

Banzia do some coverage but its only a page.

2 pages

But most of the valid points made earlier still stand, market is not there still

Ive bumped this thread as now that summer is over and championships are over/ending soon, what do people think of magazine drift coverage in 2008? Its still very much a niche market

[LiGhTnInG]

It's been awesome

[Stavros]

Of events, i think its been a bit less coverage on the whole.

Not on the cars tho, the cars are as relevant to feature as ever, maybe more so as they are getting more innovative.

Drifting gets mentioned more on the whole, but is getting less page space.

IMO there deffo enough drifting to easily fill a magazine a month, the question is would it sell enough to make it worth while? Probably no, considering how little the Jap mags, PPC, etc etc sell anyhow.

Also got the issue of who the hell would do it all, considering it would need to be pretty technical and correct, and a lot of automotive journalists know bugger all about cars, never mind drifting, lol.

Trouble with a lot of it, is with events anyhow, the people who are chuffed are the organisers and people who competed and can see their car in the mag, bit like when cruises were big in mags.
But not so sure the readers are mega excited by it all.
They love reading about awesome featue cars, love finding out info about how to do stuff etc, love checking out awesome pics from events, but whole reports from events like above with loads of random cars sideways? Think most get more from looking at the Media section here, or on Doristars.

With the right staff and right model of how the mag should be, it might work, but its a big risk, and a big ask to get all the bits needed to make it a sucsess.

Dont suppose anyone knows the sales figures for drift only mags in Japan etc? Like drift tengoku or whatever?

[Ed.]

Originally Posted by Stavros

Dont suppose anyone knows the sales figures for drift only mags in Japan etc? Like drift tengoku or whatever?

Whenever Ive seen it in the shops there, there only ever does be 3 copies max on the shelf (even on the day of release)and you might have to hunt around a bit to source a copy. Dont forget the DVD part of it too, which are sold separatley. Id say more subscribe to it than buy in the shops

[sideways.taff]

I think an UK based monthly online magazine would work rather than an "on the shelf in WHSmiths" publication. Very much like the Wrecked Magazine that features the US scene. That could work well here in the UK I think. I'd imagine there are plenty of eloquent people who go to these events that are more than capable of piecing together a few articles or write ups for an online publication. Driftworks eZine? Maybe?