Sport Compact Car Magazine, Now Among the Angels

[Keef]

There's never been an automotive news article that actually made me sad. Or even angry for that matter. Until this one. My automotive enthusiasm, interest in car and go kart racing, and hunger for knowledge has been driven by this magazine specifically for the past couple years. I should have gotten a subscription earlier; my plan to wait for my others to expire bit me in the butt. Damn.

Discuss.

 

[Azuremen]

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Crap, now every "import" and "compact" magazine are just ricer feasts.

Dave Coleman's insane antics and explanations will be missed. And their project cars that were real projects.

 

[nissan tuner]

this sucks...

Crap, now every "import" and "compact" magazine are just ricer feasts.

what? superstreet and eurotuner is really good!

 

[Azuremen]

this sucks...



what? superstreet and eurotuner is really good!

Honestly, I can't tell if you are being sarcastic...

 

[Keef]

Superstreet and Eurotuner are trash. SCC's focus had evolved into the science of fast cars and fast driving. They did it with lots of money, they did it with little money, they showed other people who did it, and they enjoyed objective testing and thorough theoretical and mathematical analysis of how cars work. Their technical articles and mechanical knowledge was spectacular. The last thing on their minds was looking good--unlike those two hardparking publications.

That said, I sent Source Interlink Media's PR manager an email explaining why I'll be laying down the beautiful glossy pages of Automobile for good and throwing all my Motor Trends in the fire come Monday.

 

[Azuremen]

What sucks even more, I just realized, is that USCC won't be happening anymore. And I was hoping to enter into that next year or following.

Source Interlink Media can go to hell. . .

 

[Perfect Balance]

This really really sucks. I had just renewed my subscription, just didn't get around to paying it. Good thing I didn't, but man, this sucks big time. This was the only magazine I really looked forward to and actually had a subscription to.


Dammitdammitdammitdammit!

There's still RaceCar Engineering magazine, but that is really into motorsports and not street. Superstreet has decent features, but it sucks as a place to get information and learn.

 

[HACKr]

God I really liked this one too! I share your pain gentlemen.

 

[Keef]

I can't imagine some other company not picking this mag up and starting it again. It's too good to let go.

 

[V1P3R]

After having the internet these days, I felt any kind of magazine subscription was a waste of time. I didn't think magazines would still be around, but some how they still are.

 

[buickgnx88]

Well what else do you look at while sitting on the crapper?

 

[V1P3R]

I don't spend time in the bathroom unless I absolutely have to. Also, the idea that there would be mags around that are from the bathroom is absolutely gross.

 

[Muzaffar]

Well that is sad to hear, even though I never really followed SCC over the years. But there are a few articles in that magazine that were way better than SS or IT. Also, I used to follow SS a lot until I couldn't afford to buy them. But some of the original staff also has left such as Ricky Chu (who started Project Car Magazine), Carter Jung (left for Import Tuners), John Naderi (who started RiceBoyTV)

So yeah, not really following anything now. I'm not sure if anything could replace SCC but Project Car maybe could be a good substitute......

 

[niky]

Damn ****!!!

SCC, though it's grown thinner over the years, is one of the best magazines there was for tuners... hell... it was the Magazine... Coleman and Kojima (fellow NissanForum guy from back in the days) are some of the most knowledgable hacks there are when it comes to modifying... Kojima practically wrote the book on Civic and Sentra modifications, and was a bottomless font of knowledge about turbos... Those two guys are worth an entire rack of "editors" for any of the big three US motoring mags.

I'm going to miss SCC... terribly.

 

[Perfect Balance]

So yeah, not really following anything now. I'm not sure if anything could replace SCC but Project Car maybe could be a good substitute......

In project car magazine, they just take random sport compact cars and "tune" them (bolt on a few parts) and dyno them. It's not even close to a substitute.

Damn ****!!!

SCC, though it's grown thinner over the years, is one of the best magazines there was for tuners... hell... it was the Magazine... Coleman and Kojima (fellow NissanForum guy from back in the days) are some of the most knowledgable hacks there are when it comes to modifying... Kojima practically wrote the book on Civic and Sentra modifications, and was a bottomless font of knowledge about turbos... Those two guys are worth an entire rack of "editors" for any of the big three US motoring mags.

I'm going to miss SCC... terribly.

Mike Kojima just put together a new "Dog Car" called the Dog Car 2. It's in the latest January issue of SCC. It really is an awesome awesome car.

Coleman and Kojima will be missed. I hope though, the "laid off" part means they might be hired again some day, and while they might not restart SCC, they might start another magazine with the same ideas.

 

[exigeracer]

Grassroots Motorsport has more of the grimy DIY of Sport Compact Car minus the glossy showcars from Japan or other high-budget features. It's a good read, but I will miss flipping through an SCC on occasion.

 

[Perfect Balance]

Grassroots Motorsport has more of the grimy DIY of Sport Compact Car minus the glossy showcars from Japan or other high-budget features. It's a good read, but I will miss flipping through an SCC on occasion.

Most of the "glossy showcars from Japan" had rock chipped front bumpers and a track history.

 

[YSSMAN]

Its been a bad year for car magazines like this in general, none of them are "safe" anymore. Out of all the "tuner" magazines, I enjoyed SCC the most, as Keef pointed out, it was one of the better-written and certainly more insightful ones out there. Truth be told, its probably been at least a year since I picked one up, the last time I can remember seeing one was in a Discount Tire... I think.

Hmm.

So what does that leave us with in this genre? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Super Street is dead? Same with Import Tuner? Has the "tuner culture" collapsed this much?

 

[homeforsummer]

I feel for you guys. We don't get SCC in the UK but I did leaf through one when I was over in the US last year and it seemed to be a very professional magazine. I've gone through the same thing when a UK magazine called Cars and Car Conversions (known as "Triple C") died. It had been around since the 1960s so was one of the very first car tuning magazines, dealing originally with cars like the Mini Cooper and Escort Mk1, and were the magazine who originally set up the well known feature of Ayrton Senna driving rally cars in a Welsh forest. The magazine that replaced it a year or so later, Track and Race Cars, isn't really the same.

I only hope another mag springs up from SCC's ashes so you guys have something to read!

 

[niky]

The Dog Car? Love that thing... a professionally done beater... when Kojima does a project car, he does it wonderfully over-the-top... overkill suspension, overkill engine builds, etcetera... I loved their GA16 project... take a really crap motor, do absolutely everything to it, and see how much power you can eke out of it... brilliantly stupid (Its an ethos a lot of us have taken to heart... if life gives you lemons, make super-lemons out of them... ).

Kojima does/did a few things for Turbo Magazine... and he had that side project, Nissan Performance Magazine... online-only... lots of nerdy projects, but sadly, now R.I.P... I miss that one, he had some good people on-board with him there, they only died because of a sad confluence of money problems, ISP issues and forum-politiks... other car makes and clubs should have been so lucky, to have a professional crew creating a tuner mag specifically for them.

I really hope he and Coleman come up with something new.

 

[Omnis]

SCC was the only car magazine of which I've ever bothered to read cover-to-cover more than one copy.

This sucks. Why can't they cancel their other magazines instead? More people are into small cars anyway.

 

[Muzaffar]

A little OT, but while I was out today, I stumbled upon the SCC mag and decide to buy 2 of the latest issue (Nov. and Dec.) and I'll try to give it a read tomorrow. 👍 Yeah, hopefully you guys would do the same and buy some of their last few issues and give them some support.....

 

[Gil]

Well, that sucks!
I've been reading SCC for many years. Hell, I have one around here somewhere with a review of the new Geo Storm!
I hate Super Street almost as much as I hate Guitar World Mag, and for the same damn reasons.

I guess more people are reading and buying the drivel of the Compact scene mags, than the stuff that is interesting and intelligently written.
I wonder how Project Car will fare?...

 

[Tornado]

Why can't they cancel their other magazines instead? More people are into small cars anyway.

Exactly. After remembering who published SCC, the first thing that came to mind was "We missed another chance to not have to put up with Motor Trend anymore."

 

[nissan tuner]

Superstreet and Eurotuner are trash.

you're going to have to explain this one to me. I dont read eurotuner regularly but why is superstreet trash?
(assuming that you've read the recent articles?).

SS and SCC are the only import magazine worth reading IMO

Superstreet has decent features, but it sucks as a place to get information and learn.

Fair enough. As a serious information source, it helps newcomers get on their feet but its not as in-depth like SCC.

 

[Azuremen]

lol WUT? Are you serious?

Super Street has always been the foil to Sport Compact Car.

How can I take them seriously at all, when they have features such as this...

And writing like this...

In need of a new engine, we decided the B16A was the best-fit candidate. Sure, the K series engine is superior to the older B series, but keep in mind that a K series could cost three times more, not to mention the swap parts are more expensive. B series engines have more than enough potential for this streetcar. With 160 hp on tap (115 hp in the D16A), an 8200 rpm redline, a ridiculous amount of aftermarket go-fast products and Honda's reliability, the B16A is an obvious choice. Aside from performance reasons, the original EF in Japan came with a B16A, making our EF somewhat classier, or more JDM, even.

And that they have just about as many pages dedicated to import models as to cars.

 

[Tornado]

Ooh. JDM. Fancy.

 

[Gil]

lol WUT? Are you serious?

Super Street has always been the foil to Sport Compact Car.

How can I take them seriously at all, when they have features such as this...

And writing like this...


And that they have just about as many pages dedicated to import models as to cars.

At the risk of sounding like an old man, some of us read car mags to read about cars.
If I wanted to know about "hot" 20 year old girls, and their ambitions, I'd ask my sons' female friend. And, there's always FHM and Maxim. But I for one, don't really care about "Cosmo for Men" magazines.

 

[Azuremen]

At the risk of sounding like an old man, some of us read car mags to read about cars.
If I wanted to know about "hot" 20 year old girls, and their ambitions, I'd ask my sons' female friend. And, there's always FHM and Maxim. But I for one, don't really care about "Cosmo for Men" magazines.

Trust me, you don't sound like an old man. Just a guy that would rather read about the cars than some guys hook ups at a shop or something.

Super Street isn't about cars really...

 

[nissan tuner]

lol yes its not a hardcore mag and yes its weird to do a bosozoku feature but it's not as bad as you're making it out to be Azuremen.