Sport Compact Car Magazine, Now Among the Angels
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No, it is quite a bit worse.
For example, it was faster for me to search google for the k20 MR-S than their own website to find the article on it.
SS
They also never do real fabrication or junkyard builds. Their swaps always end up going through some middle man to get adapters, wiring harnesses, mounts, and such. Instead of Sport Compact Cars features where they would go get a turbo of a Saab in a junkyard and bolt it to an SR20DE or a D powered Civic they had. And try to do the whole thing for under a grand.
Super Street is a poseur magazine for Fast and Furious fans that aren't really car guys but want to look it. Virtually every cover car of Super Street has been rice, and they'll talk more on the stereo system in the car instead of the work on the motor.
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Joey D
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Did any of you consider the reason it got the boot was because it wasn't selling? Obviously they weren't putting up the numbers the firm wanted, thus being cancelled. I don't think anyone, especially in this economy, would scrap something actually making money.
SCC was a decent enough magazine, but I haven't owned a car that is talked about in there since I had my Neon some six years ago, so I can't really make an accurate judgement.
SCC was a decent enough magazine, but I haven't owned a car that is talked about in there since I had my Neon some six years ago, so I can't really make an accurate judgement.
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what does this have to do with anything?
i didn't say SS is better or more hardcore than SCC so why are you comparing the two?
i really dont know why u say this. because there's showroom cars in the mag?
http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind....viewPicture&friendID=9666541&albumId=1106511
http://www.superstreetonline.com/features/index.html
http://www.superstreetonline.com/techarticles/index.html
yes, all rice and stereos
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Keef
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Not to mention the technical suspension articles that really got me into the inner workings of their operation and tuning. These guys had me looking through my old math class notes to try and make sense of it all. I love it.
Speaking of which, I just found out that Grassroots Motorsports holds an annual Ultimate Track Car Challenge. I feel like the two magazines should collaborate, because that comparison test would be the perfect compliment to SCC's Ultimate Street Car Challenge. The 2008 version of which I just picked up in the form of the December 2008 issue, along with the January 2009 issue.
GRM also holds a $200X challenge. This year it was the $2008 Challenge, in which you build a car for $2008 and race it through all sorts of tests. There's a lot of clever engineering in that one.
^That G35 got hardparked at SEMA and won the Gran Turismo Best in Show award.
^Both of those Hondas get hardparked at the Eibach Honda meet in California every year. I've seen them. They've also been prettied-up in Honda Tuning, which is all about JDM wheels and slammed suspensions.
^Next year I'm doing a count of how many times Super Street prints the word "Tokyo".
Paint-matched wheels and a twin-turbo version of one of the worst V12 engines ever designed. This car is the poster child for show-car enthusiasts around the world.
Every single cover from that year of SS had a show girl on it. Every one of them.
On the contrary...
But, arguing aside, What do you guys think will become of SCC? You must admit that there are very few offerings for hardcore performance enthusiasts which are also blessed with great writing, photography, and testing. As mentioned, Grassroots Motorsports has some room for improvement. But as for SCC, I'd love to see the editors get together and start something new. Possibly even using the same name. Maybe another publisher can pick it up. Maybe the hiatus is temporary. Hopefully it'll come back.
Speaking of which, I just found out that Grassroots Motorsports holds an annual Ultimate Track Car Challenge. I feel like the two magazines should collaborate, because that comparison test would be the perfect compliment to SCC's Ultimate Street Car Challenge. The 2008 version of which I just picked up in the form of the December 2008 issue, along with the January 2009 issue.
GRM also holds a $200X challenge. This year it was the $2008 Challenge, in which you build a car for $2008 and race it through all sorts of tests. There's a lot of clever engineering in that one.
^That G35 got hardparked at SEMA and won the Gran Turismo Best in Show award.
^Both of those Hondas get hardparked at the Eibach Honda meet in California every year. I've seen them. They've also been prettied-up in Honda Tuning, which is all about JDM wheels and slammed suspensions.
^Next year I'm doing a count of how many times Super Street prints the word "Tokyo".
Paint-matched wheels and a twin-turbo version of one of the worst V12 engines ever designed. This car is the poster child for show-car enthusiasts around the world.
Every single cover from that year of SS had a show girl on it. Every one of them.
On the contrary...
But, arguing aside, What do you guys think will become of SCC? You must admit that there are very few offerings for hardcore performance enthusiasts which are also blessed with great writing, photography, and testing. As mentioned, Grassroots Motorsports has some room for improvement. But as for SCC, I'd love to see the editors get together and start something new. Possibly even using the same name. Maybe another publisher can pick it up. Maybe the hiatus is temporary. Hopefully it'll come back.
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keef, would you recommend Grassroots Motorsport over RaceCar Engineering?
I also heard something about a "Free month of iRacing" deal going on with GMM. Is this still available?
I also heard something about a "Free month of iRacing" deal going on with GMM. Is this still available?
Keef
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Racecar Engineering is a nice place to learn about technology, techniques, and the workings of the R10's diesel engine. But it doesn't help me keep my Civic stuck to the autocross track. That asshole in the Protege always seems to be just a second ahead.
I'm not sure if the offer is still up or not. My laptop isn't powerful enough to run it so I never really considered playing it.
EDIT:
Joey:
That, as opposed to...
That.
But again, for the new page:
Keef
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Well, most real magazines have search engines that you can actually find what you are looking for with.
Because you tried to make it sound as if they are comparable. That is why.
Because their articles generally have the word JDM in them more than anything else I've ever seen. They covet it, worship it, and so on.
Look at all the times I see the word JDM. And features on show cars. There is very little "real" material there.
Super Street = guy that talks about JDM wheels and how he took his civic to a shop and got it boosted.
Sport Compact Car = guy that talks about making his own exhaust and getting parts off cars at the junkyard for his Civic.
Back to topic, I am hoping the editors and writings of SCC come together to start a new project of some sort. I haven't quite found a magazine I enjoy as much as SCC. I still pick up old issues I have at my house and read through them over just because of the quality.
Keef
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Hachette Filipacchi Media is the publisher of Car and Driver and Road & Track. Those are the only two automotive magazines they offer, and both are big names. Neither of them offer much in the way of technical write-ups and tuning, or at least not enough to satisfy me. Maybe...
I don't understand why Source Interlink wouldn't just sell off a name that wasn't making them money. Plus they "laid off" SCC's employees. I'm guessing they plan on bringing it back, but by then I think it will be dead. I hope another publisher takes the initiative to take on a small audience mag, even if it does lose money.
I don't understand why Source Interlink wouldn't just sell off a name that wasn't making them money. Plus they "laid off" SCC's employees. I'm guessing they plan on bringing it back, but by then I think it will be dead. I hope another publisher takes the initiative to take on a small audience mag, even if it does lose money.
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I ended my long term subscription to Super Street because their layout has gotten to the point that you can't tell where the articles start and the ads begin.
With SS, you go through about 10+ pages before you get even close to some actual article or something that is not ad related.
Once Nads, Carter, and a couple of others left, the magazine went down hill.
Project car is no better when it comes to actual articles that I can use or would have any information that would pertain to what I'm doing with my car.
SCC has been a plethora of knowledge for me from the 'Making it Stick' articles to the USCC. Their project cars have been a wealth of useful information that anyone with a sense of car knowledge can use for their own vehicle which is something I've yet to see with the other magazines.
It still amazes me that most of the car magazines, you never see the suspension setups with pictures but always focus on the engine, interior, and what kind of stereo resides in the featured car.
If SCC really is going away, the only other magazines I'll be subscribed to would be DSport, Import Tuner, and Modified magazines.
That doesn't take into account the Sport Rider, Motorcyclist, and Cycle world magazines I subscribe to also.
If SCC really is going away, I have years of their magazines in storage which I'd take out, and reread just to relearn what I may have lost over the years of having them in my magazine rack. Farewell SCC. You'll be sorely missed.
With SS, you go through about 10+ pages before you get even close to some actual article or something that is not ad related.
Once Nads, Carter, and a couple of others left, the magazine went down hill.
Project car is no better when it comes to actual articles that I can use or would have any information that would pertain to what I'm doing with my car.
SCC has been a plethora of knowledge for me from the 'Making it Stick' articles to the USCC. Their project cars have been a wealth of useful information that anyone with a sense of car knowledge can use for their own vehicle which is something I've yet to see with the other magazines.
It still amazes me that most of the car magazines, you never see the suspension setups with pictures but always focus on the engine, interior, and what kind of stereo resides in the featured car.
If SCC really is going away, the only other magazines I'll be subscribed to would be DSport, Import Tuner, and Modified magazines.
That doesn't take into account the Sport Rider, Motorcyclist, and Cycle world magazines I subscribe to also.
If SCC really is going away, I have years of their magazines in storage which I'd take out, and reread just to relearn what I may have lost over the years of having them in my magazine rack. Farewell SCC. You'll be sorely missed.
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Ees becos Ceeveecs suck... the Protege rules!!! Wahahaha... Seriously... our Protys may suck in terms of the power-to-weight department, but a well-prepped Proty with a turbo and a good driver is incredibly quick. Great chassis. Still, with some extra stiffening, your lighter car should be faster, in the end.
That's the thing that I'll miss, most of all... the ability to pick up an issue of SCC and get utterly absorbed in the minutiae of car set-ups.
GrassRoots Motorsports is okay, but the sheer technical depth isn't there... they'll teach you how to go racing with a beater which you've bought as a second or third car... but SCC will teach you how to go racing with the daily driver you weren't really planning to race with. There's a big difference in that small distinction.
Keef
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I just got the latest issue of Automobile, for January 2009. It's a Source Interlink publication, like SCC. As I picked it up I thought of Source Interlink and the fact that SCC issues have gotten so thin over the past few months. This issue is only 112 pages thick--about as much as these last fateful issues of SCC. In October 2008 it was 154 pages.
Might this be a sign of things to come?
Might this be a sign of things to come?
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I had been reading SCC since around 1999. Not exactly since the beginning, but not quite a newcomer to it. During that time, it's shrunken in size to perhaps a third of what it was in 1999. Sure, lots of advertising space was lost, but so were a lot of articles.
However, what the problem really seems to be is the turnover of staff, and not just the fact that there was turnover, but the successors were never a good choice. Each was a lesser choice than his predecessor. None of these guys seem to have had any real experience. It's all on-the-job or on-the-street training. Whatever they learned, they learned themselves. Nothing formal, and nothing substantial. This is not to say that they were clueless, but it really shows in their writing. Even Mike Kojima didn't seem to be able to properly express himself. When the lack of coherency is that consistent from year to year and writer to writer, it's not the writing skills that are in need, but the education. You can't expect to have much credibility when you can't teach what you don't know.
However, what the problem really seems to be is the turnover of staff, and not just the fact that there was turnover, but the successors were never a good choice. Each was a lesser choice than his predecessor. None of these guys seem to have had any real experience. It's all on-the-job or on-the-street training. Whatever they learned, they learned themselves. Nothing formal, and nothing substantial. This is not to say that they were clueless, but it really shows in their writing. Even Mike Kojima didn't seem to be able to properly express himself. When the lack of coherency is that consistent from year to year and writer to writer, it's not the writing skills that are in need, but the education. You can't expect to have much credibility when you can't teach what you don't know.
Cano
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That is sad news indeed. In a country where there is not a single car magazine that actually teaches you anything, I had relied on technical tidbits from the likes of hot rod and car craft of course, but when I got interested in compact cars making stupid power (thanks in large part to this Forum) I immediately went to SCC whenever I could find it (the company that imports such mags here brings them over whenever they want, so it was tough to find, any of them). When I write something that’s more or less technical (at least as technical as the mag will let me be, because as much as you diss super street, compared to the mag I work for, it could be the Encyclopedia Brittanica, SCC is just on another level, and so is the people that reads it, Mexicans are retarded), I always tried hard to imitate the style and useful info found on these magazines. SCC will be really really missed, even if I did not read it that much. Damn.
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I think the proof that they are out of touch with things is the latest issue covering the engine build contest. They came up 6th out of 7, with only the meatheads from LowRider below them. The Cosworth VQ is without doubt a great engine, but it didn't exactly take advantage of the rules. In fact, it did downright horrible within the contest, even if their reasoning for doing what they did is sound. They could have done better, but they just don't know any better.
Keef
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I don't believe their goal was to win the contest. Their goal was to design a better engine. They did it the hard way, and I bet their engine is more reliable and driveable than any of the others. Cosworth was by far the best tuning company utilized in the contest, with the longest history and the most racing experience.
The people at SCC are absolutely in touch--to a small audience of hardcore enthusiasts.
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They did the incredibly geeky thing of building a racing motor instead of slapping on a snail. Obviously, that's not going to win the dyno-contest, but that's an awesomely nerdy build... well... maybe too nerdy... the idea of using a naturally aspirated engine to work around the multiplier given for turbos is sound, but given the right turbo, you can eff the multiplier and just make gonzo power.
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I think you didn't quite get what I wrote. I know it's technically a superior engine: more reliable, more usable (outside of the drag strip), and has far more provenance. And I do think they're in touch with the audience. The problem is that they resemble the audience too much, rather than actually being more informed. Their intentions are good, but their actions show a lack of ability to properly carry out the tasks they set for themselves.
Keef
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I opened my new Motor Trend just a bit ago and I was greeted by an order form...for Automobile magazine. That marks the first time since I started getting these magazines in 1999 that they've advertised a rival in any one of my four mags. Hell, usually they just reference each other by writing "you know who". Also, Motor Trend hasn't gotten any thinner.
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Wow. Just wow. I'm in utter shock right now. I just stumbled across this thread, ironically on the same day I received the February 2009 issue of Sport Compact Car, which will most likely prove to be the last issue I ever receive. Honestly, the thought of which makes me very sad.
I don't know if its weird to have such an attachment to a magazine, but I most certainly have one in SCC. I've had a subscription since 2003.. over five years now. Wow, that puts me back to my sophmore year of high school. Back to before I bought my first car and about the time I began to develop this insatiable passion for cars. I'd be lying if I told you SCC didn't play a part in my growth for love of all things automotive. I grew up reading Dave Coleman's technobabble and can't tell how much I've learned from his column.
I've seen editors come and go.. Scott Oldham, Josh Jacquot, Ed Loh, and Joey Leh; but somehow Sport Compact Car always managed to retain the quality of it's content. The articles never swayed toward the cheezy or "ricey" substance that you find in the likes of Super Street, Import Tuner, D-Sport, and every other "tuner" magazine on the market. Similarly, SCC never resorted to portraying half naked models on it's pages to sell magazines. It never had to, because the quality of its material was always that much better than anybody else. SCC just had so much class.
They always weeded out the superficial stuff that other magazines got tripped up with. I mean the body kits, 19" rims, and gull wing doors. They never had any of that. Eliminate all the superficial stuff from those other tuner mags and you realize what a joke they are. SCC always just stuck with the stuff that mattered. The hardcore tech stuff. They told it like it was. Its a shame that other tuner mags sold better because people buy into the artificial content. I can honestly say there isn't a car magazine I will consistently read now. It's just a real shame.
I don't know if its weird to have such an attachment to a magazine, but I most certainly have one in SCC. I've had a subscription since 2003.. over five years now. Wow, that puts me back to my sophmore year of high school. Back to before I bought my first car and about the time I began to develop this insatiable passion for cars. I'd be lying if I told you SCC didn't play a part in my growth for love of all things automotive. I grew up reading Dave Coleman's technobabble and can't tell how much I've learned from his column.
I've seen editors come and go.. Scott Oldham, Josh Jacquot, Ed Loh, and Joey Leh; but somehow Sport Compact Car always managed to retain the quality of it's content. The articles never swayed toward the cheezy or "ricey" substance that you find in the likes of Super Street, Import Tuner, D-Sport, and every other "tuner" magazine on the market. Similarly, SCC never resorted to portraying half naked models on it's pages to sell magazines. It never had to, because the quality of its material was always that much better than anybody else. SCC just had so much class.
They always weeded out the superficial stuff that other magazines got tripped up with. I mean the body kits, 19" rims, and gull wing doors. They never had any of that. Eliminate all the superficial stuff from those other tuner mags and you realize what a joke they are. SCC always just stuck with the stuff that mattered. The hardcore tech stuff. They told it like it was. Its a shame that other tuner mags sold better because people buy into the artificial content. I can honestly say there isn't a car magazine I will consistently read now. It's just a real shame.
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-> SCC will be very missed, I currently have a decent amount SCC mags on hand that I keep for future reference (along with Car and Driver). And no other tuner magazine that teaches you instead of teasing you.
-> I would also think that the SCC crew will eventually band together again in not so distant future. Or by fans (eventually) overwhelming response, SCC might jump to a different publishing company, we may never know. Source Interlink are just greedy idiots.
-> I would also think that the SCC crew will eventually band together again in not so distant future. Or by fans (eventually) overwhelming response, SCC might jump to a different publishing company, we may never know. Source Interlink are just greedy idiots.
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What's funny is that I've not read anything in the magazine that says they're going bye bye.
I'm still trying to figure this out.
I was rummaging through some of the SCC's of the past and wow, they were big, high quality, and with lots of advertising.
They're much smaller now but still around.
I'm still waiting for someone to show me proof that they're about to close the doors.
I'm still trying to figure this out.
I was rummaging through some of the SCC's of the past and wow, they were big, high quality, and with lots of advertising.
They're much smaller now but still around.
I'm still waiting for someone to show me proof that they're about to close the doors.
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