Editorial number 6: By Phil James
I've been absent from a-j for a while, distracted by a new fascination with in-car video making in my shrinking spare time. However, I have been trying to write this editorial for a few weeks but events keep changing before I can finish ...and still might.
I was trying to write something about the demise of TVR. I am quite sure that some of you won't be all that bothered by the loss of a company that made "leaky V8 canoes" or, worse still, "self-detonating straight six canoes". But I bet there aren't actually that many of you because one of the wonders of TVR was that even those who would never buy one still kind of liked them being around. The automotive firmament was all the brighter for the presence of the tiny star of TVR. I shall miss TVR's sheer imagination and the steady supply of rabid vehicles.
I think it all went wrong in 2000 and 2000 was, coincidentally (or maybe not?), the last time I put down a deposit on a new TVR. After an 18 year run of ripping up the rules with a succession of increasingly brutal headline and motor show grabbers, Wheeler's TVR was clutching at straws and circumstances were conspiring against it as the Germans began depositing their towels all over TVR's beach. 2000 was also the year the Speed Six debacle began; a debacle that haunted the company to the end and distracted it from everything else that mattered.
In my opinion, Smolenski never understood what he was buying or what to do with it once he'd bought it. I met him on several occasions and he talked enthusiastically about his hopes and dreams - he was wide-eyed about uniting TVR cars, Benelli motorcycles and Bladerunner speedboats to create an uber-toyshop.
With his family's colossal wealth, you couldn't entirely dismiss it, yet in the cold light of day, the big ideas were little different from late night pub fantasies of what a great craic it would be to combine powerful engines and composite skills to make crazy vehicles. Damn it, how about a flying bicycle while we're at it? Perhaps we could phone home from it! The little boy laughed to see such fun and the cow jumped over the moon…
But perhaps the biggest problem was that Smolenski simply isn't the kind of person petrolheads wish to associate with. Smolenski had no credible public persona, no vision to subscribe to. Not like Peter Wheeler ...or Colin Chapman ...or Lee Noble ...or Enzo Ferrari ...or Ferruccio Lamborghini. Mad, bad and dangerous to know as some of these men may have been, they have imbued their cars with something intangible but irresistibly compelling to their customers.
Unfortunately, TVR's latest managers-cum-owners-to-be don't look like improving on Smolenski's reputation (apparently they are going to buy TVR from Smolenski one day and show him a profit on something he's paid too much for, twice). Their internet footprint reveals one to be a party planner and the other a car importer with a litany of serious complaints all over US motoring forums. They did have a good party to pull a sheet off a Sagaris in America though. The next Wheeler(s) they ain't.
Wheeler was the high priest of the purple brotherhood. And the brotherhood is orphaned for now. So who can or will adopt them? Or more to the point, who will the brotherhood adopt?
One possibility is Tony Stelliga at Marcos. In one way he's a bit like Smolenski in that he's come from abroad with a pot of gold and loves the idea of British sports car manufacturing, BUT he made his money himself, knows how to run a business and he's spent a lot of time with British sports car owners to understand us - he's even been on a London Tunnel Run! So he's completely different to Smolenski everywhere it counts.
Stelliga has diligently created a new car and a new organisation. Not everybody likes the look of the TSO (I think it's a "grower") and for some it's a bit snug inside, but the quality is superb, the composure on Britain's decaying road surfaces is a marvel and to nail the loud pedal is to experience what it must be like to get smacked up the arse by a sledgehammer. You can talk to Stelliga too and he's a very likeable guy. I reckon he'll make it onto the list of sports car company patrons; he deserves to. His cars will appeal to individuals who like things done properly - Marcos is where thinking TVR-types may go. Then again, that sledgehammer force is beyond any production TVR so the headbangers might follow as well.
Another possibility is returning prodigal automotive mogul Tom Walkinshaw. He has strong links with GM, an antipodean low volume manufacturer (Elfin) in his portfolio, blue chip motorsport achievements and engineering consultancy credentials. Would I be seen dead in something called an Elfin even if it does pack a big V8? Or wish to mention such a name in the pub? Er, no. But something more comfortingly familiar might work ...how about a TWR?
[as always, these are the personal opinions of Mr James and do not necessarily reflect the views of auto-journals.com - ed]Editorial no. 5: By David Yu
So the New Year is nearly upon us and it is time to reflect on 2006.
We launched auto-journals.com in April this year having worked on the idea since September 2005. Since then we have recruited well over 60 superb contributors who between them have written over 120 journal entries and we have more coming on line all the time.
I think this vindicates our initial concept that there is a large body of enthusiastic, literate car owners out there who want to regularly share their ownership experience with the rest of the world and especially with others who either own the same car or are thinking of buying one.
Hopefully it is clear that our platform allows such enthusiasts to present their reports in a professionally laid out and edited manner with ample opportunity to show off their photographic skills as well.
I must say I have hugely enjoyed launching and working on the project, even if editing duties mean I have less time to actually write my own entries, although I intend to up my own output next year.
For those of you who know of me from my other writing, auto-journals has meant that I have had less time to write for other publications too, but I was given the honour of being invited to join in with evo's Car of the Year test this October (Issue 99) as they wanted my Corvette Z06 to be included.
Since then I have met up again with evo Deputy Editor (and former Caterham Academy Race Rival) Jethro Bovingdon so that we could fully road test my newly tuned car. That issue will be out on January 10th, so have a look out for it. My own extensive journal entries on both events will of course be forthcoming imminently!
Finally, without wanting to end the year on a downer, I would just like to comment on the increasingly anti-car (certainly, fast car) society we are finding ourselves in.
The whole science of global warming and environmental issues in general is mired in political considerations, but it is obvious that motorists are an easy target for revenue gathering and "being seen to do something".
This, unfortunately, will become more so in the future, as the soothsayers, doom-mongers and spin doctors increase their stranglehold on the media.
With the imminent arrival of nationwide road pricing (cheers, Ken) and the required fitment of onboard Big Brothers, our freedom to enjoy our cars is inevitably going to be severely curtailed and sooner than most of us think.
Once that last bastion of legal speed, Germany, finally succumbs to a European wide speed limit, the last excuse the manufacturers have to make a car that can go over 80mph/130km/h will die.
So it may be politically incorrect (and maybe a little defeatist), but my New Year's message to you all is: Enjoy your cars while you can! (And, perhaps, share the joy with us…)
Editorial number 4: By Joss Ellis
Some of our regular readers may have noticed a glitch in the regularity of our updates over August and September. This was mainly caused by me moving from London to Moscow: with an uncanny ability to pick the worst day possible, I left Heathrow on the 12th of August … the weekend of the 'super high security; there might be a baby milk bomb on the plane.' I was forced to put my phone and laptop in my luggage and … I arrive in Moscow with no luggage! Excellent.
I then had to deal with the vagaries of trying to get a new laptop into Russia, which took two weeks, and then of course I had to scavenge the necessary software in order to resume auto-journals service. Ironically, I just got a working set up going when BA found my luggage three weeks after arriving…
So what's it like in the land of Ladas, Volgas and Zils? Well the driving can only be described as reckless: never wear a seat belt, drive as fast as you can, cut everyone up and even overtake on the pavement! It's just started to snow, so now the fun can really start…
I have also discovered a street racing group; no wonder their weapons of choice are Hummers, Range Rover Sports and Porsche Cayennes!
Auto-journals has been up and running for seven months now, and we've seen some major milestones:
- There are now well over 100 journals up, which represents a significant amount of original content and data, with new auto-journalists applying almost daily.
- We now have significant readership from around the world including Hrvatska (Croatia)!
- We passed the 'million hits' mark a few months ago and are well on our way to 2,000,000.
Our next steps will be to finally launch our Classifieds section, which we hope will be an exciting new way to sell your cars and a Search facility within the site that will make finding your desired journal a bit easier.
Finally we are intending to open this Editorial section up: if you have an interesting motoring opinion or news, reviews or other motoring related stories that are not necessarily centred around ownership of a particular model ,and you can write well, then please contact us at david@auto-journals.com. Who knows, the next Editorial may be yours!
Editorial number 3: By David Yu
So, two months in. "How's it going?" I keep getting asked. "Fantastically well!" is the only reply I can honestly give.
We are constantly delighted with the ever-increasing applications we get to Become a Writer (and the quality of the subsequent writing) and the feedback we are getting from readers is overwhelmingly positive. Site traffic seems to be climbing exponentially day by day.
A strong measure of the dedication (some might call it fanaticism) of our growing band of writers is the response to my recent group email saying that Tim Milne was over from the States and we both wanted to meet up with some writers.
On a frankly abysmal, showery Bank Holiday Saturday, twelve of us congregated at Thruxton race circuit's car park in deepest Hampshire, with some heroes such as Tim Skipper and Phil James having hacked over from as far as Norfolk and Milton Keynes! Matt Hunt was volunteered as the event's photographer seeing as he had the biggest camera with the most gear and he worked valiantly in the murky wet light.
In between dodging the showers and snapping cheesy group photos, the banter was convivial with some good-natured ribbing of Jamie Busby's GT3 badge on his non-GT3 996 and the carefully not-photographed rust appearing on Tim Skipper's red M3.
We even had some dedicated readers travel down to meet up, namely Jonathan Luker and my mate Rob Gunn (who says he will write about his Skyline GT-R as soon as he gets a computer!). The green Elise belongs to Brian Drought who has long promised to write about it and the Porsche 944 to Steve H who until he met us was content to be just a reader, but has now been sufficiently encouraged to start writing for us.
There was originally a plan to go into the race circuit itself to watch some 750 Motor Club racing, but the weather, the circuit's refusal to let us leave flyers on the few interesting cars in the car park and the fact that our stomachs were rumbling meant that once Matt had salvaged what he could with the poor light, we headed en masse to find some lunch.
The formation driving was remarkably well behaved (mainly because none of us knew where we were going) with only some spirited "emergency starts" pulling out of T junctions by some of us M Power drivers blotting our good-boy copybook…
Eventually, local lad Rob Gunn led us to a pub that was literally next door to the famous Micheldever Tyres emporium. A hearty lunch was enjoyed by all with much car-related chat and eventually we dispersed, but not until after Matt did some daring tracking shots stuck out of the sunroof of Steve H's 944 as the rain had dissipated for a spell.
It was a special day and Tim and I were really gratified that so many of you made the effort to come down. It was reassuring to confirm that you were all as dedicated petrolheads in real life as you are online!
Final thought about the day; Julian Munford saw fit to bring his girlfriend Michelle down in his M Coupe, but where are all the other lady petrolheads? I know you exist, and all of you must know some, so who's going to be our first female contributor?
Editorial number 2: By Tim Milne
When David, Joss and I started to think about how auto-journals might work, the big question was 'Could we get the quality of writing and photography we wanted?'
We had strong ideas about creating something that would convey the passion and enthusiasm owners feel for their cars and that would occupy genuinely new ground in the world of automotive journalism. But we needed quality contributions for it to become a reality… and boy, did we get it. We're thrilled with the journals and pictures we've received from our initial writers.
Like all things, the devil's in the detail, and as we add more writers with more diverse machinery, the little details reveal some fascinating insights about people and their cars. From Gavin Davis's self-effacing tale of his VW Vento obsession to Edward Yu's multi-million dollar convoy across the Nevada desert, people from vastly different backgrounds enjoy their cars with equal passion.
Auto-journals is as much about people as it is about cars, and we hope you enjoy the tales as much as we do. We're working hard to develop the site, and we hope that all of you will find something to keep you returning, and that some - if not many - of you will decide to join us and tell us your stories.
To all our readers and writers - thank you for everything so far…
Welcome to auto-journals!
We live in an age of information overload. There is too much easily available data for our limited brains to deal with. When it comes to the second biggest purchase most of us will ever make, namely our car, how do we decide what to buy?
Traditionally, an enthusiast would rely primarily on the opinion of his or her favourite car magazine before making a short list of cars to test drive, (and a shockingly high number even forego the test drive stage.) However, most car magazine reviews are merely a fleeting glimpse of the manufacturer's press car that the beleaguered journalist only has access to for a few days at most. Of course for an experienced impression of the car's performance, handling and functionality, these reviews will always be invaluable.
Increasingly, consumer reviews on the web are one of the first resources people turn to when they are contemplating a purchase; but certainly with regard to cars, they are only likely to get a one-off snapshot, usually written shortly after purchase and never followed up.
But what about the true, real life, long term ownership experience? What is the car really like to live with day to day? Most importantly, how does an owner, who has put his/her hard earned money into this machine, feel about it on an ongoing basis? More than any other machine, a car, particularly an enthusiast's car, engenders an emotional relationship. Like all relationships, it will have its ups and downs and will require effort to maintain, but the car is the machine in our lives that is least likely to be viewed as merely an appliance.
The objective of auto-journals is to present a growing collection of continuing stories. Of people's adventures and misadventures in their cars. Their delight and heartbreak. The reality show/soap opera of car ownership. Over time our aim is that auto-journals will become an essential reference site for anyone contemplating buying a car, as well as a place to compare and contrast experiences with owners of similar cars.
We are now in an era where the opinion of the Everyman is as valid and valued as the opinion of the professional journalist. Here is the platform for you to add your voice as a writer or simply to enjoy the experience as a reader.
As you have bothered reading this far, I can take it you are a car enthusiast. So tell your fellow car nut friends about the site and if you, or any of them, own cars you feel would be of interest to fellow enthusiasts, then email us about joining our rapidly growing band of writers.
