Octane Magazine:RIDICULOUS!!!

I agree that Octane often makes mistakes, however that's routine for UK classic car magazines. The writers are often young, not highly paid and I imagine under deadline pressure to deliver copy.

The business model is driven by auction house advertising and most of the road tests are just teasers for cars that miraculously appear in the next month's auction listings. Their objective is to find an angle that increases interest, authenticity comes second.

Octane is a good overall effort, with some great contributors and a clear and genuine enthusiasm for all things classic. Just be careful not to quote their "facts" to your friends without checking other sources!

 

I should add that the definitive UK classic/racing magazine is Motorsport - head and shoulders above anything else and worth buying for Nigel Roebuck's F1 report alone.

 

I'm afraid I don't understand your complaint.

 

I'm with the previous poster... whats the problem?

To summarize - Ferrari/Pininfarina built a race car, it turned out to be one of the prettiest cars ever.

whats the problem with that statement?


was the 86 June Forza article about the car at Villa d'est? or was it about the car before the show?

 

The problem is that Pininfarina was not involved in the design of the GTO.

 

x2

 

Scaglietti, not Pininfarina, designed the exterior of the 250GTO.

 

TRUE. Though being rather young myself (hey, I'm only 34..) I can't understand this. I'm also working as a freelance writer but always make sure that I got my facts straight. Yes, it takes time and research to do that.. but if you're in the business, you gotta love that. To me that's what makes it so 'rewarding'; not the (pocket)money!

Octane is known for paying little for their articles, while it seems from the enormous amount of advertising (60% of the content?) some money is coming their way.. Maybe they should invest some of it in their magazine's content?

The complaint posted here is valid. As a magazine buyer you pay good money for a magazine nowadays. I'd like to pay for the content, not for a glossy cover...

Just my 2 cts.

 

x2 Pininfarina did not design the GTO

 

That is not completely accurate, while Scaglietti was the Carrozzeria that did the final design and fabrication of the GTO, Giotto Bizzarrini had more to do with the initial design and development of the GTO. He was responsible for all of the technical solutions that shaped 250 SWB into the 250 GTO.

After The Ferrari Night of the Long Knives, Bizzarrini left Ferrari and Scaglietti finished what he started

 

Very true.

In any case, no Pininfarina involvement.

 

Compared to the other two main UK classic car magazines, Octane has a fairly small circulation (not seen figures for latter half of 2008 yet), hence the need for advertising content against editorial content to help pay the bills! Nice magazine with an interesting mix of articles and they are aiming high, but they don't seem to have hit the target for most people so far.

 

I can't understand how can this magazine publish such rubbish... Don't they have a editor-in-chief who reads all the articles and approves them before publishing?

The fact that Pininfarina had no involvement whatsoever in the 250 GTO is pretty universally known... Even by non-specialists.

 

Absolutely. Thanks for laying out the specifics.

 

Octane's editor could be described as having much to be modest about when it comes to historical classic car knowledge. The problem with 90% of motoring journos is that they've never owned an exotic car, they're just armchair experts.

Also, today's generation of journos think that a Google or Wikipedia search constitutes research. I think this is a large part of the accuracy problem - so much misinformation on the internet.

 

+1,000,000,000,000,000 !!!
Marcel Massini

 

OCTANE is not -and never was!- a good publication in terms of research. They started perfectly with great photography but dissapoint more and more. And...too much Britannia rules the waves instead of the waves are ruling Britannia!

Ciao!
Walter

 

I'm always happy to learn something. I always assumed that the '62 GTO was a Pininfarina design, I guess I was wrong!

Is it correct to say that the revisions done to the '64 GTO were styled by Pininfarina?

 

Very sad indeed.

It appears that the current magazines become more and more nothing but carriers for the ads and are further filled with advertorials rather than researched topics. They don't even try to hide it, often the article and the obligatory auction announcement appear side by side.

In case of this particular article, the fault cannot be forgiven, and several people who are assuming involvement with the publication could have rectified it before going to print.

So, how long did it take the writer to hammer the text together, and who proofread it? Or do they only proofread for spelling and punctuation?

 

Jeff,

I was thinking the same thing. The '64 looks like an LM with the engine in front. Or the other way round. I 'think' to know that the LM was a PF design (it was presented at their stand, not?), therfor the '64 GTO can't be anything else.

 

ahhh, I see.

Well, I can say is that speaking from experience... mistakes happen. Ever read your daily newspaper? There is a correction and retractions section everyday. People are human, they make mistakes. Putting the name of one design house in for the name of another doesnt necessarily mean a lack of research or a lack of editing. I know I've sent things to press after having been reviewed by 3-4 people only to have thousands of prints come back with a spelling error so egregious that it warranted a very expensive reprint.

Happens alllllllll the time.

 

See photos page 15 of the book "Ferrari 250 LM", authored by yours truly and published 1983 by Osprey Publishing Ltd in London.

Marcel Massini