Octane Magazine:RIDICULOUS!!!

I wonder if all owners of 250GTO's know who really designed it ... must pissed Pinin Farina (family/firm) off that the most covetted Ferrari was not designed or bodied by them.

Pete

 

Maybe they did it on purpose to get lots of people posting their outrage on forums and hence lots of free advertising

Then again I buy the magazine from time to time and I fear it was just a mistake.

 

Yes they have only an outsiders understanding and are just not willing to invest the time needed for proper research.

 

Sorry for the quotation in Italian, but checking Wikipedia on the thread, the result is this:

"La carrozzeria ancora oggi molto apprezzata è frutto della collaborazione Bizzarrini-Scaglietti, e non, come di solito, frutto di una casa o di un designer specifico."

It says that the GTO's body is the result of cooperation by Bizzarrini and Scaglietti and not, as usual, the result of a single firm or designer. Spot on.

Octane 0 - Wiki 1

 

The first and ORIGINAL bible is Jess G. Pourret's book "The Ferrari Legend - Ferrari 250 GT Competition" published back in 1977 by EPA.
Marcel Massini

 

For what its worth I have left a comment on Octane's Facebook group page (created by Keith Adams author of the article) on the subject.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35654917217

 

Uhhh, so they made a mistake and gave design credit to the wrong company. Are you seriously that offended? You need to get out more, methinks.

 

A reasonable apology. Can we put it to rest now?

 

A reply from the author posted on the Octane Facebook page;



Matthew

Thank you for drawing my attention to that. A screw-up on my part, and a pretty serious one, too, considering the subject matter. Strange thing is when chatting to Fioravanti, he didn't put me right on that matter - but we were concentrating on the 1980s car...

So to all the Ferrari forum members who raised this, I apologise.

The rest of the article went uncommented, so I guess that was okay, though?

Regards
Keith

 

I'm still trying to make sense of this.

 

+100 The credibility/knowledge of Messrs Roebuck/Nye/Boddy and Cruickshank at MotorSport is without peer in the UK press.The other more popular titles suffer variously from journalese/lack of knowledge/ineptitude.

E

 

Yes love Motorsport: have been reading it for as long as I can remember: saw my first copy at the home of a friend of my father's in Madeira in the early seventies: it had a wonderful article on the Bamford collection, at the estate and I was transfixed by a photo of several cars parked in a row on the grass, was about 8 so had no idea what they were but it stayed in my mind for a long time. They were, IIRC, GTO, GTO 64, LM and Birdcage.

I mentioned this to Jo Bamford at Le Mans Classic and he said he wasn't born back then but knew that article very well!

best regards,

Marc

 

The gold standard.

 

Bizzarrini had a way of pissing off people and he was more than capable of engineering designing and testing a car from the ground up. Ferrari must have had a lot of confidence in him to allow this. I find this topic interesting and would like to learn more about Ferrari and Bizzarrini's relationship during those years. The Bizzarrini books don't say to much about this.

 

On the subject of Octaine, they featured a report on the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans by veteran
Peter Brock.

Brock's report included highlights of French racer turned team owner Henri Pescarolo and gave
mention of Pescarolo as being a "two time" Le Mans winner.

Of course, anyone with any memory of Le Mans history knows that Pescarolo was a four time
Le Mans champion, and if the record is uncertain there are any number of records posted either
online or in print (perhaps in the very press guide the ACO gives to credentialed reporters and
photographers each year) available as a fact check.

So, not only did this error from the veteran Mr. Brock, it got past the editors. And, when
someone called them on this, the editor admitted the mistake and that he could have turned
to any of the record books on his desk to make the correction but he failed to.

In any opinion, in this and the subject discussed here, it amounts to laziness on the part
of Octaine.

RM

 

I usually pick up Octane at the news stand. I switched to it from Classic and Sports Car because their articles seemed contain almost no real information. I, also, have noticed many incorrect statements in Octane, and if they continue I don't think I will be buying many more. It is too bad since I think their general format and inclusion of other interests such as watches is interesting.

 

If you think magazines are bad, you should see what gets thrown up online.

It makes me wonder why we don't see more quotes and cites in these articles? Do all these journalists really think they came up with all the info themselves?!?

The notion of exclusivity is elitist and besides the point.

 

The differnce is that there are writers who bring bread on the shelve and writers with integrity.

 

With exception of the blatant error, is the rest of the article any good?

And if you already have "Ferrari GTO" by Paolo Murani, Stefano Pasini and Luigi Orsini (published by Automobilia) does the article add something worthwile or is it the usual Octane commercial talk for an upcoming classic car auction plus some fancy pictures?

 

Octane is definitely not alone on this one.

How about this one:

"By 1962, however, it was becoming clear that the 250 GTO was aging, and that remaining competitive would require something completely new."

Source:

http://www.rmauctions.com/CarDetails.cfm?SaleCode=LF08&CarID=r111&Currency=

 

The non niche Car magazines have low circulation figures. Going bust seems to be potentially just round the corner save for the established Classic & Sportscar, Classic Cars and possibly now EVO.

Accord. to ABC Circulation figures Classic Cars sells 34,589 copies, EVO 73,511, Octane 28,334. Not all at full cover price. Turnover excluding advertising ranges from a max of £1.3 M to £3.5 M. These are small enterprises.

Don't know about the advertising revenues or costs involved in publishing and distributing. I don't know how much is left to pay journalists, but gather they are not well paid in the main, and have also noticed that few are permanently employed. The car magazine business does look difficult and at the mercy of the large publishers.

I agree that the magazines should strive to research and authenticate and standards can be dissapointing.

However, I can tell you that having grown up in tribally divided hicksville where I didn't see a Ferrari until I was 13 and that was in another country, that these magazines were a window into a wonderful world. I can remember walking home from school with money saved, stopping at the Newsagent, and because I couldn't afford them all, checking the articles and buying the one I really wanted. I remember reading in the Autocar that the full roadtest of the Ferrari 456 would be in next weeks issue, the anticipation, the buying, the reading and re-reading in double maths, the subsequent confiscation and the difficult retrieval from angry teacher. I remember washing many cars to buy everything I could find with the Ferrari 355 in it in 94.

Today I still look forward to each new issue in the post and though I may be more critical I am realistic about what I can expect. Octane have done well to get their circulation to the level of the No 2 classic car magazine in a short period. Perhaps they will work on improving the editorial standards. But if it goes under I will be dissapointed. You just have to look at Supercar Classics to see what happens when the publishing company says no more, or Car when a publisher dictates a more comercially viable route.

I guess what I am trying to say is that to sell to a market that is not made of limitless well informed discerning readers and where the path to the retail shelf is difficult you can end up with a flawed product.

I bet you that this issue was bought by 12 year olds all over the world who haven't noticed the errors, but whose enthusiasm is being is being nutured in an accessible affordable way. Hey, they might even ask for a quality book about Ferrari for Christmas as a result of reading this article.

Heres to the Harry Metcalfe's of this world and down with grumpy old men.

 

Very well put, and I'm in total agreement.

I can't help but think this whole discussion has been a storm in a teacup.....

Tim

www.fluidimages.co.uk