What's new(s)? Ferrari in periodicals.

Ah, old money and good taste!

 

With the new owners the number of interesting articles appears to be one or less.

 

The latest issue of The Road Rat landed on my doormat a few minutes ago with a pleasing amount of Ferrari content including articles on Dino Ferrari (the man), the 206/246 Dino and Gilles Villeneuve amongst other things.

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I’m not impressed with the “digitally sculpted portrait” (their words) of Enzo.

 

At least it's a whole lot better than the hideous drawing of Lewis Hamilton on the cover of first issue! I do find The Road Rat quite a strange magazine in some ways and certainly not for everyone. But... I have found enough to keep my interest through the issues such that I did renew my subscription and, cover notwithstanding, this latest issue looks the best yet for my particular interests.

By the way, I must add that both The Road Rat and Magneto land at my door well packaged in cardboard and that warrants a bonus point for both.

 

Yes, I’m a charter subscriber to both, and as an overseas customer I’m happy about the packaging. I find that I read only about half of each issue of TRR. I did love the article last year about Enzo’s favorite restaurants, including his “regular” dishes. I think Magneto is better in terms of car content, but TRR always has surprises. And I agree…the Hamilton cover was awful, but I find the Enzo image a bit much. I don’t see the point. There are photo portraits which depict him much better. And that’s my main problem with TRR. It often feels like it’s more about itself than about the subject matter.

 

I hate with a passion any car publication that doesnt have a car on the cover.
I may be odd but the cult of personality leaves me cold. Its all about the cars.

 

I actually cancelled my Motorsport subscription as I was sick of emailing them about the craggy faced old geezers they kept putting on the cover.
Give me a Chaparral 2F in full flight or a flame spitting Lancia 037!

 

I prefer buying magazines like these on the newsstand, where I can look through the issue and decide whether I want to buy or not. I can do that with Magneto, and the irony is that so far I've bought every issue because I liked the content in all of them. On the other hand, The Road Rat is NOT on the local stand so I don't have that option, and the only issue I ordered online I just did not like. I wish I could preview each issue before buying, but right now that option is not open to me.

 

According to tracking my copy has been in the U.S. for seven days and is still 2,000 miles away, not even in the hands of USPS yet.

 

Mine would appear to be in the same dilemma. Weird tracking site.

 

Now expected to be delivered Monday….eleven days from New York to Florida.

 

I'm reluctant to look at the tracking process. Just makes me angry.

 

For laughs, I went and checked the alleged progress. A week ago last Thursday, said magazine was in NJ. Now it is supposedly in Illinois.
Will wonders never cease?

 

Mine’s been sitting in beautiful Jacksonville for a day and a half…..and who wouldn’t want to be?

 

Ok, I’ve about given up on The Road Rat. It’s just too precious…more concerned with making a design statement than being more easily readable and accessible. My pet peeve….the use of gray, rather than black, tone ink. This is totally a concession to style and is nearly impossible to read when small type is used. Now, I can understand the use of smaller type when space is limited. In the case I have in mind…one of the Dino articles….there are very large margins, so there’s plenty of real estate to accommodate larger print. But I’d be happy if they just used black ink.

 

They use mules perhaps....what a joke.

 

Whilst I don't necessarily disagree with your comment about making a design statement, I'm not sure what you mean about the ink. In my copy it looks black. Indeed, black text on a white background pretty much throughout. Strange.

 

Funny how opinions vary. The Road Rat has become one of my favorites. They certainly take a 'design' flavor in the content and layout, but that's right up my ally. I also get upset when some magazines take the artsy/fartsy approach and try to be clever with typeface and type color. I didn't have any issues with reading the articles font wise. But I will agree the font size is indeed too small. Particularly for an old guy like me.

Curious what you thought about the Dino article and the cause of death. Never heard that theory.

Thought the Zora piece was good and the Sh** Ugly article by Stephen Bayley was accurate regarding car design at the moment.

It's an arty concept mag, I will agree. But I prefer that high concept, self indulgent approach then the Motor Trend/Car & Driver/Road & Track, lowest common denominator approach. Different strokes I guess.

 

I like good design, too, but TRR’s content suffers for its obsession with it, in my opinion. Design should enhance the content, not detract or distract from it.

 

Magneto magazine is now charging U.S. subscribers a shipping fee of $27.28 per year. Of all the magazines I’ve subscribed to over five or six decades I’ve never experienced this. I suppose this is so they can continue the raise that charge without having to raise the “subscription” price. This effectively raises the price to about $20/issue. It’s a nice magazine but it just isn’t worth that much to me. This is my last renewal unless they change the policy.

 

I haven't received that particular 'notice' as yet. Hmmmm.....

 

I buy my issues of Magneto at one particular Barnes & Noble store in Atlanta; curiously, it's the only local store that gets the magazine. If you're in B&N territory, check your local store to see if they carry Magneto.

 

I’m an hour away from the nearest, so a non starter for me. If there were one coming venient to me I’d definitely cancel the subscription and be a single copy buyer.