Rant on Car & Driver graphics again... | FerrariChat
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Rant on Car & Driver graphics again...

Discussion in 'Other Off Topic Forum' started by James_Woods, Jul 30, 2007.

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  1. James_Woods

    James_Woods F1 World Champ

    May 17, 2006
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    James K. Woods
    #1 James_Woods, Jul 30, 2007
    Well, I just have to do it again.

    Car & Driver came in the mail this weekend. Not only have they stubbornly continued with that ultra-stupid graphic design on their road test pages, but again editorialized over how nobody likes it but they are going to do it their way anyhow.

    Now get this - in the Cadillac road test page they mention that they were unable to do braking or skid pad numbers because of rain, and guess what appears splashed all over where the skid pad numbers are supposed to go - ?

    A childish cartoon of a rain cloud!

    Don't you think they could have spent a little less time making that stupid cloud, and maybe taken an extra day to complete the road test?

    I am sorry, but I have now become convinced that Csere and Bedard have lost their collective minds.
     
  2. StickBoy

    StickBoy Karting

    Mar 5, 2004
    68
    #2 StickBoy, Jul 30, 2007
    I have been a subscriber since 1981 (11th birthday present!) and I agree that the new format is poor. I have found myself picking up copies of Road & Track and "heaven forbid!) Motor Trend.

    I would be much happier if they switched back even though they state in their mag they have no intention of doing so.
     
  3. BT

    BT F1 World Champ
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    Mar 21, 2005
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    Bill Tracy
    #3 BT, Jul 30, 2007
    I'm going back to Road and Track. The Car and Driver guys seem like they are still in middle school with their open disregard for their customers expectations.
    :(
    BT
     
  4. jsa330

    jsa330 F1 World Champ
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    #4 jsa330, Jul 30, 2007
    R&T and C&D have been crap consumer rags for a long time now.

    Best days for them were the 60's thru mid-70's.
     
  5. car-ographer

    car-ographer Karting

    Nov 15, 2005
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    Jessica G.
    #5 car-ographer, Jul 30, 2007
    Whats wrong with Motor Trend?? It's by far my favorite (American) magazine. To each his own...I was just wondering why people dislike MT so much?
     
  6. a8guy

    a8guy Formula Junior

    Nov 2, 2003
    472
    #6 a8guy, Jul 30, 2007
    I used to get all the American Mags at some point- I think Road and Track and Automobile are currently the best. However they can't hold a candle to the British Mags(Top Gear, CAR, EVO) Paper and Photograph quality is much better, writing is better, they are typically much larger. Anyways I haven't gone back- you can get subscriptions I hink to at least Top Gear in the US.
     
  7. car-ographer

    car-ographer Karting

    Nov 15, 2005
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    Jessica G.
    #7 car-ographer, Jul 31, 2007
    Yeah...i completely agree. The top 3 american mags for me would be Motor Trend (my favorite...but I am kind of biased), Road and Track, and Automobile...I have subscribtions to all 3.

    However, my favorite is Car...and Evo is a very close second (and I respect them a lot because they still use Velvia and a Hasselblad). I absolutely LOVE Top Gear, the show (who doesn't?) but I won't even pick up the magazine...their cinematography on the TV show is amazing...but their photography in the magazine is not good at all, which, being an aspiring automotive photographer, kind of turns me off.

    just my .02

    -Jess
     
  8. James_Woods

    James_Woods F1 World Champ

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    #8 James_Woods, Jul 31, 2007
    I had been buying OCTANE at the news stand for a couple of years, but it kind of disappeared recently.

    And, after having stomped all over C & D, let me say that I am not really in total love with R & T right now either. Too much non-sports-car truck & bus work + near-total lack of racing. Better editing, though.

    I will say that the overall CONTENT of this latest C & D was itself adequate: They had both the new M3 and the new Corvette, as well as an interesting photo essay on the 1967 Lemans cars (Napolis' fGT and Ferrari).

    My frustration is with the graphics, those smarty-pants editorial comments (by editors who seem to have little or nothing to say about CARS)...endless "10 best" sillyness, and I don't think "Frank Kafka's Garage" is what car people want in a technical section either. I did not find any comments on the recent F1 situation either, just a fluff picture of Kubica disentigrating.
     
  9. mfennell70

    mfennell70 Formula Junior

    Nov 3, 2003
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    #9 mfennell70, Aug 1, 2007
    Again? Are you kidding me? When they switched over, my reaction was "well, what do you want from a bunch of engineers?" I was stunned to discover they had apparently paid money for that disaster.

    In their zeal to make the magazine as ugly as possible, they didn't even bother to address the most idiotic of all their format problems: in every comparison test, the table data is scattered throughout the article. "Comparing" data about two cars requires endless flipping back and forth.
     
  10. James_Woods

    James_Woods F1 World Champ

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    #10 James_Woods, Aug 2, 2007
    An excellent point about the so-called "comparison tests".

    I went back and looked these graphics over again this weekend. I am simply amazed that the so-called "new acceleration graphics" in fact gives you LESS INFORMATION than the time honored two-dimensional X/Y graph for acceleration. And is MUCH harder to read.
    The old style gave you a great visual feel for the launch, shift characteristics, where the acceleration fell off at speed, etc.

    The "graphic" for skid pad is a never-changing 1" square red circle, with the max G force just printed in the middle. What the H is the red circle for? Because we are so dumb we don't know a skid-pad is an approximate circle???

    This approaches the 1984 Corvette LCD dash for arrogant & expensive overdesign.

    Remember way back when R & T used to even include a graphic which showed the coast-down profile to indicate aerodynamic qualities? I would not mind at all if they had this graph for braking as well.
     
  11. kizdan

    kizdan F1 Veteran

    Dec 31, 2003
    5,505
    #11 kizdan, Aug 2, 2007
    I agree, I hate it too.

    What ever happened to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", or something along those lines?
     

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