Speed Magazine

[lingeringsoul]

I WAITED FOR TWO MONTHS JUST TO FIND OUT ITS FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

Hope HPI doesn't end up the same way, i don't know what i'll read if that goes

Edited October 25, 2005 by lingeringsoul

[Patto-]

I agree that Speed was a bit full of itself. It wasn't just becasue it was mature, it just seemed like it was written by wankers. Which is funny because a guy I used to know used to write for Speed. He wasn't a wanker when I knew him though.

It had good cars in it though, like FLYBYE. I remember that from a local dyno comp. That is a nice car.

2DMAX isn't too bad, but the writing definately isn't better than Speed. I guess if I had to choose between the two I would go for Speed.

Edited October 26, 2005 by shyster

[Mulkers]

I loved it. My life revolved around when the next issue would come out (consequently I am in limbo:))

That aside, I think it was the best presented, most simple, yet informative, and most entertaining magazine on the market.

The 2DMAXX that is replacing it looks like $H!t and is not appealing to the same or a similar audience, as are street machine etc which they claimed would increase in sales due to the discontinuation of SPEED

[lingeringsoul]

so 2dmxx or what ever the crap they call themself is supposed to replace Speed.............they wish........i just got so turned off by all the pimp crap in the mag

[xRHETTx]

Yeah the last issue was the one with the Pink drift silvia on the front and the story about the SAU-Vic great ocean road cruise.

Its a shame that its gone, i only started reading it and found it better than HPI. And my car was in a few pics in the last issue (albeit in the background!)... maybe my car will become a collectors edition.

[MacGuyver]

Yeah the reason I liked it was for the maturity, also they were just starting to feature some write ups on some really awesome 'classics' like a Ford RS200 and a Renault R5 Turbo. I know these cars aren't Japanese heroes, but being a bit of a rally fan I really enjoyed reading about just how dangerous these cars could/still can be!

Sometimes I did get the impression that they thought they were the goods (especially when they would road test a car on a stretch of road) but they were very informative and easy to read.

I've had a look at that 2DMaxx mag and it looked like it was full of done up Excels, and cars like Skylines that were in there were either too ricey/blinged up or not to my modification tastes. Not even a patch on SPEED, but are they fairly new (still working out the bugs) or have they been around for a while?

So really all I have now is Autosalon, which I read anyway. But I don't read it as religiously as I did SPEED, and now with the new editor I find that some of their stories have waaaaay too much writing. 6 full pages on a feature issue is too much I reckon!

"They taste like burning!"

[inasin]

It's very sad to hear that SPEED has gone. I used to buy SPPED every month (religiously), it featured most of the cars that I like. Such as Skyline GTR, SUPRA, NSX and even M3. Not all articles was written to my own taste however overall it wasn't a bad magazine to read. 2DMAX, it's like buying a PICTURES magazine without being labelled as a pevert. The articles are not very technical and the layout isn't clear. Out of the whole magazine you would really get 4 featured cars and 3 semi naked girls. For $7.99 it lasts maybe 2 min before you get bored.

Pls bring back SPEED.

[scathing]

Its a shame that SPEED got axed for 2DMAX. While I had my reservations about SPEED's technical content, at least they were a bit classier and a bit more sensible than the ricemobiles draped in T&A that infests 2DMAX (and Hot4s, etc).

Unfortunately the publishing house couldn't afford to run that many magazines, and since rice and skin sells they went with what was profitable, not with what was (marginally) better.

In my mind, if they kept the SPEED concept but got rid of the idiots who keep crapping on about "ceramic turbo'ed" S15s, turbocharged Echos that somehow make power at the rear wheels (without the article ever mentioning anything as major as a driveline conversion), and how feature car X has suspension reknown to be hard riding, for better track handling, a dozen pages after a professional and experienced race car driver panned overly aggressive coilovers for degrading handling (etc).....and instead hired people that actually have a mechanical clue, it would have been a good magazine for the "tuner" culture.

[aussie_tul]

yes, also long gone in Thailand

[sigsputnik]

in my opinion, it was fairly clear from that last issue. i wasn't a regular reader by any means, but that Honda Integra comparison reeked of cash for comment. What a surprise that the new Integra (provided by Honda, no less) out-performed the older model. With mags like Autosalon and HPI around, I'm not too sorry to see it go.

[aussie_tul]

That's too bad

[scathing]

I'm not a big fan of ASM either. Then again, I'm not a big fan of the Autosalon culture that I feel is pretty much ruining the car scene.

They constantly talk up their various cars, but in an unsurprising result half their field in their "car of the year" piece broke down at Wakefield.

They look nice (I guess) and pull great numbers on the dyno, which seems to be what the young folk of today aspire to. Oh, and that they can "drag and drift" (I don't know how it'd hold up drifting if they keep breaking stuff time attacking) even though most of the owners are bench racers.

[sigsputnik]

i think you have a good point, scathing.

[fatz]

they featured a r31 a few times so they cant be too bad

[MacGuyver]

So you guys thought that the review they did on the current Honda Integra Type S was a little shonky did you? That it was better than the DC2 Integra? I felt it was a little bit misleading too but don't know everything about the Honda scene so it didn't really shake my faith of the magazine too much.

"They taste like burning!"

[foznice]

I really miss speed too.. I started off reading HPI then I got hooked on speed.. only bought about 3 issues before it got disconinued.. I loved the content, and I especially liked the way that it was presented - professionally with nice photography, unlike HPI looked a bit more cheap.

[scathing]

So you guys thought that the review they did on the current Honda Integra Type S was a little shonky did you? That it was better than the DC2 Integra?

Not any shonkier than the rest of the magazine.

Even if you didn't know that T28s ran steel wheeled turbos and called bullshit about their comments on the blue S15's stock blower, they were all crapping on about how they were setting their cars up for "good" track handling with big rims and stiff coilovers....in the same edition were John Bowe pans all the modified GT-Rs for not having enough suspension compliance and being a detriment to the handling of the car.....

Like I said. The magazine was a great concept, but the execution was so poor it was like the Anti-Playboy. Its the kind of magazine where saying you only bought it "for the articles" will get you less respect than buying it for the pics.

[Links]

Well.. i've got from issue 4 to the latest one sitting next to my toilet.. and it's gotta be one of the better mags to flick back through when your bored and feel like havin a read..

sad to see it go, let alone axxed for a crapper mag.. sure it might not have had the best writers, but it still managed to keep my attention 5x more than most mags, HPI is good, i'm a subscriber - but it's too thin and you finish reading it in a good 10 minutes...

[MacGuyver]

Yeah I used to read HPI before SPEED as well but found it too thin and a little more expensive (by a whole dollar!). I did just buy the recent edition of HPI (comes with a past issue for free) and it's a GTR special, pretty good read. Oh well, I guess it's HPI or nothing for me!

"They taste like burning!"

Edited November 10, 2005 by MacGuyver

[knore]

Arent hpi/speed/zoom etc all done by the same people?

I had no probs with speed that i didnt have with other magazines from time to time, but if anything speed was definately one of the better ones.

It absolutely destroys the lets fill our pages with na chromy bright paintjob 2dmax