Car & Driver/Road & Track

[Instrument 41]

Which magazine do you prefer? With the exception a a few columnist they don't seem very different at all. Maybe its me but they just don't hold to the level that they once did?? A why is it that they both come in the mail at the same time?

[TheMentat]

Road & Track for me... The content is, as you point out, very similar so it really comes down aesthetics for me.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by Instrument 41

Which magazine do you prefer? With the exception a a few columnist they don't seem very different at all. Maybe its me but they just don't hold to the level that they once did?? A why is it that they both come in the mail at the same time?

Both owned by the same Corporation..thus, the similarities. I let my subscription expire to C&D after they fired Brock Yates.

If R&T ever stops running Peter Egan's column, I'll stop subscribing to it as well.

Let's face it...the mission of both is to sell new cars thus getting advertising.

[cairns]

I prefer Car & Driver but don't subscribe to either. IMO they both went downhill a long time ago but neither is as disgusting as Motor Trend. I'm even PO'd at Autoweek (now Auto bi-week). Same price for half the magazine- I may not renew this year.

For a monthly try reading Car or Motorsport. They're British but the photography, depth of articles and analysis and commentary blow C&D and R&T out of the water.

[Z-man]

Grassroots Motorsports. But I have a subscription to Road & Track as well. The Peter Egan Miscellaneous Ramblings monthly column make it worth it! Plus I gave my dad a subscription a few years ago, and this way we have stuff to chat about in our conversations. Never thought my dad & I would be discussing 0-60 stats and hp figures on Lambos and Ferarris!

-Z-man.

[masraum]

I like Road and Track, Motorsport (Brit mag), Octane (Brit mag), Excellence, Classic Porsche (new Brit mag, seems pretty good), sometimes Vintage Motorsports and GRM. Occasionally, I'll pick up an Evo or Top Gear.

Most of the American mags don't do much for me. I really like Peter Egan. If he stopped writing for R&T, I'm not sure if I'd keep getting it. I get R&T on my ipad now.

[Vintage914Racer]

I subscribe to both and prefer R&T. I will echo others comments about Peter Egan. If he ever leaves I will not renew my subscription.

[Tobra]

What Zoltan said, let the subscription to C&D go.

Grassroots Motorsports has much more to interest me, and probably everybody else who comes here, than R&T or C&D ever did.

[pwd72s]

Funny...I subscribed to one of the Brit mags some years back. I agree, great photography, good writing.

But I got tired of the higher subscription price while reading of European cars not available here.

[chicago_82sc]

R&T for me. I agree with the others - Egan's columns are a treat.

They also have a great vintage calendar which I've got the past few years. This year's focused on US series - Donohue leading the pack through the esses at Riverside; the Trans-Am cars scrambling into turn #5 at Road America and in December Pedro Rodriguez taking the checked flag at Daytona in 1970 (a race I was at).

[legion]

Automobile.

It's written by gearheads with a sense of humor who realize not everyone has unlimited funds.

[widgeon13]

R&T for me. I see R&T as an enthusiasts mag and C&D as a consumer magazine. Never liked C&D.

[Deschodt]

Originally Posted by legion

Automobile.

It's written by gearheads with a sense of humor who realize not everyone has unlimited funds.

+1 On Automobile, the writers are overall much better. Ezra Dyer is great.

the writers at R&T (Peter Egan excepted) are so dry I need a drink after reading the articles ! Patrick something or other (hong? Hu?), oh my god, he could write wikipedia entries instead, dry dry dry !

Autoweek is OK if you can afford the extra $15 - it's shorter, lasts a whole Jacuzzi soak ;-) That said I get them all anyway, they beg you to subscribe for $10 now and then !

the ones I look forward to are Excellence, Roundel, Sports car market and Hemmings sports and classic cars.

[Heel n Toe]

R&T for me, too. C&D used to have a more maverick/renegade feel and I only subscribed to it for a while, but they've gone away from that, so I'm solidly with R&T now.

Egan's Side Glances is always just plain wonderful. Does anyone remember the one he did titled something like "Confessions of a Shade Tree Mechanic?" I still have it somewhere... it was about his college days when he rebuilt old Brit sports cars to resell for a small side income. He figured out he made very little on a per hour basis. It was filled with stuff like, "If you sell a rebuilt MG to a sorority girl named Sally, the top will leak and ruin her new cashmere sweater, and her momma will call you and demand that you replace it."

I always grumble to myself whenever Car&Driver (or R&T, too) have road tests of trucks and SUV's. There are other magazines for that, right? Cars only, please.

[onewhippedpuppy]

C&D and Automobile for me, but I find myself liking C&D less and less. It used to be an amusing magazine, now it seems to be watered down and trying too hard. R&T seems too brown-nosing to me, what kind of comparison test doesn't rank the contestants and declare a winner? Both pale in comparison to the British mags.

[KaptKaos]

I like Classic Motorsport for the content. I also like several of the brit mags listed above as well. There used to be one called Retro Cars, which was a lot of fun. Practical Classics is cool, as is Classic Porsche. Of course, Excellence rocks.

As for C/D and R&T; C/D has gotten better with Alterman at the helm. He's brought back David E. Davis, which has been good. They've done a lot more editorially that I like. I didn't like the direction that Csere took the magazine. Brock Yates needs to go back too.

R&T is all about Peter Egan. Without him, that magazine is almost useless.

The problem with both of them is that they exist to sell new cars, which I couldn't care less about. I like old cars and any new car that I would buy would be a utilitarian type appliance at best.

[Heel n Toe]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

The problem with both of them is that they exist to sell new cars, which I couldn't care less about. I like old cars and any new car that I would buy would be a utilitarian type appliance at best.

Take a look at Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car (monthly). An excellent mag for what you're talking about.

Hemmings Motor News: Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car - Current Issue

[KaptKaos]

Originally Posted by Heel n Toe

Take a look at Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car (monthly). An excellent mag for what you're talking about.

Hemmings Motor News: Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car - Current Issue

I get that too =)

They do road tests like Motor Trend, which sucks. They don't dig deep enough IMO.

[dtw]

Originally Posted by Instrument 41

Which magazine do you prefer? With the exception a a few columnist they don't seem very different at all. Maybe its me but they just don't hold to the level that they once did?? A why is it that they both come in the mail at the same time?

I get both (and Excellence). C&D really got worthless when Csere left a year or so ago. Used to be irreverent, didn't take itself to seriously, often uproariously funny. Usually asked the hard questions of ethanol and other green efforts. Now they're just like any other rag.

R&T is worth it for Egan.

[racer]

Longtime R&T and C&D reader.. and even Automobile from its creation till the mid 1990s. CD and RT are owned by the same group and to be fair.. ALL the magazines cover the same new car intros etc.

What I like about R/T besides EGAN is Seminatis (sp) technical articles, their saloon type cars/articles (think articles by Sam Posey or Phil Hill).

I tired of Automobile but once in a while enjoy Jamie Kitmans articles.

The super expensive magazine I loved for 1 year was TOP GEAR. Get columns by Clarkson, May and Hammond.. plus written exploits are much more entertaining when taken with a british tint. Ezra and Kitman articles also showed up in this mag as well.. but at what felt like $100/year, well, that just seemed too indulgent.

Enjoy autoweek for their racing coverage (F1) but am a bit disappointed in their 2/month arrival instead of every week.

Despite loving Porsches, I've never bothered with Excellence. Used to read VW&Porsche which became European Car and maybe now is something else?