911, 911 & More 911 World

[Fen]

Apologies for a bit of a rant... Just bought the aforementioned publication for the first time in a while to pass the time while the 306 was being tyred. I open the contents pages; there are 4 features with photos, 3 of 911's and one of some military nonsense I care not a jot about. Bad start. I look for something (anything!) that is not about 911's or Boxsters. At least they seem to have got over the Cayenne obsession, albeit in favour of more 911's. I find the "our cars" section and remember that Chris Horton used to "run" a 944, or at least he kept one that he never seemed to use. Sure enough he still has it. I read the update with mounting incredulity as it seems, despite some "ominous screeching noises" he has visually checked the belts and kept using them even though he thinks they need changing! What a ludicrous thing for the editor of the best respected independent Porsche mag in the UK (OK it's not got much competition [8D]) to be writing. I seriously hope it snaps on him before he eventually changes it - better that than some other poor sod who follows his "example" trashing their top end. He then goes on about the induction kit freebie he was sent. It apparently fits all 924 from '86 to '88 and all 944 from '83-'91. I doubt that. It might fit all 2.5 n/a 944 but no way does it fit the Turbo and I very much doubt it fits the S2. After '89 only the Turbo and S2 were produced so which '90 and '91 cars does it fit exactly? He then goes on to extoll how easy it was to fit then in the next breath complain about how none of his "(metric)" allen keys fitted the cap head bolts supplied. Really?! An American part supplied with fasteners that metric toold don't fit. Might that possibly be because American use imperial measurements, just possibly? I used to think it was just Johnny Tipler who was an idiot but now it appear the editor is making a late bid for that status too... At least they brought back running reports; the only bit of it that could be depended on to be any good.

 

[Fen]

Oh, and it costs £4.25! How the Hell do they justif that when poperly researched, photographed and written magazines (proper journalists and everything) are £3.95? I guess it's the "Porsche Tax"...

 

[Diver944]

Never mind Fen, you could cheer yourself up by buying a copy of Total911. I'm sure that has a diverse and widespread range of features []

 

[Guest]

I'll stick to 944 forums rather than buy any of the so-called Porsche magazines. You get a better type of person here than they could even dream of.!

It's either that or sell a kidney to buy a 996 GT3 (Which seems to be the "only" Porsche that these mags are interested in), and become a fully fledged VW snob.

This reminds me, I haven't gone and got my copy of Autosport this week!

 

[sawood12]

I'm a bit dissapointed in the lack of 924/944/928 articles in Porsche Post. It seems to be very 911 racing or restoring and concours based and they seem to publish more articles on the 968 than the other front engine'nd cars even though they were produced in far fewer numbers. There are certainly quite a few very interesting ongoing projects mentioned in the 944 forum that would make a very interesting articles. And dare I say some of our rear engined and mid engined comrades seem to be a bit dismissive, certianly snobby and even hostile towards us 944 (and 924) owners and could do with a bit of educating.

 

[Diver944]

Scott, you have to remember that the articles in Porsche Post are written by us the members, so if there is a shortage of 944 material it's down to us fine 944 owners []. I am more than guilty in this respect, I find it very easy to blather on about something in the forums but if I try to sit down and write something suitable for publication you can hear the tumbleweed blow across my brain.

Rest assured that if I do ever get my 3.0 litre turbo project up and running then I will shout it from the highest rooftop [8|]

 

[Fen]

"If"? Surely you mean when (and pretty soon too I hope).

 

[Paul Fraser]

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed that he didn't do the induction air filter thing a bit more systematically, but if you feel this strongly about it why don't you write to the magazine...?

 

[John H]

I have to agree that the quality of 911 and Pig World has declined rapidly in recent months, and I'm pleased to see I'm not the only one who thinks John Tipler is a moron who can't write.

Funny how the addition of Chris Harris is doing wonders for the credibility of that other notoriously rubbish mag GT Puerile Porch, it has almost become worth reading of late, rather than just scanning for the pretty pictures.

 

[TTM]

I don't think it's such a bad thing the front engined Porsches get ignored most of the time as there are still pretty good deals to be made out there.
In the end most people who have been sneering at 944s because they have just been repeating the load of crap they happen to read in vacuous magazines do not really know what they are missing and as such should just remain ignorant of these cars.
I think most die-hard 944 enthusiasts like their cars not only for the reason they are simply brilliant but also thanks to the many things they have learned about their car throughout the ownership, and that was certainly not thanks to reading magazines anyway, no matter how good or bad the opinions of said magazines can get about these cars.

 

[Fen]

ORIGINAL: Paul Fraser
...if you feel this strongly about it why don't you write to the magazine...?

Because this way I get to put my point to at least some of the Porsche community without depending on them publishing my letter uncensored; oops, I mean unedited [] (like that would happen even in the unlikely event they published it at all). They should see it anyway because if none of them read this forum then they are even more derelict in their role as the voice of unofficial Porsche enthusiasts in the UK than I gave them credit for.Of course they are more than welcome to reply in this forum also if they would like to. That and I don't care, I will never buy the magazine again.

 

[Paul Fraser]

Well, I think you are throwing the baby out with the bathwater there: sometimes there is useful stuff. _I'm_ going to write in about the glass screen replacement article and the one you have mentioned above -- I'll let you know how I get on.

 

[Fen]

Not at all. I used to subscribe to it - and I mean for about 6 years - then I let it lapse because consistently they only talked about Cayennes, 996s and Boxsters. I still picked it up in Smiths most of the time for a while but it got less and less frequent and I haven't missed it. This was the first time I've bought it for quite a few months and it was a waste of £4+ of my money, I doubt I'll even open it again bar the 25 minutes I read of it when I was waiting for my car to be ready. Without wishing to sound arrogant realistically there will never be anything in it I will find very useful; I have had 5 944's over almost 10 years and nowadays I run a fairly heavily modified Turbo; one of a handful in this country. I have done my time with these cars and seen most of the normal issues and have a superb indy to look after me with the standard stuff. I'm already in contact with most of the other owners who have made similar modifications to me through here and/or Titanic, but really the body of knowledge on modifying is Rennlist. Even if 911&PW wanted to feature something like my car they'd be asking someone like me what to write, not writing something that I learn from. The best I had hoped for was a feature about a car that interests me (and I like real 911's; I've had two of them as well) - I might buy another Porsche in the future, just not with a watercooled 6 cylinder in it - but alas no. Add to that the repeatedly poorly researched articles about the best selling model Porsche ever made (this is far from the first time) and I think would rather spend the £4.25 on another 15 miles of driving my car, thanks. You'd think that when the older cars are not only the most affordable and accessible, plus the ones that people need to know how to fix (I was going to say the ones that go wrong, then 3 letters popped into my head... []), need to run on a budget and are owned by the true enthusiasts that they'd feature more of them rather than various flavours of 996 and 997 that are only of realstic interest to a very well-heeled minority, most of which either just a want "a Porsche" for the snob value or don't really care if the car is a Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini etc.

 

[944Turbo]

I am also an ex-subscriber, the article on Mr Sweetenhams car finished it for me. I haven't missed it at all, I was thinking of getting the next one as I believe a 944 Titanicer might be hiding in there - well I might flick through next time I am passing WHSmiths,
Tony

 

[danmason]

Have to agree; the only time I cast my eyes over this magazine is the odd 10 minute flick-through when loafing around at my indy's place. For me EVO and Excellence cover most bases between them.

 

[Mark_Bennett]

Fen,

By your own admission, you've been there and done (all) that. "I have done my time with these cars and seen most of the normal issues"
Therefore looking for something new on the 944 is unlikely to happen (for you) in that case. But there are a lot of new owners who will be interested.

I for one appreciate a bit of "history" so the Schwimwagen article looks interesting to me [8D]

In a few more years front engined Porsches might be similarly regarded as "history" by a future audience - Who wil be enthralled because all the 6-winding, eco-friendly coolant chilled, electro-hydro engined "Current" Porsche range mean they think the petrol engined Cars were a fleeting anachronism... (Of course the 4-winding owners will bemoan all the articles on the newer 6-winding cars - and what was wrong with the older air-cooled windings anyway?[])

 

[Steven944]

Thank goodness someone else thinks Johnny Tipler is utterly useless. And why do we have to see his stupid ear-ring and ridiculous cap in virtually every photo ??!! Are we meant to think he's a 'wild and whacky,'out-there'' sort of guy ? It just reinforces the dismal standard of his writing.

 

[Guest]

Mark,

While I agree with the sentiment of your points, I also enjoy the articles that I've flicked through on things like the schwimmwagen, and the 917's and so-on. They are of course part of Porsches heritage, and as a gear-head, I enjoy reading things like this.

What I cannot stand is the total misrepresentation that the name "911 AND PORSCHE world" implies. It should mean that the publication represents a broad spectrum of the Porsche marque, it's heritage, it's future and it's owners. My view is that of a total of (lets say )30 articles, 2 are about it's heritage, 2 are about boxsters and it's mods, 2 are about Porsche the company, 2 are about the Pepper or Cayman, and the remainder are about the 911, ranging from it's current guise, back to the 70's versions that som eof the regular contributors own. In my vies, this is NOT a fair representative cross section of the Porsche market. In fact I would hazard a guess that 924, 944 ans 928 owners probably own 50% of the Porsches sold in GB, so where are the articles for these people?

I'm relatively sure that you will see a single article on each of these "older" models every 3 months to spread things out and keep the readers "happy". obviously it's not doing what it's supposed to do!

From what I recall (and to be honest, i haven't even looked recently), there are already 2 other magazines that cater purely to 911's. In my opinion, this has turned into 3.

Now let's be honest, unless I was 14, why would I want to go and spen over £4 of my money on a single half page article which I find interesting, and another 55 1/2 pages which demonstrate that if I too spent over £100k on a GT£ and a shed load of upgrades, then I too could have a "cool" car. IMHO, I've got a cooler car than any GT3 owner could ever aspire to as I've actually got my hands dirty doing it myself!

 

[John H]

To be fair to 911 and Pig World, they do cover all the bases, but you have to consider that over a period of time. Take a stack of back copies and read them, and they are not really biased to any one type or age of Porsche. That's not to say there isn't a bit of bias in one or two separate issues, but you can hardly moan at them for that.

No, my gripe is that a once good magazine has gone off the boil ... and Mr Tipler is a dork.

JH

 

[Fen]

ORIGINAL: Mark Bennett

Fen,

By your own admission, you've been there and done (all) that. "I have done my time with these cars and seen most of the normal issues"
Therefore looking for something new on the 944 is unlikely to happen (for you) in that case. But there are a lot of new owners who will be interested.

I for one appreciate a bit of "history" so the Schwimwagen article looks interesting to me [8D]

In a few more years front engined Porsches might be similarly regarded as "history" by a future audience - Who wil be enthralled because all the 6-winding, eco-friendly coolant chilled, electro-hydro engined "Current" Porsche range mean they think the petrol engined Cars were a fleeting anachronism... (Of course the 4-winding owners will bemoan all the articles on the newer 6-winding cars - and what was wrong with the older air-cooled windings anyway?[])

I don't mind if the articles on 924/944/968 are something I have seen before, just so long as there is one at least every second month - and I don't really think every issue is too much given the number of these things that were sold - and it's properly researched, which is pretty much an endemic failing whenever they write anything on the front engined cars. There really is no excuse for it as I have 2 books on the range written by the very same Peter Morgan who now works on the magazine. I don't think there has been an issue without a 911 feature yet, has there? None of the 100 or so I have that I recall anyway. A bit of history is all very well and during a quiet period I might even read the piece but it should be a little quirky article amongst the real substance, not one of the 4 main features of the issue. I'm sure the internal combustion engined cars will one day be considered history also, but unless you're suggesting that the 924/944/968 range is already history then that doesn't apply. In any event my disinterest in the Schwimwagen(?) is not so much the age rather than I am a car enthusiast, not a military vehicle or truck geek. You won't hear me complain about 356 articles, nor on any other Porsche car based on it being too old, quite the contrary. If I want to read about new models, which I did with the Cayenne and do with the Cayman, I will read about them in the proper magazines where they will get a proper objective test written by someone who's skills and views I trust and pitted against their peers (Evo basically) rather than an isolated drive by a barely literate Porsche sycophant who is only ever going to wax lyrical about how great it is. To me the magazine (albeit that it's dropped the tag line "An Independent Publication for Porsche Enthusiasts") should be targeted at the enthusiasts and I maintain there are more enthusiast 924/944/968 owners today than there are 996, 997 and Cayenne put together. The thing that really amazes me is how much potential copy there is in a lengthy production run of cars owned by real fervent brand nutters that is just being ignored.