[quote=DanW@FastFord;4134613](thanks to Si!).
quote]


*cough cough!










My my, been on the road for a while, i was just checking on my ERST on here and clocked this little pearl.

As for the blagging goldmine of working on a mag. I wish! I wouldn't have two of my fleet up for sale, i'm gonna miss them, but for the good of the Fiesta's, my Escort's must go. I do my job for the love, not for press freebies or a seriously juicy wage.

Regarding mistakes and double features- As has been said before. We all try to avoid them. Sometimes you can either have too many people involved in a creating a feature or be right on lastminute.com for the mag's deadline, and the next thing you know it's in print.
I personally give lots of time in thinking up fresh ideas to keep Fast Ford where it is and working hard to make things perfect. When something happens, i STILL get a horrible sicky feeling as it means a lot to me, and i fully understand how much it means to an avid reader.
I know from experience that features we've shot and i've personally written. Yet have been binned when we have heard they've been shot. That was a day out the office on a shot, and a day in the office writing; binned. Just to try and give us a different offering, for you the reader.

So, trust me, it's not intentional folks.


I generally enjoy these threads for feedback, ideas and honest critisim.

In my time, Fast Ford has invested in staff, features and evolving the magazine. Issue by issue we try to push on, there has been many developments we have done since i started, only to see a very similar recreation appear in other magazines. Rather than get mad, we just take it as a compliment that we are doing our job and push on. (i myself look at many random types of magazines, and non UK car mags for inspiration). Personally i think this thread is a big strom in a tea cup and hope it doesn't put anyone of either magazine. I'm certain next month you won't see the same double feature cars.

It is impossible to please everyone 100% of the time, we try, but it's impossible.
We just try to bring you the a cross section of what's best in the Ford world.


Cheers

 

What Neil said. (was just typing similar post, comp froze, rebooted and found you'd written all that )


Unfortunately my Saph and Lightning Rod are now gone, but my new project car should be right up your street...

 

Jamie, with out wanting to sound rude, why dont you guys have one tuned ford and a run about and not a few cars? i can not imagine you get paid a fortune?

Like l said l am not trying to be rude

Mike

 

Mike-Personally, i enjoy having a few toys, i had toys before i started and will never be without something. All my cars are my own, i don't have to answer to anyone when i regularly break them! lol

I would share one car (like i did with Simon and the Bonus) and that worked, but i still need my own just so i can vent stress or collect them whenever i want for a nice drive etc.

I manage my finances very well, I think. I rent two homes. I spend plenty just because i don't waste cash anymore.
The cars until recently were declared SORN so that saved money for mods. Car's don't have to cost a lost, the Bonus ran like an animal for peanuts.

I work freelance whenever possible, which is usually a tidy earner

 

here's an idea then, something that may not be new but may be possible

ff runs from an office with lots of other car mags yes? they do tests which may also work for us, although not exactly the same

so could you not poach ideas from them?

or, as (i think) revs used to do, one of the products that were "new" that month were put on test the same month for a "first out of the box" type review?

 

Can I just say the ST - RS thrash was fantastic. I would have liked to see them on a handling course, but I guess the owners would have driven past their limits to beat the competiter. Fantastic posters too, the timeline is ace.

Benni.

 

i know there are dedicated mags for old fords but it would still be nice to see a few mk1 & 2 escorts now and again in ff & pf. i only really buy either mag when there is a few cars i want to read about (im not really bothered about modern fords)

 

lol speaking of us lot, whens the central day feature in

 

i havent picked up fastford in years allways found it to be a bit of a max power of the ford world.although reading this thread it seems it might have changed.

pf is a top mag but i do agree its getting a bit of a short read.

a well known vw mag i read use alot of test products on one paticular car and do reviews on the tested items and companies over the year and give the car away at the end of the year in a competion.

dont think ive seen any ford mags do a feature as quality and intresting as this and is usually a 12 month thing.also great to read nowing you might just get to own the car aswell.

 

Know what you mean mate. I try so hard to not get involved in double features. As an example a couple of Fast Ford incidents do come to mind. Both being a couple of years ago when Si was ed'. One was all booked and ready to shoot but on the day before I had a text from a mate asking if I was shooting a certain car at the moment, replied yes but tomorrow! After some confused exchanges I ended up being forwarded a picture message from a mate of a mate of the said car on location being shot by PF! Cheeky git of an owner had just been lying to my face about it not being shot by anyone else! I could have went ahead as nobody else knew but I told Si and we decided just to cancel it.

Another Fast Ford one a couple of years ago I shot just as normal, spending a whole day doing some quite unusual shots in multiple locations, looked ace, was really chuffed with the results. But just before sending it in I find out it had been shot already! And it had been shot on a date prior to mine. Once again I could have just sent it in but I binned it insetad and took the hit for a day's work instead

Quite often the case of doublers can be lack of communication or honest mistakes, but it really annoys me when contributors go ahead with stuff that they shouldn't as they're just wanting a fast buck rather than thinking of the bigger picture.

 

I didn't really want to get involved in this but I feel I have to reply as there are some inaccurate comments here that don't reflect well on my professional integrity.

What I am writing here is fact....

I shot both cars for Performance Ford. Both cars were arranged to be shot well before Fast Ford photographed the cars. When our shoots were arranged both owners said no other mag had shot or arranged to shoot the cars.

It was a huge shock to me when I found out after shooting both cars that they had subsequently been shot by fast ford in between me arranging the shoots. After contacting both owners about the situation, they both stated that they would prefer to have their car in Performance Ford. I have the text messages to back this up.

I don't really want to comment any further but just had to clarify the situation from my perspective.

 

Under Si's jurisdiction the mag changed for the better, but yes, you were more than a little instrumental in that .

 

Your version of the facts Steve. I have communications to the contrary, but playing tit-for-tat will do no one any favours.

What we need to take away from this is to ALWAYS ask 'the question' before a single shot is taken, not after, and uphold the previously held agreement of 'first come first served' otherwise it will happen again.

 

as long as the owners are truthful

 

Urgh....ever thought you shouldn't get involved with something? Anyway, as I'm the new Features Editor of PF, I guess I should say something....

Right. Regarding this two car thing, it's a pain in the arse, we're particularly gutted about it, and no matter what 'the facts' are, it's happened. As such, lets just move forward from it. Both mags are in shops across the land right now, so there is very little we can do other than ensure it doesn't happen again. The whole 'two car' comments have gone full circle now.

In terms of PF all I can say is that we're trying. We're doing our best and quite frankly this is a learning curve for us. People keep pointing out that Dan and the team have done a great job with FF over the last 12 or so months (and I do agree), what people seem less keen to realise is that we're all new to PF, so we're starting where Dan did. It's not something to be taken as an excuse mind, it's a fact. As such, you guys need to let the PF of old and your opinions of the old staff go. We're all new here, three fresh faces keen to make the mag the best we can, so as stated, if you think something is toss, or you have an idea, or you have an issue with something, tell us. We want/need to know.

Personally I hate all this PF/FF stuff as I had to put up with it on Retro Ford when I worked there, CF/RF blah blah blah. It achieves nothing. I think I speak for both mags (I hope) when I say that we just want to co-exist and get on with things. This isn't a competition, we don't sneer at each other at shows, hell, I even worked with Dan when I was a but a mere work-ex person at Redline. We're just guys that like writing about, driving, building and living in a world of Fords.

This has been a glitch in the matrix...and you can bet your bottom dollar that it won't happen again.

So, there be my two cents.

Chris

 

Well said. I agree, it even afflicts me, its damned annoying!

 

i woldn't say that it's a question of "hating" one or the other, over the past years there has been a great level of compitition between both, with one gaining the upper hand for a few months and then the other and so on and so forth for a number of years

what i think everyone is commenting on is that slipping standards at pf that have, to me at least, has seen not only pf suffering from peole "just along for the ride" but also the fact that ff has consitently put out a top notch producet for our money

doing better is one thing, not bothering is something else

i can't remembr the last issue of pf i bought, but it's been a while now, possibly a year or so, so if the product has changed then i'm willing to give it another go

the only plus side i can see is that, in west london at least, pf seems to be on more shelves than any other mag i regulalry purchase, although that may not take inot account the other mags being more popular and therefore leaving the shelves much earlier

anyway, if it's worth getting, i shall pick up the next issue, although most will realise that if it's crap, i'll say so

on the flip side, if it's great i'll also make it known

 

Best mag for that would be Rallye News Mike, the RSOC magazine. Some really nice standard low mileage cars in it too

PF used to be level with FF, around the time they featured SOY. I prefer FF now but i do pick up the occasional copy of PF to see if its any good. Was a bit disappointed by the double cars thing, but as already stated PF has fresh faces, fresh ideas so hopefully we'll start to see some different things from PF. Wish you guys all the best

 

Its all about the fords at the end of the day.Whats happened has happened.