DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

Feel free to get the owners to send their cars details over - but as for standard engines - We're a tuning magazine - it's about making your car go quicker and faster. Unless the car is exceptional in some way a standard engine car will not get in the mag. Believe me, it will piss off more readers than it attracts.

You don't have to spend shit loads, you just have to spend it in the right places! Look at the Ka in the current issue - It's not a big bucks car, but was built by the owner and his Dad. The turbocharged XR2 in the previous issue was not a big bucks car, but had bits from eBay, and good deals off his mates. Again, it was also home-built. The Fiesta Zetec S in the issue before that is not a big bucks car... I could go on. None of them are RS models, or even STs, non of them have YBs either. They are all cars a 'normal' car enthusiast with a 'normal' budget could build for themselves.

We do strive to have a variety of cars in the mag, from achievable to aspirational - It just seems that people focus in on the nutty big bucks stuff, because that's what they remember and think that that's all we do.

But why do you think that people remember the nutty stuff? Maybe because they're the most memorable, the most exciting and the most dramatic?

We'd get the exact opposite criticism leveled at us if we only featured lightly modified cheap cars built in their owner's garages - "That car's shit, my standard ST would be faster blah blah blah..."

charlie luciano

iTrader: (3)

Let me just interject here my comment earlier on in the thread was a joke and I think both the magazines are pretty close with regards to what they do.

on a personal note with my car as clean as it is imo it was not 'worthy' of a feature until I had done something different with it and packed over 400 ponies under the bonnet, but saying that stage 3 has been done to death as its more or less what everyone does to a cossie once they have bought one and there are loads of mint stg 3 cars out there, however all cars are different and have their own 'personalities' even if they are the same model

a few times I emailed pictures, sent the feature my car cut outs from the mags in and never never got a sniff, not even a mention didn't even make the readers cars section and that was gutting

not all of us have thousands of pounds to spend on these cars and some people have the sense not to as you never get your money back


Luciano

ECU Monitor Enthusiast

iTrader: (1)

Fast Ford for me.

Always been my favourite magazine since the late 80's and was lucky enough to get my car featured.
Even better now as the publishers are local boys

I have nothing against Performance Ford other than that cooont Ben who I think now has left ..lol

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

Your car's a really great example, and it wouldn't be judged on its power figure. We featured a 330bhp Saph in issue 292 (6 issues ago) and it was featured as it was a really great clean example, with some nice touches.

Neither me, nor Neil have any recollection of you ever sending in any details of your car, and if you did the very least I would do would be to give it space in the Reader's Cars section - It was also in PF last year IIRC, so we wouldn't be able to offer a full feature unless it was substantially different to their feature.

XRT_si

iTrader: (2)

Andy, I work for Classic Ford so that would be our cup of tea! I've been keeping a close eye on it


Sorry you feel that way but can I ask when did you last read an issue?

We make a MASSIVE effort to feature a car of pretty much every type, every issue and if anything we shy away from featuring 'typical' cars such as rally prepped Mk1 Escorts (quite ironically there's a genuine ex-works rally Escort in this issue but it's the first in a long time).

We also feature one car that's in progress/being built and one standard restored car and that's every single issue without fail and has been for quite some time. We've also now featuring one TOTALLY homebuilt car per month too.

Seriously, flick through an issue next time you're in WH Smiths and see if you still say the same thing.

Simon H, Classic Ford.

charlie luciano

iTrader: (3)

Cheers Dan I must be honest and say it was a long long time ago that I emailed pics and sent in the feature my car cut out slips, I've owned the car nine years, tbh I can't even recall which mag I sent them to so I wasn't pointing the finger or singling FF out

You are correct my car was featured last year and I understand that each feature is much better if its an exclusive Alex asked me this on the day and was pleased when I said the car has not graced the pages of any magazine before


Luciano

dojj

iTrader: (3)

The question you've got to ask yourself chip is "would mikes motor have made it into thr mag if it wernt the sleeper issue?"

Not saying that it wasn't worthy, but it filled the gap fir that particular feature and no ones complained about it, and don't forget he's fairlyhandy with a spanner and you've fiddled with it as well so on one side you have the perfect example of both sides of the story

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

Yes it would have been featured, it happened to come along at a time when we had several sleepers 'on the books' so a Sleeper issue was a sensible thing to do.

All the cars in the issue were feature cars in their own right.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

Bloody hell!!!! Stop posting before I vet a chance to answer the last post

the criticisms leveled are that it is percé ed that you need mega power and mega money to get a feature and dan has pointed out several that are "common" cars. What has to happen is that people should send their pics in and you could put up a list of how many carshave been sent that month, sort of like a pie chart somewhere. At least that way you can see how many of each are coming in every month

dojj

iTrader: (3)

What about putting a man hours/cost thing for each motor?

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Thats the sort of thing that does occasionally get included if the owner chooses to supply it (again, its mentioned in the feature of my car so I know this to be the case), but its not really all that useful when you are talking about home built cars and owners who work at massively different paces, so its not like you could make any sort of direct comparison, and also it potentially would lead to even more comments like "mine is worthy cause its had 3K more spent on it than that one" etc, which would be a nightmare for the mags im sure.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Silly idea IMHO, as I dont think many people are going to be interested in that sort of piechart being included every month, and it would cost time and money to produce that would be better spent on things people are actually interested in.

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

Sooooo hard to quantify, would be just guesswork, so not of much use/relevance. Plus a LOT of people don't want to let on how much they've spent.

For what it's worth I must turn down between 25-50 cars a month.

crazycage

the fast ford lads featured my fiesta turbo and thats a home built/tuned car on a real life budget.

dojj

iTrader: (3)

now i can see everythign on the computer screen, it's easier to follow the chain of events

i think the general onion of the readership is that you need to have a mega powered mega mint car to get into the mag nowadays, be it ff or pf or even redline, no one wants to feature a rat look motor so you've got to get it spotless

but what you actually need is to have an edge, something that defines the car as your own, regardless of weather or not you built it of joe blogs motorsport put 6 months worth of graft into it as you've got a banana's worth of talent when it comes to motors

i read mags to enjoy them, not to have the ultimate aim of getting my car in the pages so you have to balance what you want IN the mag as opposed to what you want to READ about in the mag, and for that, i think ppc covers all the bases from a personal point of view, but ff does have the ford scene pertty well sewn up when it comes to a good read as of the past few years

but now that pf are going back to the techy side of things, i think it's going to be worth a better look

i know that you can't deal in the same sort of stock as cf with their resto corners and how to make things better by welding it or how to put more advanced engines into your engine bay or rwd rules etc, cross pollination of the old school and new school stuff won't really work when some stuff you feature is going to be older than the reader (or the owners in some cases ) but the answer to the subs question is currently to go with ff

i'll stop rambling now

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Dojj will you ever finish your sierra estate. Thats if you still have it.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

No chance of that ever being finished

dojj

iTrader: (3)

i said i'd fix it over the winter, then the bentley came
so i said i'd fix it in the summer, and it was too hot
now the winters back again, and it's too wet

johnnysierra

i get both mags and think there are good and bad bits in both but that still dont stop me getting them every month

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Well take some time off here and get the sierra finished. That would be a good magazine feature.

cossie4i+

iTrader: (15)

Whichever one is going to do a T38 thrash and i get an invite

Steve

Rod-Tarry

I buy both, we need to support both IMO. My past features have been with PF & future ones will be with FF. Think PF are suffering from the loss of Dave who was a real diamond & a true Petrolhead. Think Dan is leading FF in the right direction & he reminds me of Dave with his easygoing but
knowledgeable style.

gjh

Fast ford!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have lots of both mind, I just can't afford to buy both

essexRSTSouthend

Both great magazines but fast ford is the one for me.i like the fact they feature a few pages of readers cars which aint all spotless but still like reading about them.I do think it about time they got the spec pages back up of each car.use to be before the cars for sale.

DanW@FastFord

iTrader: (1)

It's a toss up between putting the same two pages in each month with info easily accessible on the Internet - or putting two pages of interesting features in. As an Editor it's a no-brainer. Those are the kind of pages you fill a mag with when you've not got enough content!

andy escos

iTrader: (1)

p.m. received simon i would be more than glad to give you a bell when its ready for a feature

gjh

I'd still buy it if it was called rally prepared mk1 escorts monthly

Glenn_

iTrader: (1)

Yeh i agree dave from pf was doing a good job. I still dont know why he left for.

XRT_si

iTrader: (2)

I'm sure a lot of people would. And I'm sure a lot of people wouldn't.

Mike Rainbird

iTrader: (3)

If you are subscribing only because you find it difficult to purchase, then that MUST be Performance Ford, as it is known for a bitch to find and seems to be only available in WH Smiths and BP Garages . Therefore that would be the one to subscribe to on that basis, as Fast Ford seems to be easy to track down in most Newsagents, garages and even some supermarkets.

I always have both, and have got every single one of PF and FF since I bought my first Cosworth back in April 1994 . I even have them shelved in my office in date order .

dojj

iTrader: (3)

dan explained a while back in regards to getting hold of issues and how they do area by area basis

so just beacuse i can only find ff in whsmiths and supermarkets and one local shop and pf virtually everywhere just means they don't stock it in my area, so i sub everything other thanpowerslam nowadays