Car Craft and Hot Rod magazine

[Wheeler]

I know most of the guys on this board have been pretty critical towards Car Craft and Hot Rod magazine. I think both magazines have improved in the last 3 years. Here is my opinion:

Previous to 1998, Car Craft magazine was a pretty lame magazine that overdosed on small block Chevy buildups and red Camaros & Chevelles. Mopars were usually ignored, or slammed. When Dave Freiburger took over as editor in 1998, things dramatically changed.

Suddenly, we started seeing more Mopar articles than ever. A Plymouth Duster buildup. A cross country trip in a GTX convertible. Mopar engine building articles. And gadzooks - a Mopar actually made the cover several times! In addition, the magazine embraced other brands like AMC, Pontiac, Buick and Olds. Car Craft also moved towards an affordable street performance theme, and eschewed the pro street, big money attitude that had plagued the magazine for many years.

Freiburger left in 2000 to become the editor of Rod and Custom, so his protege Matt King took over. The magazine started to lean towards 5.0L Mustangs and 1980's Camaros/Trans Am, but the Mopar articles and tech still keep coming.

Until recently, Hot Rod has traditionally ignored Mopars and have always held a negative attitude towards the brand. This was probably due to Jeff Smith (a die hard Chevy man) running the magazine in the 80's and for the first 1/2 of the 90's.

In the early 90's, he called 1971 Chargers "ugly". In the 1995 big block shootout where Herb McCandless cleaned house in Kevin Chapman's bee, he claimed that the Mopar won due to "admirable tuning and an unlimited budget". In a subsequent small block buildup article (Build a 400+HP small block for under $2000), the Mopar engine was left out because it "couldn't be built for under $2000".

In the last several years, Hot Rod has become more Mopar friendly. Steve Magnante joined the staff several years ago, and has written numerous Mopar articles. Car Craft feature more Mopar stuff than Hot Rod, but Hot Rod is improving. Sometimes the old anti-Mopar attitude lingers at Hot Rod (Anyone remember the "Dogkota" article?). However, the magazine is better than it used to be.

Dave Freiburger recently took over the editor duties at Hot Rod, so I have a lot of high hopes for the magazine. Give Car Craft and Hot Rod a shot, guys - at least they're cheap to subscribe to!

[84GreyRam]

In the current issue of Car Craft they did a comparison of all the big block buildups they've done in the last year... the numbers speak for themselves.

Mopar 440
582.9 lb-ft @ 4100 rpm
535.5 hp @ 5300 rpm

Pontiac 455
575.3 lb-ft @ 3600 rpm
501.3 hp @ 5200 rpm

Buick 455
570.5 lb-ft @ 4600 rpm
555.4 hp @ 5500 rpm

Ford 460
567.4 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm
528.8 hp @ 5800 rpm

Chevy 454
565.1 lb-ft @ 4200 rpm
533.2 hp @ 5600 rpm

Olds 455
558.6 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm
496.9 hp @ 5300 rpm

All of these motors used aluminum heads and single plane intakes. The Mopar used the Edelbrock aluminum heads.

[volare360]

Ya
in my opinion they are not bad mags now
of course you will always get more Chev stuff,but I for one like some of the other stuff
you really dont get too much Mopar knocking-much anyways
altho when a Mopar outdoes a Chev-nothing
when a Chev outdoes a Mopar-front page news
of course you never see that happen

[Dr. Righteous]

I use to subscribe to several "Muscle Car" magazines that covered all brands. And it seemed that it was 10-1 GM/FORD over MoPars. When they would have a street shoot out there would dig up a dog MoPar to race against.
"The big 440 fell on it's face off the line with a bad bog" was usually the play by play at a drag strip shootout. Of course we know that if that happens the car is BADLY out of tune. Not fair.
So they had to 'hobble' the MoPar to win a race in a stocker.
My subscriptions to those lapsed in the late 80s. Some of those mags are out of business now.

I stock to MoPar only mags now because I don't need to know how a bolt-on Edelbrock TPI setup runs on a SBC. Heck, it took them ten years to come out with a set of aluminum heads for a BB MoPar.

[FASTDARTCHESTER]

I agree with Dr Righteous. The only remotely positive article ran by Hot Rod in the 80's was on the 318 with the then new high swirl heads. It ran like 12.99@104 in an A body. Extremely expensive to build though, at the time. You can (and I have) get better numbers than that with using 302 or 308 ported heads for half the cost.

Mopars rule!

[Toddd]

I've given up on those mags. I NEVER look at them. They are too biased and narrow minded for my liking. I get no satisfaction looking at "the same thing, but only different this time theme" those mags give. Save the trees, there is a better use for them somewhere else. Toddd

[dkn1997]

I am a mopar man through and through, and I think these guys have come a long way. Especially like CC, they thrash wrenches just like us. I do not care what car they work on, car guys have to stick together (been to a chain auto parts store lately? duh, what car is it for?- when all I want are intake gaskets for a 440)
They give mopars a fair shake, and as far as covering chevy and ford- let's face it, there are more of those cars out there than ours. The mag guys have to eat too. I mean, I love mopars, and that is all I will put in my garage, but I can still appreciate some of the brand x rides. (can you honestly tell me a ZL1 camaro is not cool?) I didn't think so.

[GROCERYGETTER]

I think those rags are off the mark. Advertising is half the rag anymore. And who cares what you can do to a Chevy with an unlimited budget and 1,000,000$ shop.

[Doug Wilson]

Just my opinion - a ZL1 Camaro IS boring and repetitive.

Everybody has one. from... Doug

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

[BILL THOMPSON]

I gave up on hot rod + car craft because the articles that come along now do show mopars but most (not all) are slow or trailer queens.I,ve travelled all over canada + the states and I personally prefer mopar for originality + I find the non originality freaks are a cool group with awesome cars but these magazines unless forced do not portray mopars in the proper light.I know more chevs and fords are in existance but one trip to the mopar nats + it's evident the quality of work.The biggest canadian show period is moparfest at new hamburg + that is only one make of car



1939 dodge coupe 383 supercharged
1981 dodge challenger 340 2 stages NOS
1987 dodge dakota 2.2
1991 dodge spirit

[dkn1997]

Boy, Everyone has a factory original all aluminum big block camaro! I must be out of the loop. My point is that while mopars are by far the coolest, and the restorations blow brand x cars away, you cannot call yourself a car guy (or girl) and not at appreciate that out there somewhere, someone else loves their car as much and puts as much effort into a car that did not roll off the line at lynch road or hamtramk. As far as advertising, even the mopar only mags are loaded with them, otherwise, they would not be in a position to provide us with something to read. I do not know about you, but my best days of the month aside from driving my charger, are the days the mailbox is stuffed with car mags.

[Toddd]

The point Iwas trying to make was...If I don't like it...I won't buy it...and they won't get my money. vote with your wallet . As far as advertising goes...Just how many "Mopar only" ads do you see in those mags?. To me it just doesn't make sense to support such mag that does little to cover my interests.

[dkn1997]

think you misread me. I said "mopar only" mags have ads too, not that there "mopar only" ads in cc or hotrod, we know that's not the case. Ah, who cares anyway, lets just restore,race,restify our mopars and all the brand x guys can..........well, you know!

[road chicken]

I dunno- Picked up a fairly recent issue of hotrod. I wan't too impressed. I saw a lot of poor research and statments about the mopars and their history. The youth and ignorance was still quite evident- as was the bias for their brands. I figured I'd just check- They still have their place in life. I mean the birds need something to read on the bottom of the cage. Not impressed by the minisule improvement over the completely lame- ignorant- as just plain bias that was always evident. But like someone else said they have to eat- can't hold them responsible for the masses are asses fact. Besides guys- look at it this way- isn't it alot more fun to be the underdog and still come out on top- that in a nut shell is what I LOVE about being die hard mopar man

[turbododge]

I guess I look at all the mags as another source of information and opinions. I read Carcraft, Hotrod, Motortrend, Mopar Muscle, etc. etc. Recently even got a copy of Superstreet to see what it was like (it was actually quite interesting). While I may not agree with a particular article, opinion, or evaluation, it is all information to be put into consideration when evaluating a situation or project. Usually, the best solution comes out of a combination of many ideas, and rarely is one person totally correct. If I can get some good ideas from somebody that has spent many hours of testing and research, I will not disregard it just because the tests were on a Honda.

[Doug Wilson]

I started reading Hot Rod around 1954 and quit reading it sometime in the 80s. Got sick of chebbiie material. Now I read it perhaps once a year to see if they are still stuck on themselves, or have maybe dropped the Power Tour crap and are doing some tech stuff again. NOPE!! Oh, well, maybe next year.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!