Frequently Asked Questions
WHAT IS SO FASCINATING ABOUT CAR MAGAZINES?
- News in print has a very short shelf life, and periodicals are not too far behind. The average number of issues for magazines on this website is 83 print issues or approximately 7 years. Car magazines contain snapshots of changing fads and trends in style, taste and technology. When we view the past, these old magazines document the evolutionary path of modern vehicles and the application of technology and design aesthetics to older cars.
- Automotive literature is highly valued since it is a great resource for collectors, restorers, hobbyists and preservationists.
- It's cool -- where else can you move back and forth in time to see automotive images from the past, present and future.
WHAT IS THE TYPICAL READER PROFILE?
- 82% of you speak English.
- 50% of you are 34 years of age or younger.
- You are roughly divided equally between women and men.
- You are generally located in the following countries (in order): U.S., Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and Germany.
- 50% of your interest measured in webpage activity is concentrated in three genres: hot rods, muscle cars and trucks.
WHAT TYPE OF MAGAZINES ARE INCLUDED?
- Magazines published monthly, bi-monthly or quarterly, where annual net paid circulation is significant.
- Annual publications and "one-shots" in hot rod, muscle car or drag racing categories.
- Make & model specific titles for highly desireable vehicles like the Corvette or Mustang.
- Rare or obscure titles that the website archivist and chief boffin finds interesting. These might include very early publications of historical interest.
WHAT TYPE OF MAGAZINES ARE EXCLUDED?
- Weekly and bi-weekly publications, since it is difficult to find complete sets.
- Commercially oriented magazines, such as those whose readership is automotive businesses or service/repair operations.
- Make & model specific titles (e.g., owner clubs, registries, etc.) for all other foreign or U.S. production vehicles except Corvettes and Mustangs.
- Low print volume motorsport titles.
- Publications printed in a newspaper style or using newsprint.
HOW IS WEBSITE CONTENT ORGANIZED?
- Selected images and magazine history are published to the website when images from the start of publication to a desired end date are at least 90% complete. There are exceptions that cause a less complete collection to be published. It is generally when the title is rare and we use it to collect images from readers.
- Cover images are added in phases. We start with older dates and work forward in time to more recent ones.
- Not all titles on the site contain all images ever printed. This is a practical matter since each title has to be researched and every image collected, edited and published.
- Most car magazine content rarely fits neatly into one category or genre, e.g., hot rods or muscle cars. Typically titles cover at least two or three separate genres or types of vehicles. For example early Hot Rod did a masterful job of covering rodding "A to Z" -- hot rods, dune buggies, drag racing, muscle cars, etc. Likewise, early Rod & Custom included hot rods, customs, slot cars, model cars and go-karts into the mix. Therefore, titles are organized into genres for reader benefit, but these are not always clean distinctions.
WHY IS THE WEBSITE CALLED 99WSPEEDSHOP?
I grew up in various rural and smaller cities in Oregon. As both a teenager and adult, I loved cars and mechanical devices. My homes growing up
were on Oregon Highway 99W. I learned the pleasure and fun of driving this two lane highway in cars of my youth -- Chevy Novas, Impalas and Chevelles,
and Pontiac GTOs and Trans Ams. It is Oregon's equivalent of the "Mother Road".
DO YOU OWN ALL THE MAGAZINES SHOWN ON THE WEBSITE?
Gosh, no!! My wife would kill me!! We own many older hot rod and muscle car titles, and the rest come from the internet and readers who submit images.
DO YOU BUY AND SELL MAGAZINES?
We occasionally buy complete collections to add to our library, and we help our readers who want to buy a specific issue that we happen to have.
But this is infrequent and informal.
The site is intended to be non-commercial. We also keep this digital library free of advertising.
DO YOU HAVE AN END-GOAL? HOW MUCH FARTHER CAN YOU GO?
My friend Robert E. Lee has been cataloguing car magazines and books for forty years -- see his lists
HERE. His list of U.S.
titles over the last century is over 6,500. I have listed just under 275 (not counting annuals and one-shots), and my collection process is starting to slow
due to lack of access to rare titles' hard-to-find images. If my forecasting is accurate, I'll eventually top out at around 30,000 images and
300 titles. This website, then, will be my small gift to those of us on this planet that love cars. My target goal of 30,000 collected
images will be as far as I am able to carry this load.