OVERVIEW:
Popular & Performance Car Review was published by Dobbs Publishing in Lakeland, Florida. Dobbs was an upstart, independent publisher
which started with Mustang Monthly in 1978. Dobbs built a
strong portfolio of other muscle and
performance titles and then sold everything to Petersen Publishing in 1999.
Popular & Performance Car Review had its roots in Classic Sixties and Car Exchange. Dobbs purchased Car Exchange from Krause Publishing and merged it with Classic Sixties to create Popular & Performance Car Review. It was later re-titled to Muscle Car Review in December, 1986.
The original concept was to compare the performance of both old and new muscle cars. But based on reader feedback, the magazine shifted focus to older muscle cars. Donald Farr, the original editor, created a real uproar when he ranked the fastest 50 muscle cars. Reader response was both positive and negative, but the magazine set records for newsstand sales. Farr remained the editor until 1986 when Paul Zazarine took the helm.
The table of contents can be seen by clicking on the icon.
PUBLICATION DATA:
Dobbs Publishing did NOT provide net paid circulation data to Gale Research for this title, but they did later for Muscle Car Review.
CONTENT COMPLETENESS:
A total of 31 issues was printed from May, 1984 through November, 1986. All cover images and table of content pages are complete.