OVERVIEW:
Turbo was started by Kipp Kington in June, 1985. The original concept was to showcase high horsepower, heavily
modified sports compact cars using turbochargers. The small displacement engines of Japanese sports and compact cars provided the
ideal platform to demonstrate the potential and power of turbocharging. The use of this technology historically intimidated car builders,
but Mr. Kington's strategy was to bring this technology to the average enthusiast.
As reported in an online article by Motor Trend, Mr. Kington was driving his Nissan 300ZX Turbo with his business partner, Larry Moore, on a trip from Arizona to Palm Springs. The two began discussing the power potential of turbos, the performance aftermarket and whether anyone would care to read about modified modern cars with turbos and electronic fuel injection. By the time they reached their destination, the basic framework for Turbo & Hi-Tech Performance was developed. It originally had content that was split 50-50 between domestic and import tuners. But when Michael Ferrara joined in 1994, content shifted almost exclusively to import vehicles. The magazine grew successfully as import racing grew in the 1990s, and this monthly publication swelled to 150 pages!
The magazine had a unique couple of "firsts". It was the first magazine to focus on automobile enthusiasts other than the Detroit-made realm. And, it was also the first magazine to require dyno tests from owners or product placement companies to validate their stated power claims.
The title was changed from Turbo & Hi-Tech Performance to Turbo & High-Tech Performance with the June, 1998 issue.
After Mr. Kington sold this title plus Import Tuner and Today's SUV to Primedia in 1999, it held a large portfolio of tuner titles with no clear positioning. Super Street was the company favorite, although most readers thought the technical content was weak, the writing quality poor and the jokes lame. The coverage of female models turned off many readers who wanted technical content or who didn't care about the "beer and babes" lifestyle" part of the tuner culture. These factors, coupled with the economic downturn of 2008, led to the demise of the title in 2009.
OWNERSHIP:
The ownership history is as follows:
- 1985 -- Kipp Kington formed Illustrated Graphic Communications (IGC).
- 1995 -- Primedia is formed and acquires the automotive titles of McMullen-Yee Publishing and Argus Publishers Corporation. A new division, McMullen-Argus, is formed.
- 1999 -- Mr. Kington sold IGC to Primedia's McMullen-Argus division. The editorial staff remained in place. Primedia now owned multiple tuner magazines with no coherent attempt to position each title uniquely.
- 2007 -- Primedia sold its Enthusiast Media division including Turbo to Source Interlink Media for $1.2 billion
- 2009 -- Source Interlink ended Turbo magazine. Content was folded into Modified Magazine.
The table of contents, if available, can be seen by clicking on the 
icon.
PUBLICATION DATA:
The publisher provided net paid circulation data to Oxbridge Communication's compendium,
The Standard Periodical Directory, from 1988 to 2005 (the last year for which we have data at this time).
Reported printed production ranged from 171,000 to 227,000 print issues annually.
CONTENT COMPLETENESS:
A total of 217 issues was printed from July, 1985 through February, 2009. We apologize for a few poor quality images. This
magazine proved illusive, so we don't have a complete set (we just barely made our 90% publishing threshold).
We seek the following: 1/1986, 3/1986, 5/1986, 1/1987, 5/1987, 9/1987, 3/1989, 11/1990, 11/1996, 6/2006, 11/2006, 4/2007,
7/2007, 6/2008 and 12/2008.
SEND MISSING IMAGES TO:
info_99wspeedshop@yahoo.com.
INTERNET:
The website address was first referenced on the front covers starting in August, 1996. It is now
inactive: www.turbomagazine.com.