In the quirky world of magazine timing, I’m writing this a few days before Christmas, and you’re reading it around Valentine’s Day. We are making New Year’s resolutions, while many of you, according to typical statistics anyway, have already broken yours.
In magazine world, I mapped out my 2019 editorial calendar a few months ago. But now that the In-Real-Life 2019 is days away, plans are solidifying and not just ideas tapped into a computer file. The car that will be on the cover of our Paint & Body issue next month has paint on it; I’m collecting barn find stories for that special issue; and, believe it or not, we are already making plans for MCACN coverage in November.
(We aren’t the only ones. MCACN chief—or chef?—Bob Ashton is talking about the next show, too, which will be held November 23-24. In a recent email he featured Albert Galdi’s 1969 Chevelle 300, a participant in the MCACN 2019 Chevelle Post Sedan Invitational.)
Your Cars
One of our upcoming issues needs your help. It’s our Readers’ Rides issue, where we expand our two-page department into a multipage cover story featuring readers’ cars. Thanks to those of you who have already submitted your photos and stories. If you haven’t seen your car in print yet, chances are good you’ll see it in that special issue.
But we could use more. So if you have an interesting muscle car, especially one with a fascinating story, please send us some photos and a write-up about the car. Tell us about how you found it, why you wanted it, what shape it was in when you got it, and what you’ve done to (and with) it since you’ve owned it.
The photos that you send in should include a front-three-quarter view, a shot of the engine compartment, the interior, and any details that make the car stand out (day-two equipment, low mileage on the odometer, stuff like that). We like “before” photos, and photos of the car being worked on.
But please, please, please, if you’re going to send in digital images, make sure they are high resolution. Photos that look good on the internet or your computer screen don’t necessarily translate well to the printed page. Adjust your camera (or phone camera) to the largest image setting possible. We’d rather the pictures were too big than not big enough. It breaks my heart to get a great car for a Readers’ Rides story, only to see that the photos are kilobytes (kb) in size. The image files should measure in megabytes (MB). A photo that measures 4×6 inches at 300 dpi is perfect.
The same goes if you’re scanning prints to send us. Better yet, send us the prints (make duplicates so you keep the originals) and we’ll do the scanning to the size we need.
The Readers’ Rides special has a fall cover date, so I can collect your stories and photos until June. If by some reason you miss that deadline, no worries. We’ll continue our regular every-other-month Readers’ Rides department in issues to come.
Your Stories
In that same issue I’d like to try something different, something that also involves your help. I’d like to collect and publish firsthand stories of what it was like to live in the muscle car era and drive a muscle car. This month’s archival story about buying a used supercar (page 50) made me realize that, unless you’re of a certain age, you only see these cars as revered icons and not just another used car. We probably have a large (and, I hope, growing) number of readers who were too young to have experienced the heyday themselves. Putting these cars in a real-world, warts-and-all context would be informative and really entertaining.
So I welcome your input. Jot down memories of what you drove, how much it cost, how you equipped it, and where and how you used it. What did you love about it? What gave you fits? How many engines did you go through? How many tickets? Favorite dragstrip? Cruising spot? What did your friends drive? What did gas cost? Any detail, even if it seems mundane to you, would throw light on an era that is quickly getting further away in the rearview mirror.
I also encourage you to dig into your scrapbooks to find photos of these cars so we can print them, too. Scan them big, please, or send us dupes to scan ourselves. Shots at the dragstrip, at the drive-in, at your wedding, towing a boat, up on jackstands, after the fender-bender, all are good pieces of firsthand history.
The email address to send material is [email protected]. Regular mail should go to: Muscle Car Review, Readers’ Rides/Readers’ Stories, 831 S. Douglas St., El Segundo, CA 90245. Thanks!
Source: Read Full Article