Frieburger leaving CC ?

I just got my new issue today and in the editorial frieburger says hes leaving. He is also leaving Hot Rod . Hey man where are you goin ? Whats the deal. Both were starting to suck before you came on board again and I have been a subscriber to each probably about 15 years, I save all the issues too.  

Say it's not so!!!  

If he leaves...Thats it for me.  I just resubscribed for 2 more years of CC and Hot Rod.  the last time I did that, most of my subscription was wasted on that dork Jeff Smith, really whizzed me off, man.  After he leaves, and DF comes back, I went ahead and ponied up,  Gawd, I hope they dont get some loser like Smith in there again....  

Jeff Smith a DORK?  When Jeff rode around with me we stopped at a few of  my local haunts and every person that he met he was nice  to. Once everyone found out who he was they were on him like white on rice. Some were really annoying but he stayed professional and treated them with respect. He listened to all of their BS and then some! Even when the police followed us home he remained cool and let me run the show. Jeff has been around this business a LONG time and for you to call him a losser on this board is way out of line. Do you think that you could do a better job? Just what are your qualifications? My mom always told me that if you cant say anything nice, dont say anything at all so do us all a favor and keep your comments to yourself.  

As far as calling Smith a dork on this forum goes I have to agree with you, Dave. Bad taste at best. However, Qualificaions notwithstanding, Frieburger is a far better editor for a magazine like CC. Smith would shine in something like Super Chevy. For a mag that does all brands - No.  

All I can say about Smith is that he turned Car Craft into Chevy Craft and lost me as a reader anything he writes.  

I may have overstepped by calling him a dork.  I admit and even apologize for that.  But my statement stands as far as his leadership of the magazine.  It was said later on that he would shine as head of Chevy High Performance, or Super Chevy or some other such offbrand magazine.  Since this is Car Craft, I expect to see something besides 115 pages of why the LS1 or LT1 Gen III smallblocks are the best thing since sliced bread.  I am not a bowtie guy, though I can appreciate one.  I got Car Craft because of what Frieburger and Matt King made it...a car guys magazine.  He tried to turn CC back to what it was when he was in control back in the `80s...yes I was there, I remember the hundreds of Camaros paraded on the cover.  I like some Camaros, but come on.  I dont neccessarily want to see an overabundance of Fords in CC, nor AMCs. Mopars, or any other make.  CC should be a mix of all the above.  Smith may be a swell guy, but as for a magazine editor, well, he simply sucks.  I do have experience writing, though not on the scale of a magazine.  I do produce, edit and publish a quarterly newsletter for an international car club.  The only reason it is not monthly, is that I have a family, I have a real job, real responsibilities that must be attended to on a daily basis.  These things have become far more important to me than all other things, including my lifelong love of hot rods and high performance.  Given the chance, though, yeah, I could do that job.  

I do agree with your opinion of Jeff's editing of car craft.      He didn't produce a good magazine.  Not that he doesn't know his ####, but I found the magazine marginally more interesting than my textbooks.  The humor was gone, so was the down to earth hotrodding.  LS1's are great, but I like fords and mopars too.  I own a second generation camaro, the ones that don't get any respect.  I love camaros, but even I am tired of seeing '69 camaros everywhere.  I'd rather see a '68 roadrunner or a 72 grabber maverick.  I'm not saying jeff is a bad guy, far from it.  I just don't think he did a good job at the helm either.

Much better, Stroker. We all use wrong wording sometimes. Now I'm in complete agreement with you. I'm pretty much an all brand fan myself, & like David Vizard's philosiphy that you can make power from any engine. However I have to admit that my love of Chevys is limited to the 348-409. That's because they are not a belly button engine. BTW, what is the engine in your 57? I'm curious because a friend of mine still has a 57 2Dr with a dual quad 427 med-riser 427 side oiler with a 4-spd he put together about 35 yrs ago. Sweet car. Dam fast too!  

jeff smith was great at h.p.chevy  why they move "ro" there and put jeff at car craft again is anyones guess...

his writing style is (the shop teacher you wish you had) he is very thorrow with his tech articles.. 

you can't go from writing about "all chevys" and then to another mag and change the subjects your writing about...

I'd bet the articles that he wrote for *** for the first year and a half .was things that he started to work on when over at h.p. chevy..

stories take time and planing..  and when they where finished he was at another mag...

if you look at the '80 issues there are alot of wisecracks in the mag when he was at the helm..

if the co. was moving people around it was because they thought the mags needed a change ..you don't write the same way as the last guy at the helm, or run the mag the same..writing like dave or matt king isn';t what the co. wanted at the time..  or they wouldn't have moved them around....

you can't blame only jeff...  just like you and I he's got a boss that he needs to make happy to keep his job..when your name is on the co. building then you can do as you please but untill then you're answering to someone...

I wonder if jeff wrote AMC or mopar articles with the same writing style(high in tech info.) if so many people would have called for his "HEAD"

he was a friend to the late/great john lingerfi.   the master of the new high tech chevy v8 engines....

there is alot of info in that graymatter of jeffs that needs to be tapped..

he doesn't  just write a story  he digs in and finds out  why what happened did happen..  he thinks about it like as if it was for his ride..

anyone can write stories.. only a few can start a story and "need" to know more and dig and dig untill all is understood about what is happening and why...

But DF was trying to tell us "don't get MAD, get GLAD!  (Douglas Glad, that is).

DF is still in the editorial chain, takin' care of business. 

Glad, "LSx" Smith and the others may not be able to make using a hose clamp for a transmission mount sound like a good idea, but they've gotten the message that CC shouldn't be another dry CHP or SC with a couple of token Brand Xs mixed in.

Besides, at a paltry $10/year, you could throw 3/4s of the issues away and still have good value.

And it's sick fun to see them make Smith work on Fords . . .  heh, heh, heh.

I have to agree with you TT- Smith seems like a good guy and I get the feeling reading his stuff that he's smart enough to have gotten the hint.  DF stated up fron that his return here would be short, and he does still have a hand. 

My boss has a sign on his wall that states "Fundamentally, what people want is for things to get better without anything changing."  I think CC is working to get better, and in order to do that they have to make changes.  You've already paid for a subscription, so live with it and see what happens.  Who knows, you may like it.

I also just got my new cc mag in the mail.  It makes me sick that Frieburger is leaving.   The new pictures were outstanding !   And I didn't have to refer to car craft as chevy craft and hot rod as hot chevy anymore.    Each mag had all different kinds of cars in them.   As I can say that I like some from each make.   Each mag took on a new look that caught everyones eye.  I actually got to see some mopars in each mag.  And even some mopar tech.   Please try to keep up the great work on both magazines.    

I think that most of us would prefer that DF stay at CC and HR, his style fits better than anyone else has in years.  

     Jeff Smith great at HP Chevy?! Gee, I'm a Chevy fan but he really lost me with the frankenrat stories. Lets replace some big port heads with... some big port heads! Correct me if I'm wrong. I like some of his writing, but editor? or tech editor? Maybe of a Hemmings publication. (Not a Dis, I subscribe).                                                                                               

       Mr. D.F. leaving CC ?  He has put the h.p. in our garages for quite some time. If I was publisher/boss I'd create a book that he could oversee. Probably couldn't hope to sell 1/4 of CC. Face it the S#@t is working now. If anyone can make it better, then they may be a god.