why is car craft the best mag ever printed in the history of paper

why is car craft the best mag ever? for me its that it knows exactly what cars it likes, budget oriented street machines, plus, it isnt afraid to tell you where you can see a 1984 GMC seirra pull a bass boat around a figure 8. Why is it for you?  

It was that brilliant five-part build-up of the u-fab-it-at-home twin-turbo set-up for the BBF that CC ran back in . . . .

Oh wait, they NEVER RAN SUCH A SERIES!  

Never mind.  
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460_BBF_Turbo-in-CC (formerly Dr511scj) "This guy has no life other than posting endlessly on carcraft.com." -- Car Craft, July 2005
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October 1, 2003: " I'm thinking a couple of...turbos, blowing through an old Powerstroke intercooler...on a Super Cobra Jet-head 460 would be mad cheap and make sick power."
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"I have no problem with your...talking to several versions of yourself...or pointing out our failure to do a turbo story ...." --Douglas "CC/Rambler" Glad

it's the way glad's in/out list makes me feel like a red-headed stepchild because my car, even though it's not what most people build, doesn't fit his latest flavor of the month

yeah, that's it, not the build-it-yourself-and-be-proud feeling i used to get with the magazines arrival

do i have to eat anchovie and sour-kraut pizza to be cool?...rather be standing in the rain by myself without an umbrella  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

Because the staff cars look just like ours or at least in the same condition or worse.  

at least the staff at CC can wrench on their own cars instead "reporting" on what some shop did to their car like some of the other mags

i would be ashamed to tell someone that i had to pay for ball joint and bushing work

i can understand taking it out for an alignment or a/c work...most crafters can't afford an alignment rack for their backyard garage...and a/c, well roll the windows down on the road and enjoy the sweaty suana in congested traffic  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

Jeff Smith's home alignment story shot up that "no alignment rack" excuse, didn't it.

And when Smith's weight reduction story suggests (I predict) throwing away all of that HVAC gear for a couple of measly tenths in the "Jolly Ollie Orange" Chevelle, well there just won't be any reason for a CC staffer to EVER take a car out to another shop . . . .      
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460_BBF_Turbo-in-CC (formerly Dr511scj) "This guy has no life other than posting endlessly on carcraft.com." -- Car Craft, July 2005
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October 1, 2003: " I'm thinking a couple of...turbos, blowing through an old Powerstroke intercooler...on a Super Cobra Jet-head 460 would be mad cheap and make sick power."
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"I have no problem with your...talking to several versions of yourself...or pointing out our failure to do a turbo story ...." --Douglas "CC/Rambler" Glad

well, if you ask a cabinet maker what he uses to mark for saw cuts and he says it's all in the size of the tool used to make the mark...if you use a pencil you're already off, most cabinet makers mark cuts with a dental pick or something else that is very pointed...jeff making marks on the concrete floor with a piece of grade school chalk already makes his marks 1/4" wider than if he had used a #2 pencil...and then there is that microscopic protractor...thank god he hasn't used those tools to back-half a car...it would dog track

and if you think his alignment is just as good as a competent alignment man with a computerized rack, you must be his tire supplier...not to mention that you could get aligned 5 times for the cost of the tools

do get me wrong, jeff knows his stuff but this goes a little too far, he might be able to pull this off, but unless one has gotten well aquainted in steering geometry, one should probably leave it to the alignment guy at the tire store  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

okay, so now i've misunderstood you're sarcasm
i didn't mean to blow up, but i had to vent
i'm no mechanical genius but i was the only person in my graduating shop class that could do an alignment by himself...got me a dealership job before graduation...and yes, i did my share of alignments there too

after several years i got tired of working on everybody elses cars and went into carpentry...commercial & industrial foundation work, a couple of degrees will play havoc on a building not to mention the high speed stability of a 3000lb bullet

somewhat better now...the last two issues have left me feeling like a diver with no air left in the tank...yet this same mag used to make my juice flow  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

I think your alleged "blow up" raised some good points.  

On the other hand, Smith's "home alignment" story is not really all that different than what a lot of racers have been doing for years (Taking a race car or any lowered or raised vehicle to a "mainstream" alignment shop is usually a huge waste of time)

Of course extended tire wear is not really a concern for most racers (and many street machiners.  Some of us kill our tires through aggressive driving and no alignment can do much to stem the carnage).

That being said, a home alignment is probably like a home haircut.  It will get you by for a while, but it's not perfect.  And your point that some of the home alignment methods have all the precision of building furniture with a Sawzall (tm) and a sledge hammer is well-taken. It takes real skill to achieve good results with primitive methods.

BTW, it's too bad that CC doesn't run "counterpoint" sidebars to some of these stories, so that points such as yours could be raised.

As for the "no air in the tank" feeling, CC seems to have drifted more toward an "entry level" bolt-on magazine.  Although there's nothing wrong with "how to bolt on a metalflake steering wheel" stories, more adventurous and innovative projects are also necessary to maintain balance as well as reader interest from more experienced "Car Crafters."

Some of the problem is the shoe-string budgets and limited staffs that these magazines are being forced to work with at the moment.  
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460_BBF_Turbo-in-CC (formerly Dr511scj) "This guy has no life other than posting endlessly on carcraft.com." -- Car Craft, July 2005
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October 1, 2003: " I'm thinking a couple of...turbos, blowing through an old Powerstroke intercooler...on a Super Cobra Jet-head 460 would be mad cheap and make sick power."
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"I have no problem with your...talking to several versions of yourself...or pointing out our failure to do a turbo story ...." --Douglas "CC/Rambler" Glad

my comments stem from the fact that this alignment was done on what has been billed as a street car with some track duty...if the car is used only on the track or rarely on the street this alignment will suffice, but smith's car is a driver, it may not be everyday but in SoCal it's alot more often than in other parts of the country...he took it on the anti-tour, which is supposed to be several hundred highway miles...i couldn't imagine fighting an ill-steering car for an extendend freeway jaunt

i understand that heavily modified cars and strictly race cars won't get close to the factory recomended settings...and drag cars are supposed to be aligned in the stance at which they would be going down the track

i feel that what jeff showed in this article is something that could be done to get by until the car can be taken to a competent alignment person (competent meaning someone that understands older cars...besides, where do all those street rod guys go?...most of them are checkbook cars)

i also agree that CC has reverted to entry-level tech, i also feel that their sister publication checkbook rod has gone to the high-end stuff...meanwhile the last issue i picked up of checkbook rodding, tried to shoot down the middle but their writers paid for or "comped" the work to a shop

maybe i'm just jealouos that i can't be a checkbook rodder but have to work on my car to get anything done to it...maybe i just don't trust anybody to do it right...maybe i just take extreem pride in the fact that i did it myself

anybody with a haynes manual and the instruction sheet for a new steering wheel could put one on...provided that they can read,...oh wait, they would have to be able to read to follow doug's story  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

Just wait until CC blows the lid off of installing fuzzy dice . . . .  
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460_BBF_Turbo-in-CC (formerly Dr511scj) "This guy has no life other than posting endlessly on carcraft.com." -- Car Craft, July 2005
-------
October 1, 2003: " I'm thinking a couple of...turbos, blowing through an old Powerstroke intercooler...on a Super Cobra Jet-head 460 would be mad cheap and make sick power."
-------
"I have no problem with your...talking to several versions of yourself...or pointing out our failure to do a turbo story ...." --Douglas "CC/Rambler" Glad

yeah, i could really use an in-depth, 5-page article on how to install fuzzy dice

and maybe they could go into other stuff hanging from the mirror also  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

Some of us need "an in-depth, 5-page article" on how to REINSTALL the ol' rearview first (But remember, "the first rule of Italian racing is 'What's behind you is not important!'"**)

BTW, CC can't be the "best mag ever printed in the history of paper" because it's simply not absorbent enough . . . .  


**A free CC license plate to the first person who can identify that quote***







***(Psss!  . . . Mr. Glad . . . could we have a free CC license plate to give away to the winner?) ****








****These are all jokes. There is no prize. Almost nothing in life is free, anyhow (except for those unsolicited DVDs that CC sends in the mail . . . .)  
*****
TURBO TED --Internationally known as the "John Force of the Yugo Racing Association."

Sergeant-at-Arms and immediate Past President of the SoAL Yugo Owners Group.

be careful ted, between the two of us they almost have enough subject matter for the january issue  
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the red-headed step-child of the mailing list

fuzzy dice, air shocks & N50's rule

gumball rally. great movie.