Automotive Engineering International

Publication title: Automotive Engineering International
Extent and nature of circulation

Average number the preceding 12 months:

Paid subscriptions : 93,238
Sales though vendors and carriers :
Total paid circulation: 93,238
Outside country:
Free distribution:

Copies not distributed: 2,541

Total: 95,779

DSport Magazine and IDRC - True Hollywood Story

DSport Magazine - formally Drag Sport

"Before you read any further, please understand that this story isn't for everyone. Unlike every other DSport editorial, you are not going to learn how to make your car faster or make you car perform better. Instead, you are going to get a look behind the scenes at the politics and mechanics behind the import performance scene. If you're not interested skip ahead. We've added pages just to make sure you weren't cheated. If you would like to understand the industry from an insider's viewpoint, follow along. The following is about to be the tale of the evolution of both import performance magazines and organized import drag racing."

"While 2003 would serve as a year of success for DRAG Sport, the Big Three (Sport Compact Car, Import Tuner and Super Street) would see significant drops in subscriptions and single-copy sales. According to a FasFax analysis, the three titles would lose between 10 to 15-percent of their subscriber base while single-copy sales would slide between 10 and 17 percent. Ironically, advertising rates for the PRIMEDIA titles would continue to rise. PRIMEDIA advertisers would be paying considerably more to get considerably less."

So now its a couple of years later , I wonder where Dsport sits on this. I think Dsport is still doing well. Well enough for a small book vs the huge conglomerate that was Primedia, but is now Source Interlink.

Racecar Engineeering December 2007

Racecar Engineering is the automotive magazine you probably have never heard of. They carry them in some Barnes and Nobels, but they are a little hard to find. Its a UK based technical magazine about the racing industry. Its expensive - about $9.99 an issue, but it has some really great information. More than most people would ever want or need, but if you are really into competition, this is a magazine for you. Lots of up close pictures and analysis of race car competition.

The December 2007 issue covers some of the technical information that was passed from Ferrari to McLaren in the spy scandal from last year. One part that was interesting was the use of specialized gases in the tires of the Ferraris. Most people use air in their tires , some race cars , even the new GT-R, use nitrogen in their tires. What Ferrari found out though , was by using a combination hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) - based mixture specially made for use in racing tires. This mix greatly extends the performance of the tires over a number of laps. For instance in the Ferrari testing after 23 laps , tires filled with air had about 40% of the performance of a new tire , where the HFC mixture had 80% of the performance of a new tire.

The mixture of gases also allowed for a much longer tire life before bursting. Where nitrogen would last for 64 minutes before bursting , the gas mixtures allowed the same tires to last from 94 minutes to 103 minutes.

Very interesting . Has very little to do with street cars, but in other series , we might start to see them using this new mixture, or a combination of mixtures in tires to increase performance. Having run in a series that used a spec tire , over a 50 minute race , if given the ability to get this gas mixture to put in the tires , I think most of the racers would use it.

Racecar Engineering