[bill dedman]

If you want to see how current-day magazines compare with the titles that existed in the heyday of Super Stock, do yourself a favor, get on ebay, and buy some old copies of Hot Rod, or Car Craft from the '62-'70 era, particularly the earlier stuff.

I believe I have owned a copy of every ("Petersen," et al) "Hot Rod" magazine published since about 1954, and the editorial content of that magazine was peerless, to this day, during that '62-'70 era.

They had Jim McFarland, Ray Brock, some guy named "Racer" Brown, and a few other really good writers who would devote several pages to EACH NEW ENGINE (such as the new 413/426 Max Wedge Mopars, the 409's, and the S/S Ford FE motors [406/427/428CJ]), when they were released, and would take an example completely apart, and spread the (sizeaable) photos out grandly, showing the special, new-design heads, manifolding, bottom end mods, and anything else that was significant in the power-making department, for each engine!

When is the last time you saw an article with such an extensive technical explanation, including beaucoup photographs of a disassembled new-design engine, with pertinent comments from the elite racers of the day, RE the imagined potential of these new engines?

I could not WAIT to get my hands on those issues!!! Petersen didn't need to put Garlits on the cover to get ME to pay newsstand price (although, to be fair, I always subscribed... still do) for an issue!!!!

During the forty-plus years since that scenario was the norm, has the reading audience "dumbed down" to the extent that they can't appreciate or, even, understand technically-oriented editorial content such as this? Has the attention span of the average 20-year-old drag racer deteriorated to the extent that all this technical information would be wasted on him/her?

It was exciting as hell, back in '62.... Has the ensuing 48 years resulted in the demise of the intellect of potential drag racers? Is that why we don't see articles like that any more?

God knows, the '08 CJ's, the DP Challengers, and the recently released efforts by Ford have surely contained a ton of exciting, new, technical information that is ripe for dispersal to the information-hungry racers among us.

Where is it? I don't mean a few self-serving, "factory" press releases; I mean the articles like Hot Rod used to generate.... pages and pages of tech data and photographs of components. What we called, "the good stuff!!!"

On a different tack....

I need confirmation from someone who was there, or who knows: What I heard was that in its final weeks/months, Petersen Publishing (if, in fact, it was still "Petersen" at that time), dispatched Johnny Dianna to Alexandria, VA to shut down Petersen's recently-purchased Super Stock and DRAG ILLUSTRATED.

I'd like to know of that's true.

Was the little SS& DI such a threat to the mega-conglomerate "Petersen" machine that they couldn't stand the competition????

Un-f-ing believeable, IF that's true (that they bought it in order to shut it down.)

If they had done that and replaced it with a similar title (RE: content,) that would be one thing.... but, they didn't. They just left us hanging.

We're still hanging,.

Thanks to John D. for his efforts to give us a hand. I'm gonna give HIM a hand by sending in a subscription, this coming week. Look for it, John....

Can anybody confirm or deny this Dianna story? I noticed that Johnny left "Petersen" shortly thereafter... probably with a bad taste in his mouth. He was, after all, a Stock Eliminator racer before he took up writing for a living.

Terry mirrors my thoughts and attitude totally; we must have the same astrological signs. LOL!

I am showing my thoughts and feelings for NHRA and the way they treat Sportsman racers by letting my membership lapse (first time in over 40 years) and building a hi-boost '64 Valiant Slant 6 car just to have fun with. I know; Uncle Tom won't miss my money....