[71SportRagtop]

The internet is here and here to stay and it's knocking everything else out of it's way. It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. I've heard guys talk about referencing an old magazine to find out info. Fine, but Google or Youtube are much better and quicker reference tools.

I'm 46 years old and I grew up on car magazines. Over the years I've subscribed to Hot Rod, Car Craft, Musclecar Review and a few oddballs that are no longer around. I remember one in particular called "Cars Illustrated" where the guys cursed and called guys ***s and stuff. I guess in hindsight I can see why that magazine isn't around anymore but it was kind of funny to see a car magazine where they shot from the hip.

I let my subscriptions to everything but Musclecar Review run out. It seemed to me that these car mags got an idea in their head that something was popular and then they shoved it down your throat. (how many 1st gen Camaro's have you seen in Car Craft??)

When I got my Firebird 2 years ago, I subscribed to HPP. I thought it was OK at best. Look, I know that I'll get fried for this but I didn't subscribe to a high performance Pontiac mag to read about a Solstice. To me they are a girls car like a Miata and I don't care how much HP you squeeze out of the motor, it's still a girl car to me. But there was one in my HPP mag and I knew then and there that I was not re-upping my subscription.

I'm sorry for the people who lost their jobs but not surprised.

[keith k]

Originally Posted by Diego

1. Freiburger is not the editor of Hot Rod magazine.

.... which is kind of a bummer. I give him full credit for turning Hot Rod around and making it relevant and interesting when he took over many years ago. (It no doubt helps that my automotive interests are very diverse...). I think HRM has lost a bit of its "edge" again recently since Freiburger's attentions have been spread more broadly.

Very sorry to see HPP gone. I have been a subscriber on/off (mostly on) going just about back to the Thunder Am days, too.

[Diego]

Freiburger is now the editor's boss, so it still has the same flavor as before. Freiburger can still be found on Roadkill.

And, of course, it bears repeating again that our own Don Keefe has an article in the current edition of Hot Rod magazine.

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Chastings

Bummer. I spend a lot of time on the road and look forward to reading the digital version on my ipad--really helps pass the time.

Sorry to all those that lost jobs.

And thanks for all the hard work you put into the mag--especially thanks for the cameo shot in the July issue!

I was about to use this same method w HPP: I've been a charter Hemmings Muscle Machines subscriber, and look forward to every PRINT issue. Hemmings had a great deal IMO to receive ALL of their magazines IIRC for $25 in digital format. I did this when it was 1st offered and still maintain my HMM PRINT sub AND the digital format for all.

Bonus feature w Digital issues was ability to download all available back issues available for each magazine. Especially handy for use w Hemmings Motor News "Bible" collector car issue with most all ads articles and vehicles & parts For Sale images and URLs are hot linked and option to view company websites and/or Hemmings website listing for more info & images. Also enjoy viewing "other" make, model, yrs that I'd may be interested in learning about; and no "storage issues" with those fat Motor News print copies.*

... was about to do the same with HPP & Hot Rod if it was available...my HPP last issue sub ran out w the 1971 GTO info. I'll purchase the last issue w 1972 GTO info at B&N...and that Brick & Mortar bookstore chain is soon to end up "DARK" same as Borders & HPP IMO.

And it wouldn't surprise me to see HPP, or a similar variant, be resurrected such as MCR, etc. Over the yrs HPP has changed ownership, publishers, etc. and too, as pointed out here many of the articles are by freelance contributors and certainly there is a backlog of already written articles and pix to be published?

*Continuing on the positive - here's the Hemmings Digital Deal link: http://www.hemmings.com/subscribe/di...source=DGTE414

[zephyrracer]

Looks like all our old magazines have become antiques ( $10.00 ) a copy and if there is a certain article you want maybe ( $20.00 ) a copy.

Gregg

[gene simmons]

Originally Posted by Diego

I believe HPP will be folded into Hot Rod magazine

With 2 years left on a HPP subscription,i would hope they would not replace it with that damn Hot Rod magazine. I would prefer High Performance Chevy over HR.

This is how it would go,open mail box,find HR,tear off label,throw in Trash. 2 years worth of garbage.

[455firebird1969]

I recently made negative comments regarding the camaro on the front cover of HPP (several months ago). The next month I praised the fact a chevy was several pages in, instead of on the cover. I renewed my subscription for three years after making these comments, because I love Pontiac's and HPP magazine, even with the encroachment of chevy coverage. I wonder if people like myself openly criticizing HPP had any part in the decision to kill it? Maybe, maybe not, I guess it's water under the bridge at this point.

I was sorry to see the Pontiac V-8 engines go back in the seventies. I was sorry to see the Pontiac line killed by GM a few years ago. Now I'm sorry to see HPP go, especially for those who lost their job, times are tough for the unemployed that want to work in many job fields.

It is going to be a long two and a half years for our economy, with the upcoming regulations aimed at everything that leads to economic growth. Unemployment is bound to get worse.

[77 Canamman]

I was looking forward to my last issue featuring the 1973 GTO.. Since my subscription was going to run out with two more issues. As with just about everything in the past, the '73 GTO always has gotten the shaft.

[Chastings]

Originally Posted by Alvin

I was about to use this same method w HPP: I've been a charter Hemmings Muscle Machines subscriber, and look forward to every PRINT issue. Hemmings had a great deal IMO to receive ALL of their magazines IIRC for $25 in digital format. I did this when it was 1st offered and still maintain my HMM PRINT sub AND the digital format for all.

Bonus feature w Digital issues was ability to download all available back issues available for each magazine. Especially handy for use w Hemmings Motor News "Bible" collector car issue with most all ads articles and vehicles & parts For Sale images and URLs are hot linked and option to view company websites and/or Hemmings website listing for more info & images. Also enjoy viewing "other" make, model, yrs that I'd may be interested in learning about; and no "storage issues" with those fat Motor News print copies.*

... was about to do the same with HPP & Hot Rod if it was available...my HPP last issue sub ran out w the 1971 GTO info. I'll purchase the last issue w 1972 GTO info at B&N...and that Brick & Mortar bookstore chain is soon to end up "DARK" same as Borders & HPP IMO.

And it wouldn't surprise me to see HPP, or a similar variant, be resurrected such as MCR, etc. Over the yrs HPP has changed ownership, publishers, etc. and too, as pointed out here many of the articles are by freelance contributors and certainly there is a backlog of already written articles and pix to be published?

*Continuing on the positive - here's the Hemmings Digital Deal link: http://www.hemmings.com/subscribe/di...source=DGTE414

Out of curiosity, do you know how far back you can go on back-issues of digital hemmings?

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by Chastings

Out of curiosity, do you know how far back you can go on back-issues of digital hemmings?

Quick check of two for you, available back to issues:
For Muscle Machines April 2011
For Hemmings Motor News December 2010

BTT re: HPP back issue archives w noting current posted circulation of 20,000;

Several yrs ago I took heat & was repeatedly flamed by "Heir Editor" here on a PY thread for my suggestion of a digital index and archive for High Performance Pontiac, back issues, specialty publications and for purchase.
My Examples:

• Birds of Prey VHS Tape conversion to Digital or DVD

• Pontiac Power compilation spiral binding it digital

• High Performance Pontiac 12 month issue Storage Binder re-issue

Was basically slammed and "schooled" as to "waste of time and effort" and would be a $$$ loser. So, even though the aftermarket vendors are selling them still in original format, "no way Jose" on conversion to digital.
IIRC - It was expressed there were ONLY 3 full timers on HPP staff, and my "outlandish" ideas were nothing more than "dreamscape" due to lack of staffing and funding due to low volume sales potential.

The Takeaway: Anyone who's known HPP from the begining is aware that the magazine has bounced from one Parent Publisher to another, hence the disjointed availability of previous publication archives is my WAG. But wadda I know? Nada!

To be fair, I'd like to say that HPP's website has been something that does have online archive info from their recent years. I'd hope that all content can and will be saved somehow. And I'll now covet my bound editions more than ever before.

Also; regardless of how I feel about Hot Rod, Car Crap, PHR, et al; it would be an epic loss to the automotive hobby in general if the recently rediscovered cache of "lost" photo and information history discovered during the moving of Hot Rod corporate office were lost again, for all of time.

[azbirds]

I have HHP back to Thunder Am, in binders year by year, and it will be sorely missed! Yeah, some of the articles didn't appeal to me, but it was still better than reading about other junk. The one magazine that I did butcher was the yellow T/A on the cover in the Eighties(Screaming Yellow Zonker), it was on the cover, with a bowtie in the grill!! I feel for the people that lost jobs, and feel this magazine is still relevant. When PE folded into the other mag, they wanted to give me the new mag in its place, and I told them to keep my money because there is no way in hell I would ever have a mag with sections for corvette, mustang etc. and no section for Pontiac. R.I.P HPP

[Garry Sr]

For all you guys gutting switched over to HRM make sure you demand your free hat.

[GOAT WHORE]

Originally Posted by Garry Sr

For all you guys gutting switched over to HRM make sure you demand your free hat.

Ya, put it right next to my 20 "jeg jeg JEG's" hats.

[Garry Sr]

Originally Posted by GOAT WHORE

Ya, put it right next to my 20 "jeg jeg JEG's" hats.

I'm a Summit kind of guy myself. It's a buckeye thing.

[aukc]

some of the folks that have contributed over the years, I appreciate their (and other HPP staff) contribution to the hobby:

April, 1982



December 1985



June 1992



June1999



October 2002



August 2014

[Greg Reid]

The simple fact has to be that they weren't selling enough. Who ever heard of someone going out of business because they were making too much money?
I liked the mag but generally over the last 6 or 7 years, they were never on my local supermarket mag rack. Plenty of Chevy, Mustang and Mopar stuff though... So, for me, it's like they went out of print years ago.
Sorry to see it go in spite of that fact...
Seems that it's no longer just the big car guys that are the Darksiders...ALL Pontiac guys fit the description now... We are a dying breed, like it or not...

[Held for Ransom]

Really, I've seen it a lot of times at the local Walmart store.

[rexs73gto]

Two things I can say about the lack of sales, 1 is that at least around here in MI. you have to search all over just to get a copy because none of the stores that carry all of the car mag's carry HHP. I have asked several times when I see the girls stocking the racks but all I get for an answer is the dist. doesn't carry it. WHY, they carry 20 different chevy mag's ??? Plus if you haven't noticed that all the other Mag's are in the $ 12-15 dollor range for the years sub. , & HPP is double, along with Muscle car that also has a lot of Pontiac stuff in it. It's almost like they want to kill Pontiac as a hobby the way GM killed Pontiac itself. Besides isn't Feirburger a Pontiac fan to.???

[242177P]

Originally Posted by gene simmons

With 2 years left on a HPP subscription,i would hope they would not replace it with that damn Hot Rod magazine. I would prefer High Performance Chevy over HR.

This is how it would go,open mail box,find HR,tear off label,throw in Trash. 2 years worth of garbage.

Have them sent to someplace else then?

High School, local library, doctor's office, etc.
Troops serving abroad also appreciate them.

[Chastings]

I actually found it quite difficult to find in stores. They put in one of my pictures in the July issue so naturally I wanted a few extra copies. I searched high and low and found that most barnes and nobles did not carry the magazine. Out of the 4 stores in orlando only 1 store still carried the magazine and their shipment of 3 never showed up (at least it hadn't when I last checked). I finally found it in a small b & n in VA. I have yet to see the magazine in any walmart I've shopped...