I started RC in 1998, to help me get right into it, I used to get RRCI and Racer every month. I think the first RRCI I got had the Schumacher SST '98 Peugeot 406 on the cover, and the first Racer had a Traxxas 4-Tec touring car on their cover. As I'm a TC'er, they always had reports I wanted to read (because of the TC boom of the time) of TORC, BTCC, Eurocup, HPI Challenge and of course, BRCA Nationals. The reviews were always in-depth and the photos great (though at the time, I thought RRCI had better write ups because they drove everything they reviewed, whereas Racer went for better photography and rarely said how something drove).
Until 2003/4 I was still buying both mags, but began to leave Racer on the shelf when mistakes started creeping in with spelling, or facts etc. I can't stand that.
I stuck with RRCI because they kept policy of driving in the real world (race meetings I mean), and usually covered race meetings in more depth (tech charts for example). But, as Editors came and went various restyles and relaunches diluted the mag and it is what it is now.....
I'm going to get back to reading Racer, mainly because I want to see how far they have come in the 6 or so years that I haven't read it monthly. I'm a regular reader of their website and I like the up-to-date news and the staff cars part.
The demise of Maxbashing magazine shows I think, that the UK bashing scene can't support a bashing-only magazine. And the fact that Racer and RRCI have had to go down the non-race route shows that racing alone won't keep the bank manager happy. I don't think any of the US-based mags are thinking differently, they are aimed at both the race and the bash guys. Even RCCA have boats! But if its true that RRCI are leaving the race scene behind, then I feel they are making a huge mistake.
And why buy RC mags? Well, what else are you going to read on the loo? You take your iPhone or laptop in there?
