Man are you guys right about the passion of 914ers. I was surprised to see how much of it was in me, too. For a quick minute, in total disgust, I thought about selling my car (which I've owned since I was 15) and then thought that was totally ridiculous -- laughable, even.
Then I saw people I know, respect, and like from 914club.com voice what I had thought. What that told me is that this community really is populated with people with a strong connection to the 914 and its basic design premise. They "connect" with it in a way that few other car enthusiasts do with their cars. Very few.
Yep, it's just a car -- but for some reason these little cars sure are wonderful to build, drive, work on, think about, and dream on. And they can take you a long ways, or a long ways away.
Thanks for the compliments on the Feb issue. I poured more of my soul into that one than any previous issue. And was holding onto the 916 article all this time for that. Well, for that and another reason I shouldn't talk about....
Maybe I can get all of the slides scanned and post them in a thread. I only wish I had been shooting digital back then.
Oh, and while 914s HAVE been on the cover (the smaller photo, and at least three have made it) we've found that old cars (as the main image) just don't sell magazines on the newsstand. That's why you see so many old Porsches on the covers up until about 1997 and then a little after. Something like Yellow Bird *might* sell magazines, but then there aren't too many of those kinds of old "Porsches," and even then the target audience on the newsstand is too young to really remember 1988. Which makes ME feel old...
As for 914 content, I feel like I am always pulling off a bit of a coup to cover as many as we do. I don't *think* and other Porsche mag has done more for the 914 than Excellence -- but I can't take credit for that. It started with David Colman from the very beginning. The 356/912, 914, and 911 crowds are simply put, the most ardent and enduring (esp. in terms of numbers) of all of them.
My biggest worry is serving the 928 and 924/944/968 crowd. Very hard to do, because the amount of cool cars being built continues to dwindle...
Finally, I find the cover progression to be fascintating, too. You can see the early days when Tom wouldn't put ANY text on the covers (just a pretty picture, well, hopefully) and then spastic amounts of text on hideous covers, then a return of a "main" image, etc.
pete
p.s. Aaron, you can get me anytime at letters@excellence-mag.com, as it goes right to my email box anyway!
I think I was about to PM you on the pull handles to say: yes!
nice to see you here!!
I really like the 20th Anniversary issue - great articles!
Too many christmas cards bogging down the mail system.