by HoTWire
20. October 2009 07:30
As regular readers will be aware, we love magazines here at RSM and have a fairly broad taste when it comes to our paper based reading. Our individual collections cover a wide variety of subjects and countries, but there is one area of automotive magazine that has remained beyond reach, the trade mag. Until now.
Trade magazines tend to be much more focussed than your average high street news agent supplied fare, they also tend to cost a bit more as they have a much smaller distribution than most magazines. High Power Media were kind enough to supply is with a copy of Race Engine Technology to check out, rather than selfishly enjoying this I thought I'd share with you my thoughts, who knows it may prompt you to order a copy.
My first thought was that I'm going to be very much out of my depth very quickly, sure I can tune a Webber and keep my car maintained nicely, but it may not have escaped your notice we spend a lot of time enjoying ride height and wheel adjustments here, not gas flowing heads and examining heat profiles of engine components for potential weight savings. When reading through the magazine this showed, I'm not their main target audience, however I did find much of interest to read, the issue I received (September/October 2009) has their nominations for Race Engine Of The Year, it is great to see inside the engine building industry at what is impressing their top engineers, I also learned that the Corvette Le Man GT1 engine is a pushrod, just like my Datsun. Okay so it is a 7 litre V8 direct injection engine, unlike my Datsun, but still... a pushrod engine, in this day and age, outstanding!
Other features included a detailed history of the Aston Martin V12 engine, Direct Metal Laser sintering as a manufacturing method and a 7 page feature on fasteners (screws mainly) which sounds like it should be the dullest subject on earth, but actually proves fascinating. My biggest take away from the magazine is the advertisers, as someone who desires to build a racing engine the people in there who can supply valves, cams, engine management, coatings and a whole host of other services is great, sure they aren't going to be cheap, but you know you are using some of the best there are.
This isn't a magazine I would be served by with a subscription, as I mentioned I'm hardly the target audience, but definitely something I think those more serious about their engines should pick up, particularly those on engineering university courses and those already in the industry. High Power Media also produced a one of Drag Race Technology issue which would be a great read.
Race Engine Technology is availble from : www.highpowermedia.com
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