Good technical magazines

[sheepdog]

Spurred by a side comment in another thread...

List some of the magazines you read either occasionally, or regularly for techinical articles and why. Maybe some of us will find something new. Not ones you read for pleasure or general info, but for good how-to's and technical information. Read mine and you will get the idea.

Mine:
Note: I buy no magazines regularly, I have not in years. I only buy when I see something interesting. I used to have a HUGE collection.


Grassroots Motorsports.
They often have very good real world advice, most seem to NOT be advertiser driven. They are also willing to take on projects themselves and pay for the work rather than an advertiser do it for them. The recent 318IS articles are a great (but small) example.

Mustangs And Fast Fords.
Not really big on these (techincally I am into rods and customs) but they often have really good tech info. Strengthening rear ends, engine builds, etc. They once did a 3 parter using 3 supercharging systems, turbo, twin screw, and centrifugal blowers. Using as similar boost as they could, lots of dyno graphs and pone engine engine to show how each truly performed. Very informative articles.

Circle Track.
Hear me out on this.
This is a truely GREAT magazine, look into it. It is geared towards the low buck do-it-yourself (circle track) racer. A lot of it carries over into anything vehicle. A sample of how technical they are, last month was a 3 FULL page article on crankshafts. Materials, coatings, knife edging, counterweights, oiling, if it had to do with a crank, they put it in there. This is like a bible for racers. Another issue, has a step by step guide on how to build a race legal cage. From design, materials, up to making it easier to enter and exit. They do articles like this all the time. Keep your eye out for it, and actually take a look rather than thinking it is all hillbillies and rednecks who read it. One of the single most informative magazines you will find.

[D. Clay]

I started in drag racing in the 60's and then to short track (.5 mile) asphalt cars in the 70's and early 80's. We started running SCCA GT1 at the old Texas World Speedway road course for track time. Then we saw a Rousch TransAm car and it was road racing from there on out. The technology of "stock cars" is continually trashed by the unknowing.
In the mid 80's Tim Richmond in the Folger's Monte Carlo outran the Porsche LeMans car on the GM 6 mile oval test track in harder to find than Dick Cheney Ohio. The Monte Carlo ran 234 MPH - The Porsche just over 230. The crew dropped the car to the ground, taped all the body seams, flattened the spoiler, removed a lot of weight, and shot it with a case of silicone spray cans. Don't laugh.  The car came out of the trailer straight from the Charlotte World 600. Richmond was openly gay or bisexual and died of aids a few years later.

[Katz Tsubai]

Racecar Engineering

It's a British magazine, and pretty damn expensive.  Annual subscription is around $75 IIRC.  It's an excellent magazine if you're into motorsports and what goes inside the modern racecars.  Not too many articles applicable to home DIY projects, however.

[D. Clay]

definately the top-end technical periodical out there

[Gustave Stroes (Dr G)]

RaceTech magazine (UK)
Racecar Engineering (UK)
Race Engine Technology (UK)
Bernoulli (UK - dedicated to racecar aero)

All are expensive but worth it. Though they were much better about 10 years ago.

Best Column = "The Consultant" (Racecar Engineering) by Mark Ortiz

Gustave

[///Motorsport]

Racecar engineering is great as well as Grassroots for more, well grassroots stuff.  I personally like evo as well, not technical but a great magazine.

As for BMW magazines, TotalBMW, BMWcar and Bimmer are the ones i buy... i think im forgetting some..