It's a sad day for car enthusiasts the world over, with news breaking that Max Power Magazine will cease its monthly publication as well as its accompanying website. The long-standing Max Power title has been one of the more established tuner magazines, with Editor Mark Guest confirming that their February issue, on sale 12th January 2011, will be their last.
"Bauer Media has reluctantly taken the decision today to suspend the monthly publication of Max Power magazine and its accompanying website.
We anticipate that the February issue of Max Power, on sale 12th January 2011, will be the last issue in its current guise and will be a collectable super-sized issue celebrating modifying past and present. It will embrace all that is great within our scene and boast more feature cars than ever before. This really will be an event that’s not to be missed and a fitting celebration to the incredibly colourful, loud and irreverent history of Max Power.
It is our intention to keep the Max Power brand alive in the future with a series of “one shots” and special issues and some possible exciting new adventures. Keep your eyes peeled for future new projects and we will endeavour to keep you updated with all the latest news from the Max Power brand.
I’d like to personally thank you for your support of Max Power.
Mark Guest
Editor
Max Power"
We'd like to wish Mark Guest and the whole Max Power team the very best for their future endeavours.
- Charles Kha
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
damn thats the second of of one of my favorites, 2 wheel tuner also did the same this yr.
another one bites the dust
In its pomp Max Power represented all that was bad about modified cars.
Altough I agree that the contents of Max Power most of the time was horrid, it's sad. I know how that feels. I work in a tuning mag here in Mexico and it hasnt gone down, but went quarterly instead of monthly, so I dont think it can survive too much more. Seeing car mags dying all over the world really sucks.
I've been reading this magazine since 1996 but for the last years they have gone downhill with featuring crap cars and rappers with their Hummers and chrome wheels.
I found a better magazine and that's called Redline with no nonsense performance tuning.
If Max Power was a bit more serious about featuring cars they would stil be publishing.
Dont mean to sound bad but no harm the days off 18's on a corsa makin it on magazines should be put too rest.Banzai all the way.
Sad to see this magazine go..
They recently offered me a feature at SEMA too..
0-60 is also going out of the business, wtf!
Any car magazine that shows topless chicks is a joke
Why read print when newer, better coverage is online? I buy tons of magazines, but only because I use a desktop.
Such a shame. They always had nice tits in that mag.
Oh and sick cars as well
Its also a sad day because 0-60 Magazine is ceasing print publication today
i am actually choked up ... ive read this mag since about 96 ... i was 11 ! bad times ... at least there will be more projects and ricci does have scene media to play with ... it will not be the last we here from them !
Although Max Power was clearly part of a dying aspect to the scene, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts on the effect Speedhunters in having on the tuning magazine industry. They need sales to survive, whereas Speedhunters is effectively advertising masquerading as a magazine. Do you feel you have canabalised their sales to a certain extent, by offering essentially the same coverage for free (ostensibly for free anyway)? Obviously it works for you, so why would you care? Do you think they and 0-60, as mentioned above, would have failed regardless?
Yes, the publishing industry as a whole is struggling with the move online, however Speedhunters providing coverage with no need to make direct profits surely scuppers any attempt by similar publications to move online sustainably? Don't get me wrong, I love Speedhunters and feel they have influenced the scene positively, but at the same time your presence doesn't encourage the creation of truly INDEPENDENT online media outlets focussed on the reader, rather than as a byproduct of some multi-national's advertising budget. Your obviously doing a good job given your brief and the content is excellent, but it is a bit of a worry.
cant say am sad to see it go it was more about tits and ass than good cars.
There's some serious irony to this post. I've let all my subscriptions fall off since Speedhunters went on-line. Including 0-60 which was hard since it's such a great read. Will SH be picking up any of the talent from these 'prints in peril'?
NOOOO!!!!
I got the feeling that Max Power had always better things to do than featuring good Cars
I only bought one Issue while I was in the UK on Holyday and I could read "Fast Car Sucks" 3 or 4 Times
but the Cars that were in there had been more than Shit
Before there was Coco there was Olivia!!!
The only good thing about the magazine was the fact you could have a wank over the slags. Strangly more embarrassing to buy than a porno though.
I was an avid follower of Max Power when it was in its infancy. Back then it featured Mk1 Escorts with Cosworth engines and the such like - it wasn't about the bling and body kit brigade back then. But slowly it transformed it self into a hideous beast of a magazine, with content that was more about how much top shelf content it could squeeze in inbetween the fibreglassed up Corsa's and Saxo's than about modifying for serious performance gain. I quickly stopped reading it and moved onto better written, more performance orientated magazines.
As a whole though, we now live in a world where the instant fix is available 24/7, online, on sites such as this one. While the strongest magazines are likely to survive, I would guess that Max Power is going to be one of many closing its doors over the next few years.
Honestly, this magazine was crap, at least the last time I looked at it, which was a long time ago.
Strange to think it was the best selling Car magazine in the UK, by a significant margin once...
.
Hopefully one good thing to come out of this. UK readers will now look further afield for inspiration and not stuck with widebody Saxo, Corsa's or Rovers.... It had improved in recent times, but really was a bit out of touch.
@Chris - some very fair comments there. While I have a a huge stack of car magazines in my house, I probably only buy one a month now because I can get my fix online... For free. Shame to also see 0-60 go - that was a genuinely good read that brought the human side through not just nuts and bolts.
Sites like this one have certainly played a role in the demise of magazines - if you can't beat em, join em! The predictions of the death of print were a bit premature a few years back, but online media is definitely snowballing in popularity.
Time for speedhunters to spread it's wings and bcome truly international with it's coverage. As much as I lovethe sites in the blogroll, this one is at the top othe pile for me (I'm in Australia)
to be fair its time was numbered, been a terrible magazine the last few months.You could tell it was hard up when it went to staple bound a few months ago
Same with redline, doesnt know what its doing, like a really shit car/evo magazine thats now got staple bound also
Fastcar is the only one with okay sales numbers but its utter dog shit, quicker these mags are gone the better, the US magazines are amazing in comparsion nice artwork, good features, shame to hear about 0-60
Japanes performance and banzai are barely surviving , but they sell so little magazines they arent even registered...
Theres is some great quality magazines stateside Performance and sound,super street, d sport, import tu,modified magner
No offence, but Max had really gone to the dogs of late. Still had all the same kind of bodykit stuff in it. Still a shame though as brought a lot of young kids into the scene,
Fast Car has been really good of late and I've started buying it again. And that was after seeing the pictures they had on Speedhunters of the Dragon RX7.
BANZAI
No great loss. Some good articles every blue moon, but usually filled wit chavy, teenage features about Corsa B's on 22" chrome wheels, a Fiesta with an induction kit and stupid backbox or a Saxo with a 50 inch LCD screen instead of a windscreen.
I won't miss it.
Considering they say even on the cover pictured above, that that RWD impreza is 4WD, no wonder they closed down.
Its written by clueless morons
Max Power was highly influential in its day and inspired many people into tuning while also reflecting the UK scene. Until around 2007 it did this pretty well, aiming to show the best cars from around the world for inspiration and some more real-world cars that readers could relate to (although their sister title REVS was designed more for this second point). it was 'the definitive guide to arsing around in cars', which says it all really...it didn't take itself too seriously as modifying cars was, and still is, about having fun. It seemed to work (and a few tasty birds in the mix didn't hurt) but in recent times it didn't move with the times and forgot who its readers were. A lot of people moaned about the cars featured, but they weren't all bad...unless you thing Garage Saurus' R32 GTR, HKS' Tsukuba busting EVO, Carisma's TVR, a host of Top Secret machinery, RC Developments' EVO and many like that are bad cars. Ultimately, it may have lost its way and been battered by the internet (as it could no longer get the scoops on newly built cars), but Max Power was an institution that influenced the tuning scene in a positive way...after all, if you hadn't seen a widebody Corsa with 20in wheels on you may have thought it was a good idea and done the same!!
Good riddance!
I started buying Max Power in 1994, I remember the tag line: 'Modified and Street Legal.' Back then it was a quality publication which showed the ingenuity of the British cottage tuning industry. VR6 engines in Mk1 Golfs, Cosworth power in Ford Kas, all stuff that today is commonplace in big budget builds the world over, but back then was completely epic. Max Power was the first to head East and dive into the Japanese tuning scene, they were featuring Top Secret, Smoky Nagata and Abflug (to name but a few) before quite a few people who read this website were probably even born! Things started to go south when the Cruise scene got stupid, when they started asking girls at Cruises if the spit or swallow, I mean come on! When the tag line changed to 'The Definitive Guide to Arsing About in Cars.' You knew where it was going.
it used to be a quite a technical publication a few years back, but since the onset of girls and out and out 'chav-mobiles', it went into a spiralling nosedive.. i still have a few of the early issues - sounds rotten but i am glad to see it go!!
GOOD! Max Power was a horrible mag for dumb brits..
Just buy s3 mag here in the states i gave up on stupid street and all the other mags but i just cant give up on s3.
"It's a sad day for car enthusiasts the world over," but its a great day for proper car enthusiasts who dont plaster their cars in perspex and filler.
Most of the 17 year olds that bought it only got it to fap over the bewbs anyway.
I have to admit that my taste in magazines has changed a lot in the last decade (and a bit). When I was a teenager the Max Power/NZPC/Tits'n'kits mags were all I'd buy. Now if I want a print mag it is evo/autocar/topgear mag because they have great articles about new factory models, and are a great way to kill Sunday afternoon. My daily modified fix is online. I think that is pretty typical for my age-group.
Today's teenagers won't pay to buy a magazine that has a bunch of half page sized pictures of modified cars when they can jump online and get a much nicer selection of High-res wallpapers and great articles from a fantastic site like this. When the market moves, and the publishers don't.... bye bye magazines.