2008-07-16 Not quite the best of Car, but still a good compilation

A wonderful compilation from the early days of Car, showing, if anything, the gulf between some of the lazy modern motoring journalism and the skilful writing of the past. I was a Car reader from 1981, so I missed this formative era, and while there are questionable articles (e.g. the off-roader tests, which seem more disorganized than some of today's work) there is some great stuff as well (anything by L. J. K. Setright, Jerry Sloniger on Butzi Porsche, stories on Sochiro Honda and what might happen if we run out of oil).

I disagree with the earlier one-out-of-five reviewer about `seventh-generation'-photocopy quality: while it's obvious these are (professional) scans, the quality is acceptable, though of course, they are of magazine pages that are, in some cases, over 40 years old. A mark off for the cropping, since paper sizes have changed since the 1960s and 1970s. Some type will be a strain by modern standards, showing how far magazine layout has come (on that note, the typography on my edition's cover differs slightly from the Amazon image, with ITC Benguiat in place of News Gothic). Some old advertisements are included, for that full retro feel.

I'll hold back from giving this a five out of five--it doesn't really chart the development of the motor car fairly and has a tad too much on exotica--but as compilations go, it's far from being the worst.