carporn

Dear EVO,
I hope issue 98 will not be recorded in years to come as the moment that EVO magazine 'jumped the shark' especially so close to an important anniversary but I'm afraid to say that's the feeling I had reading it.

Please don't dismiss this criticism as sour grapes, I like to think I've been there with the EVO'ista from early on, enjoying exhilarating photography and copy that really stood out from a jaded field. Perhaps it's in the nature of successful competitors to lose hunger and become the status quo they once railed against.


It certainly isn't your fault that in profile the Audi R8 is one of the dullest 'super'cars ever penned, but you didn't have to put it on the cover. When that cover also boasts "the thrill of driving" and the lead story is how you went to a car show and looked at a prototype the term 'taking the piss' does spring to mind.

Having fought my way past 35 pages advertising for Shell, (not counting the Ferrari Panamerica piece - partly funded by them) I certainly look forward to the next impartial report on fuel quality.

Sorry that was a low blow, sarcasm born out of frustration. It's your prerogative to take advertising from whomever you please. You've done well. I congratulate you. Nobody deserves the fruits of your success more, but if the result is a magazine that consists of puff-pieces and self congratulation then let's call it a day. It's been real. It's not you it's me. You know, people change, perhaps I need to see other magazines. We've drifted apart.

I'd like to think it's the just the 'difficult third album' stage, and that you can get past the hangers-on and rediscover why you got into it in the first place. Be honest what sounds better, two days throwing budget hot hatches around in grey Northamptonshire or a Ferrari launch in Nice? The answer could be more important than you think.

Yours
driverchris