Autocar (magazine)

History

The publication was launched as The Autocar by Iliffe and Son Ltd. "in the interests of the mechanically propelled road carriage" on 2 November 1895 when, it is believed, there were only six or seven cars in the United Kingdom. L. J. K. Setright suggests that the magazine was set up by Henry Sturmey as an organ of propaganda for Harry J. Lawson, founder of the Daimler Company and a journalist on the magazine in its early days. Henry Sturmey stood down as editor of The Autocar magazine and left the company in 1901.

Autocar claims to have invented the road test in 1928 when it analysed the Austin 7 Gordon England Sunshine Saloon. Autocar has been published weekly throughout its life with only strikes in the 1970s interrupting its frequency.

The magazine's name was changed from The Autocar to Autocar at the start of 1962.

In 1988 Autocar absorbed the rival magazine Motor, with which it had done battle on the newsstands since 1903. From the 7 September 1988 issue the magazine became Autocar & Motor. It reverted to Autocar for the 21 September 1994 issue.

The magazine has scored many firsts in its history, including the first full road tests and independent performance tests of the Jaguar XJ220, McLaren F1, and the Porsche 911 GT1.

It was also the first magazine to produce independently recorded performance figures for the Bugatti Veyron, which were published in the 31 May 2006 issue.

In 2023, Autocar digitised its entire archive dating back to 1895. The Autocar Archive is available to subscribers online.

Regular features

• News – includes "scoop" photographs and information about still-secret future models
• First drives – brief road tests of new models
• Group tests – analysis of how a model compares relative to rivals
• Motorsport – summaries of current racing news, predominantly in Formula 1 and rallying
• Road tests – Thorough test and analysis of one new model per issue. In the issue closest to Christmas, Autocar traditionally publishes a "road test" of a more unusual vehicle. These have included tests of New Routemaster, HMS Ark Royal, Concorde, and HMS Diamond.
• Used car news
• Long term car tests
• New car data

Writers and illustrators

In the 1950s, the magazine's sport editor, John Cooper, used Cooper T11 parts to create the Cooper-Alta. Former Autocar writers include Russell Bulgin, Chris Harris, and former Top Gear presenter James May.

In 1992, May was fired from Autocar after he added an acrostic into the 1992 "Road Test Yearbook". May had to write every review in the issue. Each spread featured four reviews and each review started with a big red capital letter known as a rubricated initial. May was bored and to alleviate the boredom, he wrote the reviews so the first four spreads would spell the words "ROAD", "TEST", "YEAR" and "BOOK". The other pages had another acrostic but that was not immediately recognizable as it was spread over the rest of the magazine, spelling seemingly random letters starting with "SOYO" and "UTHI". After it was published, readers discovered it. This was the one that got James May fired because it used profanity. The message, when punctuated was: "So you think it's really good, yeah? You should try making the bloody thing up; it's a real pain in the arse."

Current Autocar writers include Richard Bremner, used car expert James Ruppert, Editor at Large Matt Prior and Editor in Chief Steve Cropley.

The current editor is Mark Tisshaw, a former deputy editor, news editor and reporter for the magazine.

Editors

• 1895–1901 Henry Sturmey
• 1901–?[after 1914] Herbert Walter Staner
• ?–? Hugo Massac Thomas Buist
• 1930–1938 Harold Carlisle Lafone
• 1955–1968 Maurice Armstrong Smith
• 1968–1975 Peter Garnier
• 1975–1985 Ray Hutton
• ?1985–?1991 Bob Murray
• 1991–1997 Michael Harvey
• 1997–2001 Patrick Fuller
• 2001–2006 Rob Aherne
• 2006–2011 Chas Hallett (editor of What Car? 2011–2014)
• 2011–2013 Jim Holder (editor of What Car? 2014–2016)
• 2014–2017 Chas Hallett
• 2017–present Mark Tisshaw

International editions

Autocar has been licensed to publishers around the world, and is now published in sixteen countries outside the United Kingdom, including China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

References

References

1. "Autocar".
2. "Car magazines in 1993". Magforum.
3. (28 September 2011). "The online home of the world’s oldest car magazine". Autocar.
4. "Iliffe and Sons: 1920". Grace's Guide To British Industrial History.
5. Setright, L. J. K.. (2004). "Drive On!: A Social History of the Motor Car". Granta Books.
6. "Iliffe and Sons". Grace's Guide To British Industrial History.
7. Kettlewell, Mike. "Cooper: Forerunner of the Modern Racing Car", in Northey, Tom, editor. ''World of Automobiles'' (London: Phoebus, 1974), Volume 4, p. 430.
8. (21 May 2007). "James May - Autocar - a set on Flickr". Flickr.
9. (19 June 2008). "Captain Slow takes the fast lane – TV & Radio – Entertainment". The Age.
10. (1 February 2017). "Mark Tisshaw appointed new Autocar Editor".
11. "Herbert Walter Staner".
12. "Hugo Massac Thomas Buist".
13. "Harold Carlisle Lafone".
14. (3 January 2017). "How Autocar’s former editor predicted the self-driving car back in 1959".
15. "Maurice Armstrong Smith".
16. "Guild chairmen 1944-2020".
17. (25 August 2021). "Steve Cropley: New Jaguars, old Vauxhalls and reborn Lambos".
18. (2020-11-20). "30 years of the original hell-raiser: Mike Kimberley recalls the battle to build the world-beating Lotus Carlton".
19. (27 March 2014). "Editors of Haymarket titles What Car? and Autocar swap jobs, again".
20. (14 November 2020). "Best job in motoring: Seven Autocar editors reveal their highlights".
21. "Mark Tisshaw appointed new Autocar Editor".
22. "Haymarket Media Group - Magazine - Autocar". Haymarket.