# R.I.P Max Power



## mattysupra (Oct 31, 2008)

Official announcement : Bauer Media has reluctantly taken the decision today to suspend the monthly publication of Max Power magazine and its accompanying website.


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## clarky_gtt (Dec 28, 2006)

Max Power Announcement - Bauer Media


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## *Shane* (Jul 21, 2009)

aaaaawwwwwwwwww lol


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## Satansbodyguard (Oct 29, 2007)

well i must admit it was a max power that got me hooked on the R32GTR 
( and now can't find the issue for love nor money )

sad to see it go....even though it got very CHAVY ..... nah make that my taste in cars improved from the said issue ........


Nigel.....


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## TAZZMAXX (Mar 9, 2010)

Wonder what the Saxo and Corsa boys will read now?


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## Mook (Mar 20, 2007)

TAZZMAXX said:


> Wonder what the Saxo and Corsa boys will read now?


Razzle?


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## clarky_gtt (Dec 28, 2006)

well these guys introduced me to top secret japan and the whole scene out there, obviously many years ago. I havent touched a issue since i was a teenager....dont ask how long ago


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## ATCO (Feb 2, 2003)

mattysupra said:


> Official announcement : Bauer Media has reluctantly taken the decision today to suspend the monthly publication of Max Power magazine and its accompanying website.


That's a blow to the intellect. What will I keep in the loo now.

Guess we will have to change to the sister publication, Andrex..............


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## Wade (Jul 31, 2008)

ATCO said:


> That's a blow to the intellect. What will I keep in the loo now.
> 
> Guess we will have to change to the sister publication, Andrex..............


hahahaha


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## blue34 (Jul 28, 2005)

ATCO said:


> That's a blow to the intellect. What will I keep in the loo now.
> 
> Guess we will have to change to the sister publication, Andrex..............


Where will all those chubby Northern Lasses start their modelling careers now?


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## tonigmr2 (Sep 12, 2002)

Have you seen it lately? I actually bought a copy last month. It is a lot better than it used to be! Jap-special issue was OK.


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## P3RV3RT (Aug 2, 2005)

Max Power was the best selling mag back in the day. It covered all the scenes tbo and yes it did have the corsa's etc but lots of Jap and cossies.

Its only doing what it did last time, end publication for a year or two and release again!!!

I bought it all the time many years ago befor I got properly into the Jap cars.


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## Trev (Nov 1, 2003)

It used to be good - then it went all "chav specials", sadly, I won't miss it.


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## MarkRiccioni (Dec 9, 2003)

It was great while it was ran by a team of enthusiasts and a publisher who actually understood the market.

Sadly, when the sales went up the brand was rinsed for every penny - seat covers, neons, all that bollocks. Instant loss of credibility, those who 'furthered' their careers while it was selling 240,000 a month jumped off the bandwagon leaving it to slowly go downhill.

2007 new management took it completely the wrong direction trying to take on Evo and Car Magazine, what loyal 'corsa' boys were left then decided to say '**** that' and when they finally tried to make it 'modified' again nobody really gave it a chance again.

That's the basics... in the six years i worked there haha!


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## torra (Mar 11, 2008)

blue34 said:


> Where will all those chubby Northern Lasses start their modelling careers now?


Ya cheeky twat!..what about them stick insect southerners--- haha..
but just goes to show how bad everything still is.....me and my son have still got a few issues to read in the bog like:wavey:


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## bazza1 (Aug 18, 2007)

*MAX POWER RIP*

I remember many years ago before it went all chav they featured a MK 2 Escort with tiger stripes running a 560 bhp cossie lump & running gear, it was absolutely awesome, I still want one after all these years.


Baz


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## erikv (Mar 16, 2010)

Mark what are you going to work now???


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## scoooby slayer (Jun 13, 2009)

no great loss its crap !


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## SPEED MERCHANT (Jun 5, 2006)

When MAX POWER first came out it was a superb publication. It was a first of its kind as not only did it blend the technical stuff that 'at that time' FAST CAR did (but don't now) along with some other publications like Car & Car Conversions. It also had some superb writers with tongue in cheek humour that was often close to the edge combined with with awesome machinery, reviews of products well ahead of release & the photography was spot on (the legendary Fly) ... & not a chav in sight! However after about eighteen months it all changed for the worse ...

Then a few years ago it changed its image again trying to become more grown up, but to be honest it just never recaptured that first twelve months & to be honest I'm surprised at the decision ...

However the idea for one off's & specials could work, but boys ... please look at the first twelve issues that you ever did!
Mark, you summed it up well though fella!


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## Hja-Ozz (Oct 8, 2007)

Fair play to max power is some respects, they were over in Japan in 1998 blasting about in legendary GTR's while most people on here at that time were still w***ing over cossie's


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## Darren-mac (May 13, 2009)

MarkRiccioni said:


> It was great while it was ran by a team of enthusiasts and a publisher who actually understood the market.
> 
> Sadly, when the sales went up the brand was rinsed for every penny - seat covers, neons, all that bollocks. Instant loss of credibility, those who 'furthered' their careers while it was selling 240,000 a month jumped off the bandwagon leaving it to slowly go downhill.
> 
> ...



Completely agree with that mark, that nob head of an editor and management completey destroyed the mag in 2007. That's when I stopped buying it. Banzai is a great magazine.


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## mattysupra (Oct 31, 2008)

before we blame editors etc, i guess the team there are faced with some difficult issues. 

I think we can all agree that back in the day when it had 32's with big power along with cosworths etc it was the mag to buy? 

But just how many cars with a good spec (engine etc) get built. 

For instance how many 32/33/34's with a spec that will impress have been built in the last year? End of the day we wont be intrested to buy the mag to read about say 3 R32's that went to 'rsp' for example to have a remapped ecu and a set of air filters fitted. 

if lets say we are talking about the 'borg' or 'ludders' car that has been built by rips then yes im sure we will all buy the mag to read about the build? yes or no? 

So what are they left with ? 2 or 3 skylines built this year? same as cosworths, supras etc? Well we can just about fill 1 issue of max power! 


Hence the modded saxo, corsa seen, they have loads going on. Yes not to 'our' taste but what can max power do? They need to stick something in the mag!


I was a bit disapointed tho to be told my Max Power that my car wont be front cover (when they was talking about featuring it) due to it not be modified on the outside. Basically modified like the cars we all take the pee out of!


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## clarky_gtt (Dec 28, 2006)

Hja-Ozz said:


> Fair play to max power is some respects, they were over in Japan in 1998 blasting about in legendary GTR's while most people on here at that time were still w***ing over cossie's


my point exactly, but when max power live etc came along...it was toilet paper


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## MarkRiccioni (Dec 9, 2003)

mattysupra said:


> before we blame editors etc, i guess the team there are faced with some difficult issues.
> 
> I think we can all agree that back in the day when it had 32's with big power along with cosworths etc it was the mag to buy?
> 
> ...


I was fortunate to work @ Max through the 'good times' and the bad (i only left in March this year), and through 2007 when it changed director it wasn't just the editor to blame, it was the publisher.

Basically, the sales had began to slowly decrese - around to the 100K mark (still mental sales for the magazine it is - Banzai etc. sell a tiny fraction in comparison) so the bods @ Emap decided to take some drastic decisions. 

The Editor in 2007, Simon Penson, came from a fishing title... had no background in modified cars or the Max Power brand. But he had a 'gutsy' attitude of wanting to create something unique and individual, to 'change the brand' and miraculously get all its sales back again. The publisher loved this crazy thought and allowed it all to go ahead while one another fellated each other.

Admittedly, during the 'upmarket' phase it was a GOOD magazine - the content was properly good, photography way on par with Evo/Car, but ultimately it was still Max Power - it's like Pot Noodle introducing a healthy meal... never going to work unless you change the name. What's worse, the new style got rid of some of the 'old timers' on the magazine and replaced with people who could write well... but had no interest in cars.

So fast forward to 2008 - Mark Guest takes over and the long process of trying to regain any credibility starts all over again. Unfortunately, due to the previous redesign flunking losing more sales + Emap (now owned by Bauer) making a huge loss, they decide to lose even more staff and not just editorially, from the advertising/marketing team now. Oh and the budget's stripped back too.

Essentially, the past few years have all been about rinsing every last penny out of that poor magazine - reducing paper quality to save money, going to staples instead of perfect bound AND raising the cover price too. Who wants to buy a magazine with less pages, less quality for more money?!

To his credit, Guesty gave it his all to get it back on track, but he'll be the first to tell you he's not as mentally into the 'scene' as some of the other people, and unfortunately with such a small team that often became apparent in issues.

It's a shame - love or hate the magazine, it was properly fun to work on - imagine doing a job which involves writing about awesome cars (i predominatly stuck to the Japanese ones haha!) travelling round the world, interviewing your heroes and so forth. Max brought Smokey Nagata over in 2005 with his G35 and meeting him was WAY more important to me than any celeb. And ultimately, you got paid for it too.

Mattysupra, with regards to your car - i left before it was ever discussed feature wise but to try and give you an idea of the thought process. Absolutely no disrespect to your car or build in the slightest - i'd cut off MANY body parts to own it haha! But for a magazine like Max Power, an awesome-spec R34 GT-R has been seen before in the issue and while it definitely deserves a place in the mag, that'd be their arguement as to why it wouldn't make cover.

It sounds frustrating when you then see a Corsa with a bodykit appearing on the cover instead, but this is the market Max is now aiming for - and for those who buy it for that cover will know it's a 'new' look or bodykit or something and not just a 'chavved up Corsa' if that makes sense?

It's like someone releasing a new bodykit or style for the R34 GT-R, 99% of people will look at it and just think 'looks like an R34 with a bodykit' but for us enthusiasts on here it'd be properly exciting.

Christ, what a ramble!


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## Miguel - Newera (Sep 18, 2003)

Sad news. I wasn't ever a regular MP reader, but I think the demise of any popular modified car magazine, regardless of whether is a good or bad publication goes hand in hand with a reduction of interest for tuned cars in general.

It's a tight market out there. I'm surprised the likes of Japanese Performance and Banzai are still going. Can't be a lot of revenue from such low volume publications. Must be difficult times in publishing at the moment.. 

Definitely need to do all we can to promote the Jap tuning scene...


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## RS4masa (Sep 11, 2010)

Mate, good to see you on the Skyline scene! How long you had the 32? When did you get rid of the rex? I don't miss the rotary feed monster much now, it was a bit of a nightmare to own.

The mag was good in the days when you were involved, it was light hearted, fun, humourous and it got across the different scenes quite well. It catered for pretty much everyone from the JDM to the chavvy Corsa owning people and thats what it did best. It was a classy looking mag too. I like Banzai don't get me wrong, but its literally the same old stuff in there and it really doesn't make me want to buy it anymore. Not sure what will fill the hole, but let me know what your working on next mate.


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## NickM (Oct 25, 2003)

I agree in the early days it was a great magazine. Cossies, MK1&II Escorts, RS Turbo's, Dimma 205's, Renault 5 GT Turbos and then later the JP scene with GT-R's and Supra specs that had my jaw on the floor the first time I saw them. I still have a couple of boxes in the loft with all the issues in the first few years.


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## MIKEGTR (Jul 8, 2005)

It turned into a grot mag more than a car mag - if I wanted to read about cars i'd by evo or top gear, if I wanted to look at grot, i'd buy mayfair or razzle


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## GTR-Dreamer (Apr 9, 2008)

I've been reading Max Power since 1996 and still have over 250 magazines in the basement.
But in 2002 I also started to buy Redline magazine and they started to be more serious about performance tuning rather then sticking on horrible bodykits and hydraulic suspension.
Since a few years I stopped buying Max Power because I got fed up with reading articles about how an performance airfilter works, it might be interesting to someone but for me it became a bit boring.
I just like reading Redline because they show me real performance cars and not just a slow car with an over the top bodykit.

No real surprise that they stopped publishing Max Power, although if the quality of the mag was the same as a few years ago it would still exist I reckon.


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## twistedmonkey (Mar 22, 2010)

blimey back in the day i used to buy them all max power ,fast car, revs (remember that )they used to be good mags but i stopped buying them because of all the chav cars and redline was much better when renton was there but even thats going downhill nowdays so think ill stick with jap perf and banzai cause atleast there just about jap cars :chairshot


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