Sweet Redemption
It's been a while since I dropped you a line. So here's the thing, I thought you guys were pretty freakin' cool! You sent me stickers to paste over my car, ogled the photos I sent of my car with said stickers, one of my letters graced your pages and my car was also apparently going to "appear in Readers' Rides".
Apparently... What issue was that supposed to be? Oh yeah, 8/06! Well, I have the 8/06 issue and, for some strange reason, I've been unable to find anything even closely resembling my car. Come to think of it, I haven't been able to find anything closely resembling my car in ANY issue!
Hmm... looks like John got hosed! Needless to say, I've been a bit... what's the word... PISSED!
There I was, trying to proclaim the glory of eurotuner by plastering a big-ass sticker on my windshield, only to be shunned in my moment of triumph. Boy, what I sucker I was. To think little old me would get a 2" photo of my car in a national publication. I must have been living in a dream world.
So I've been holding a grudge against et since 8/06. And just when I thought maybe eurotuner wasn't a great magazine, you had to hit me with the frickin' E36 M3 tuning guide (et 3/07). For crap sake, why won't you leave me alone?
I was perfectly content holding a grudge against you, but you just had to blow my mind with a completely useful guide aimed directly at me!
Curse you! Now, I'll be forced to proclaim eurotuner's glory again. Son of a...!
So it looks like et is still god of Euro magazines. How could I ever doubt you? But don't think this makes us even. I'm sure you still feel bad about the whole Readers' Rides debacle?
John Bridges
Email
Sorry to ruin a perfectly good grudge. We're also sorry for the Rides fiasco. We honestly try to include every entry but our wonderful email system means some occasionally fall through the cracks. Having increased the number of pages, we've eradicated most of the backlog, so please send your entry again to readersrides@eurotuner.com and it'll appear ASAP.
Send your letters to et-mail, Primedia, 6420 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90048, or eurotuner@primedia.com
Page Gripe
Referring to et 2/07 and Brady's Project Jetta: It's about time he stepped it up! Go>Show 24/7/365, and twice on Sundays.
For what it's worth, my recommendation for rods and pistons are OEM pistons from an AEB 1.8T (20mm w/p, manufactured by Mahle) and a set of Scat rods. They're the best bang for the buck, period.
After I return from my deployment in Iraq, I'll be upgrading my 1.8T. I've collected an assortment of mail-order and custom parts and I'm pretty stoked to drive the final result.
Which brings me to my only gripe about the mag, and it's the lack of a real tech nerd on your staff. I'd like to see et do articles similar to SCC's turbo matching article that included all the necessary math to deduce and plot compressor maps. SCC's tech articles are among the best I've read in any of the Primedia publications.
My point is: the VAG tuning arena, with the continued advances in 1.8T tuning and the increasing frequency of VR6T builds, would welcome in-depth articles about the nitty-gritty of forced induction and related topics (ie, engine management and tuning basics). It would certainly be a better use of the publication than et 2/07's five pages of Tuner News and six pages of SEMA photos.
Other than my contention over the use of space and lack of nerdy tech info, you guys have done a great job. The mag's come a long way since I first picked it up in '02.
Travis Smith
Electronics Tech, HHC, 324th ITSB
Iraq
Sadly, the men in suits cut our Tech Ed position and it's been a struggle to make good on the absence. We hear what you're saying and are moving in that direction.
Bimbonic Idiots
As I've gotten older, I've realized that women (in general) get away with a lot of shit simply because they have breasts and a vagina. And frankly, I'm SICK OF IT!