Hemmings Motor News

Last updated

Hemmings Motor News
CategoriesClassic Car Magazine
FrequencyMonthly
Total circulation
(December 2012)
211,510 [1]
FounderErnest Hemmings
Founded1954;69 years ago (1954)
Company American City Business Journals
CountryUnited States
Based in Bennington, Vermont, U.S.
Website www.hemmings.com/aboutus/ OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
ISSN 0049-1845

Hemmings Motor News is a monthly magazine catering to traders and collectors of antique, classic, and exotic sports cars. It is the largest and oldest publication of its type in the United States, with sales of 215,000 copies per month, and is best known for its large classified advertising sections. The magazine counts as subscribers and advertisers practically every notable seller and collector of classic cars, including Jay Leno and his Big Dog Garage, [2] and most collector car clubs are included in its directory.

Contents

The magazine was started by Ernest Hemmings in Quincy, Illinois, in 1954, then purchased by Terry Ehrich, who moved the company, Hemmings Motor News Publishing, to Bennington, Vermont in the late 1960s. Ehrich published the magazine until his death in 2002. Hemmings Motor News Publishing was then acquired by American City Business Journals (ACBJ). [3] Hemmings Motor News currently has 100 employees at its Bennington, Vermont headquarters. [4]

Starting in 1970, Hemmings Motor News Publishing added Special Interest Autos, a bimonthly periodical focused primarily on American collectible automobiles. From 2000 to 2003, they published the muscle car and hotrod magazine Hemmings Rods and Performance, relaunched in 2003, under new owner ACBJ, as Hemmings Muscle Machines, with muscle cars as its sole focus.

In 2004, shortly after the release of Hemmings Muscle Machines, ACBJ ended publication of Special Interest Autos and began to develop its successor, Hemmings Classic Car, launched in October of that year. That was followed in 2005 by the addition of a new magazine, Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car.

Hemmings Motor News also contains an approximately 80-page section of editorial content. Content includes coverage of collector-car shows and auctions, sports cars, touring cars, classic cars, pre-war cars and historic racing cars, as well as family-type automobiles.

ACBJ, under the Hemmings banner, also sells a large line of calendars, clothing, signs, and other items relating to automobile collecting and memorabilia, and maintains a public display of 25 cars at their headquarters.

Richard Lentinello, executive editor of the three Hemmings-related magazines, left ACBJ in 2020. [5]

Hemmings Classic Car

Hemmings Classic Car, launched in October 2004, is a monthly magazine and successor of Special Interest Autos (1970–January 2004), covering the topic of American, European and Japanese-built collector cars, targeting enthusiasts, owners, collectors, dealers, restorers and parts manufacturers.

Hemmings Classic Car captures several distinct collector-car audiences in a single publication, with an emphasis on early post-war 1946–1960 automobiles. Other categories include the pre-1916 Brass era cars, pre-war cars, CCCA-recognized Classic cars, and cars from the 1960s through the early 1980s.

Hemmings Classic Car features photography showcasing these automobiles, including in-construction photographs of the entire restoration process, showing readers what it takes to produce a concours-quality collectible. As of 2008, data showed it as the best-selling old-car magazine in the world. [6]

Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car

Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car, launched in 2005 by American City Business Journals, was an automobile enthusiast magazine with content consisting solely of collector cars built outside the United States. In March 2017, subscribers of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car were notified that the May 2017 issue would be the last, citing "financial reasons" for the cancellation. [7]

Hemmings Muscle Machines

Hemmings Muscle Machines, an American City Business Journals 2005 refocused continuation of Hemmings Motor News Publishing's Hemmings Rods and Performance (2000–2005). It is a bimonthly periodical focused primarily on muscle cars from the postwar era to present. Content includes original cars, restorations, modified cars and new-production muscle cars.

Racing activities

In 1979, a team from Hemmings participated in the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash. [8] [9] In 1986, the same team of Terry Erich, former BMW factory motorcycle racer Justus Taylor and Hemmings editor-in-chief David Brownell entered the Great American Race, [10] and Hemmings later became a primary sponsor of the race. In 2007, Hemmings ended their participation in what was now called the Great Race, and began participating in the Hemmings Vintage Car Rally. [11] Hemmings' sponsorship of the Great Race resumed in 2011. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vintage car</span> Cars made between 1919 and 1925 or 1930

A vintage car is, in the most general sense, an old automobile, and in the narrower senses of car enthusiasts and collectors, it is a car from the period of 1919 to 1930. Such enthusiasts have categorization schemes for ages of cars that enforce distinctions between antique cars, vintage cars, classic cars, and so on. The classification criteria vary, but consensus within any country is often maintained by major car clubs, for example the Vintage Sports-Car Club (VSCC) in the UK.

There is no fixed definition of a classic car. They are usually older cars, typically 25 years or older, though definitions vary. A common theme is of an older car of historical interest to be collectible and tend to be restored rather than scrapped, though sometimes age is not a factor. Classic cars are often considered a subset of a broader category of "collector cars". A subset of what is considered classic cars are known as antique cars or vintage cars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AMC AMX</span> Two-seat sports car produced by American Motors Corporation

The AMC AMX is a two-seat GT-style muscle car produced by American Motors Corporation from 1968 through 1970. As one of just two American-built two-seaters, the AMX was in direct competition with the one-inch (2.5 cm) longer wheelbase Chevrolet Corvette, for substantially less money. It was based on the new-for-1968 Javelin, but with a shorter wheelbase and deletion of the rear seat. In addition, the AMX's rear quarter windows remained fixed, making it a coupe, while the Javelin was a true two-door hardtop.

<i>Car and Driver</i> American automotive magazine

Car and Driver is an American automotive enthusiast magazine. In 2006 its total circulation was 1.23 million. It is owned by Hearst Magazines, who purchased it from its prior owner Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. in 2011. It was founded as Sports Cars Illustrated. The magazine is based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Brock Yates was a prominent American journalist, TV commentator, TV reporter, screenwriter, and author. He was the longtime executive editor at Car and Driver magazine — and contributed to The Washington Post, Playboy, The American Spectator, Boating, Vintage Motorsports as well as other publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erwin Baker</span> American motorcycle and automobile racer (1882–1960)

Erwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker was an American motorcycle and automobile racing driver and organizer in the first half of the 20th century. Baker began his public career as a vaudeville performer, but turned to driving and racing after winning a dirt-track motorcycle race in Crawfordsville, Indiana, in about 1904.

AUTOart is a Hong Kong-based scale model car line manufactured by Gateway Autoart Ltd. and sold by AA Collection Ltd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American City Business Journals</span> American newspaper chain

American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, and also publishes Hemmings Motor News, Street & Smith's Sports Business Daily, and Inside Lacrosse. The company is owned by Advance Publications. The company receives revenue from display advertising and classified advertising in its weekly newspaper and online advertising on its website and from a subscription business model.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crane-Simplex</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

Crane-Simplex was the common name of the Simplex Crane Model 5 luxury automobile, produced by the Simplex Automobile Company in New Brunswick, New Jersey, from 1915 to 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rambler Marlin</span> Two-door car featuring a fastback by American Motors

The Rambler Marlin is a two-door fastback automobile produced in the United States by American Motors Corporation from 1965 to 1967. A halo car for the company, it was marketed as a personal luxury car.

Jean Jennings is an American journalist, publisher and television personality covering the automotive industry, noted for making the industry more accessible to a broad cross-section of enthusiasts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Historic motorsport</span> Type of motorsport with vehicles limited to a particular era

Historic motorsport or vintage motorsport, is motorsport with vehicles limited to a particular era. Only safety precautions are modernized in these hobbyist races. A historical event can be of various types of motorsport disciplines, from road racing to rallying.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monteverdi Hai 450</span> Motor vehicle

The Monteverdi Hai 450 SS was a mid-engined prototype, an attempt to create a full sports car complementing the company's High Speed line. It was intended to be a direct competitor to the top of the list super sports cars of Lamborghini, Ferrari and Maserati.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance</span> Automobile show of classic and sports cars

The Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year during the second weekend in March at The Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island in Amelia Island, Florida. A New York Times article about celebrity car ownership listed "the nation's top concours d'elegance: Pebble Beach in California, Meadow Brook in Michigan, Amelia Island in Florida, and the Louis Vuitton Classic in midtown Manhattan."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Stephens</span>

William Weyman Stephens Jr., known professionally as Bill Stephens is an American network television host, commentator, and narrator specializing in automotive and motorsports presentations. He is a nationally published author of several motorsports books and a columnist for a number of automotive periodicals. He is a television producer and writer for various automotive television programs, a professional vehicle appraiser, and a communications consultant providing media training for motorsports personalities and vocal and listening skills training for business people at all levels of the corporate world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Cumberford</span> American journalist

Robert Wayne Cumberford is a former automotive designer for General Motors, author and design critic – widely known as Automotive Design Editor and outspoken columnist for Automobile magazine.

The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum is an automotive museum located at 6825 Norwitch Drive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The museum's collection consists of approximately 75 racing sports cars and has been assembled over more than 50 years by Frederick A. Simeone, a retired neurosurgeon and native of Philadelphia. Frederick Simeone has been ranked the #1 car collector by the Classic Car Trust Registry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nethercutt Collection</span> Private car collection in Los Angeles, California

TheNethercutt Collection is a multi-storied museum and car collection complex located in Sylmar, California. It was founded by J.B. Nethercutt in 1971 and its centerpiece is the prestigious automobile collection of the Nethercutt-Richards family that contains over 250 cars. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest car museums in the world.§

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Auto Museum</span> Car museum in Glendale, Arizona

The Martin Auto Museum is a privately owned non-profit automobile museum located in Glendale, Arizona. The museum is dedicated to the preservation of collectible automobiles for educational purposes. Admission is a $10 donation per person over the age of 12. Some of the services provided by the museum include guided tours for such groups as local schoolchildren, veteran organizations and car clubs.

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References

  1. "eCirc for Consumer Magazines". Alliance for Audited Media. December 31, 2012. Archived from the original on January 23, 2017. Retrieved June 21, 2013.
  2. "Leno's EcoJet blows through SEMA". Hemmings. October 31, 2006. Archived from the original on November 10, 2006.
  3. "American City to acquire Hemmings Motor News". Jacksonville Business Journal . April 15, 2002.
  4. "About Us". Hemmings.
  5. Lentinello, Richard (November 9, 2020). "Ciao, My Friends!". Hemmings Auto Blog. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  6. "2008 financial year data". Audit Bureau of Circulation .
  7. LaChance, David (September 24, 2018). "The End of the Road". Hemmings.com. Retrieved December 29, 2021.
  8. Yates, Brock (2003). Cannonball! World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race. Motorbooks International. ISBN   0-7603-1633-3.
  9. Special Interest Autos #52, ISSN   0049-1845
  10. Special Interest Autos #96, ISSN   0049-1845
  11. "Hemmings-Branson Vintage Rally". Vintage Car Rally. Archived from the original on August 17, 2009.
  12. "Great Race Launches From Chattanooga on June 11". The Chatanoogan. May 16, 2011. Archived from the original on September 19, 2011.