Editor | Deven Solanki |
---|---|
Former editors | Sean Managh, Matt Greenop, Brad Lord, Peter Kelly, René Vermeer |
Categories | automotive |
Frequency | Bi-Monthly |
Circulation | Approx 17,000 (2008) [1] (within NZ) |
Publisher | Parkside Media |
First issue | June 1996 |
Company | Parkside Media |
Country | New Zealand |
Based in | Auckland |
Language | English |
Website | www.performancecar.co.nz |
ISSN | 1176-5690 |
NZ Performance Car is a monthly automobile magazine and website, and is the biggest selling automotive and men's lifestyle magazine in New Zealand. [1]
As Parkside Media's second title, it has eclipsed the success of NZ Classic Car. NZ Performance Car has evolved with the times, promoting the import drag racing scene, building the drifting scene and supporting modified car events such as Auto Salon and dB Drag Racing.
Issue 1 of the magazine was bundled free with NZ Classic Car issue 66 (June 1996), [2] and featured a Series 4 Mazda RX-7 on the cover.
The magazine's focus has evolved from initially covering all high performance cars, including Australian V8s, to Japanese import cars, and more recently import car culture and associated activities (BMX, FMX, interviews with local and international musicians, etc.).
Early issues featured cars such as Holden Toranas alongside Mitsubishi Galant VR4s.
The extent that a car is required to be modified has steadily increased since the first issues. While 300 hp was considered to be a huge amount of power when the magazine started, 300 kW may not even secure a spot as a feature car, unless the rest of the car is outstanding or unusual.
This is not to say that NZ Performance Car solely focuses on power, but power figures are part of a more holistic approach considered when modifying a car.
Less common are new car road tests. Recent examples have included the Mazda RX-8, Mini Cooper John Cooper Works (JCW), and BMW 135i.
Female nudity in association with the magazine has polarised readers. The magazine took an online poll at the end of 2008, the results of which found that more than 80% of readers wanted to keep the cover girl. [3]
Cars were originally graded using a Jane-o-meter (a picture of Jane with a ranking from one to ten). This method was scrapped after car owners became reluctant to have their cars featured in case it received a low mark.
Two posters (a double-sided A2) have been included in most issues of the magazine since issue 80.
Drag racing, drifting, rallying, Super Lap, Japanese Super GT, hillclimbing, touring cars, auto salon, auto shows and club events are covered, as long as the racing includes Japanese cars.
Local and international drivers have been interviewed such as Ken Block, Rhys Millen, Mike Whiddett, Sébastien Loeb, Linkin Park/Fort Minor and Nathalie Kelly (from Fast n Furious Tokyo Drift),
Readers' letters, a technical question and answer section, equipment information, CD/DVD/game reviews, and a lifestyle section with clothing and related culture.
A monthly Photoshop competition is run. An image of a standard car is modified in Photoshop to adopt a certain theme or style, such as hakosuka, rally, etc. In issue 144 readers were invited to Photoshop a Chevrolet Volt into a Pro Import drag racing vehicle.
Readership peaked at 336,000 in 2007. To address the fall in readership since then NZ Performance Car was relaunched with perfect binding, a new logo, and a broader focus on the import car culture in issue 132, December 2007
Karl Burnett, [4] Ewen Gilmour
Drop! features hardcore modified show cars, auto salon features, and SPL competitions (dB drag racing). The emphasis on Japanese imports is less. Previous featured cars have included a Jaguar, a Buick, a Nash Metropolitan, and several types of minitruck.
Drift Factor is a drifting special with driver interviews, in-depth profiles on drifting and the cars, and how-tos on starting in drifting.
Dedicated to circuit racing, rallying, hillclimbing, drifting and drag racing.
The Yearbook is a round up of the scene and also contains many of the similar features to the magazine.
A posterbook has been produced yearly since 2005 with 12 A2 posters of cars and/or cover models
For 2008 collecting all the issues created an NZ Performance Car logo when stacked together. This was to highlight the transition to perfect binding.
NZ Performance Car relaunched its website in July 2007 with a web 2.0 site featuring video, blogs, forums, news, articles, cover girls, event coverage and more.
Users can register to the site, start a blog, upload their own media, and generally interact with the site.
Daily news articles are available weekdays which are additional to magazine content. Full magazine articles are available from previous issues, often including additional photos and information (including videos) that could not be fitted into the magazine.
Some writers run blogs on the website, such as Peter Kelly's Pedeyworld, and a forum is run as a subsite to encourage user interaction.
Users can purchase books and DVDs related to the magazine's content, as well as back issues and subscriptions in the online shop.
A Facebook fan page, Bebo page (for NZ Drift Series), and YouTube channel exist.
NZ Performance Car has produced several online games:
Drift Legends is a drifting game which features New Zealand tracks as well as custom tracks. Players can submit their score to a score board
Super Lap Legends was released to coincide with Super Lap. It features New Zealand racetracks in a time trial format
Midnight Sting is a shoot 'em up whereby players protect their ride from damage in a dark alley.
Britney's Rehab Run is a shoot 'em up which sees the player attempt to get Britney Spears to rehab past scores of paparazzi.
A free opt-in text club which has more than 23,000 members is utilised to disseminate special offers from sponsors, and promote the magazine, games and events.
NZ Performance Car is also one of the largest suppliers of mobile content (ringtones, screen wallpapers and the like) via Vodafone's network.
NZ Performance Car TV is a free-to-air television programme in its eighth series. It has had airtime on TV ONE, TV2, Prime and Sky Sports, often simultaneously which is unique in its genre. Each series consists of 13 episodes. Two series are usually screened per year.
First airing in 2004 the series has evolved to match the changing tastes of the import car scene. Series 8 had a large focus on drifting.
The NZ Drift Series is a drifting motorsport series run on New Zealand tracks. It made its debut in 2007 with a professionally run, five-round championship series.
Parkside Media organised the first Super Lap event at Taupo Motorsport Park in April 2007. Scott Kreyl in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII took the overall win. At the second event at Pukekohe in March 2008 Kreyl successfully defended his title.
The third Super Lap returned to Taupo Motorsport Park in 2008 where Kreyl suffered mechanical problems and failed to place.
Toured throughout in New Zealand in 2007, the NZ Bikini Model Search culminated in a grand final in Auckland.
Every summer, NZ Performance Car organises the biggest import drag racing event of the year at Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere, Import All-Stars. Guest competitors are invited from Australia to race against New Zealand's quickest imports.
Drag Masters, run in 2005, was a V8 vs. import drag racing event held at Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
Performance Car of the Year is a competition with 12 performance cars where users text their vote.
Cam Leggett, designer since issue 68 has won two awards for Designer of the Year at the MPA Awards in the Special Interest Category in 2007 [5] and 2008. [6]
NZ Performance Car magazine has typically been criticised by groups not in favour of import car culture, or those concerned about 'boy racer' activity. [7]
In June 2008, editorial assistant Peter Kelly organised a meeting in Hamilton to scout for feature cars. News quickly spread via text and over 1000 people descended on The Base. Despite attempts by NZ Performance Car to warn the police, messages went unanswered. [8]
HKS Co., Ltd. is a publicly traded company headquartered in Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan specializing in the engineering, manufacturing, and sales of high performance aftermarket and accessory automotive parts and components. With 50 years in business, and global efforts in aftermarket parts and motorsport, the company claims, "HKS is perhaps the most known aftermarket brand in the world".
The import scene, also known as the import racing scene or tuner scene, is a subculture of modifying mostly Japanese-import cars, particularly in the United States and Europe.
Drifting is a driving technique where the driver intentionally oversteers, with loss of traction, while maintaining control and driving the car through the entirety of a corner or a turn. The technique causes the rear slip angle to exceed the front slip angle to such an extent that often the front wheels are pointing in the opposite direction to the turn. Drifting is traditionally performed using three methods: clutch kicking, weight transfer, and employing a handbrake turn. This sense of drift is not to be confused with the four wheel drift, a classic cornering technique established in Grand Prix and sports car racing.
Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) of the automotive aftermarket was formed in 1963 by Paul Schiefer, Roy Richter, Ed Iskenderian, Els Lohn, Willie Garner, Bob Hedman, Robert E. Wyman, John Bartlett, Phil Weiand Jr, Al Segal, Dean Moon, and Vic Edelbrock Jr. Now it consists of 6,383 companies worldwide, bringing together aftermarket manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers (OEM), media, car dealers, specialty equipment distributors, installers, retailers, and restoration specialists.
Kenshiro "Ken" Gushi is one of Japan's top competitors in the sport of drifting. Born in Okinawa, Japan but raised in San Gabriel, California, he was taught by his father Tsukasa Gushi at the age of 13 with a Toyota AE86. Ken has become the youngest competitor in both the D1 Grand Prix of Japan and the Formula Drift Championships of the U.S. when he was 16, despite not passing his driving test at the time.
Nobuteru Taniguchi is a Japanese racing driver and drifting driver who currently competes in the Super GT racing series. Taniguchi is commonly nicknamed "NOB" or "The Pimp" as a reference to his S15 Silvia which he is best known for.
Veilside Co., Ltd. is a Japanese aftermarket automotive company which initially sold suspension and engine tuning parts, and now sells interior as well as body parts for aerodynamic and aesthetic enhancement of the vehicle.
The 2002 Bathurst 24 Hour was an endurance motor race staged at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia. The race, which was the first 24-hour event to be held at Mount Panorama, started at 4:00pm on 16 November and finished at 4:00pm on 17 November. It was the first 24 Hour race to be held in Australia since the 1954 Mount Druitt 24 Hours Road Race.
The Nissan R90C was a platform used for Group C racing cars built in 1990 by Nissan Motors for competition in World Sportscar Championship (WSC) based in Europe and the All Japan Sports Prototype Championship (JSPC). The cars based on the basic R90C platform would compete until 1993 before Nissan chose to withdraw from sports car racing, not returning until 1997. It won three JSPC championships and several significant endurance races during its career.
Zero4 Champ is a series of racing games created by Yutaka Kaminaga at Media Rings, which started in 1991 with the PC Engine title Zero4 Champ.
The 1984 James Hardie 1000 was the 25th running of the Bathurst 1000 touring car race. It was held on 30 September 1984 at the Mount Panorama Circuit just outside Bathurst in New South Wales, Australia and was Round 4 of the 1984 Australian Endurance Championship. This race was celebrated as 'The Last of the Big Bangers', in reference to the Group C touring cars, which were competing at Bathurst for the last time.
During its history the Toyota Supra has enjoyed considerable success in a variety of different motorsports.
The Tokyo Auto Salon is an annual auto show held in January at the Makuhari Messe, Chiba City, Japan for Performance and custom aftermarket parts and technology displays. Hosted by the Nippon Auto Parts Aftermarket Committee (NAPAC), the Tokyo Auto Salon is one of the top motor shows globally for modified and tuned cars. The 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon featured 906 vehicles, 426 exhibitors, and 4,175 booths that offered aftermarket accessories for purchase. There are also after-market parts manufacturers, custom shops, care manufacturers, automotive businesses, and automotive vocational schools. There are not only custom cars and after-market manufacturers, there is also live entertainment. Top musicians from around the world and talk shows hosting famous drivers and celebrities can be seen at the Tokyo Auto Salon.
Parkside Media is a diversified media organization involved in print, television and online publishing as well as advertising, event management and public relations, among other client services.
The NZ Drift Series was a five-round motorsport series organised by Parkside Media, publisher of NZ Performance Car magazine. Competing against D1NZ it achieved greater success because of NZ Performance Car and NZ Performance Car TV's marketing power.
Super Lap is a time attack motorsport event. Super Lap events are being held in Australia and New Zealand.
Import All-Stars is an import drag racing event organised by Parkside Media and NZ Performance Car magazine. First held in 2007, it was rerun on 29 March 2008. Both events have been held at Fram Autolite Dragway, Meremere.
Motor sport in New Zealand can be traced back to a least 1901 when the Pioneer Cycle Club held a three-mile handicap race which included both motor bikes and cars. Since then it has developed and now almost all types of motor sport events are represented.
Super Taikyu, formerly known as the Super N1 Taikyu Series prior to 2005 and N1 Endurance Series prior to 1995, and currently named the Eneos Super Taikyu Series Empowered by Bridgestone for sponsorship reasons, is a Japanese endurance racing series that began in 1991. In contrast to the Super GT series, Super Taikyu is a pro-am racing series for commercially available racing vehicles such as GT3, GT4, and TCR cars, and minimally-modified production vehicles mainly from the Japanese domestic market.