Kit Car Magazine

Kit Car magazine is the longest established of all the kit car magazines. It has consistently been the largest title in the kit car industry - both physically; having far more pages - and in terms of numbers sold; outselling the competition by staggering proportions.

The fact that Kit Car carries far more advertising (both private classifieds and trade display adverts) supports our opinion that traders and advertisers recognise Kit Car as the best. The fact that it sells in far bigger quantities reinforces our opinion that the general public (the people whose opinion matters most) regard Kit Car as the best title on the subject. More shops stock Kit Car magazine, indicating that shopkeepers have identified Kit Car as the best title too.

Kit Car has been published for more than 25 years (more than 28 years if you include the Alternative Cars title from wence we came). We’ve watched similar magazines come and go, and change their formulation, but Kit Car has stayed the course by sticking to its subject-matter and is firmly in pole position. For years Kit Car magazine has carried the sub-heading UK ’S TOP SELLING KITCAR MAGAZINE because that’s exactly what we are – and by a very long way too!  

Written By Experts!

A very big difference between Kit Car and all of its competitors (past and present) is that Kit Car is written by journalists who’ve actually built kit cars for themselves. We find it astonishing that other kit car titles are written and published by journalists who’ve never built a kit car of their own, and who’ve never even gotten their hands dirty in any other practical pursuit either. Some have openly stated that they weren’t the least bit interested in the oily bits of cars.

We wonder how it’s possible for someone who hasn’t built a kit car to evaluate them for a living? Serious concerns arise as to the validity of their pseudo-factual findings. I seriously wonder how they manage to keep straight faces as they speak authoritatively about kit car building. However, the most alarming question it raises is what motivates them to write on a subject in which they don’t participate.

You don’t have such concerns when reading Kit Car because all our staff writers are true Kit Car enthusiasts. The publisher, Den Tanner , is the designer and ex-manufacturer of one of the most popular kit cars of all time. Editor, Ian Hyne , has built a number kit cars: many recently documented in Kit Car magazine. Technical Editor, Nigel Dean , is the acknowledged expert on both kit car building and in kit car technical matters generally. His DAX build-up series is one of the most popular of all time, whilst his regular technical articles are world-acclaimed. Freelance contributor, Iain Ayre, has built several kit cars, been a kit car manufacturer in his own right and even edited a magazine called ‘Car Builder’. He is presently designing a new Cobra kit which he hopes to bring to sell next year.

We’ve no doubt that the staff here at Kit Car magazine are qualified and experienced enough to give the kind of sound engineering advice and practical assistance that’s needed before, during and after the construction of any kit car. Simply stated: we know what we’re talking about.

We don’t pretend to be ‘Total’ or ‘Complete’

However, we do know our subject more totally and more completely than any other magazine. When one scrapes away the hype, gloss and ‘bling’: it’s actually easy to see that Kit Car magazine really is more total and more complete than its rivals.

It doesn’t finish with the magazine itself either. Our Kit Car Guide is more ‘total’ and more ‘complete’ than those produced by others. We’re also the only magazine offering a proper guide to SVA; called Kit Cars and the Law. The fact is that we know kit cars inside-out, whereas similarly named magazines report only superficially.

As we’ve already said: we sell far more magazines, we’ve done so for decades longer and we have oodles more experience than either of our two young competitors – bless ‘em. Take a look at our back issues listing: we’ve covered more subjects than our competitors could even dream about and we add more pertinent topics to the list with each passing month.

We regard the accuracy, integrity and usefulness of our articles as more important than the manner of their presentation. We don’t therefore spend a fortune on glossy paper and glitzy layouts. Instead we place more emphasis on paying professional journalists for decent articles about today’s products and issues. We concentrate our editorial mainly on the nuts’n’bolts of kit cars, on what’s available, how it works and ‘how you can do it’ articles. We also answer reader’s questions and provide a round-up of news on a monthly basis.

Of course we also cover historic kit cars and the club scene because these subjects bring balance and perspective to our main factual and technical core topics. However, please don’t allow others to kid you that their emphasis on historic and owners cars makes them more complete. We see such a suggestion as a smoke-screen: a diversion designed to mask their technical and factual shortcomings.