Disappointed in the D! (NMRA Coverage)

Each month I'm like a little kid on Christmas Day waiting for the new copy of MM&FF. I could save myself a bunch of cash getting a subscribtion, but I like running to the local bookstore.

This month I was really pumped up because I figured the Milan Michigan NMRA coverage would be in the issue. Michigan is my home state and I'm a salesperson at my families Ford dealership here. I am also a NMRA racer. I've been running Wild Street/True Street for the past 6yrs.

This past Winter I had the chance to purchase a 2008 Cobra Jet(We sold a total of 15 here @ Varsity Ford). If figured I might as well run in the Mod Motor class. That was until I saw JDM's Super Stang class. I knew that would be the best place to showcase Ford Racing Performance Parts factory racer, so I made a couple changes in order to fit the class rules (Added an exhaust and DOT tires) and was ready to go.

Milan was the first NMRA event I had the chance to run. I ended up runner up, not bad considering it was the 3 time out with the car. Needless to say I was more than happy with the weekend.

Now for the "Disappointment". As I picked up the latest copy for the race results, I almost flipped past it. There was such little coverage of the event, I thought I got the wrong issue. Between the ads and "How To" of converting a non-mass air car to mass air, I was disappointed. I understand without ads, you can't print a magazine. I also understand the need for the "How To's" for the shade tree mechanics, but come on!

The NMRA is MUSCLE MUSTANG & FAST FORD racing. Not everyone is going to be a 1320 junkie, but it does make up a large portion of Muscle Mustang & Fast Ford owners. Why not showcase the events more?

Now on a positive note, I did like the coverage of the True Street event. Funny how the year I decide to leave my Fox-body True Street car in the garage and focus on the Cobra Jet there is no coverage. LOL!

I'll continue to run up to the local bookstore and grab my copy, but I hope you can spare a few more pages for the NMRA events.

Thanks,

Matt Stanford
Varsity Ford  

Matt,

I can appreciate your disappointment, as we would love to run more event coverage, but we only have so many pages to work with and the majority of our readers purchase MM&FF for the technical articles. It is quite a challenge keeping everyone happy, from the person with a $1,500 5.0 LX, to the person with the modified GT500 or Cobra Jet worth $75,000. A mass-air swap may not interest you, but thousands upon thousands of readers with Fox-Body cars will benefit from John McBride's detailed story.

MM&FF has always been a "how-to" magazine, and I believe we've made our mark by offering the best tech with the best testing of parts, which helps the average person decide how they will buy parts and modify their Ford product. With that, we try to load every issue with interesting feature car/human interest stories, track testing and event coverage.

The October issue had five pages of NMRA event coverage, plus an exclusive drag test of the GT500, Camp Steeda event coverage and loads of tech. That's 10 pages of event coverage. We love the Ford events, as they bring the people together and help all types of Ford lovers participate in the "lifestyle" portion of the hobby. This is why we cover EVERY NMRA event, plus a bunch more each year.

Unfortunately, we can't get every car or every result in our coverage. The fact is, with such great Internet coverage from various sources, anyone who wants to know what happened can find out long before our coverage goes to print. So we try to give the readers another look at the event.

The good news is that we will be doing more/extended coverage and we will be bloging from NMRA events, so if you don't see yourself in the magazine, you may be on our web site.

Thanks for reading,

Evan Smith
Editor MM&FF