The Rise of Copacetic Magazine: Insights from Editor Daniel Beavis
It’s me, Mark Stone, and in this episode of the Backseat Driver Podcast, I sit down with Daniel Beavis, editor of Copacetic magazine, to explore how the publication is redefining the perception of modified cars in today’s automotive culture.
Together, Daniel and I trace the evolution of car modification, from the vibrant yet often stigmatised scene of the 1990s through to its modern expression, which now embraces everything from high-end restorations to one-off project builds. Daniel shares the magazine’s vision to destigmatise modifications by uncovering the diverse stories behind each vehicle, helping to foster a more open and inclusive community for enthusiasts.
I also delve into the broader implications of this cultural shift, the hurdles of launching a new magazine in a changing marketplace, and the financial realities that come with such an ambitious venture. Throughout, I share my enthusiasm for Copacetic’s fresh perspective and the impact it could have on the way modified cars are celebrated and understood.
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Transcript
Foreign.
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Speaker A: -: Speaker A:New mortaring magazines are a rarity these days, especially in the uk.
Speaker A:Go over to Europe, France, Germany, etc and they are quite a commonplace thing.
Speaker A:The magazine racks and the news outlets grow with them, but not so much the uk.
Speaker A:So it's very interesting to introduce to the backseat driver Daniel Beavis, or Down as he prefers to be called, editor of Copacetic magazine.
Speaker A:D. Dan, welcome to the Backseat Driver.
Speaker B:Thanks very much for having me.
Speaker A:Before we go any further, copasetic, before we went on air, you explained it was a well known word and it shows how behind the scenes I've been.
Speaker A:What does copasetic mean?
Speaker B:Well, perhaps well known, it was stretching it a little bit.
Speaker B:There's a very geeky story behind the, the word itself.
Speaker B:It's, it actually stretches back as far as the idea of modifying cars.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:In the post war sense it's a slang term which means everything's okay, it's all right, everything's good.
Speaker B:And it's a term that it grew massively in popularity through the 60s and 70s.
Speaker B:You'll find it in a lot of B movies and what have you.
Speaker B:And when I suggested this name to our art editor, he said, wow, I haven't heard that since the Sopranos.
Speaker B:So it's, it's a word that some people will be familiar with and they might have an idea of what it means, but you don't hear it a lot these days.
Speaker B:So it's a little kind of memory trigger.
Speaker B:People will say, oh yeah, I remember that from that film or what have you.
Speaker B:But, but it's something that we can own.
Speaker B:It will come to mean our magazine.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:Because I must Say, I was a fan of the Sopranos.
Speaker A:I like the Sopranos, but I must, I must have missed it where they mentioned that one.
Speaker A:I was too busy watching them count cash and eat Canolis, probably.
Speaker B:Well, next time you watch it, you'll be listening out for it.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Now the magazine is described as modified cars for the inquisitive minds.
Speaker A:Would you like to quantify that?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, the idea behind this is essentially to destigmatize and reframe the idea of what modified cars means.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because for a lot of people I think that still hogs back to kind of 90s lads, mags, burnouts on seafront, girls in bikinis kind of thing.
Speaker A:And there was no wrong with that young man, I'll tell you that.
Speaker A:I never participated.
Speaker A:But I did watch the Odd one.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean it was, it was a phenomenon.
Speaker B:The, the max power fast car revs redline thing in the 90s was absolutely massive and it's a really important kind of cultural and historical market for a lot of people and that's what got them into the cars that they have today.
Speaker B:Yeah, but the scene has moved on a lot since the 90s, so modified cars these days, it, it still means people building project cars in their garages.
Speaker B:That's still a massive scene.
Speaker B:Yeah, but it's also high end six figures, resto mods, it's electric concept cars, it's low volume supercars.
Speaker B:So we cover a little bit of everything.
Speaker B:We are mark agnostic, we cover all marks, styles, ages.
Speaker B:It's basically if you can't buy it in a showroom and it's got a bit of a weird story behind it, that's what is in our wheelhouse.
Speaker A:Now unfortunately, I have a copy of the first edition sat in front of me because Nick Council, our mutual friend from Tarox breaks when I went to see him the other week, said, have you seen this?
Speaker A:Take that and have a read.
Speaker A:And it's got an in for the first edition.
Speaker A:It's an incredibly eclectic mix of.
Speaker A:On the front we have a Buick grand national that's been modified.
Speaker A:We've the Renault 5 Turbo 3E, the Fion 911, maybe similar in a way to the famous singers, an incredible Koenig special 635csi which I must confess, at the back end reminds me of a Testarossa, Lamborghini, Chevrolets, Vox Vauxhall Novas.
Speaker A:Now everybody's got to remember a modified Vauxhall Nova, but, well, that's it.
Speaker B:I, I had to have a Nova in the first issue because that was my first car and when I was growing up, everyone either had a Nova or wanted a Nova.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that was an essential element in the mix for me.
Speaker A:I must confess, to see a Nova these days is a pure and unbelievable rarity.
Speaker A:I think most of them were either modified beyond belief or just got written off.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:They've either rotted away or they've got wrapped around trees.
Speaker B:So there's very few left.
Speaker A:Now, looking at this, I mean, it's a very eclectic mixture and there's a lot of them in the first edition.
Speaker A:I mean, are you going to be able to keep this up?
Speaker B:I'll be honest, I have been overwhelmed by submissions.
Speaker B:So much so that I've got the next eight issues all planned out.
Speaker A:Well done.
Speaker B:Which is, it's the great thing about covering all styles and all genres and all ages is the.
Speaker B:You're not tied to any particular thing.
Speaker B:So anything that seems like a good idea is something that can be kind of factored in.
Speaker B:So I won't give away too many spoilers of what we got coming up, but if you thought this was eclectic, wait till you see what's coming next.
Speaker A:I mean, the movement.
Speaker A:Then looking at this, whilst you said, I mean, everybody thinks of, you said, Max Power and Hatchbacks etc and Subarus with the most incredible hi fi systems fitted to them and infeasible exhausts, I conclude, looking at this, the modifying movement has, shall we say, aged.
Speaker A:It's taken on a maturity.
Speaker B:Yes, I think that's fair to say.
Speaker B:I mean, the kind of cars that were built in the Max Power era still have a huge following and in fact, they've got to the stage now where particularly notable show cars are being fastidiously restored as they would have been other shows in the 90s.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:In fact, interestingly, Mily, one of the original writers on Max Power, has just launched a sort of redux of that magazine called Maxes, which focuses solely on those style of cars.
Speaker B:Yeah, And I think that's a really important part of what we have to cover in Copacetic, because that's where it all started for a lot of people.
Speaker B:And some people are still very much into these kind of big power hot hatches with big stereos and what have you, as some people who used to be building and driving those cars have now moved on to either restored hot hatches in a more standard style or onto the Resto mods or indeed into supercars.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I mean, what exactly is a restore mod?
Speaker A:I mean, I see.
Speaker A:You see Them it's like you see certain ones, Jaguars and it seems to have got a highly modified engine, big wheels and huge exhaust and various other things.
Speaker A:But what is a restore mod?
Speaker A:Exactly?
Speaker B:Okay, so an Aristo Old is where you take a classic car and you restore it and upgrade it in a way that it has modern performance, modern brakes, modern handling, but it still has the classic style.
Speaker B:So there are some companies that really pioneered this in a high end fashion.
Speaker B:For example, alphaholics is a company that does this with classic Alpha Romeos.
Speaker B:You mentioned Singer earlier.
Speaker B:They are massive in the 911 resto mod scene and have countless copycat companies doing similar things.
Speaker B:So it's essentially a way of getting a classic card that can perform like a modern car.
Speaker A:And looking at it, I mean what you like Singer and the what the other 911 in here, the Thor one.
Speaker A:These cars are not cheap, are they?
Speaker A:I mean they will be an expensive purchase as a classic car and I conclude the classic car they buy is one that is in need of restoration.
Speaker A:They won't do it to an already restored vehicle.
Speaker A:But I mean at the end of the day, I mean to use Singer as an example, the end results are incredibly expensive.
Speaker B:Oh yeah, eye wateringly expensive.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:But these are cars that are bought by collectors.
Speaker B:I think the, the average buyer of a Singer probably owns about 20 other cars, you know, because that are built to be used, but fundamentally they are not anybody's sole car.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:So I mean how many companies do that?
Speaker A:Do you tend to find it's companies that do this on behalf of their client or do the people do it themselves?
Speaker B:Well, it's a mix.
Speaker B:I mean there are some companies like those that I just mentioned and others like Eagle famously have been restored on E type Jaguars for years.
Speaker B:So there are some companies that will specifically focus on a particular type of car, like singer do911s for example, or in the first issue of Copacetic here we've got a Dasan 240Z which is done by MZR who focus solely on Zed cars.
Speaker B:But then there are other companies who will take a brief of any car.
Speaker B:So in the next issue, for example, we're talking to Retro Power who you might be familiar with, who've built some incredible resto mods.
Speaker B:We're featuring their Morris Minor, they're about to finish an Austin Allegro that's been rebuilt with Honda Integra Type R running gear.
Speaker B:They've done a mark to Jag mark 1 escort, loads of things.
Speaker B:And again these are very Expensive cars, but they're built to order.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:At the same time a lot of people are doing this in their sheds and garages as well.
Speaker B:It's become a massive phenomenon in the classic car scene really that you sort of, you have this permission to upgrade rather than having to do something fastidiously, painstakingly, sort of factory specifications to kind of appease Concorde judges or what have you.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:There's more of an allowance is that you can improve things where you want to.
Speaker B:You can fit bigger brakes or a better gearbox or make it more powerful or have nicer seats or what have you.
Speaker B:You don't have to do it exactly as the factory of dictated.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I mean, cuz I mean to use the vintage sports car club as an example, they will frown upon to a degree, they'll virtually try and prosecute somebody who takes a very, very nice, very usable vintage car.
Speaker A:And I mean one of the best known ones are the Bentleys and take a Bentley saloon or an Austin 7, rip its body off and turn it into something it never was.
Speaker A:Do the modifying guys tend to have this attitude as well?
Speaker A:Well we won't do it to a nice car, we'll do it to a car that needs restoration in the first place.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean it's a balancing act.
Speaker B:So companies like Singer and Eagle will I think, I think is the norm that they will seek out Broughton seemingly unsafeable cars or at least cars that are in need of work rather than starting with, you know, something that could be still kind of day to day usable.
Speaker B:But at the same time, particularly for people building their own projects and shits, there's always this mantra that you your project with the best possible base.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So there's a bit of a moral dilemma there with kind of starting with the best car and not killing a good one.
Speaker B:And it's always going to cause debate.
Speaker B:I mean debate is healthy, isn't it?
Speaker B:Yeah, there's, I mean there's, there's a whole thing.
Speaker B:I mean.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Online there's a bit of nastiness that goes on where people like to comment on a car if they don't like it and you say oh, you ruined that.
Speaker B:And the point behind that really is that what somebody else does to their own car doesn't affect your life in any way whatsoever.
Speaker A:No, no, thank you.
Speaker B:As long as you haven't killed the last one left.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's nobody's business.
Speaker A:I mean as an example, a good few years ago on Facebook a young girl started to follow me because of what I do.
Speaker A:So I followed her.
Speaker A:I won't give her name away.
Speaker A:And she'd heavily modified her forward focus.
Speaker A:And it was interesting.
Speaker A:She talked about how much faster she got it to go and all the interior modifications and everything else.
Speaker A:And then I inquired, I said, just out of interest, you've made your focus now.
Speaker A:It didn't start life as a fast one.
Speaker A:She made it fast.
Speaker A: it was a relatively ordinary: Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I commented, I said, just out of interest, what have you done to upgrade the suspension and upgrade the brakes to make the car be able to cope with what you've done to its engine?
Speaker A:And she more or less blocked me because from what I could gather, she had done absolutely nothing to what you might call the other end of the car.
Speaker A:And you think, I mean, is this a common thing in modifying?
Speaker A:Because it may have been in the max power days, people did all sorts to make them faster and noisier and everything else, but neglected what you might call the basics.
Speaker A:Has the attitude to modifying cars changed and become, for.
Speaker A:Want a better phrase, common sense?
Speaker A:They do the entirety of the car.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean, you've got to take a holistic approach to these things.
Speaker B:And I think there's still, again, as a hangover from the max power range, there is still a focus on solely on power for a lot of people.
Speaker B:I mean, the logical thing to do is to deal with the fundamentals first.
Speaker B:So the first modification you make to a car should be to the suspension, to the brakes.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And then, you know, you can exploit the power that you have before you start adding more in.
Speaker B:I mean, it was particularly interesting with Copacetic, as we immediately had some interest and a lot of support from an outfit called the Performance Automotive Aftermarket association, the P aaa.
Speaker A:I've also had never heard of them.
Speaker B:Well, talk to your friend Nick at Terrence.
Speaker B:He is very instrumental in the P. Aaa.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And their aim is to educate basically about the grownup side of modifying.
Speaker B:So it's not just about chucking a load of extra power into your mom's hatchback.
Speaker B:It's about creating something that is better in all regards and so maintaining kind of factory standards of safety as well as reliability.
Speaker B:So it's not just about power, it's about the full package.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And the people who are doing this now, apart from those who were spending a lot of money to have it done, has the age range changed?
Speaker A:Because, I mean, once again, to quote the old magazine, Max Power, a lot of the people who were involved in that type of car were extremely young.
Speaker A:Where they got the money from to do it all, I never knew.
Speaker A:But has have the owners and the builders matured?
Speaker A:Is it the same lot from max power that have transitioned to copasetic?
Speaker B:Well, yeah, I mean these things are generational so there is a huge kind of swell of excitement for these cars amongst young drivers.
Speaker B:But there's also that kind of remaining enthusiasm among people in their 30s, 40s, 50s who grew up doing this to cars.
Speaker B:So the, the show and you get is massive.
Speaker B:There are loads of modified car shows and when you go to them you'll find that it's mostly people in their 20s who want to meet up with like minded people and discuss the cars that they're building.
Speaker B: s and the early: Speaker B:So you get a lot of what people call air and wheels builds where you buy a car on financ, you put it on air ride, suspension, you put some fancy wheels on it and that's the whole car done.
Speaker B:Which it's not a cheap thing to do, but it's completely reversible when your finance deal is up and you give the car back.
Speaker B:So that, I mean that's a route into the scene for a lot of people.
Speaker B:But also there's a lot of affordable cars out there that are very easy to modify, that are very well served by the aftermarket.
Speaker A:So your variat such as.
Speaker B:Well, you mentioned this girl with the Ford Focus.
Speaker B:So the Ford scene is absolutely huge.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And you can buy for example a Mark 2 Focus ST which is a surprisingly powerful car.
Speaker B:5 cylinder turbo engine, 230 odd horsepower.
Speaker B:You can get one of those for a few grand.
Speaker B:And even without cracking the engine open, you can put a load of bolt ons on there to get it over 300 brake horsepower.
Speaker B:The suspension options are huge, the brakes options are huge.
Speaker B:You can buy all sorts of things for these relatively affordable cars.
Speaker B:So it's an easy thing to get into with a lot of scop for personalization and creativity.
Speaker B:So you find that the young people are getting into surprisingly powerful cars.
Speaker B:Yeah, but like you say, there's also a lot of people of, of my age who grew up doing this stuff that have now got a, maybe a broader spectrum on what they, what they like to, to drive and to see it shows.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So for example, I grew up driving lots of hot hatches.
Speaker B: two if I've GTIs and Renault: Speaker B:The sort of cars that you don't see a lot of these days.
Speaker B:And that's the kind of thing that I really love to see show because it's nostalgic.
Speaker B:It kind of, it tugs on the heartstrings.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:I mean you mentioned like the Renault and the Peugeot, I mean those in good condition are now ex.
Speaker A:Are now very, very valuable cars.
Speaker A:I mean are, are there any of them still out there that are affordable, that are in a condition where you could give it the copacetic treatment?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean another thing about the, the sort of the market maturing in age is that people have grown up and made their money and have, you know, the funds to spend on the cars that they wanted when they were young.
Speaker B:So say if you grew up in the late 90s and always wanted an Escort RS Turbo, but they were unachievable, you could now still go out and find one and they'd be more expensive than a lot of newer and faster cars.
Speaker B:But you still find that solid classic and then the aftermarket is there to chuck a load of stuff at it.
Speaker B:So you could restore it to standard or you could resto mod it.
Speaker B:You could make it a lot more powerful.
Speaker B:I mean you could, you could make it really high end because these were cars that were mass produced to be kind of everyday runabouts where you could live in a kind of Rolls Royce style interior.
Speaker B:For example, there are companies that will very happily give you a bespoke interior.
Speaker B:There's all sorts you can do to the chassis and the engine.
Speaker B:You could put a whole new engine in.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And these cars are still out.
Speaker B:They are increasingly scarce, but they do still exist.
Speaker A:Yeah, me talking of that, I once remember being at a show and somebody had managed to shovel the Lamborghini's interior into a Volkswagen Polo.
Speaker A:How they'd achieved it I do not know because every, all the seats etc are all rubbing against each other.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, I mean there's a lot of cross pollination within that scene.
Speaker B:In particular because being part of the Volkswagen Audi group, you do very often see kind of Audis on Bentley wheels, Golfs on Lamborghini wheels.
Speaker B:It's, that's a whole thing.
Speaker A:So I mean what you, you mentioned, Allegros, I conclude for people starting out, do they tend to go for the, what you might call the cheaper alternatives instead of wanting to do something like a higher end Audi or something like that.
Speaker A:Is there, shall we say a cheap range of cars that, that people can start with?
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:I mean, I think in the Case of the Allegro, it's not so much that it's a cheaper option, it's a belligerently weird one because.
Speaker B:So they're so derided that it's.
Speaker B:It's a real challenge to build a cool one and there are some people doing this really well.
Speaker B:So Retro Power are building two of them at the moment.
Speaker B:Johnny Smith from the Late Break show is building a really nice one as well.
Speaker B:Yeah, but yeah, there's a lot of affordable starting points.
Speaker B:For example, the K11 Nissan Micro, the one that they built in the late 90s.
Speaker C:Oh yeah.
Speaker B:Is a very affordable starting point.
Speaker B:There's still a lot of them out there, they're super reliable and there's lots you can do to them.
Speaker B:So you do find a lot of young people driving around in old Micros now, which, which is cool because that was kind of your archetypal little old ladies shopping car, which is now becoming quite a cool thing now, as I.
Speaker A:Said, to launch a new magazine is.
Speaker A:I mean, I've been in this industry, after I stopped up drive.
Speaker A:Stopped driving for a living and I was doing it whilst I was driving for a living, I had to make some money somewhere.
Speaker A:Launching a magazine is not a cheap affair.
Speaker A:How did you talk somebody into launching a magazine, a new magazine in what is, shall we say, not maybe a depressed market, but people aren't spending money as much.
Speaker A:Paying out money for a magazine is something they maybe won't do.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's.
Speaker B:I mean, Law Tuning Magazine in this climate is terrifying and expensive and probably completely insane.
Speaker B:But it felt like the time is right because this is something I've always wanted to do and I've been freelance journalist for about 15 odd years and I've got to the stage where I'm kind of sick of all the doors being closed.
Speaker B:There are so many magazines I've written for on a regular basis that have been shut down and these are popular magazines with big followings and it just made sense to me to make the kind of magazine that I would want to buy with the sort of quality that I would want at a price that is affordable and just see if it works.
Speaker B:I mean, the fact that we've got such a strong roster of respected writers and photographers on board really helps.
Speaker B:And I mean, yeah, it just felt like the time was right.
Speaker B:I have no investors so I had to take out a substantial loan to make this work.
Speaker B:I have no idea how many issues it's going to be before we even break it even.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's one of those things where if you don't know, you.
Speaker B:If you don't try, then you know you don't know how it's going to work out.
Speaker B:But, yeah, it's.
Speaker B:It all seems to be going very well so far.
Speaker B:So the first issue is very close to being completely sold out.
Speaker B:In the online store, we've done two covers.
Speaker B:We've got one for newsstand and one for subscribers.
Speaker B:The newsstand cover in our website is completely sold out.
Speaker B:The subscriber cover, we've got, I think, seven left.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:So, of course there's a stage now where if people want to buy it, they have to go and find it in the shops.
Speaker A:And I mean, where.
Speaker A:Where did you find your columnist?
Speaker A:I mean, I can remember until I stopped writing and became radio and shall we say I did TV work for a while, but not in the uk.
Speaker A:I did it in France and Germany.
Speaker A:I only started doing radio and I came back to the uk.
Speaker A:But as the number of magazines decline or the quality of magazines decline, and certain people think that.
Speaker A:One example, I was asked by a Landro magazine to write an article on a stunningly restored Series 1 Land Rover.
Speaker A:When I asked what the rate was, they said, no, you'll do it for the sheer pleasure seeing your name in print.
Speaker A:Well commented.
Speaker A:I said, I've seen my name in print sufficiently to not be doing it for free.
Speaker A:I mean, there's a glut of journalists out there.
Speaker A:How did you select the journalists you've got?
Speaker A:Because you've quite a few.
Speaker A:Some decent names in the.
Speaker A:In your columnists, aren't you?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So these are all people that I've either known or worked with for years now.
Speaker B:Richard Porter and I have discussed various ideas over the years and when I told him I was launching this magazine, he was quite keen to be involved.
Speaker B:Ditto Alex Goy, who I meet up with him fairly regularly at col meets and what have you.
Speaker B:And he was really keen to be involved.
Speaker B:And a number of other people are ones who have commissioned to write on other magazines.
Speaker B:So Trinity Francis, for example, Anthony Ingram, who's ex evo.
Speaker B:They're people I've worked with before.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Elizabeth Delator, I was keen to have on board writing this BMW piece because she was previously editor of Performance BMW magazine before that got shut down.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:And is very passionate about that kind of thing.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's all kind of connections that I've had for years, people I trust to do a good job.
Speaker B:And like you say, there is.
Speaker B:There's been a bit of rot set in in publishing over the last decade or so, where people are trying to get respected names to work for free for the glory of being in print.
Speaker B:And, you know, my mortgage provider doesn't accept exposure as payment, so you've got to pay people a fair rate for what they do.
Speaker B:That's the way it works.
Speaker A:So I remember saying to one editor, I meant, said something like that.
Speaker A:I said.
Speaker A:I said, I must try going into my local supermarket, filling my trolley, getting to the till and saying, oh, you can't charge me, I'm Mark Stone.
Speaker A:I said, I can.
Speaker A:I said, I can visualize the reaction to that.
Speaker B:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker B:It's nonsense, isn't it?
Speaker A:I mean, one columnist is Helen Stanley, who used to be.
Speaker A:I don't know if she still does it, but she was on TV because she did a lot of modification work in her own right, didn't she?
Speaker B:That's right, yes.
Speaker B:And again, she's somebody I've known for many years, we've worked together on various different things.
Speaker B:And, yeah, she's got a lot of very interesting opinions on the modified car scene.
Speaker B:So I was keen to have her as a columnist.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because she's got a lot of relevant things to say and she's very engaging.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Again, when I told her that I was launching this magazine, she was very keen to be involved.
Speaker C:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Good.
Speaker B:Good person to have on board.
Speaker A:Now, it's like you said before, it makes a profit.
Speaker A:I mean, it's always been known that a magazine, a new magazine, it can be two years before they show a profit.
Speaker A:The one fun enough to go back to it, the one that brought the mold, was Max Power.
Speaker A:That seemed to hit profit in about five or so months.
Speaker A:I mean, that was incredible.
Speaker A:I mean, how.
Speaker A:How do you and your publisher sit and look at this?
Speaker A:I conclude the fact it's selling out will make your publisher a very happy man.
Speaker B:Well, I mean, I am the publisher, so I'm quite happy with it.
Speaker A:Or shall we say the person who's helping you?
Speaker A:Because I conclude there will be other people helping you in this.
Speaker A:Or are you.
Speaker A:Are your shoulders broad enough to do it all on your own?
Speaker B:Well, I mean, I wanted to be as independent as possible, so I've set this up as it's a limited company, of which I am the sold person, really, so it kind of rests on my shoulders.
Speaker B:However, it is very important to point out that none of this would have happened without the help of the team at Classic Retro Modern magazine.
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker B:Because I've been talking about doing this thing for years.
Speaker B:The start of this year they were incredibly helpful with giving me contacts for a printer distributor for shops, the agency I'm now using to do the ad sales.
Speaker B:Setting up all of those relationships was something that I didn't know how to do.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Because has it.
Speaker B:I've been an editor of magazines for years now but I've never done that side of it.
Speaker B:I've never operated one as a business.
Speaker B:So they were and continue to be incredibly helpful in making this mad idea an actual reality.
Speaker B:So yes, I have so much respect for them and so much gratitude for the help they've given me to make this thing appear on show.
Speaker A:Now you've, you've selected and I'm pleased to say, I mean I like them like this.
Speaker A:You, you've selected quite an expensive presentation.
Speaker A:It's semi matte paper, it's perfect bound.
Speaker A:This isn't a cheap magazine to produce.
Speaker A:I mean, I conclude you to launch a new magazine, new motoring magazine, you've got to make it initially visually desirable.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I mean this is way more expensive than it could have been to produce.
Speaker B:But the, the whole point from the start was that I wanted was not only engaging to read and beautiful to look at, but would be something when you finish with it, you put it on the shelf for future reference rather than putting the recycling.
Speaker B:It's, it's a keepsake, it's a nice, it's a beautiful object and the paper stock and the presentation is a crucial part of that.
Speaker B:So I mean you do find with a lot of magazines these days the paper's getting cheaper and thinner and it just doesn't feel like something substantial is going to last.
Speaker B:I wanted something that would endure and that felt like good value as well because I mean you can't escape the fact that magazines necessarily have got more expensive.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:That's just the nature of it.
Speaker B:So I wanted this particularly as it's imonthly that gives us a pass to be a little bit more expensive than the monthlies.
Speaker B:But I didn't want it to be too expensive but at the same time it had to be properly high quality and I said I'm really pleased with the way it's come out.
Speaker B:It feels like a really nice object.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Now do you think you'll stay by monthly?
Speaker B:Well, I mean the dream would be to go monthly.
Speaker B:Yeah, but that's going to be dictated by enthusiasm and sales.
Speaker B:We certainly have enough content to do it monthly.
Speaker A:It's actually viable.
Speaker B:So we'll see.
Speaker B:It's going to be bi monthly for the foreseeable future.
Speaker B:But hopefully we can change that at some point.
Speaker A:Now I conclude that at some point it will.
Speaker A:It will move from being an online purchase etc and I conclude there will be a subscription facility but it will be available on the newsstands to use in Americanism.
Speaker B:Yes, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So there's a number of ways that you can buy the magazine because we've got a whole fancy website where you can order it.
Speaker B:We have gone digital as well.
Speaker B:You can get it on pocket mags and readly, which isn't the way I would like people to consume it.
Speaker B:But also I appreciate that some people do that and that's, you know, it would be mad not to offer that.
Speaker B:But yeah, what's really useful is that we have our Newstand distribution deal with WH Smith and a number of high street independents as well.
Speaker B:And as of next week we're also going to be in all the WA travel outlets.
Speaker B:So that's all the airports, train stations, tube stations, plus various hospitals and what have you.
Speaker B:So yeah, it's.
Speaker B:It should be relatively easy to find, hopefully.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Because that's the one thing I find.
Speaker A:There's certain magazines I buy that I have to wait till I'm at an airport because I can't buy that.
Speaker A:I can't walk into a WH Smith's on the high street and find them.
Speaker A:Them.
Speaker A:But I can go into WH Smiths at Manchester Airport or Leeds Airport and find these magazines there.
Speaker A:And so I've always found it very strange or motorway services, but the average news agent doesn't carry them.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So we experience.
Speaker B:Have listed us within their top 300 stores.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So yeah, it's, it's, it's out there.
Speaker B:There is, there's a store finder as well that's quite helpful.
Speaker B:If you, if you Google Frontline Store Finder that gives you a website where you can search your nearest stockists and yeah, I mean I've seen it in a number of shops which is very exciting because I made them.
Speaker B:I've been doing a bit of kind of stealth positioning as well where I take a bunch of stickers in my pocket all the time.
Speaker B:If I see the magazine in the shop that I'll.
Speaker B:I'll stick some free stickers in there so the next person who buys it gets a little freebie.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Now, besides your, besides this, you have what you might call a proper job.
Speaker A:You are editor of one of the mini magazines, aren't you?
Speaker B:Aren't you?
Speaker B:That's right, yes.
Speaker B:Mini worlds.
Speaker B:So, yeah, I was a few years Ago I was editor of Mini magazine as was that closed down then I moved on to fast forward.
Speaker B:I was industry of that for a couple of years and for the last 18 months or so I've been editor of Mini World.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Do you own a Mini?
Speaker B:Not currently.
Speaker B:I've had a bunch.
Speaker B:Well no, I've got a modern one but Mini World is about classic Minis so it's a separate thing.
Speaker A:Yeah, because I mean that's the one thing.
Speaker A:Just to touch on Minis I can remember when I was a lad I had a few, quite a few Minis.
Speaker A:I also wrote a few of them off as regards the BMW Mini.
Speaker A:I, I didn't mind the first ones, the, the Mini one because to a degree they did though they were larger, did look like the Mini.
Speaker A:But the modern Mini is anything but and in my opinion you, you'll probably disagree.
Speaker A:I don't think the modern Mini that you'll see in the showroom now looks anything like.
Speaker A:And I don't particularly like them.
Speaker A:What is the reaction of them?
Speaker A:I know many owners have changed, they've got younger.
Speaker A:What's the reaction to the modern mini?
Speaker B:It's a very polarizing.
Speaker B:So you do find there's a lot of people who have classic Minis who absolutely hate the modern ones.
Speaker B:You do also find there's a lot of people who have a classic Mini as a weekend toy who own a modern one as their kind of day to day runabout.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Another really important point to remember is that that Minis are not cheap cars anymore.
Speaker B:You can't buy a classic usable Mini that you can just jump into and drive around in without doing loads of work to it for less than 5, 6 grand which has priced out a lot of younger buyers.
Speaker B:So you do find that people are buying the early R50 minis.
Speaker B: So the ones from the earlier: Speaker B:So they've got their oldest possible modern Mini, if you know what I mean which they can then take to shows where there are also classic Minis.
Speaker B:They can get involved in the community and that gets them into the scene and they can later kind of buy a classic Mini when they can afford it.
Speaker B:So there are lots of ties between the two but there will always be the kind of militant classic owners who will not have any time for a modern one and will say it's not a Mini, it's a BMW.
Speaker B:Get very cross about it.
Speaker B:Frankly I think life's too short to be cross.
Speaker B:About cars.
Speaker B:There's bigger things in the world.
Speaker B:But I'm here.
Speaker A:Does the.
Speaker A:Does the modern.
Speaker A:Does the young Mini owner enthusiast still look lust after an Ex Works Cooper?
Speaker A:Is that still the ultimate Mini fans ultimate possession?
Speaker B:Yeah, that it is the expensive these days.
Speaker B:Very sought after.
Speaker B:Yeah, that.
Speaker B:That is the dream car for a lot of.
Speaker B:A lot of enthusiasts.
Speaker B:But I mean it's the same with any car seat.
Speaker B:Is the.
Speaker B:That my dad had one of those draw will bring you towards any particular thing that tugs the nostalgia heart Spring.
Speaker B:So, for example, the Clubmans these days are massively popular.
Speaker B:They were derided for a long time for kind of looking a bit weird, having the different kind of bluff front and what have you.
Speaker B: And nowadays: Speaker B:So there are levels of snobbishness, but at the same time it's a very inclusive scene because everyone's in it for the same reason.
Speaker B:And if you go to a mini show, it will just be dozens and dozens of families all out there for a fun day.
Speaker B:It's not just about the car, it's about the community.
Speaker A:Well, just to upset you, I had a Clubman gt, a Howley engine conversion one and I put that straight through a dry storm wall.
Speaker B:Oh, no.
Speaker A:And a great friend of mine and past guest is, and you'll probably, you'll probably met him is ex Works coal driver Mike Wood.
Speaker A:And at one point in time he was doing something, he rang them up and said, I need a car for knocking about in.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker A:They said, take this and it was an Ex Works Cooper.
Speaker A:And when he said, well, do you want it back?
Speaker A:They said, nah, go on, give us 100 quid for it.
Speaker A:Daniel, Beavis, thanks so much for joining me on the backseat driver.
Speaker A:All the best.
Speaker A:Best with copacetic.
Speaker A:I look forward to seeing it on the newspaper magazine racks.
Speaker A:And can I wish you all success and I hope it succeeds and flies off into the future.
Speaker B:Thank you, I really appreciate that.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:Thanks very much indeed, Daniel.
Speaker A:Take care.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Bye.
