I don't remember too much discussion about the Car & Driver's July issue on the 50th Anniversary of Corvettes. I'm not a subscriber, but when Mrs. Mac brought the mag home from her doctor's office recently, I read through the assorted articles. Some of the information was interesting whereas some was, well, bizarre. Very bizarre.
Of particular interest to me was the article about Zora and his famous battles with Bill Mitchell but the article which prompts this thread is the "Corvette Highs and Lows" section.
With typical myopic journalist's vision (or lack thereof) the article speaks of a C&D long term test was done on a 1985 Corvette, how the car was a favorite of everyone despite many niggling faults and finally, how they found GM repair orders showing the car had the transmission replaced before it was given to C&D who, of course, squealed to the readers.
They brag of how their articles got Zora the job of Chief Engineer for Corvettes (supposedly confirmed by Zora himself) and complains that Zora sued them in 1979 after a C&D colomnist said the Corvette's rear suspension, from 1963 onward, was "ill-conceived."
My point? I know journalists, even automotive journalists, feel the world hangs off their every word, that their opinions move mountains, but does anyone else find that automotive journalists to be, well, idiots? Are there any decent publications out there?
My point? I know journalists, even automotive journalists, feel the world hangs off their every word, that their opinions move mountains, but does anyone else find that automotive journalists to be, well, idiots? Are there any decent publications out there?
Actually, of all the car rags, I think that C and D has the most competent staff. If you look closely you will see that most of the 50th Anniversary special articles were done by hired hands, not the regular staff, but regardless of this, the editorial staff of a general interest automotive publication will never understand the details and history of a specific marque as well as a group of serious long time owners and enthusiasts like us.
I don't subscribe to any Corvette specific publications, because, in general, I don't find that any of them have much worthwhile content.
Right, as usual, Duke. The articles are almost all 'nameless' rather than contributed by the usual suspects. Perhaps my expectations were too high.
I've subscribed to a number of different magazines over the years, including C&D and when it comes resubscription time, I always stop and think... "Did they earn my money? Did I look forward to each issue? Did I gain knowledge from the contents?" and in most cases, the answers aren't complimentary.
In my opinion, articles either don't go into enough technical detail or avoid it altogether. I guess they figure more people read to be amused than to be educated. In many cases, they make passing mention of technical advancements and that's about it.
Then, of course, there's the all consuming advertizing. Okay, I know they have to pay the bills and my $4.95 per issue doesn't cover all costs, but I do get tired to leafing through page after page of advertizing looking for the 'rest of the story' so to speak. It's particularly annoying when they take articles apart; picture and a paragraph on pg 40 (cont. pg 212).
I've been a sporadic Car and Driver subscriber over the years. I occasionally watch their cable program, "Car and Driver TV". Not to hi-jack the thread, but I've got to know....the editor is a fellow named Csaba Csere. How in the world to you pronounce his name?
Somewhere in the past, I heard it pronounced "Chubba Cheddah". Don't know if this is correct. Anybody know?
Somewhere in the past, I heard it pronounced "Chubba Cheddah". Don't know if this is correct. Anybody know?
Yep, that's it as far as I know. It's Hungarian.
Regarding Autoweek, about ten years ago they had a picture of an old Ford Flathead and referred to it as a "V-6". That was the last straw. I did not renew my subscription!
For those of you who are too young to remember the Ford Flathead, it had siamized center exhaust ports so the manifolds or hot rod headers only have three branches. You "too young to know enough" editors at Autoweek actually thought it was a V-6. They were serious. I think the late Leon Mandel was editor back then, but that one got by him.
Somewhere in the past, I heard it pronounced "Chubba Cheddah". Don't know if this is correct. Anybody know?
According to a very reliable source (Mrs. Mac, whose first language is Hungarian) the CS sound in Hungarian (the world's second oldest living language) would be sounded as CH. Csaba is pronounced Cha-bah and is a very common Hungarian name. I can't recall what the pronouciation of Csere is but I know every letter is sounded; there are no silent letters in Hungarian, so it's likely something like Che-reh.
Is Hungarian an Indo-European language or is it part of another language family? As you might expect, most European languages are members of this family. Finnish is not, but I don't know why, and I'm curious about Hungarian.
According to the 'Hungarian Made Easy' handbook I bought back when Mrs. Mac and I were still courting (the booklet didn't help- I still can't speak or read Magyar) Hungarian is not an Indo-Euro based language. To quote the preface:
Magyar (pronounced /Mawdyar/), as the Hungarians call their language, is spoken by the approximately 10.3 million inhabitants of Hungary, as well as another 4 million people in neighboring countries and a million others scattered around the world. It belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family, which includes Finnish and Estonian, but its closest relatives are several obscure languages spoken in Siberia. Hungarian is not at all related to the Indo-European languages which surround it, and is very different both in vocabulary and in grammar. Hungarian is an agglutinative language, meaning that it relies heavily on suffixes and prefixes. The grammar is seemingly complex, yet there is no gender, a feature that most English speakers grapple with when learning other European languages. Hungarian does use the Roman alphabet however, and after learning a few simple rules one can easily read Hungarian. Pronunciation is also very easy, especially compared to other neighbouring languages like Czech, German, and Russian.
It certainly is a most unusual name. Thanks for the input, guys. Being saddled with the name "Gongloff" all of my life, I appreciate how people like to hear their name/names pronounced correctly. Mine is really pretty simple: "Gong Loff". It manages to get butchered regularly :) Maybe I'll change it to Smith? Chuck
Thanks from me too for the info, Mac. Didn't know that it was even a Hungarian name. I guess I heard correctly, but what I heard didn't gel with what I was reading. :) Chuck "GUN--GLOFF, GONGA--LOFF", etc., etc. :)
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Car & Driver July 2002
