Pascal got a much more detailed answer to his query about whether anyone had received their NOV/DEC issue than I was going to give, but I got mine a little earlier than the 15th.
I would like to say, in light of the recent criticism of Mike Cook and the appearance/content of JJ, that I thought the issue was perhaps a step above recent offerings. Although I feel there are some serious graphic design issues that need to be addressed, the cover is splendid, with an action shot of a black Lyons 100 Edition of the XKR putting out serious tyre smoke on the track! There is a very good article on Steve Houtari's "MUSLCAT" which is the kind of thing that will make me look forward to the magazine if it becomes a regular feature (and, yes, I guess there will have to be something for the concours brigade, too, but some of us like to take these cars beyond stock whilst staying within the spirit of Jaguar). Of course, I was also happy to see a nice double-page spread on the Slalom, with pictures in COLOR and larger than postage stamps! Overall, there seemed to be more content from the members, which is good.
I received the Jaguar Enthusiast magazine in the same post, and although it has almost three times as many pages as JJ, the paper is not of the same high quality, and some of the content is very provincial. They do have a very good on-going technical series though, which is something that could really help JJ broaden its appeal. Over 11 full-color pages of ads of cars for sale! ! That's about 200 cars! That's one area in which we'll never match them!
I think the real point of this post is that all of us who want to see improvement in JJ need to work with Mike to make it happen. The basic framework is really pretty impressive.
Regards,
Warren Hansen