Matters of Moment, March 1997

The next issue of MOTOR SPORT will be one of the most momentous in its history. After months of intensive backstage work, the April edition of the magazine will be redesigned from cover to cover. The aim is very simple: MOTOR SPORT will become the finest historic motorsports magazine in the world.

We know this is no small goal we seek and we know also that it cannot be attained by simply adding extra pages. Our alleged rivals will doubtless be delighted to learn we have decided to leave the quantity-led, scatter-gun approach entirely to them. So while MOTOR SPORT will contain many more pages, it is their quality and not their number which matters most to us and, we are sure, to you as well.

Which is why MOTOR SPORT will use only the finest writers and photographers and treat their work with a sympathy and elegance which is rarely seen today.

Do not, however, worry that the MOTOR SPORT you know so well is somehow to be discarded in favour of an unrecognisable magazine bearing only its name. Nothing could be further from the truth. While others merely report on Britain and the world’s automotive sporting heritage, MOTOR SPORT is part of its very fabric. It would be an act of crass irresponsibility, not to say appalling judgement, to interfere in any way with our unique and envied place in the field.

As before, MOTOR SPORT will continue to provide track tests, the best interviews, news and unparalleled coverage of important events in classic racing and rallying. Contemporary road cars will still be tested and we will remain at the cutting edge of Formula One, though more as commentators than reporters, a job best left to a news-based weekly title.

In the finest traditions of the magazine, MOTOR SPORT will be opinionated, polemical, unpredictable and, above all, nobody’s fool. Bill Boddy’s larger than life presence will continue and, while we cannot replace Jenks, his words live on and, over the months to come, you will be reading the best of them once more.

The staff of MOTOR SPORT are profoundly conscious of the responsibility we have to you, our readers, and to this magazine with its extraordinary history. It is not something we will ever take lightly. But we are confident we have found the way to move it into the future while honouring its past. We hope and believe that, when you pick up the next issue you will share this feeling and will want to join the adventure.

MOTOR SPORT goes on sale on March 21.