There are no shortages of websites, podcasts and YouTube shows directly connected to the car hobby.
The landscape was less cluttered back in 2009 when MyStar went live, so you knew all the players in the Web-iverse.
One of the players was a car website that went on attack mode every day.
Jerry Sutherland
I’m not going to name the website, but I can tell you they are still around. They changed ownership a few times—I haven’t followed them much. They’ve also changed their philosophy because the mandate of this e-zine was to flail the car industry with well-oiled whips every single day.
They really hated the US auto industry, so they turned it into their personal punching bag. Needless to say, they had trouble attracting advertisers with their kamikaze attacks on car builders, but their traffic was through the roof.
Jim started writing for them in 2009 and I eventually did some stuff for them too. The assignment was simple—bring your poison pen and aim it at cars.
They didn’t pay anything, so we were auditioning for free, but Jim and I both agreed exposure on this site was a good jump start for exposure. Several of their writers moved on to bigger jobs in conventional automotive journalist venues–and they are still working.
But they’ve toned down their written assassinations of all things automotive because car builders don’t like it—so the guys who did continue that style are unemployed. Karma jumps into the game when you go on attack mode every day.
I’ll admit I didn’t last long with this e-zine for a few practical reasons. One it didn’t pay, and two, it wasted valuable time that could have been spent developing MyStarCollectorCar. There was some prestige having a connection to this established online magazine, but it wasn’t worth compromising what I thought about cars.
That’s because these guys did hack on old iron occasionally by mocking Detroit for building primitive domestic cars in the old days. I noticed they never carpet-bombed vintage Ferraris or Porsches because they were domestic car terrorists—not classic European car terrorists.
That attitude didn’t work for me because the world of old iron is one of the coolest places you’ll ever visit. It’s about fond memories and riding in Plymouths—not Porsche Carreras.
It’s all about rescuing an impossible project and making it a work of art via hard work, skill, buckets of money, and a good welder. The guys who sat on the sidelines and aimed arrows at cars never got that—for them it was all about turning a colorful phrase, not a wrench.
That’s why the mission to attack the automotive industry didn’t work for me—even with new cars. Because I respect technology that gets 30 miles per gallon out of a 500-horsepower engine; and I respect old tech that gets 90 horsepower out of an old flathead six.
If I had to sum this up it would be this way. Cars aren’t a punchline—they’re a vital part of a functioning modern society, so attacking them every day made no sense to me.
Especially the old cars.
Jerry Sutherland
By: Jerry Sutherland
Jerry Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer with a primary focus on the collector car hobby. His work has been published in many outlets and publications, including the National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Regina Leader-Post, Vancouver Sun and The Truth About Cars. He is also a regular contributor to Auto Roundup Publications.
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