Happy New Year!

The Hot Rod Gazette is back!
Sort of.

Loads of people remember the old Gazette, whose smudgy, smutty photocopied pages went from being a one-sheet newsletter for the old Preston cruise in 1995 to being a rallying flag for the whole Northern hot rod scene around the turn of the century. It wasn't just a fanzine, it was the banner for a movement, a scene so vibrant that you could live it and breathe it. These were the times that so many of us look back on as "the good old days".

As with everything else, real life tends to get in the way of this sort of thing, and the Hot Rod Gazette petered out a few years ago. It was never exactly a money-spinning investment, even though most of the paper and gubbins was pilfered from here and there, and the time it took to put together became ever-more scarce. How we miss the grainy black and white images, the cursing, swearing, smut and innuendo, the wild and carefree publication schedule, the freestyle approach to factual accuracy, the happy-go-lucky attitude to copyright infringement when it came to photos of ladies with preposterously large baps and the mouth-frothingly rampant rants about popular celebrities like John Prescott...

But mostly we miss the enthusiasm and the spirit of belonging that it engendered. It is sadly missed.

So sadly, that I was told to "stop whining about it, you twat, and do something about it." Bless her. So here is Step One in the mission to relight the fire under the scene that has been going a bit cold recently.

Many of you who recognise the Hot Red Gussette of old will know me, but if the medication has robbed you of your memory, I'm a Midlands-based American car, hot rod and classic car nut. I have a Fox Mustang, largely empty pockets, several pairs of rose-tinted glasses, greasy nails, skinned knuckles and a beer belly that would stop a runaway horse. If you, like me, remember the Gazette, add your comments below.
Happy New Year ... love from
Eugene