Time flies when you’re having fun…or trying to make a relentless deadline every month! With all the work that went into last month’s Cooper special issue, it almost slipped by me that this issue, marks our nine-year anniversary. It feels like only 15!
Editor
As a policy, each year we’ve tried to make tangible improvements to the quality and size of the magazine. Last year, with this issue, we launched a new enlarged format that saw both a redesign of the magazine’s look, as well as a number of new features and columns. Gratifyingly, these changes and improvements have been met with widespread support from you the reader, which has helped drive, for us, one of the fastest periods of growth in our now-nine-year history.
While the magazine went from strength to strength last year, its many improvements, in turn, began to shine a pretty harsh light on our Web site. As a result, one of our goals for this year’s anniversary was to launch a completely new and revised sportscardigest.com that was more user-friendly and provided more features and benefits. I’m pleased to announce here that this is, in fact, what we have just completed.
Now, when you go to the new sportscardigest.com, you’ll see a very different Web site. Some of the new features that you’ll find include:
•Updated News—The new VR Web site now features regularly updated news stories. As stories break in the world of historic racing, you’ll now be able to read the latest news, as it happens. Some of the news stories that you read on our Web site, will now be a complement to the story that you read in the magazine, thus allowing us to not only bring you aspects of the story sooner, but oftentimes with a different complement of pictures, as well. Likewise, since space in the magazine is theoretically limited, we will also occasionally bring stories to the Web site that we didn’t have room for in a given issue of the printed magazine. At a minimum, you’ll want to check the Web site at least once a week for all the latest news and results.
•Photo Galleries—One of the great dilemmas that we face each month is having to choose just a handful of great photos from any one event, despite having dozens to choose from. However, now with the new Web site, you can view a completely different set of photographs than those printed in the magazine each month, as well as the occasional event coverage not featured in the magazine.
•Searchable Database—At long last, the new sportscardigest.com now features a search engine that will enable you to search every issue of Vintage Racecar for any given keyword. Enter keyword “Gurney” or “Stanguellini” and get back a listing of every issue containing articles that match your search. These search results are then linked to our database of available back issues, making finding and purchasing those special issues amazingly easy.
•Full calendar of events—Back by popular demand, the new Web site also features a full, international, 12-month calendar of events with hotlinks to the relevant sanctioning body.
In addition to all these features, you’ll also find special deals on books and other automobilia, as well as links to a wide variety of historic racing-related goods and services. Finally, due to the fast growing international following for Vintage Racecar, we’ve also established dedicated subscription and renewal pages so that whether you live in the US, the UK, Australia or Europe, you’ll be able to take care of your subscription needs or give a gift subscription in your own currency.
As outlined above, one of our goals in redesigning our Web site was to enable it to extend and complement the magazine, not just promote it. I think once you see what it has to offer, you’ll make it one of your regular destinations.
