Author Archives: jeff

Jacky Ickx – Oct 21, 2013

Overview

Don’t wait for stories to appear in the store when you can become a member of Wheelbase Media’s weekly news service and save more than 50 percent while gaining instant access to the new features as they’re produced. Click here to get started.

If you are not a member of the media, but still wish to read this and other feature stories from Wheelbase Media, visit www.shiftweekly.com to subscribe to Auto Shift Weekly newsmag, available for your Apple iPad or for your home PC or laptop in pdf format.

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for print/Web.Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: Cars are nothing without the people who create them and those who own, collect and preserve them. Profiles is designed to bring prominent, interesting car people to your readers’ attention. Fun, informative and masterfully designed, like most Wheelbase features, Profiles comes to you as a Quark Xpress/Adobe InDesign module that is completely editable for any space within your print pages or automotive Web site.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main art, where applicable.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (for newspaper use), with some depth variation from week to week, but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 850 words: separate text file included.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Description

He was supposed to be an ecologist. The young lad, born on New Year’s Day in 1945, wanted to be immersed in fields and forests, plants and nature.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Kia Sorento: 2006-’10 – Oct 21, 2013

Overview

Description

As a long-serving member of the Kia family, the truck-like Sorento sport utility vehicle specialized in travelling well past the point where the pavement ended. The original engine was a 192-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 that was connected to a five-speed manual transmission or optional four-speed automatic (upgraded to a five-speed automatic for the 2005 model year). An all-new 262-horsepower 3.8-liter V6 became standard for the 2007 model year, upping the Sorento’s towing capacity to 5,000 pounds from the previous rating of 3,500 This rough-and-rugged Kia was also available with a 242-horsepower 3.3-liter V6 for 2009, it’s final year. A completely new Sorento followed for the 2011 model year.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Nothing like a real inspection to cut through the ad fluff – Full Throttle, Oct 21, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals looking to diversify their automotive readership with women authors who provide their views on a wide variety of topics.

What it is: Courtney Hansen, America’s favorite Garage Girl and the former host of The Learning Channel’s Overhaulin’ auto makeover show, a new-book author and the host of Spike TV’s weekend “Power Block,” has teamed up with Wheelbase Communications for this exclusive column. If you’re looking to build more regular readership and to bring more women into the pages of your print publication and Web pages with the help of a friendly and outgoing automotive celebrity, this bi-weekly column that alternates with our own Rhonda Wheeler is a must.

Product specifications

About 800-900 words; Word text file plus high-resolution art files for print and Web use.
Mac and PC layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Coming soon! Multi-platform page layout that opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.

Description

After surfing the Web for months, there it was: a clean-looking 1963 Chevrolet coupe.
It was the first year for the Sting Ray, the only year for the “split” rear window, and although the car was red instead of its original “Sebring Silver,” magical phrases in the Ebay ad such as “restored within the last year,” “new paint,” and “perfect interior,” and 20 or so good photos had the Wheelbase Media gang convinced that the price was more than fair.

Please contact us to order this feature.

2014 RamEcoDiesel – Oct 21 AutoPilot

Overview

Description

As light-duty pickup trucks go, the upgraded-for-2013 Chrysler-built Ram (neŽ Dodge) is among the best in the business. It has to be to keep pace with the Ford F-150, General Motors’ recently renewed Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, plus maintain its considerable lead over the Toyota Tundra and Nissan Titan.

Please contact us to order this feature.

AutoCross October 21, 2013

Overview

Description

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for their print products and/or Web sites. Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: For the auto thrill-seeker, this is one of the most unique additions to your publication. The International AutoCross will test the knowledge of your readers with trivia that scours automobile parts bins, dealer showrooms and the history of people and places that have made the automobile what it is today. Retain readers and have them coming back on a regular basis for more. Like Wheelbase’s other features, International AutoCross comes to you formatted and ready to use.

Product specifications

Due to the highly complicated graphic nature of this product, we do not yet offer a version that can be played online. Instead, visitors to your Web site can print out the crossword and play it at their leisure. Vote yes to having a playable online version by clicking here.
High-resolution 300 dpi jpg CMYK file suitable for printand Web. Postscript file also included for even higher resolution and no bitmapping of fonts.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Why buy a car and not drive it? – Oct 21, 2013

Overview

What is Auto Edit?

Welcome to AutoEdit, a new and slightly more irreverent weekly feature from Wheelbase Media.
Rather than your pages being a collection of random auto stories, the AutoEdit feature is intended to be the glue that holds it all together. Just as your editorial page is intended to be the pulse of your newspaper, Auto Edit can also be the pulse of your auto pages.

Auto edit runs 500-550 words and is all about your readers becoming more familiar with our key staff members via their personal views on the automotive world. Of all 18 of our weekly features, AutoEdit is the only one intended to provide weekly commentary. Journalistically speaking, this is just common sense since such commentary does not belong in our other news-type features.

Whether your readers agree or disagree with what’s written, they’ll know exactly how the writers of AutoEdit stand on their chosen topics. And, quite frankly, a little spirited debate is a healthy thing and that seems to be missing from more and more newspapers these days. AutoEdit is all about soul, getting back to the basics of solid content and showing readers that there are real people behind the nine-point typeface.

Story Intro

It’s a no-brainer, really. Sports cars are summer cars, all shiny and bright. Everyone knows it. You’d be crazy – nuts, in fact – to drive a sports car in the winter.

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44:43 – The Octane Lounge – Oct 21, 2013

Overview

Description

When Kendra Jacobs of Hendrick Automotive Group asked me if I would like to take part in a media engine-building contest at the Hendrick Motorsports campus in Concord, N.C., my immediate reaction was, “Wow, I get to build a real NASCAR Sprint Cup engine! How cool!”

Please contact us to order this feature.

Auto Almanac – Oct 21, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding non-traditional and interesting automotive content for print/Web.

What it is: A treasure trove of essential automotive quick hits. After designing a highly successful Almanac for one of our daily-newspaper customers, we wondered if we could put together an automotive version. As a result, your new Auto Almanac contains trivia, concept-car spy info, auction notes and even games. All along the way, we invite readers to interact and submit their own ideas.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is the standard one-column newspaper format, but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces and shapes.
PDF of layout included.
About 600 words: NO?separate text file included.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Fashion cents – AutoKnow, Oct 21, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding a variety of automotive topics for broader readership.

What it is: Diversity matters. An automotive print product or Web site largely based on new-vehicle reviews is missing an enormous readership. Auto Know gives us the latitude to explore fantastic auto-related stories outside the realm of mere reviews. Whether it’s about how surround sound is engineered into a vehicle, European cars that will land on our shores, or knowing when it’s time to throw in the towel on your old beater, Auto Know is the perfect tool to capture new readers. . . with solid, interesting stories.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 800-900 words; separate Word text included if you don’t want to use the supplied layout.
Artwork resolution (200-250 dpi) is high enough for print use.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main art.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Description

There’s a backlit icon of a simmering coffee cup on the SLK’s control panel.
Could it be this particular well-optioned roadster comes with its own coffee maker?

Please contact us to order this feature.

Lancia Stratos – FineLines Oct 21, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for their print products and/or Web sites. Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: Many of you asked if we could put our expertise to work to create a feature that covers not just classic cars, but those vehicles that have left an indelible mark on car culture. The Fine Lines series examines significant vehicle marques, their backgrounds and their contributions to the history of the automobile. All this, with real artwork.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and
art files for maximum work flexibility.
About 850 words: separate text file included.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), but can be
reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main art.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark
Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with
standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to
match your style.

Description

It’s not even that the Lancia Stratos cost a lot, which it did. It was because it was a racing car adapted for the street and not the other way around, which is normally the case. It would actually take years for Lancia dealers throughout Europe to liquidate their meager allotments of the Stratos.