Author Archives: jeff

“Eco” badges mean a different kind of green – Aug. 5, 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.

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

OK, when you look at a box of munchies on the shelf at the corner store that reads “low fat,” you have to be a special kind of gullible to twist the meaning into “this is healthy for me.”

Low fat – whatever that means – or otherwise, it’s still a box of processed-food munchies with zero food value. “Low fat” is really a label to make you feel less guilty about buying munchies in the first place, which keeps you coming back for more munchies. That’s how marketing works.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Top Gear – August 5, 2013

Overview

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

What it is: What’s new, what’s hot! Wheelbase Communications is committed to broadening readership (getting non-traditional auto-section readers into your publication/Web pages) and creating as much revenue potential as possible. Top Gear focuses on the aftermarket by telling your readers what’s new and what’s cool. This column includes four items per week as well as prices (where possible) and Web site addresses.

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.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), 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.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Porsche Boxster: 2005-’12 – Aug 5, 2013

Overview

Description

To attract more buyers, Porsche launched the more affordable Boxster (the name came from blending the words “boxer” (the term used to describe its horizontally opposed engine layout) and “roadster.” The car’s six-cylinder powerplant was positioned directly behind the passenger compartment but ahead of the rear wheels (a mid-engine layout). For the 2000 model year, the more powerful Boxster S was added. Significantly refreshed models arrived for the 2005 model year with 236 and 276 horsepower, with the bigger number for the Boxster S. Engine output and displacement was increased for 2007 and again for 2010, culminating in 255 horsepower for the Boxster and up to 320 horses for the S. The third-generation Boxster was introduced for 2013.

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Just “print out” your new car at home? – Aug. 5, 2013

Overview

What is Auto Edit?

Story Intro

Ivan Sentch is turning the stuff of automotive dreams into reality using newly available technology that creates parts and pieces out of thin air.
I feel as though I’ve just crossed into the Twilight Zone, or whatever zone you arrive in when confounded by something that stretches credulity beyond the unfathomable. Assuming this isn’t some early (or late) April Fools prank or Internet scam, I’ve just read in Autoweek Magazine where a New Zealander named Ivan Sentch is printing his own 1958 Aston Martin DB4. Notice that I wrote “printing” and not “building” or “restoring”. On the surface, printing sounds ridiculous, but Mr. Sentch is being assisted in his project by a Solidoddle 3D printer.

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2014 Nissan Versa Note – Aug. 5, 2013

Overview

Description

It just seems right that a test drive of the Nissan Versa Note takes place in the city of Montreal.
In a region where fuel costs are among the highest in North America – somewhere around $5.50 a gallon – small cars abound, especially those that are specifically shaped to maximize passenger and cargo space.
The original Versa wagon – a 2007-model-year arrival – excelled on both counts. Paradoxically, its replacement, called the Versa Note, expands on that theme by actually shrinking in size, although not where it really counts.

Please contact us to order this feature.

AutoCross Aug. 5, 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.

Infiniti Q50 – AutoGraph July 29, 2013

AutoGraph

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

What it is: Weekly automotive infographics that inform, enlighten and delight readers. Our high-impact infographics add visual appeal and variety to your auto-section pages. Wheelbase’s designers are some of the best in the business with numerous awards for dynamic newsgraphics and page design. AutoGraph will show your readers, with engaging visual style, what they want and need to know about their automobiles as well as today’s trends. These professional, useful and intelligent graphics will help raise the profile of your auto section.

Product specifications

Designed by Wheelbase Media’s editorial staff using Macromedia Freehand (for backward compatibility for most systems) as well as Adobe Photoshop.
Mac or PC use.
Files included in your download: native Freehand file; Freehand EPS file (which is how to edit the AutoGraph with Adobe Illustrator) and a 300 dpi CMYK low-compression jpg file.
Print size: 8 inches wide, 6 inches tall, scalable about 10 percent up or down.
AutoGraph uses typical system fonts for compatibility.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Silverado or Sierra – AutoKnow, July 29, 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

From pretty much any angle, they look the same. They’re virtually twins, after all.
And in an age where “badge engineering” is a dinosaur marketing principle that has even killed a few vehicle lines, you have to ask the obvious question: why bother with a Chevrolet Silverado as well as GMC Sierra when they’re so similar.
After all, Ram has just one truck (there’s no Chrysler pickup) and Ford’s F-series – the reigning sales champ – is also all by itself, despite a little dabbling by Lincoln over the years.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Gullwing 300SL – Legends, July 29, 2013

Overview

Description

One of the most reveredclassic cars in history, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL production car owes its existence in part to an avid admirer named Max Hoffman (below). An Influential American importer of European cars, Hoffman was smitten with the 300 SL and urged the Stuttgart, Germany-based manufacturer to build a production road car that was based on the highly successful purpose-built racing version that won many events in Europe.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Smokey Yunick – July. 29, 2013

Overview

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

Rules are meant to be broken, or so the saying goes. But ‘ol Smokey was smarter than that. The way he saw it, rules were meant to be interpreted.
And depending on what side of the racing world you were on, you either loved him or hated him for it.
From one end of pit road to the other, drivers, mechanics, tire changers and owners will talk about the engineering genius. Or they’ll talk about how ol’ Smokey was a pioneer in the auto industry, whether it was challenging conventional thinking or spinning out another invention.