Author Archives: Tabitha

Top Gear
September 23, 2019

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.

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

Please contact us to order this feature.

2020 Hyundai Santa Fe
September 16, 2019

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.

2019 Mazda CX-5 Skyactiv-D
September 16, 2019

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

 

Story Intro

Over the past decade, Mazda has touted that a turbo-diesel would arrive, but the timeline kept buyers wondering if that would actually happen. Wonder now more. Called Skyactiv-D, the engine is the result of some serious development work by Mazda’s engineers, who appear to have broken many rules in the diesel playbook. The typical diesel uses a cast-iron engine block and a high compression ratio to create combustion (diesels don’t use spark plugs). The Skyactiv-D significantly lowers the compression within a lighter aluminum block.

Please contact us to order this feature.

The Auto Sleuth
September 16, 2019

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.
Use: Voted the best automotive news column available: you need it.

What it is: If you could have only one automotive feature, this should be it. At Wheelbase Communications, we’ve chosen to stay away from providing an automotive-news column until we could do it in a non-traditional way. And here it is: the Auto Sleuth. Our worldly gumshoe has his ear to the ground, digging up the latest news on everything from product launches and updates to names in the news. The column is solely driven by reader interest. No boring statistics or auto-company pap here, just the straight goods peppered with the Auto Sleuth’s commentary and speculative, gossipy-style.

Product specifications

  • Mac and PC print layout with separate text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
  • High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
  • Multi-platform layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
  • Layout is 8×16 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.

Scion tC: 2005-’16
September 2, 2019

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

Description

Toyota’s youth-market division was launched in 2003 specifically for the North American market. The well-equipped xA hatch and xB wagon were joined for the 2005 model year by the sporty tC hatchback coupe. Initially, the car came with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine that made 161 horsepower and 162 pound-feet of torque. For 2011, those numbers jumped to 180/173 with the new 2.5-liter four-cylinder.

 Please contact us to order this feature.

WordSearch
September 2, 2019

PuzzleOverview

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

Description

Use: Interactive content for media professionals looking to bolster recurring readership and increase the amount of exposure time for their products, whether print or Web.

What it is: Why are auto publications so dry and so serious? We’re living proof that car nuts have a sense of humor and want to have a little sugar on their Corn Flakes. Your readers will have fun with the “Driver ’s Seat” Word Search as they unearth people, places and events. Driver ’s Seat is just one step in making your auto product more interactive, which provides more exposure for advertisers and more revenue for all.

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 verion by clicking here.
  • High-resolution 300 dpi jpg CMYK file suitable for print and Web.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Top Gear
August 26, 2019

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.

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Six from Frankfurt
The Octane Lounge August 26, 2019

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.theoctanelounge.com to subscribe to Auto Shift Weekly newsmag, available for your Apple iPad or for your home PC or laptop in pdf format.

Description

The Frankfurt Motor Show in September is an every-other-year affair in Germany, alternating with Paris event as one of Europe’s premier automotive events. This year, electric and hybrid vehicles played a prominent role in the show, no surprise given the heavy investment by manufacturers into the electric market.
That said, there were still some eye-catching debuts of cars and light trucks powered by the traditional internal-combustion engines. Here are six Frankfurt debuts that caught our attention.

Please contact us to order this feature.

The Auto Sleuth
August 26, 2019

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.
Use: Voted the best automotive news column available: you need it.

What it is: If you could have only one automotive feature, this should be it. At Wheelbase Communications, we’ve chosen to stay away from providing an automotive-news column until we could do it in a non-traditional way. And here it is: the Auto Sleuth. Our worldly gumshoe has his ear to the ground, digging up the latest news on everything from product launches and updates to names in the news. The column is solely driven by reader interest. No boring statistics or auto-company pap here, just the straight goods peppered with the Auto Sleuth’s commentary and speculative, gossipy-style.

Product specifications

  • Mac and PC print layout with separate text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
  • High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
  • Multi-platform layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
  • Layout is 8×16 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.

2020 Nissan Versa
August 26, 2019

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

 

Story Intro

The Eclipse Cross’ turbocharged 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine puts out 152 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque. That’s plenty to move the Mitsu smartly along, but it’s modest when compared to the available output generated by some competitors.  The engine is backed by a continuously variable transmission with eight built-in ratios to simulate a traditional geared automatic. Fuel economy for the front-wheel-drive model is rated at 25 mpg in the city and 28 on the highway.

Please contact us to order this feature.