2017 Hyundai Ioniq
April 24, 2017

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.

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 has taken the auto industry some time to get serious about gasoline-electric propulsion and challenge Toyota’s supremacy. But in one fell swoop, Hyundai/Kia have literally doubled down on dedicated-hybrid platforms with the all-new Kia Niro wagon and Hyundai Ioniq hatchback. Both shared-platform vehicles are now available in basic hybrid formats, but will eventually be offered as plug-in hybrids or 100-percent-electrified versions, with the latter intended mainly for California buyers.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Audi Q8 Concept
AutoGraph April 24, 2017

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.

AutoCross
April 17, 2017

Overview

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: 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.

Staying out of hot water in the summer
April 17, 2017

Overview

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.

What is Auto Edit?

Story Intro

How much car control would you have while driving on ice? Almost none, right?
Well how much control would you have skimming over unfrozen ice? (Yes, that’s water.) Almost none, too, but we’re generally much more cautious on ice. We slow down, try not to make any sudden moves and we even put special tires on the car for it.
But don’t kid yourself, the unfrozen kind of ice is also dangerous.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Auto Almanac
April 10, 2017

Overview

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: 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.

Fine Lines: Dodge Challenger
Fine Lines April 10, 2017

Overview

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: 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

The Dodge Challenger’s arrival in the fall of 1969 meant that Chrysler had finally leveled the playing field with its General Motors and Ford rivals, in the showroom, on the street and on the track. The Challenger was a bright light that burned out quickly, mostly because, aside from being late to the party, it was out of a step with the market changes that were coming.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Top Gear
April 3, 2017

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.

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.

Range Rover Sport: 2006-’13
April 3, 2017

Overview

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

The Range Rover Sport filled a hole in the Land Rover lineup between the LR3/LR4 and the top-end Range Rover, even though the Sport was smaller than both. To make up for the size deficiency, the Sport could be had with a 305-horsepower V-8 or a supercharged 390-horsepower V-8. Both came with six-speed automatic transmissions with a rev-matching feature for smoother upshifts and downshifts.

Please contact us to order this feature.

The Auto Sleuth
April 3, 2017

Overview

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.

Don’t put your life on parts backorder
April 3, 2017

Overview

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.

What is Auto Edit?

Story Intro

I swore I would never go through it again, but it appears that ‘never’ came a little sooner than expected.
Yes, another car project, in particular an engine project, spiraled out of control and took months (about 15 of them) instead of weeks to complete. And since the engine for my 1991 Acura NSX took that long, it also held up other modifications to the car that added even more months.