The following is a correspondence with the Editor of WorldCarFans.com.
The editor has been trash talking certain cars while demonstrating no technical knowledge of them. Meanwhile, his staff makes horrible errors which he doesn’t catch because of his lack of technical knowledge of the subject matter . . .
Particularlly funny is the Camaro article, where the writer states that the new model will have a “hemi”.
Here are links to the referenced articles.
Here are the Letters -
To Whom it may Concern,
Late last year you had put out an advert on your site to attract bloggers. The requirements were that the applicants have some idea of how to write a journalist article and knowledge of cars – in particular, the North American market.
In recent months the anti-American (car) slant in WCF’s articles has become pronounced. While some of the comments seem to be under the auspices of “color commentary”, it does not seem to be accompanied by a subsequent knowledge of the subject material. Insulting the American portion of your readership by demonstrating little knowledge of the subject and then ridiculing popular automobiles (as well as a popular, knowledgeable publication) is not color commentary. Your bloggers are making slanderous and unsubstantiated statements. I’m sure my journalism professors would fail to see, as I fail to see, the value in that.
Masemola’s article on April 3rd illustrates my point well; he described the as-yet unreleased Camaro as having a “HEMI”. Seeing HEMI in an article about a GM product is an instant error to any fan of American automobiles. A tech-savvy reader knows that HEMI is a registered trademark of Chrysler LLC., and also that modern “Hemi” heads are cast polyspherical (they are HEMI in name only). I have yet to see someone mistakenly attribute the M3’s performance to AMG, yet Masemola knew neither the corporation which produced the product he was describing nor enough about the information he had received/written to know that he was making an obvious error.
Brian Potter’s article today on the new AMG Black Series takes this one step farther. He slanders a MotorTrend article, an American street car AND a race car in a single sentence. He does realize, first of all, that American car fans read this site, correct? Describing a Nextel Cup car as a “professional race car that can barely get out of it’s own way” seems to hardly demonstrate a knowledge of his subject. Consider that on unrestricted tracks these cars make in excess of 750 horsepower, rev to 9000 RPMs and manage to maintain speeds of 150+ MPH for hours on end, despite a minimum weight of 3500 lbs (roughly that of a street car). Also, the Nextel series competes on several road courses with both Left AND Right turns, to prove that they are stable in more than just straight lines.
While I understand that WCF is a blog, and intended to have a bit of humor as well as factual information, it is sorely lacking in both. I had greatly enjoyed the site until the recent downturn in the quality of your articles, emphasized by the above examples. I really hope that your bloggers will make a sincere effort to fact-check their articles.
Thanks,
Jared
Hi Jared,
I don’t like NASCAR and I am not afraid to voice my opinion. I don’t write articles to appease Americans or any nationality. I call it like I see it. Perhaps not the most politically correct stance, but that’s my approach.
Thami’s mistake was no more than a typo by accidentally capitalizing HEMI instead of hemi.
Nonetheless, I appreciate you taking the time to send us your thoughts and comments.
Cheers,
Brian Potter
Managing Director, Editor in Chief
BLACK FALCON MEDIA GROUP OY
Sörnäisten rantatie 27 A
00500 Helsinki
Finland
Tel +358 (0)9 6896 7450
Fax +358 (0)9 6896 7451
Typo? GM does not make hemispherical heads! Aside from a few odd instances, in particular a 303 Pontiac built for Trans Am racing almost 40 years ago, which never saw actual production, GM does not make hemispherical heads.
It’s a technical error. A writer’s technical error. He put information in an article that was not factual. It wasn’t even industry speculation. A keener knowledge of GM’s technical aspects and he would know that, if anything, GM would be more inclined to move in the direction of overhead cams than hand machined hemispherical (or even cast polyspherical) heads. Especially considering that GM’s siamesed chambers flow more cubic feet of air per minute than a hemi design, and a stock set of LS3 heads is capable of naturally aspirated airflow up to 600 horsepower on a stock bottom end. This is the base Corvette engine which, by the way, stands a solid chance of being an option on the Camaro. The LS2 is out of production and GM doesn’t use hemi or HEMI engines.
I wasn’t asking for appeasement, either. I don’t like NASCAR - I find it to be generally tedious and ruined by the kind of overregulation of its technical aspects which Ecclestone is steadily doing to F1’s engine development. If you don’t know the difference between funny comments and unsubstantiated statements, you’re a lousy editor.
Jared
spam? :confused
I think so.
Not spam. I told Vlad about this whole thing this morning and he told me to post it up.
No spam. I know some of you are not used to seeing informative content here but this is good stuff :thumb
Good stuff. Keep us posted, I’d like to see how that editor responds to being called a moron.
Will do.
I highly doubt he will, journalists hate to be called names and think its below them to respond to anybody who attacks them, especially if the third party points out how wrong they are :ponder
I’m planing on emailing him myself see how he responds to me.