shing911500e

@stout , this must be a good omen...
"Tracing the story of the Mercedes-Benz 500 E"
https://newsroom.porsche.com/en/2021...ary-24575.html

cscrogham

I remember being there in '93 to pick up a new 964 RSR, took a trip over to Stuttgart from Weissach and peered in the windows of the old brick building in the middle of the courtyard to see the 500E's being assembled. It was like they were afraid someone might see them and most ridiculous looking assembly "line" of all time, but turned out some really great cars that have stood the test of time!

Maxhouse97

Reviving and old thread … has anyone not received an issue in a while? I don’t think I’ve received one in 6 months. They keep saying they have printing problems and promise delivery but still no issue. They also tried to renew my subscription in the interim. What gives?

L39E

I received an email on June 28th titled “Get ready for P25… and P26” but I have not received those issues or further updates. In the body of the email it said:

Whether you’re facing a long, lazy summer without enough off-screen reading material or you just like to kick back on a Saturday with a proper magazine, we’ve got you covered—and in more ways than one. As you may know, we moved print production to the U.S. this year, a move that came with delays. So, to catch up, we’re shipping two issues at once.

They went on to say that they would be re-releasing the Prototyp issue as P25. So it looks like there will be only three “new content” issues this year. They said that most people were happy with that announcement, as many didn’t have the Prototyp issue and apparently resale copies are expensive. For me it is a bit disappointing as I was an original S subscriber and already have the Prototyp issue, so less new content this year.

frederik

I did get a tracking code from DHL (Europe) last week so it seems these issues are finally on their way. I didn’t have the Prototyp issue so it’s fine for me this way.

Last year there was also a significant delay for the Sprong issue, so much that since then each issue has arrived at the very end of the season. Hopefully all these problems have been resolved now!

DBH

I received the following email on 7/25/23 responding to my email for an update on issue #25:
"The issues are currently with fulfillment and are close to being packaged up and sent out, hopefully all out by the end of next week. Changing printers and fulfillment has taken much longer to set up than we anticipated but do see being on schedule for the rest of the year.
Best,
Rebekah Stout, CFO"
Nothing further since then. Great people and great magazine however I'm withholding renewing my subscription until I receive issues that I've already paid for.

stout

File this one under "no good deed goes unpunished."

Time from editorial signoff to mailable issues has long been a bugbear for 000. Most of that is due to the cover treatment, which looks simple but isn't. We've worked to address this several ways, with varying success, in the past—and part of the goal in moving production to the US was to shorten that timeframe, on the promise of a 50% reduction in production time. 000 proved more difficult for the new printer than anticipated. Part of the difficulty was our demand that US-made issues be identical to Canadian-made issues in terms of form factor and quality, as many of 000 customers save their issues and/or use slipcases—so the size is critical for both the softcover and hard-cover versions.

As a sign of the difficulty, our previous printer (which is still a partner to 000) was able to bid on, win, produce, and ship a reprint of Issues 001-004 within this same period. While many of those files were ready to go, a fair portion had to be rebuilt.

Now having seen the first copies of P25 and 026 as of last week, I am thankful to say the US printer has matched the form factor and quality. So there were definitely holdups, and for that we too are frustrated, but our team wasn't going to let issues out the door that weren't a match for previous quality. 000 is a periodical, but it has also proven to be more of a collectible than we imagined—and we take that seriously.

Very understandable, and we're told issues will start shipping on Monday. Thank you for your support, as always!

frederik

Good to hear that it’s not due to a lack of editorial content. I’m sure we’re all looking forward to the upcoming issues. And I applaud the reprint of issues 001-4.

Just curious: are the EU copies also printed in the US now?

stout

Indeed, we had very few complaints—as a number of 000 S subscribers have been asking for a hardcover version of Issue 000 or a metal slipcase so it could be safely stored with their S sets. With that said, we took each of those complaints to heart and endeavored to address them personally. On the other hand, a much larger number of 000 readers have been requesting a way to access the content of the Prototyp issue, which has sold for four figures in the secondary market—no small irony as it was a bonus fifth issue for first-year subscribers.

We said early on that we would not do an exact reprint of Issue 000, so P25 felt like a good way to address both requests—while celebrating the 25th issue with a nod to the first issue of what can only be termed a wild project. There is no way anyone will confuse one for the other due to their cover markings, and those sitting on an original Prototyp issue have a chance to either hold onto it as a collector or move it on to a collector if it's the issue's content they value.

Glad you are on board there, and that's been met well by completists. To my shock, one let me know he keeps a spread sheet for sold-out back issues of 000 selling on the secondary market. I can't decide what surprised me more…the price paid for a copy of Issue 003 or that he keeps such a spread sheet. We'll also be looking to make some of the other sold-out issues available in time, as our goal never was to make 000's content unobtanium. We'd hoped they wouldn't be throwaways, or something that people couldn't rid themselves of, but we may have overshot that just a bit.

No, for now these are printed in the US. So far, the math hasn't made sense—but perhaps there will come a point where a parallel run will be more appealing than shipping.

timothymoffat

Very much looking forward to finding these in the mailbox soon. Appreciate the effort that’s gone into keeping the high production standards as that is a very important factor in what makes 000 special.

spyderbret

Issue #4 was my unicorn. Thanks for re-releasing it! Now I have every issue!

Really looking forward to the two that are on the way!

George from MD

IBID to Timothy above.

DBH

Your next mission Pete, should you wish to accept it, would be creating an index supplement (online would be ok too). It's a bit of a pain in the a** going through volume after volume trying to locate some juicy tidbit you just know is in there somewhere. In the meantime, anxiously awaiting #25!!

timothymoffat

I have one talent that I keep to myself: Give me a cool Porsche, and I'll list articles and where to find them going back to the 80's. And I likely have them in my library/hoarding room.

DBH

Some people have too much time on their hands.

My "hoarding room" is the closet in my home office. The wife keeps nagging me to "cull the herd" somewhat. (Yes dear)