Over the last few months, you’ve probably noticed some changes when you visit our website and social media pages. That’s because we’ve been quietly making a transition to a more specific kind of content. And while this actually hasn’t changed the general idea about the site, we are going to focus in on a specific niche now, so some of the older topics, and builds we used to cover are going away. In addition, major logistic changes are already underway for 2018. We wanted to welcome you to the new site, and explain our new direction.

New Ownership and New Name

To start, Power and Performance News technically doesn’t exist anymore. The new title is simply Power and Performance. The site has never been an exclusive news site, with the majority of our content focusing on tech, builds, features, etc., with little news to really speak of, so this was a logical change, and a small one considering everything else.

With its new name, Power and Performance has joined the Power Automedia network, and will no longer exist under the old Xceleration Media platform. The entire Power Automedia family has welcomed us as one of their own, and we have a whole new structure that will allow us to really elevate the title, starting right now. This is a part of an acquisition of Xceleration Media by Power Automedia that was announced back in October. Since the announcement was made, employees from both companies have been working tirelessly to figure out what makes sense for the magazine. This has been based largely on what our readers have asked for, and what we have learned from reading the numbers and reports from the last few months, and last couple of years as well.

The decision to change the title was an easy one, but harder ones were made to better reach our readers, and provide a new type of content in a market that we don’t think is being properly covered. Before we get to what type of content you’re going to see coming from Power and Performance starting in 2018, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, Power and Performance is no longer going to be a printed magazine.

At the end of the day, it just made sense to move Power and Performance into the digital only, online magazine sector. We can reach you in your garage with daily news stories, tech features, streetcar features, and high-performance event coverage.

Same Focus, New Niche

Okay, so I keep referencing this ‘new direction’ and citing it as a reason we’re not heading to the printing press, but what is this new direction that’s changing the niche, but not so much the content basics?

For starters, we’re still going to be doing a lot of the same kind of tech stories from our resident experts, features on crazy builds, and coverage of our site sponsors. The big change is that we’re going to focus exclusively on late-model musclecars.

Before you jump out of your seat and shake your fist over the idea that there is no such thing as a late-model musclecar, we think there is. Actually, as far as the staff at Power and Performance is concerned, we live in the golden era of musclecars. Yes, the 1970s was a great time for the Chevelle, GTO, Charger, and so on, but we are seeing some of the greatest innovations in automobiles, and most powerful cars right now.

That’s not to say that the niche we are aimed at is simply limited to musclecars, we’re not going to constrain ourselves to just a Ford Mustang, Chevy Camaro, or Dodge Challenger. We’re going to focus on modern cars that align with our title, cars that represent the best of power and performance.

We’re not overly concerned with defining exactly what can and can’t go on our site, it’s more of a ‘you know it when you see it’ when it comes to late-model performance. We will start with vehicles made from 1995 and up, and cover all the tech, builds, events, and feature cars that fall under what would be a great late-model performance story from there.

Another thing you’re going to see is coverage of powerful street cars that might not necessarily come even close to qualifying as musclecars. This will range from sport compacts to supercars, but this doesn’t mean that we’re going to give a Lamborghini the kind of coverage we’ll give the Demon. When you see something different on the site, it means that it seriously impressed us. So going back to the Lamborghini statement, we’re not going to be hanging on every little bit of information we find out about the development of a new Lambo, or technology they’re working on in-house, not unless they do something totally game-changing. We’re talking more so about built out exotics, the kind you’d see at TX2K and similar events.

Event Coverage Gets More Powerful

That brings us to the next change, the kind of events we will be covering. We are going to seek out the most important events to late-model street car owners, and where the high-horsepower builds are racing. While in the past, you’d see Power and Performance News covering a wide variety of events, from car shows to cruise-ins, that’s going to be a big change for 2018.

Starting this year, expect to see our crew covering events that draw out quadruple-digit horsepower cars, and extreme builds. We aren’t talking about drag events here (not professionally), there are other titles in the Power Automedia world that have that well covered, and to be frank, their Editors scare us. We kid, but in all honesty, if you want to see bracket racing, or events catering to 275 radial tired cars, our sister titles are pumping out content non-stop to cover all aspects of drag racing.

What we’re going out to will be more in the half-mile racing, roll racing, and road racing categories. We want to see cars with every corner modified, put to the test and taken to the very edge. This, again, is very much a ‘you’ll know it when you see it’ kind of situation.

Another big change that we believe is going to set Power and Performance apart is that we’re going to be including late-model Mopar coverage, where many titles have either excluded Mopar coverage completely, or they stay far away from late-model builds. Mopar has been a pivotal part of the horsepower race to the top, and we’re going to show them the respect they deserve.

We believe that the media industry has totally dropped the ball when it comes to covering one of the most important auto manufacturers to the sport. The Mopar brands are making some of the baddest cars around, and it’s putting GM and Ford on high-alert. Besides the coverage of new models, especially the Dodge Demon, how much does the average enthusiast even know about what’s going on with Mopar builds?

For instance, did you know that there are Hellcats out there in a heated race to constantly raise the bar for quarter-mile records? A small group of Hellcats are already running in the 8s, and they are kicking each others’ records out the door every few weeks. When tracks open back up this year, it’s going to get even more heated, and we’re going to be the site you can rely on to follow this race to the lowest number.

This is just an example, of course. What we are really going to get to the bottom of is, how are these teams building these cars out to be so fast? How are they overcoming common issues that most Hellcat owners are already aware of, and some are fuming about, i.e. impossible traction issues and hard-to-tune computers? We expect to see similar situations coming from the Jeep Trackhawk, and we are pretty certain that it’s going to be one of the most impressive vehicles to emerge when tracks start opening back up. Then there’s the king of the track itself, the Dodge Demon. We can’t even begin to predict what owners of these monsters will be doing once they crack into them.

That’s not to say we’re going to keep full focus on Mopar, but they will be just as important as anything going on in the GM and Ford Performance worlds. The emphasis on Mopar is just part of an effort to make the site a better rounded magazine than similar titles out there.

If You Liked the ‘Old Way’, We Haven’t Left You Behind

Many of the same editorial staff and freelance writers from Xceleration Media are continuing on with Power Automedia, so you’ll even notice a familiar tone across the board. In addition, we’re going to have the privilege of featuring content from the exceptional writers and editors who have been with Power Automedia before the merger, so you’ll get even more variety, and several new perspectives.

Throughout the year of 2018, you’re going to be following along as we experiment and grow. As you, the reader, respond to articles and coverage we’re posting, we’ll continue to develop our short term and long term goals for the site.