What cool and interesting automotive catalog vendors and magazine advertisers do you remember from your childhood and teenage years?

Posted by OldCarWorshipper@reddit | cars | View on Reddit | 34 comments

For context- I'm 55 years old. I used to read and receive catalogs for almost EVERYTHING automotive as a kid, even though I couldn't afford anything beyond a t-shirt or calendar. I would bounce between drooling over Pro Street Camaros and Cudas in Hot Rod and Car Craft, to dreaming about ridiculously rare and expensive grey market tuner BMWs and Porsches in Road & Track and Car & Driver.

Some of these companies are still going strong, others folded or faded into obscurity eons ago. How many of these do you remember or have heard of? What ones not on this list do YOU remember?

Speedway Motors

Moon AKA Mooneyes

PAW ( Performance Automotive Wholesale )

Beverly Hills Motoring Accessories

Bavarian Autosport

BMP Design

Appliance / Keystone wheels

BAP / GEON auto parts

Chastain louvers

Style Auto ( automotive accessories and apparel )

MG Mitten

RHS ( Racing Head Service ). Best known for their "magnum" engine packages

The legendary J.C. Whitney catalog

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EmergencyRace7158@reddit

The old school audio system ads in the UK magazines were so cool. Blaupunkt and Alpine stand out in particular.

GodLovesUglySong@reddit

Sport Compact Car

BRICH999@reddit

Came here to say Bavarian autosport. Grew up right around the corner from them. Their show n shine shows were fantastic.

OldCarWorshipper@reddit (OP)

Back when I was an impressionable twenty something, I wanted a tricked out E30 325is SOOOO bad. Unfortunately, or perhaps even fortunately, I guess that God had other plans.

kilroy-was-here-2543@reddit

My dad was a big jeep guy (hence why I drive a jeep) and so it’d always be whatever the newest quadratec catalog was. I loved to go through that thing and build out the most wild thing I could put together

BigEdPVDFLA@reddit

JC Whitney….they used to have a motorcycle and Gold Wing catalog…I can remember cracking a friend up seeing a very much overly accessorized GW one time and saying “That thing looks like he threw the entire JC Whitney catalog at it!”

Drone30389@reddit

JC Whitney was like the Amazon of car parts before the internet.

And Digikey for electronic components.

buickgnx88@reddit

The Jc Whitney catalog was like a flea market of car parts! You could find literally anything in that book!

Yep, including more than a few scammy "boost your gas mileage by 40%!" doodads. But mostly legitimate stuff.

I remember that tornado insert!

CardMechanic@reddit

Of you were an Audio fan, you definitely got Crutchfield. Need to know what Pioneer or Blaupunkt to get? Crutchfield had the answers.

I loved looking through the Crutchfield catalog as a teen, envisioning the system I couldn’t afford!

TheDirtDude117@reddit

I had completely forgotten about Mooneye until their Seiko colab a month or so ago Snagged one and I deeply want a Yellow Mooneye wrap on my C5 now

masahirob@reddit

I forget what magazine it was (probably Sport Compact Car or something similar), but I remember ads body kits from a company called Erebuni (I think that was how it was spelt). Anyway, they were very reminiscent of mid to late 90s tuner culture.

65_289@reddit

Jegs and Summit Racing for go-fast, Crutchfield as already mentioned for bumps.

MardawgNC@reddit

JC Whitney for the win.

avatar_94@reddit

Rieger Katalog, Sport Auto, Sports Cars, Auto Motor Sport

Auto Revue ohne E Autos und noch richtigen Bangern

Energy4Days@reddit

Sport Compact Car and Super Street magazines for inspiration on how to rice out a car 😂

fsu_ppg@reddit

I used to register/request for different brochures on manufacturer websites. Some of them would be pretty elaborate or give cool things (eg. hummer sent a poster)

utechap@reddit

The dealer “Newport Autosport” located in Newport Beach had an ad in every DuPont Registry and I was obsessed with it. They had the coolest pictures of their inventory and dealership. For a good while they had a 1997 classic silver McLaren F1 and it was the centerpiece of their pictures. Listed for $1M at the time and it was 1999. I flew down with my mom for a getaway and went to visit it. Amazing experience.

josephwales@reddit

DuPont Registry as a kid, to see all the shit I could never afford.

Spicywolff@reddit

Bavarian Motorsport. I remember getting their magazine once a month and seeing all the cool parts that our BMW could have. As I got through high school I learned that the true gold mine was the part of the catalog that had all the rebuild parts we needed.

They sell some really cool stuff and the customer service was good. But unfortunately, they have died off. There’s some beautiful BMWs in that.

gosluggogo@reddit

Warshawsky & Co. Auto Parts in Chicago. Catalog was epic!

Inevitable-Shock-605@reddit

Speedway Motors is very much alive and well in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Yep :) .

rudbri93@reddit

When I was 14 I called OPGI and asked for their free catalog to start looking for parts for my first car. my magazine days are behind me but i do have quite a few of my old man's old hot rods and car and drivers, and even a few CARtoons.

deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

no way!

welp, there goes my next paycheck lol

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justcuckmyshitupfam2@reddit

Parts Express for my car audio needs.

MTINC@reddit

When I was a kid I collected the weekly edition of "Auto Mart," an auto sales catalog available all across Ontario with different editions for each part of the province. I must have done this for a few years, and eventually the print catalog ended and it switched to online-only. You could tell the print catalog was dying as the thickness of each copy shrank towards the end of the collection I had.