Source Interlink, the parent company of Motor Trendmagazine, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company acquired a group of magazines for $1.2 billion in August 2007 from Primedia, including Motor Trend, Automobile and Hot Rod.
The firm holds 75 magazines and 90 websites, most of them aimed at car enthusiasts. They include Car Craft, Popular Hot Rodding and Super Chevy.
At one time, Motor Trend's Car of the Year award was a coveted prize. The winning marque would feature the award as the center of their ad campaign for the rest of the year. In recent years, the award has lost much of is luster, and is now mainly a measure of which marque bought the most ad space in the mag during the previous year. The Motor Trend TV program went off the air a few years ago.
Hot Rod and Car Craft were staples for young car nuts during the 50's and 60's.