Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[OliverT]

Gentlemen and Ladies, Start Your Engines!
Greetings.
 
I am developing an app for the iPad and other tablet devices celebrating the automobiles and automobile culture of the 1950s.
 
The app will include brief but informative entries describing the world’s most revered automobile models, era-specific photographs and moving images.
 
Here is a link to a rough web prototype of how we envision the app to look and behave: http://carsofthe50s.com
 
We’d sincerely appreciate reviews and thoughts from members of this dedicated and knowledgeable community.
 
We are primarily interested in the following:
What do you like or dislike about the content?
What could it use more or less of?
Would you buy such an app for your tablet device?
If so, how much would you be willing to spend?
 
The more feedback we receive, the better app we can make!
 
Many thanks in advance for lending your expertise!
 
Best Regards,
Oliver Trager

[BigJohn]

The pictures do not bear any relevance to the script, The picture models are not captioned, the written information is very basic and a bit random. The content could be broken up into USA, Europe, Asia. Would I pay for/down load this?
No,
It doesn't have any value to a petrol head as it is info light. It isn't telling me anything quirky or funny either, (but I did have to check a 1960 Plymouth Valiant picture was relevant to 1959, and it was unveiled in Oct 59)

What market are you aiming for? Age demographics? Even as a car crazy ten year old (many years ago), I would want more technical detail, as an old fart now it serves no purpose as it stands.

[OliverT]

Hey Big John,
Thanks for the feedback.

I was a bit confused, however, as to how deeply you looked at this. There are, for instance, categories representing global regions and much technical info can be gleaned by clicking the blue/wiki links, etc. And, where possible, specific automobiles etc. are pictured alongside the accompanying entry.

Demographics? Probably old farts like us.

I was inspired to put this together based on the success of this "History of Jazz" released a couple of years back which contains no original content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKphAh701Js

Please feel free to keep the conversation going and I truly appreciate your candor.

Best,
Oliver

[Riley Blue]

To be honest, it's appalling. The layout is decades out of date and what little actual content exists is superficial and largely irrelevant to cars of the 50s. It's nothing more than a list of links to Wikipedia.

Would I pay for it? No.

[peter scott]

Hi Oliver,

I didn't get very far before I killed it. It just took far to long being unresponsive.

As already stated, you would need to divide the content by country.

As for paying for content you have to remember that there are a lot of enthusiasts out there who are happy to spend years researching a particular aspect of motoring and to make it freely available to like minded souls on the web.

The only content that you have any chance of charging money for is documents that are unavailable because they are locked in company archives. For example, design drawings and internal correspondence that contributes to an understanding of history.

HTH

Peter
_________________
https://www.nostalgiatech.co.uk
1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[Peter_L]

I had a look and you asked for feedback.

I can't see any purpose for this "app"

First, trying to tie vehicles to a decade doesn't work because some models spanned the start and finish.

Then there are hundreds of manufacturers, thousands of models and 10's of thousand of variations of those models.

Selecting vehicles of significance is subjective, one only has to spend time on this forum/site, to know that there are as many opinions as to what is a "nice" car as there are cars.

Then there is the £ / $. Why would anyone pay to not see what they want.

May I suggest you spend a little time going through the various threads on this forum, especially the "Mystery Cars", you will see from that how difficult it can be to identify some models, even with a lot of collective searching of images on the "free web" it is often not possible to find an image that matches a particular photo taken way back when, so anyone wanting to know about a particular 1950 model is unlikely to spend money to not find something.

You are certainly wise in asking for opinion before going too far along and this forum is never short of opinion, advice and knowledge and all at the bargain price of 0$'s per yard.

Regards

[BigJohn]

Oliver, I was a bit short on my first post because all I could get was the front page link, which made it look like a poor effort, now I can click on the years and get more information, no wonder you were confused by my post. I think you're trying to condense a huge amount of information into small bites. It is a bit like asking someone what attracted him /her to their partner. Some like sports, some small, some huge, some plain, some brash. I could go on ad infinitum, you appear to be developing the equivalent to what I call a "coffee table book". This is OK on a superficial level to generate interest in motoring, or as a present for a motor enthusiast that needs no thought. (or a reading in the Kharzi book) As has been said, the internet has a wealth of information in each particular field including rare and esoteric developments only a few anoraks will find interesting, your app is a more shiny random pick and mix of the usual topics.
I suspect a lot of the contributors to this site would find the developments of such oddities as the Smiths Easidrive transmission, Aspin valves or external contracting brake systems more interesting.


John