About Tuning

Tuning

Tuning is the German car-tuning magazine published by the Delius Klasing Verlag in Bielefeld, Europe's first tuning magazine and the mother of all tuning magazines in the German-language market, the Mutter aller Tuning-Magazine the anniversary report named it. Founded in 1986 in Laxenburg, Austria by Gerhard Trost under the subtitle Autos schöner machen, the Unabhängiges Motormagazin für individuell gestaltete Fahrzeuge the anniversary described, the magazine gave the car-tuning scene its first independent motor magazine for individually designed vehicles. Since 2002 it has complemented the automobile magazine portfolio at Delius Klasing, appearing bimonthly as the market leader in the German-speaking tuning segment.

Overview

The bimonthly rhythm gives the tuning scene its regular specialist pulse: six issues a year, each presenting the tuned vehicles, the service guidance, and the scene reports. The 45,000-copy circulation and the 3.50 euro cover price position Tuning as the accessible specialist magazine for the tuning community, while the 2011 publisher claim of 55,000 sold copies documented the market leadership.

The very special interest positioning defines the editorial program: Tuning is not the general car magazine but the tuning magazine, with the vehicle features and the service pages clearly separated by the two typefaces. The freelancers' text-and-photo packages give the magazine its scene-authentic voice, with the interested authors sending work samples and explaining why they have left or want to leave the path of automotive virtue.

The jubilee issue's 220 silver pages show the magazine's documentary ambition: the big scene retrospective plus the complete 1986 first issue gave the readers the quarter century of tuning history in one volume. The tuning stories that breathe the fascination of the vehicle and the drivers' self-developed ideas are the magazine's editorial signature.

Tuning covers the world of car tuning in all its facets: the vehicle features that present the individually designed cars, the service pages that explain the modifications, the tuning reports, and the club portraits. The medium magazin marketplace profile described the concept as a very special interest title: cars as the transport medium of joie de vivre and the driver's personality, with the tuning stories breathing the fascination that emanates from the vehicle and the self-developed ideas of its drivers.

The magazine appears bimonthly with a circulation of around 45,000 copies at a cover price of 3.50 euros, per the medium magazin profile. The 2011 jubilee report put the sold circulation at 55,000 copies and described Tuning as the market leader in the German-speaking tuning segment. The 220-page silver jubilee issue of 2011 included the complete first issue of 1986 as a fixed component, documenting the quarter century of the tuning scene.

History

Tuning premiered in 1986 as an exotic on the magazine firmament: surrounded by renowned automobile magazines whose covers featured the current new car models, the magazine for individually designed vehicles looked like an exotic. The founder and first editor-in-chief Gerhard Trost could not yet foresee that his magazine would develop into the mother of all tuning magazines. Initially still based in the Austrian Laxenburg, Tuning quickly became a fixture among the automobile publications in the German-language market.

Since 2002 Tuning has complemented the automobile magazine portfolio at the Delius Klasing Verlag, which includes the magazines Gute Fahrt, VW Speed and VW Classic as well as Modell Fahrzeug. Under the direction of editor-in-chief Andreas Becker, the magazine appeared Europe-wide and was the market leader in the German-speaking area with a sold circulation of 55,000 copies, per the publisher's 2011 statement.

The 25th anniversary in 2011 was celebrated with a large jubilee issue: a big scene retrospective and the complete first issue of 1986 were fixed components of the silver 220-page issue available at the kiosk. The anniversary documented the tuning scene's development from the 1986 exotic to the established market segment.

The relaunch profile in medium magazin documented the new look: only five vehicles on the title where there used to be up to ten, a more modern color design, two different typefaces separating the vehicle features from the service pages, and more detail shots conveying the vehicles' individuality more precisely. New content additions were the tuning hobby reports and the club portraits.

Coverage and Content

The vehicle feature journalism is the magazine's core: the individually designed cars presented with the detail shots that convey the individuality more precisely, the tuning stories that document the drivers' self-developed ideas, and the fascination that emanates from the vehicle. The title's five vehicles, down from up to ten, focus the cover on the strongest tuning stories.

The service journalism supports the readers' garage work: the modification guides, the technical explanations, and the product coverage that the service pages carry. The two-typeface separation of the vehicle features from the service pages gives the readers the clear navigation between the inspiration and the instruction.

The club and hobby journalism covers the scene's social life: the club portraits introducing the tuning clubs, the hobby reports documenting the tuning as leisure, and the event coverage from the tuning meetings. The contributor recruitment, with the individual honoraria considering the authors' expertise, shows the magazine's professional freelancer network.

Tuning's editorial program covers the tuning scene's full spectrum: the vehicle features that present the tuned cars in detail, the service pages with the technical guidance, the reports on the tuning hobby, and the club portraits that introduce the scene's clubs. The freelancers who supply the magazine produce a package of text and photos, with new collaborators always welcome to the editor-in-chief.

The vehicle journalism gives each tuned car its stage: the detail shots that convey the individuality of the vehicles more precisely, the features that document the self-developed ideas of the drivers, and the reports that breathe the fascination emanating from the vehicle. The service journalism supports the readers' own tuning projects with the technical guidance and the modification know-how.

The scene journalism covers the tuning community: the club portraits, the tuning hobby reports, the event coverage, and the interviews with the scene's personalities. The Delius Klasing shop's TUNING article downloads, from the Amarok tests to the Audi R8 features, document the magazine's vehicle journalism archive.

Organization and Ownership

Tuning is published by the Delius Klasing Verlag, the Bielefeld special interest publisher founded in Berlin in 1911. Since September 2022 Delius Klasing has been part of the Mediengruppe Klambt, with Lars Rose at the top alongside Rüdiger Dienst and Tim Ramms. The publisher's program includes around 1,300 available book titles and the magazine portfolio across watersports, cycling, and automobiles.

The founder and first editor-in-chief was Gerhard Trost; the 2011 editor-in-chief was Andreas Becker, and a later medium magazin profile named Sven Alisch as editor-in-chief. Current editorial team details beyond the publisher are not publicly confirmed in the sources reviewed.

Digital Presence

Tuning-magazin.de is the magazine's digital home, with the magazine, community, videos, events, tuning parts, and cars sections. The Delius Klasing shop offers the TUNING article PDF downloads, from the Amarok and Audi R8 tests to the tuning service features, as a service for subscribers of the print edition.

Dedicated apps or podcasts for the Tuning brand are not detailed in the sources reviewed; the brand's digital presence rests on its website, the online magazine, and the publisher's shop platform, with the Tuning Magazin TV videos and the forum community extending the brand's digital footprint.