As Magneto issue 31 hits the shelves, here’s a glimpse into the working and creative processes that come together to produce the world’s most beautiful quarterly automotive magazine.
Editorial planning for a new issue of Magneto usually begins with the cover story and builds out from there. Features are selected based on several factors including relevance, topicality and target-audience impact and interest. It doesn’t always have to be a major anniversary, but that does provide a weighty anchor. Being a quarterly, and knowing that ideas, even when enthusiastically received by a respective collector, manufacturer, museum curator or event manager, can sometimes take many months to materialise, we’ll have four covers and at least two issues’ worth of features roughly sketched out at any one time.
Although always aiming for the cream, we’ll assess almost any subject that excites car collectors and serious automotive enthusiasts, whether that be an automotive icon, a motoring legend, a pinnacle event, an unmissable aspect of popular car culture or, as in the case of Magneto issue 31, an absolute motor sport milestone.
Planning for the cover story for Magneto issue 31 started a year ago following a conversation with Aaron Shelby, who revealed that the 1966 Le Mans 1-2-3 Ford GT40s were to be reunited in 60th anniversary celebrations at Goodwood’s 2026 Festival of Speed and Revival meetings. It would be impossible to shoot the cars after the Festival of Speed and still meet this issue’s print deadline, but there would be a window of a few days before the event – as long as the Fords cleared customs in time. Knowing it would all be a bit touch and go, we’d commissioned copy from Ford GT author Preston Lerner early and shot an exceptional future cover as back-up, too.
As it happened, the cars sailed through and were delivered to Blakeney Motorsport, the outfit charged with preparing the trio for planned runs at Goodwood. Thanks to founder Patrick Blakeney-Edwards and Blakeney personnel, we were able to photograph the Fords at the workshop, with Sam Chick shooting late into the evening to produce his Magneto signature studio-style shots.
The day before the cars were scheduled to arrive at Goodwood, Blakeney Motorsport took them to a private airfield in rural Northamptonshire for a proper shakedown. This time, we arranged for Olgun Kordal and drone photographer Sam Butcher to capture all three GT40s together on the runway making several victorious passes. The cars were then transported to Goodwood… where we all met again for a memorable Wednesday-evening photoshoot on the circuit.
It almost never happens that a feature gets compiled without a challenge or two. And so it was the case with the Pearl Collection’s Fiat-Abarth 750 Pininfarina streamliner. It all began when editorial director David Lillywhite and Sam Chick visited Fritz Burkard’s collection in Switzerland to shoot his Goldfinger Aston Martin DB5 for Magneto issue 24. With time left over to shoot something else, they chose the startling silver missile.
Surely this would be an easy write-up given the sheer number of online articles and plethora of books available on Abarth in general? Sadly, as deputy editor Wayne Batty quickly found out, much of what is out there is patently untrue. The story turned into a sleuth fest as the real identity and history of this Fiat Abarth 750 Pininfarina slowly emerged. Myriad images, documents, book extracts and magazine articles were analysed, three Italian institutions visited and more than 20 people with various connections to Abarth tracked down and quizzed in order to tell the most complete story of this magnificent flying machine.
Upon learning that Peter M Larsen and Ben Erickson were putting the finishing touches to a book on the ten-year restoration of the Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport that was one of the jewels of the extraordinary Baillon Collection barnfind auction, we asked if Peter would be willing to write a feature about the car for us. While we had hoped to shoot the fully restored Talbot-Lago separately, the book’s tight deadline and image demands naturally took priority. This prompted Magneto’s creative director Peter Allen to opt for a striking juxtaposition of haunting barnfind-condition shots and Petr Michalek’s completed car location photography. Together with Larsen’s words, the feature perfectly captures what appears to have been not so much a restoration as a miracle resurrection.
Equally exciting features in Magneto issue 31 include a devilishly dusty ride-along in Wales with reigning World Rally-Raid Champion Lucas Moraes in a Dakar-winning Dacia Sandrider, tackling the torturous task of selecting our 50 greatest hot rods, celebrating 75 years of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance by recalling a popular aspect of its origin story in the fascinating Pebble Beach Road Races, and showcasing one of the event’s greatest Best of Show winners in the magnificent 1929 Daimler Double-Six Low-Chassis Corsica whose multi-layered story, written by David Burgess-Wise, is even more compelling than its appearance.
From the editorial team at Magneto, we do hope you’ll enjoy reading this issue as much as we have enjoyed putting it all together.
