The Road Rat – Edition No. 24: The Art of Engineering

The Road Rat is a British automotive magazine built around long-form journalism, commissioned photography and a distinctly design-led approach to car culture. Rather than concentrating on new-car reviews, it treats cars as objects of engineering, culture, history and visual fascination.

Edition No. 24, “The Art of Engineering”, is dedicated to the creativity and technical mastery behind some of the most important cars and racing programmes of the past century. The issue profiles figures including Mauro Forghieri, Bruce McLaren, Norbert Singer, Phil Remington, Soichiro Honda and Adrian Newey.

The issue opens with Richard Meaden on analogue engineering and the Lamborghini Miura, before moving through Phil Remington’s role in the Ford GT40 story, Bruce McLaren as both driver and engineer, Mauro Forghieri’s work at Scuderia Ferrari and Stephen Bayley on Honda’s VTEC technology and the NSX-R. Other cars include the Boreham Ford Escort Mk1 RS, McLaren Can-Am cars, 1970s Ferrari Formula 1 machinery and Volvo 240 and 850 T5-R estates.

A major visual element is a 34-page section of detailed engineering drawings, including cutaways of the Chevrolet C5-R Corvette, Saab 96, Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing and Porsche 956. The edition also has an unusually elaborate three-part cover: a hand-folded technical illustration of a 1963 Ford GT40 precursor wraps around photographs and details of a 1969 GT40 Mk III.

About The Road Rat
The Road Rat describes itself simply as “a thing for cars”. Published in the UK by Road Rat Limited, the magazine combines automotive history, engineering, motorsport, design and photography in substantial collectible editions. Editor Peter Grunert is joined by creative directors Guy Berryman, Sam Walton and Jasper van den Bosch.