Street & Strip (Sweden)

What is it?
A quarterly Swedish magazine covering the drag racing and street car scene.

Why should you own it?
The Swedish scene is one of the most outrageous car scene, lots of crazy power builds with excellent workmanship.  The cars featured in Street & Strip are a great cross section of cars, without leaning heavily on American cars the way other Scandinavian modified cars magazines sometimes do.  It is a small operation run by enthusiasts so is always worth your time.  If you can't speak the language there is plenty of interest in the pictures and spec sheets, also the features can be used to power internet searches for particular cars or people to get more info.

Where to get more details?
http://www.streetnstrip.se/

Also check out their forum for some pictures from inside their issues.

Enjoy Retro Car (Japan)

What is it?
Japanese retro car book that covers events, individual cars and clubs, along side motorsport event coverage.

Why should you own it?
If I could use any magazine in this list as a blue print for a UK magazine, this would be it, the cars it covers range from full show cars to the mildly modified.  Event coverage is by way of lots of photos, with very few words.  In fact this is one of the main reasons this works well for non-Japanese speakers, the book (it technically is a book according to Amazon Japan) is very photography heavy, the features range from one to four pages for the cars and rarely have a lot of blocks of text, favouring image captions.  If you are really dedicated you can scour the photographs for web addresses to try out as well.

Where to get more details?
You can buy Enjoy Retro Car direct from Japan through Amazon

The Rodders Journal (America)

What is it?
The ultimate rodders magazine?  The benchmark by which others are judged?  A glossy take on hot rodding culture?  Yes, it is all of these.

Why should you own it?
If ever there was a magazine that could use the word definitive then it is Rodders Journal, it is the definitive guide for what a hot rodding magazine can be.  Built with the same exacting standards and eye for detail that a top quality rod might be the magazine features fantastic photography, excellent, in-depth, articles, superb history pieces and conveys what the whole scene is all about.  The question isn't why should you own it, the question is why don't you already own a copy?

Where to get more details?
Rodders Journal website is your best bet.
They also turn up on ebay in the UK occasionally

Motoraver (Germany)

What is it?
Cult German retro car and culture magazine

Why should you own it?
If Enjoy Retro Cars is the magazine I'd use as a blueprint, this is the magazine I'd just like a direct translation of and available in the shops.  The angle is all about the rock and roll of cars and car modifications, as well as covering classics, interesting machinery, wild antics, cool shows and anything that might float around the edges of car culture like music, art and photography.  The magazine is very liberal in its content and shows the great melting pot of what the retro scene is all about more than any other publication I've found.  Without a doubt one of the most inspiring magazines I've read, I even managed to make some sense of it with my school boy German.

Where to get more details?
You can get a whole lot of good from the Motoraver website

If you find out someone that can supply magazines to the UK, give us a shout as we've been trying for ages to get a regular supply!

Lightning Vintage Auto (Japan)

What is it?
A fashion and trend magazine that does special issues about classic and modified classic cars!

Why should you own it?
You should own this magazine because it is the single best car magazine in the entire world.  I'm not just saying that because I happen to like Japanese cars, this really is a phenomenal publication.  Lightning magazine has a number of different publications that it does from clothes to trainers, t-shirts to denim, they each have their own issue, in with this lot is a magazine about cars, classic, modified ones.  The contents are suitably diverse but divide into two main sections, feature cars and other stuff.  The feature cars are typically classic Japanese domestic model cars that have been modified, not always in Japan, they cover American modified Japanese cars also.  The 'other stuff' covered includes books, models, clothes related to cars, radio controlled cars, motorbikes, general other interesting things.  The layout is very clean and very inviting.  Once again you are relying on pictures and the period bits of English to help you through, as well as web address and names.  Even if you only get one magazine from this list, make it and issue of Lightning Vintage Auto.  Really though you should get all of them as they show the depth and breadth of our scene worldwide.

Where to get more details?
Amazon.co.jp is your best bet.  Try this issue.


There are many more car magazines around the world to check out, so expect a follow up to this at some point, foreign car magazines can be a great way to inspire yourself with things you won't find on the internet or in your local scene.