The search for a Magazine about Italian cars

A significant event in my life as a car nut happened in May 1985, it was the first time I brought a motoring magazine with my own money and I was eleven years old. The particular magazine was the latest edition of Car Magazine the, cover had a picture of the new Lamborghini Countach QV version and the headline read, "Counter-attack the 455bhp Countach which tames the Testarossa, we drive both."

Since then I have long since lost count of the number of car magazines I have brought but it must be somewhere in the thousands. Today my favourites are Evo and Octane both of which I have on subscription. Evo offers the mix of modern cars that I like to read about and has in my opinion the best writers (Dickie Meaden and Chris Harris) and photography in the business. Octane offers much the same for the classic car world and also manages to make the classic car world feel a lot less nerdy than it sometimes can be.

I also almost always buy Car magazine (I've brought all but one copy since that May 1985 edition), but there is a definite feeling that it is not nearly as good as it's 1980s hey day , and Classic & Sportscar mainly for Martin Buckley's amusing writing. Classic Cars is a occasional buy and Top Gear should only come with an alert to be brought when stuck in an airport departure lounge for more than two hours.

Of the more specialised titles GT Purely Porsche is a well produced magazine with quality writing and excellent photography and although I'm currently without Porsche, I buy it periodically. Rival  911 and Porsche World does not have the same production quality but was always a useful buy when I ran a Porsche 944S2, and still has a good classified section. I guess producing a Porsche magazine is a lot easier than a Ferrari one with Porsche launching a new version of the 911 every two weeks it seems.

Now one area that the UK motoring magazine world lacks is a decent magazine about Italian Sports cars. Yes there is Auto Italia, but I have always found this a very disappointing title. The photography is poor and many articles are shot at the Chobham tank test track which is very predictable. The writing often lacks depth although Richard Heseltine can produce a good read.  Trouble is some of the copy just isn't that interesting, featuring a road test about a diesel Fiat Punto is all well and good in What Car but is hardly useful in a specialist title. Also for £4.35 it does not provide that much copy for the money.

So what would be my receipe for a decent magazine about Italian cars? Well top quality writing and photography are a given, but also the design and layout of the magazine needs to be top notch. Italian cars are often brought for the way they look, so it is reasonable to assume that an Italian car magazine must look fantastic and be made from top quality paper.

The content is slightly trickier to nail down. Obviously Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati features are a given and also the weird and wonderful eteceterinis such as the Iso's and De Tomaso but what of the more mainstream Italian manufacturers? Alfa Romeo and Lancia have a huge and wonderful back catalogue (including the rather lovely Alfa Giulia GTA pictured at the top of this blog) to feature but their current offerings are really uninspiring and offer little for the enthusiast (Alfa 8C excepted).  Fiat also have had their moments in the past especially the Abarth derivatives and the Ferrari powered Dino, but again the new cars leave me rather cold.

 A slightly trickier issue is whether or not the cars designed by the Italian carrozzeria for foreign companies should be included? In the sixties the likes of Pininfarina, Bertone, Zagato, Touring and Frua designed some truly great shapes for manufacturers all over the world (remember that quintessentially British Aston DB5 that James Bond drove had a body designed by Touring of Milan). In many ways these cars deserve as much a place in an Italian car magazine as a Lamborghini Gallardo (body designed by a Belgium and with a German designed engine).

Italian cars of all types have a huge following, Their owners appreciate the styling and charisma of their cars, and are often prepared to put up with their foibles. Personally I think it is about time there was a magazine which reflected that.

From Goodwood Revival 2010

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