The Road Rat Magazine (2026)

01/01/2026

Happy New Year from The Road Rat!⁠

If you’d, ahem, like a hot tip for a collector car to invest in over the year ahead, here goes…

“In 2015, Bonhams sold the very first production Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR Roadster for £1.5 million, approximately its list price more than a decade earlier. Three years later, the ninth Coupe produced, showing fewer than 1500 km from new, was sold by RM Sotheby’s in Monterey for a healthier $4,515,000. The same auction house brought two examples to its Las Vegas Grand Prix auction in 2023. While the Coupe wearing a commendable 7015 km and guided at $8 million to $9 million failed to sell, a delivery miles Roadster crossed the block for $10,235,000. McLaren F1 speculators should watch their mirrors.”

So Matt Master explains in ‘A Different Class’, his story on the CLK GTR for The Road Rat Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’.

Just 26 customer cars were built, far fewer even than for the McLaren F1, and the CLK GTR went on to fulfil its purpose by winning the 1997 FIA GT Championship.

Photography by Mercedes-Benz.

Order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

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29/12/2025

“Luca di Montezemolo was the sort to get things done. And he knew his way around the yard. Eighteen years earlier he had been appointed as Enzo Ferrari’s personal assistant and was sporting director some twelve months later. After a 15-year sojourn at Fiat, his Nineties comeback was a two-pronged attack, returning Ferrari to its former racing glories and financing this revival with a new range of ‘not-sh*t’ road cars.”

Matt Master looks back at arguably Ferrari’s peak decade, when we were treated to a succession of brilliant new cars – the 456, F335, F50 and 550 Maranello. The extract is from Matt’s story for The Road Rat Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’.

Photography by Ferrari S.p.A.

Order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

27/12/2025

“With Bangle unleashed, the Z9 marked the beginning of the creative destruction of traditional BMW design. Brand loyalists were up in arms, throwing accusations and insults not at the upper management that had greenlit each and every car, but at Bangle personally. Even fellow heads of design went on the record to criticise his work.

“Bangle was famous and infamous at once. To believers, he was a bold innovator. To traditionalists, he was a destroyer of decades of automotive design legacy and craft.”

An extract from Christopher Butt’s story on Chris Bangle and his, let’s say, divisive design direction, published in The Road Rat Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’. After starting at General Motors in the 1980s, Bangle went on to pen the Fiat Coupe and Alfa Romeo 145 before causing quite the disruptive stir at BMW.

Photography by BMW and FIAT/Stellantis.

IG: Order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ via the link in our bio.

FB: Order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

25/12/2025

Festive greetings from The Road Rat!

We’ll mark the occasion with this image of the joyfully colourful Polo Harlequin, which accompanies a story by Noelle Faulkner in The Road Rat Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’.

As Noelle explains, all 3800 Polo Harlequins had body panels in four different colours, applied at random. They “reflected the aesthetics that dominated 1990s pop culture. Think: United Colours of Benetton, Swatch, the pop art revival, and MTV and Nickelodeon’s saturated and ironic vision of youth culture.”
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Photography by Volkswagen.

Order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

24/12/2025

“Nobody knows anything.” - William Goldman, screenwriter.

“Flat Eric fan-sites soon sprung up on the nascent web, demands went out for Flat Eric merchandise and requests were made for Flat Eric interviews – in one with The Face, when asked how he’s handling fame, he responds, ‘I will always have a small head.’”

Robert Bright on how a puppet named ‘Flat Eric’ took Europe by storm in the late Nineties as part of an advertising campaign by . The extract comes from Robert’s story in The Road Rat Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’.

We managed to capture a portrait of Flat Eric in a very-Nineties Lamborghini Diablo SE30 ‘Jota’ for our latest Road Rat.

FB: Order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

22/12/2025

“The Elise’s secret was to strike a timeless balance of modernity, purity and authenticity. Its success was to offer it at a price people could afford. Since then, legislation has increasingly marginalised small, light, efficient, minimally impactful sports cars to the point of extinction.

“With a beleaguered Lotus now staring into the abyss after pivoting to building 900bhp, 2.7-tonne battery-powered SUVs, those mid-Nineties glory days have never seemed more distant.”

An extract from a story by Richard Meaden in The Road Rat Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’.

Photography by Lotus Cars.

Order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

17/12/2025

It’s that magical time when a new Road Rat has been born into this world.

We’re well on schedule for UK deliveries to arrive in time for Christmas as promised. If you haven’t ordered your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ for Christmas gifting or holiday reading, there’s still just enough time to order to make the ordering deadline that is 17th December - yes, today!

As you read this, each copy of Edition 22 is leaving our long-running printing partner, in Bristol. This edition is a textural wonder, mixing a blend of sheens and finishes on the cover, along with a mix of three different gloss and uncoated heavy art papers used inside.

This edition provokes a huge amount of nostalgia and warmth for the 1990s, the decade it celebrates. Our colourful cast of cars is blockbuster worthy - the Lamborghini Diablo SE30, Ford Es**rt RS Cosworth, Ferrari F355, TVR Cerbera, Dodge Viper and to keep things bang up to date, the brand-new Renault Twingo. As a contrast, we have commissioned three sets of black and white photography dedicated to the Bentley Continental T, the 1995 Le Mans-winning McLaren F1, and the Pagani Zonda.

If you are in the UK and miss the ordering deadline today, or are abroad, do still go ahead and place your order and we'll do all we can to get your new Road Rat to you within the holidays – we just can't fully guarantee that.

Remember, Road Rats are printed in strictly limited numbers and tend these days to sell out. Don't miss this one…

Order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

12/12/2025

Good news! Our latest Road Rat, Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’, is now almost fully through its printing process – and if you’re in the UK, there’s still just time to get your order in for Christmas delivery*.

The proofs and printed sheets pictured here are from the past week of production in Bristol and give a sense of the vibrancy to this new edition. With its Christmassy red cover and the cross-generational appeal to its 1990s theme, we promise this one will make an exceptional gift for car lovers of all ages.

The following ‘cast list’ outlines the variety to the contents:

Lamborghini Diablo, McLaren F1 GTR, Ferrari F355, Bentley Continental T, Alpine car audio, Lotus Elise, Audi Concept C, Kate Moss, Flavio Briatore, Ford Es**rt RS Cosworth, TVR Cerbera, Porsche 993 Turbo, U2, Chris Bangle, Honda NSX, Subaru SVX, Papa and Nicole, Renault Twingo, Dodge Viper, Ford Racing Puma, Ducati 916, BMW 7-Series, VW Polo Harlequin, Mercedes CLK GTR, IWC GST, Horacio Pagani, Gordon Murray and… Flat Eric.

Subscriptions to The Road Rat make especially memorable Christmas gifts and you can start one right away from our ‘Nineties Renaissance’. A subscription will guarantee four editions of the magazine, with a 20% saving on the cover price.

*We’ll do all we can to get your magazine to you by Christmas, weather and couriers allowing.

Pre-order your copy of Edition 22: ‘The Nineties Renaissance’ here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

09/12/2025

Introducing The Road Rat Edition 22, ‘The Nineties Renaissance’.

Hot off the heels of our Nomex-covered Edition 21 (which sold out in 18 minutes), we are thrilled to announce that pre-orders are open for Edition 22, ‘The Nineties Renaissance’.

The theme for Edition 22 celebrates a return to simpler times. The nineties was a pivotal decade between the analogue and digital eras, bringing some of the most diverse, colourful and recklessly joyful cars ever to grace our roads. Think Lamborghini Diablo, Ford Es**rt RS Cosworth, McLaren F1 and the Renault Twingo.

The cover is our most sumptuous yet, blending a matt heavy art paper in a seasonable scarlet, with a gloss-finished black and white image of a rather brutish Bentley Continental T. That image was taken by one of the world’s greatest portrait photographers, Greg Williams (), the go-to photographer for Hollywood stars from Tom Cruise to Ana de Armas.

Greg also shot the images for the cover story featuring the same Bentley, and written by none other than Chris Harris (), making his Road Rat debut.

If you’re in the UK, this is your chance to secure a copy of Edition 22, with a strong chance of it arriving just before Christmas - it makes for ideal holiday reading.

Be sure to order Edition 22, ‘The Nineties Renaissance’, as part of a subscription and save 20 per cent off the cover price. The subscription also guarantees you copies of the following three editions of The Road Rat.

Order your copy of Edition 22 here: https://theroadrat.com/products/edition-no-22

05/12/2025

So what would make ideal Road Rat Christmas gifts?

Back issues of The Road Rat make brilliant gifts, whether as stocking fillers or as a cluster of several to get a loved one or friend’s collection rolling. Several editions have now sold out but we still have sixteen glorious editions in stock to choose from.

If you're really quick there are also just two ‘Mystic Mac’ prints left in stock – featuring the glorious, psychedelic artwork that first appeared on the cover of Edition 2, celebrating the origin story of the McLaren F1.

If you are gifting The Road Rat this year, you can shop our Road Rat archive here: https://theroadrat.com/collections/buy-magazines

04/12/2025

Sold out in 18 minutes!

We want to thank everyone who placed an order for one of our very special, limited-edition Nomex-covered versions of The Road Rat Edition 21: ‘A Love Letter To Formula 1’. We sold all 225 within just 18 minutes of the drop yesterday. If you're wondering, the red then black then off-white versions sold out in that sequence.

This was a new experiment for us, also a total (slightly fixated in its effort) labour of love, so we're hugely grateful they've gone down so well – and also sorry if you missed out. Of course this has only given us encouragement to produce develop ultra-collectible covers for future editions.

Deliveries of Nomex editions are expected to start shortly after Christmas, once they've been hand-bound, numbered and packed in their Ratino boxes.

For access to future limited-edition drops, do make sure you are signed up to our newsletter.

We should also flag that the regular version of Edition 21 has now completely sold out too. So, now is the perfect time to start that subscription from our next edition (coming along any second) as that will be the only way to guarantee your copy – and you will save 20% on the cover price.

For regular updates on what’s going on in the world of The Road Rat, sign up to our newsletter here: https://tinyurl.com/The-Road-Rat-newsletter

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The Road Rat Magazine

01/01/2026

29/12/2025

27/12/2025

25/12/2025

24/12/2025

22/12/2025

17/12/2025

12/12/2025

09/12/2025

05/12/2025

04/12/2025

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